Marketing Development: An Interview with Michal Adam

Tags: interview, michal adam, pax

         It's been a while since PAX but it's stream of interesting info is still flowing. I've dragged myself away from the beta long enough to finalize these short interviews, graciously given by the devs at the show. The game is constantly evolving but these glances behind the scenes haven't lost their relevance.
 
         I first met with associate producer and PR specialist Michal Adam who gave me a few insights into the marketing process. Unfortunately, I ran into some technical difficulties with my audio recorder but with the background noise of the loud convention floor, this turned out to be the preferable option.

 
     
 
         To start, I asked her what marketing strategy she thought would draw the most players to the game and her answer was embodied by the booth itself. She explained that getting the game into the hands of convention goers and local gamers was a great way to start chain reactions of recommendations. So far the feedback has been very positive, especially from gaming sites like TenTonHammer.
 
         My next question was about other countries and how well the game might be received. She said she was especially confident about Europeans enjoying the game because the Italian, German, and French press have all responded enthusiastically. There are gamers throughout the world who already enjoy GA, but each country has a different set of network capabilities and preferences for MMOs. So it's hard to know exactly how they'll react.
 
         I hoped she'd be able to tell me something about their plans to showcase agency warfare outside the game, but unfortunately that information needed to remain classified. She was able to tell me that there are awesome ideas in development that hinge on the testing of the AvA campaign.
 
         Finally, I'd read that she performed some of the motion capture animations herself, so I was curious to know which ones were her favorites. To my joyous surprise, she had payed tribute to a great show that got canceled too early, ironically due to poor marketing. Two of her emotes were the chicken dances of Gob and Lindsay Bluth from Arrested Development, which I can't possibly do justice to in writing, so I found this link.
 
         Gob's dance can be performed with the /chickendance command but I haven't found Lindsay's yet so it may need to be unlocked. For more emote commands look here and if you'd like more info from Michal, check out her twitter here.