Yeah, trailers really have to be good and captive(ideally pure epic CGI sequences), otherwise the game will get very low rating and will get a negative rep.

There is such thing as negative advertising.

What are you talking about, they have a ranking system on gametrailers.com(one of the biggest sites), where you can track games, how many people read reviews?

Trailers serve as means to get hyped about the game. And not only trailers but carefully orchestrated gameplay videos(like the latest Batman game).

Ah, Supreme Commander has the coolest menu screen ever.

teasers very rarely have anything in them.   You think the Elemental teaser sucked?  Have you SEEN other teaser trailers?  (for example:  FF3's was just a floating crystal for 10 seconds... NOTHING ELSE.  Duke Nukum was just a man pumping iron.  Sonic unleashed was just a hand and a ring.)   Elemental had one of the better "teaser trailers" out there that come to mind.

Secondly, what did you want from the Demigod intro?   An intro movie is supposed to A: introduce the story, B: get you excited for the game.    Personally, I'm usually upset with intro movies when they are of the type B, and they just use a bunch of clipped together shots of in-game photage.  It told the story of Demigod and it was something that was actually an experiance unto itself (rather than just a video of the experiance the game is going to provide). I thought it set the mood for Demigod very well.

And just because you could have made it doesn't mean you've missed out.   Intro movies should not be a vacuum of resources.   What is the point of spending tons of money on a few seconds of opening movie that nobody watches more than once anyway.   If you take a very amazing intro movie, in this example I will use Starcraft BroodWar's intro,  I still only watch it once in a very rare time frame.   And I feel that I watch it more than the common gamer.  

 So why should devs take time to make an intro that is "cool" to a 13 year old, if the 13 year old is never going to watch it?   That might be a great idea for a trailer, but serves to purpose as the intro?   I don't think "browing an ogre's head off" sets the mood for elemental.   It might for the Elemental FPS mod, but not for what it sounds like this game is shaping up to be.

Watch the Master of Magic intro.   Now thats an intro!

I seriously doubt people will buy refrain from buying a game because there isnt a super duper fantastic trailer for it... As Bingjack said, Galciv 2 didnt need it, Sword of the Stars didnt need it, and this game is in the same vein...

More focus on game mechanics and less on trailers I'd say...

Demigod's intro movie was a pleasantly awesome change of pace.

These games have a specific loyal audience. Obviously if they want to expand that market they would need to up the advertising. For example, this is something that Dawn of War 2 did and what Supreme Commander 2 will be doing.

And I agree that developing epic CGI movies(like Star Wars:The Old Republic or Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning) would be a waste of money in this case, I was talking about a themed series of carefuly orchestrated gameplay videos, starting with the most aluring one and then building on that.

Although clearly such epic movies always become viral because of their awesomeness, you can't buy advertising like that..

Theres no bigger Blur Studios fan than me (think of any really awesome opening game Cinematic you've seen, including the two you mentioned, and chances are it has been Blur studios that has done it...the game developers themselves dont make them, they farm it out).  Great for big budget games that appeal to a wider audience, and in large part sell themselves by being graphically flashy (because the underlying games arent so compelling anymore, these days), and have to waste so much money trying to market themselves for the lowest common denominator, ADD-riddled, portion of the console audience.

But no matter what you do, Elemental is not going to appeal to a super wide audience, any more than Gal Civ did. Hardcore, turn based/4x strategy is simply a niche market.  It involves a commitment and depth that most of the mainstream audience is just not interested in.  And the people  that *are* interested in it, are concerned primarily with depth, mechanic, and replayability.  Graphics are *always* important( some comments to the contrary), but in terms of UI functionality and appealing presentation(artistically), and you simply don't need super  high budget, high end graphics , to do this...at least, not for this genre, not for the people who will actually be buying this game.

Stardock makes these games on a relatively modest budget compared to most other triple A games.  Would I love to see a Blur studios cinematic in one of their games?  Theoretically, sure.  But that would represent a significant increase in budget, that in no situation can I imagine, I would rather not see spent on developing the actual game.

But I'm beginning to suspect that you understand all this already, and are just trolling for your own amusement to get everyone worked up.  Because, quite frankly, nobody can be this dense about the subject...it would require you to have not ever played a Stardock game, or another 4x or TBS game...in which case...what would you be doing here?

My dream has always been to play a game that has a a deep strategic layer of Galactic Civilizations/Civilization 4 (with factions being far more unique, visually, and mechanics wise) with real time battle aspect with graphics/animation/physics on the level of Company of Heroes/Dawn of War 2  and Star Wars: Empire At War style detailed space battles.

I thought about that long before any of those games came to be.

There is a huge niche fore that.

And there is such a thing as cultivating your audience and luring them in, not just catering to the most commmon denominator.

To say that games like GalCiv2/Civilization 4 not need to evolve and expand and to box them in their artificially manufactured niche is a ridiculous notion.

But your agenda here on the boards has nothing to do with expanding the game's themselves.  It has to do with spending more money on commercials for it, and more limited resources on things that do nothing to enhance the actual game itself.

The only way you'd get the 4x Strategy genre to appeal to *significantly* more people, is to dumb the game down, to make it more accessible to more people, to the point where it was no longer recognizable.  And the people who *actually* purchase these games want the opposite of that.

Pony up a few million dollars, and commission a movie and a few cut scenes.  Then you can have your Blur  Studios opening cinematic. Which will be good for a couple "gee whiz" moments  before the release of the game.  As opposed to their not being enough depth or variety in Unit Creation, which will affect every single moment of every game you play, and then you'll be right back here complaining on the boards about that.

This game is not going to be an RTS.  It doesnt have a Starcraft 2 budget.  And it will still probably be a much better game than any number of much more graphically high end games.

  Go read Brad's alpha walkthrough of the game.  Knowing that the eventual game will look much better than that, and be quite a bit more graphically sophisticated than that when released...setting that aside...if you dont think you find the game represented there appealing enough to play on it's own merits...this game is not going to be for you.  Know that now, move on, and stop wasting everyone's time.

I really dont think you have any concept of what this game is going to be.  Which is fair...many people dont at this stage.  But your constant references to Kings Bounty as a comparison for this game are confusing.

No he just keeps comparing the game to Kings Bounty, which is...like I said ...confusing.  And I never said Stardock said they want it to be a Niche game.  TB 4x strategy is a niche genre, and Stardock wants it to be a great game...of that genre. That genre is defined by gameplay, not graphics, and ever has it been so.

And yes, Im saying, as most fans here would, dont try to sell it to the masses.  They wont buy it anyways, and then you have an inferior, dumbed down game, that the actual people who *would have purchased it, no longer like.  Luckily, Stardock understands this, and understands their fanbase well...because they are members of that fanbase, and make the games *they'd* like to play.

Im sorry that you think Im being rude, but he has a one broken note agenda, has been spamming it all over the front page of the forums, had his first thread on the subject locked from being rude about it, and now seeks to hijack every other thread into a clone of that one.  And idiots like me, keep helping him do that by buying into his trolling.

In another thread a SD dev said they would never sacrafice gameplay for graphics (actually in response to Hortz, lol) so I wouldn't worry. Also games like Spore and Empire:TW have shown that dumbing down a game for the masses is suicide, so hopefully stardock will actually work for the people who will buy thier product, not the drooling unknown