Commandos by Pyros Studios. Website Planning Report - Essay Example

?Running Head: WEBSITE PLANNING REPORT Website Planning Report [The of the will appear here] [The of the will appear here] [The name of the Professor] [Course] Executive Summary ‘Commandos’ is a single/multi player real-time strategy computer game that has been developed by Pyros Studios. Pyros Studios released the third series of the game and are in the process of developing the fourth series. The website is being developed by Pyros Studios to strengthen the brand and to increase anticipation of the fourth series. This gaming website generally follows the same pattern as that of other gaming website of its kind, such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. However, the website will be distinguishable from its competitors through its logo, color palette, story line and characters that would be used as elements to improve brand positioning of the website and also the game. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1. Aim 1.2. Purpose 2. Target Market of the Proposed Website 2.1. Demographics 2.2. Psychographics 2.3. Geographic 2.4. Behavioral 3. Objectives of the Website 4. Elements of the Website 4.1. Blogs 4.2. Wikis 4.3. Social Networking Activities 4.4. Mash-ups 4.5. Web based Videos 4.6. Navigation Elements 4.7. Content Elements 5. Home Page Layout 6. Basic Schematics 7. Branding 8. Color Palette 9. Conclusion 10. Recommendations 11. References INTRODUCTION ‘Commandos’ is a single/multi player real-time strategy computer game that has been developed by Pyros Studios. Currently, Pyros Studios released Commandos III: Destination Berlin in 2003 and gamers are anxiously waiting for the fourth part of the series. The game has been designed by Gonzalo Suarez and Ignacio Perez Dolset, and published by Eidos Interactive. Aim The aim of the website is to act as a promotional platform where the interest of old gamers is maintained and interest of new gamers is explored. Purpose While acting as a promotional medium, the website will fulfill the following purposes: 1. The website will allow gamers access to important information such as guide to the game, communities and other game related information; 2. The website will act as a promotional medium for new versions of the game such as Commandos IV through trailers and screenshots; 3. New gamers will use this website to subscribe to the game and buy the game online; 4. The website will be a source of information for Pyros Studios on gamers and their preferences which can help them develop improved versions of the game; 5. The website will also allow gamers to maintain a community where they are able to discuss alternative strategies for the game. TARGET MARKET FOR THE PROPOSED WEBSITE The primary target market for this website is the age group falling between 16 and 25 and comprises of mostly the male population. Commandos is strategy game based on the background of the World War II that mostly appeals to the young males. Demographic The Demographics that we would be discussing for this website is based on the primary target market, even though there are a large number of gamers that would be accessing the website who do not fall within the following mentioned demographics. Age The age group of gamers for this website is mostly teenagers and also gamers in the early twenties. People belonging to this age group generally are inspired by the use of flash in the website and observe the aesthetics of the website closely. Income Level and Employment Status The target market for this website is mostly unemployed teens that may be working odd jobs at minimum wages. The target market has the time to play games since they are not employed full-time and have spare time at hand. Thus, these gamers are affected by the price of the game and may not wish to invest heavily in the game. Sex Since Commandos is a strategy based war game, it appeals to the male target market that fulfills their ambition of fighting in the war through such games. Also the game has been aesthetically designed to appeal to the male population through the suitable use of background, weapons, language and general layout of the game. Psychographic The psychographic segmentation of the market refers to the division of gamers on the basis of their attitude, opinions, lifestyles and personality. For the psychographics of the website, we will refer to the psychographic segmentation of the game, Commandos and that of the online gamers. Online gamers are mostly impulsive and wish to seek fun and variety in their online games. For this, ‘advertisers need to pay attention to both enhancing entertainment values and offering a variety of adventurous themes or plots’ (Younn, Lee and Doyle, 2003). Keeping in view the demographics of the target market, we can understand that the opinions of this target market are greatly shaped by the opinions of their peers. Generation Y relies more on the reviews and comments of the game than on the actual advertisement (VTV Channel, 2010). Moving on to the lifestyle of the target market, we believe that these users depend on internet for most of their decision and look up everything on Google. These users also have bookmarked gaming websites such as Xbox.com or Gameboy.com. Geographic The purpose of going online is to ensure that geographic boundaries are removed from the segmentation of the market. Even if a game is developed in US, it should be easily accessible to gamers in the eastern countries such as China and India. Anyone having an access to internet is the geographical target market for the game. Behavioral Behavioral Segmentation of the Market refers to the distribution of gamers on the basis of ‘purchase history, amount of usage of the product or service (for instance heavy users versus light or non-users), or brand loyalty’ (Jugenheimer and Kelly, 2009). In the case of Commandos, the brand loyalty is high judging from the success of the series of Commandos. Once gamers become addicted to one part of the series, they are more willing to invest in other part of the series since they are aware of the controls and the game setting. OBJECTIVES OF THE WEBSITE The objective of every website is to act as a promotional and retail platform for the organization. Websites aims to sell products to the consumers and increase their interest in the product. This is the primary objective for creating the website for Commandos. Gamers would visit the website to gain information on new version or subscribe to the existing ones. This website will promote further versions for the website and provide information on new releases so the gamers visit the website again and again. The objective of the website is also to improve brand identification of the product. With an online presence, the game will have better chances of remaining in the minds of the gamers between the releases of new versions. Gamers will be allowed to play trial versions so that the interest is maintain and the brand is not lost among new releases. With most of the games, gamers generally lose interest in the game once they have completed the game. They may recommend it to other gamers, but when users get together to play the game interest is upheld for a long time. The reason behind this is the transfer of interest between existing gamers. If one loses interest, the other helps rekindle the interest. For this reason, it is important to maintain dialogue between the gamers through communities and blogs. The website will allow for the community specifically for the purpose of the game. In case, gamers start moving to discussing other game options, a moderator will ensure that the topic comes right back to the game. ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSED WEBSITE Blogs Corporate Blogs are maintained to create a personal dialogue between the consumers and organization. For this reason, a blog will be maintained in this website. The website for Commandos will allow the gamers to get personal information about their game such as new releases, characters and other information that gamers would otherwise have to search for. The writing style of the blog would match the feel of the game. In the game, a third person narrative is used to issue orders to the gamers who play the role of Tiny, Fins, and Duke etc. The third person issues order in the voice of one giving orders and this style would be copied in the blog to give an authentic feel to the blog. Wikis Wikis allow users to share information on the website by allowing them the authority to change information given on the website. Most websites offer wikis when they consider that their users may have important information to share with other users. In the case of Commandos, the gamers often are very informed about the game and can pinpoint small flaws since they observe the game closely. The website will allow subscribers the feature of wikis so that they develop a sense of ownership towards the website and the game. But these Wikis will be moderated to ensure that information posted is relevant and non-abusive. Social Networking Activities Social networking activities include uploading photos, music and personal comments; downloading music and videos, submitting comments and polls to the website. The most popular social networking activity is commenting and messaging on online posts. For the website, a number of social network activities are introduced for the gamers that include forums and download. The presence of the forum wills also the gamers to share information related to the game and develop a discussion forum. The gamers will also be able to download trial versions of the game that they can later buy if they want. Web based Videos Web based Videos will be an essential part of the promotion within the website. These web-based videos will allow users to watch trailers for upcoming versions of the game and capture their interest in the game. These web-based Videos will also serve as teasers before the launch of the actual advertisement to gain the interest of the gamers. These web-based Videos will be placed on the home page of the website so the gamers can watch the trailer before navigating to their favorite pages. Navigation Elements Navigation Elements control the ease of the users with the website. For a website to be user friendly, navigation elements should be clear for the users. In the case of navigation, elements can be placed on the top, left and right side of the front page depending on the layout of the page (Cheshire and Colligan, 2004). For the Commandos website, the placement of the navigation elements will be on the top since it conforms to most online gaming website and thus gamers are used to this format and find it easier to understand. Too many navigation elements make the web page confusing and for this reason only four navigation elements will be added to the website, namely Home, Downloads, Blog and Forum. These Navigation Elements will remain consistent in all pages of the websites to ensure that gamers do not get lost or confused. Content Elements The content within the website will be more pictorial rather than text based. Gamers usually do not wish to read lengthy descriptions of the product but are anxious to try out the game. Thus Game descriptions and news will be less text based and would depend on pictures and videos so that the gamers’ interest is upheld. The text that would be used for the website would be created in such a way as to follow the theme of the game, that is, it would be written in the style of an army general issuing orders or coordinating with his team. HOME PAGE LAYOUT The Home Page Layout of the Website will be similar to that of other strategy and online games. The reason for keeping the home page layout to be similar is because gamers are used to the same format and find it easier to navigate through the different pages if the layout is similar. For the purpose of differentiating the website, we will employ the use of colors, background, buttons etc. The Best Home Page Layout is a simple layout that is easy to navigate through. Simple layouts are easier to create and maintain. The Layout that would be employed for the home page must be consistent throughout the website, thus we need to ensure that the home page layout is flexible (Bishop, 2010). The main elements of the home page layout will be to include an introduction to the game, logos, buttons, promotional items, sponsors, screenshots and icons. The introduction of the game will be simple and short since gamers are more interested in games, reviews and discussion, rather than the actual game. The introduction, however, is necessary for new gamers who wish to understand the basics of the game. The logo of Commandos will be placed in the top left corner since the eye starts reading from the top left corner. Buttons are used for navigation to pages within the same website. For Commandos, buttons we would be using would be Home, Videos, News, Forum, Blog and My Account. Home would be the main page of the game. Videos and News will be used to publish information and promotional material on the website regarding the game. Forum would be an online discussion platform where existing users can discuss game strategies, cheats etc. A Blog will be maintained to help users familiarize with the game and get information on new versions. My Account will be a personal space for the users where they store their preferences, history and bookmarks. The home page will also feature trailers of upcoming Commandos games. These trailers would be flash-based and will add life to the home page. Screenshots will also be used as promotional material where users can get an idea on the look of the page through still images. The last part of the home page is icons that would connect users of different social networking sites to the game. These icons would be a reflection of popular social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and youtube. As per the requirements of all home page layouts, the website will also contain the credits for the webpage. This would link users to terms and conditions, privacy policy, sitemap and other buttons of the website. BASIC SCHEMATICS BRANDING Branding a Website is imperative as it allows users to develop a perception of the brand in their mind and helps in forging an emotional connection between users and the product. The most important step towards branding a website is the logo of the company. ‘Commandos’ has a unique logo that has been consistently used in all versions of the game. The gamers identify with the logo and thus it should be consistently used throughout the website. The logo has been placed at the top left corner of the home page since the website loads from the top left corner. The logo would thus be the first object to be loaded within the website. The position of the logo will be consistent in all the pages of the website. Thus even if users navigate to other pages, they should be aware that they are within the same website. The logo is not enough for branding the whole website. Branding is also done through colors and other elements. A good brand is identified even without the logo, such as in the case of the American Flag. If the colors red, white and blue are used, most people would link it to the American flag and this fact is used by many brands to bring out the feeling of patriotism for their brand. Similarly for Commandos, we will revert to the colors of the army uniform used in the World War II, which is the original theme for the game. These colors are brown and olive green. The website would use this color palette to improve the branding of the website. Finally, the website would be taken on the domain name of Commandos. It is important that the domain name matches the name of the game as it lends credibility to the website and ensures that it is the official page for the game. Also when gamers search for the game online, they are most likely to click on the site if they perceive it to the official website of the game. COLOR PALETTE For the color Palette, the website would depend on web-safe colors. Before 1994, designers suffered great difficulty in developing colors for website. The final website that the viewers accessed did not have the same colors intended. ‘In 1994, Netscape developed the first web-safe color palette for a set of colors that appear consistently in all browsers and on Macintosh, Windows and UNIX Platforms’ (Bishop, Shuman, Reding and Shuman, 2009). Though, many people consider web-safe colors are useless at this age but they still help developing a consistent color palette for all kinds of online devices ranging from cell phones to desktop computers. The Color Palette that would be adopted in this website should reflect the feel of the game. When developing website, designers play great importance in matching colors with logo and other already printed material to ensure consistently in the webpage and the original product. The same would be done for the game, Commandos. The color palette that would be employed for the game would be brown and olive green. These colors have been used for the original artwork of the game and also give the game the war like feel that it demands. The background would be kept brown and the type would be colored green. The reason for doing is because brown will allow for a neutral background. This neutral background will not contrast will the any artwork that would be placed on the website as trailers or screen shots. Olive green would be a good color for the type as it would work with the neutral brown background and also would be easily readable. CONCLUSION The website for Commandos has been designed keeping in mind the feel of the product and the users of the product. The website does not deviate from the theme of the game and does in fact rely heavily on elements of the game for its writing style, color palette and overall feel of the website. This is to ensure that the gamers develop a familiarity with the brand through its website and the brand image of the game is further strengthened. RECOMMENDATIONS There are certain recommendations that would further improve on the feel of the website. The most important is the typeface that would be used for the website. The logo of Commandos has a stencil type of typeface that gives an army feel to the logo. The website should also try to copy the same typeface or a family of the same typeface to improve on the feel of the website. Once the website is created and launched, it has to be periodically monitored and modified. It is recommended that modification is done keeping in mind the feel of the website and the game. The website tries to copy the feel of the original game and thus the theme should not be deviated from when bringing modifications. Another recommendation is to use the website to gain consumer insight. This could be done through polls and survey through which consumers can earn free giveaways including free subscription, character mock-ups etc. The consumer insight gained from these surveys and polls would help game developers to come up with better versions of the game. References Bishop, S. (2010) Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Illustrated, Ohio: Cengage Learning Bishop, S., Shuman, J., Reding, E. E. and Shuman, J. (2009) Web Collection Revealed- Adobe, Ohio: Cengage Learning Cheshire, J. and Colligan, P. (2004) Special edition using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, Volume 1, New York: Que Publishing Youn, S., Lee, M. and Doyle, K. O. (2003) Lifestyles of Online Gamers: A Psychographic Approach, Journal of Interactive Adveritisng, Vol 3 No 2, Retrieved from http://jiad.org/article35 Jugenheimer, D. W. and Kelley, L. D. (2009) Advertising Management, New York: M.E. Sharpe VTVChannel Online (2010). Generational Marketing -- Gen X and Gen Y, Youtube, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3qy5XYW_rg Read More