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I've seen a few people on Reddit insist that it must be an astroturf campaign. Because Reddit would never latch onto some random thing and meme obsessively abou

I've seen a few people on Reddit insist that it must be an astroturf campaign. Because Reddit would never latch onto some random thing and meme obsessively about it for months, otherwise. It's extremely streamer-friendly (i.e. "fun to watch other people play and react to"), which is a big boost to virality, and it got featured by a hugely popular YouTuber (Dunkey) four days after its launch. And it got lucky. It's not an uncommon story.

backpropaganda 7y ago
People were meme-ing the goose game hard much before its launch, and much before Dunkey covered it, but that probably helped sustain its exponential growth. More than streamer-friendly, it's Reddit- and Twitter-friendly. Any small clip of the game is automatically funny and share-able. The bird's simple design makes it easy for fan artists to make more memes.
EamonnMR 7y ago
If anything, the EGS hate feels like an AstroTurf. I just do not get it.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  It's a crappy store that seeks to compete with the dominant market player not through being better, but through throwing shit-tons of money at timed exclusives. Which itself isn't really that bad, but it doubled down on being hated when it started snatching up community funded games that were otherwise intended for release on several other platforms.
  - glogla 7y ago
    If you look at it from the point of the view of the game creator, Epic is better - they take smaller cut and they will outright give you money for exclusivity. This might not seem necessarilty better for the players, but considering how many smaller game studios / creators are on the verge of profitability, this might mean we get to play games we wouldn't otherwise.
    - hnick 7y ago
      They should try pushing that angle a lot harder I think. I wasn't aware of it (I've only used their store for some of the weekly free games). Most of the pushback seems to be because everyone is fine with Steam, yet another store seems unnecessary, and it smells a lot like a rich company buying their way into our hearts (exclusives from all that Fortnite money). I think that's why it doesn't sit too well.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    Epic is a better store for game creators. It's about on par with or better than what Steam was when it first launched. Steam was an absolute clusterfuck when it first launched, and Valve only got away with it because they tied Half Life 2 to Steam.
    - account42 7y ago
      Steam launched 16 years ago. Saying Epic is at most 16 years behind is not really a good argument.
tclancy 7y ago
Agree 100%. My daughter and I played the hell out of it for a weekend and then after football on Sunday we turned it on and every adult in the house (6 or 7) took a turn, regardless of whether they like videogames. It's fun to do bad things.
on_and_off 7y ago
FWIW I also saw it covered on sites like RPS for what feels like years (and might be, it had a very long dev time). I ended up buying it on Switch shortly after its release. I spent a very fun couple of hours on this game and memed a lot about it with my partner. It is not going to have the profound emotional impact that e.g. Outer Wilds had on me but that goose animation and sound designs are perfect and make for good memes that I will also remember.

backpropaganda 7y ago

People were meme-ing the goose game hard much before its launch, and much before Dunkey covered it, but that probably helped sustain its exponential growth. More than streamer-friendly, it's Reddit- and Twitter-friendly. Any small clip of the game is automatically funny and share-able. The bird's simple design makes it easy for fan artists to make more memes.

EamonnMR 7y ago

If anything, the EGS hate feels like an AstroTurf. I just do not get it.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
It's a crappy store that seeks to compete with the dominant market player not through being better, but through throwing shit-tons of money at timed exclusives. Which itself isn't really that bad, but it doubled down on being hated when it started snatching up community funded games that were otherwise intended for release on several other platforms.
- glogla 7y ago
  If you look at it from the point of the view of the game creator, Epic is better - they take smaller cut and they will outright give you money for exclusivity. This might not seem necessarilty better for the players, but considering how many smaller game studios / creators are on the verge of profitability, this might mean we get to play games we wouldn't otherwise.
  - hnick 7y ago
    They should try pushing that angle a lot harder I think. I wasn't aware of it (I've only used their store for some of the weekly free games). Most of the pushback seems to be because everyone is fine with Steam, yet another store seems unnecessary, and it smells a lot like a rich company buying their way into our hearts (exclusives from all that Fortnite money). I think that's why it doesn't sit too well.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  Epic is a better store for game creators. It's about on par with or better than what Steam was when it first launched. Steam was an absolute clusterfuck when it first launched, and Valve only got away with it because they tied Half Life 2 to Steam.
  - account42 7y ago
    Steam launched 16 years ago. Saying Epic is at most 16 years behind is not really a good argument.

tclancy 7y ago

Agree 100%. My daughter and I played the hell out of it for a weekend and then after football on Sunday we turned it on and every adult in the house (6 or 7) took a turn, regardless of whether they like videogames. It's fun to do bad things.

on_and_off 7y ago

FWIW I also saw it covered on sites like RPS for what feels like years (and might be, it had a very long dev time). I ended up buying it on Switch shortly after its release. I spent a very fun couple of hours on this game and memed a lot about it with my partner. It is not going to have the profound emotional impact that e.g. Outer Wilds had on me but that goose animation and sound designs are perfect and make for good memes that I will also remember.