perry_blueberry said:
some people seem unable to make a single rational decision during their lifetime

They are probably rational, just using a skewed or inaccurate understanding of facts or relationships or causality.

Also, yes, for a single human being, they may end up buying a steak anyway and then be late on their electricity bill, because steak is freakin' delicious and the monkey brain wants it.

My point is that, overall, the concept of substitute products is much more important to marketing, than the idea that there's either a sale, or there isn't, in a vacuum. Your product is always a substitute for some other use for that money (even if that substitute is “saving it for a rainy day.”) The customer has to believe that you will deliver more value than the substitutes, whether that's emotionally or rationally or (usually) a combination of both. And for that to happen, you need to both reach the customer with your message, and have that message be the right one. And the main reason “actually making a good game” is important to marketing, is that messages about bad games will reach people through channels you don't control yourself, so you're not in 100% control of your marketing, no matter how much time and money you spend on it!

pandemic in 2020. I guess it's the same for other countries. Energy in general is expensive, so is food and much more. How am I supposed to sell a game when people don't even know how to get to work because 1 liter of gasoline

……

What do you think? How do you deal with this situation?

On friends guild, they was playing a mmorpg game at night. Suddenly, one of the player heard that tanks are moving under his window, he heard gunshots being fired, bombs were falling. He was from dinipro, ukraine. At the end, he decided not to care, and continued playing till 3am when he went to sleep, luckily he still had internet, and electricity.

Be sure your game worths playing even in the apocalypse, and people have a method to pay for it, even if the half world sanctions you (various online services, at least 2-3 types of cryptocurrency) and everything will be all right.

While your off wondering if now is a good time to market a game, I'm dealing with people asking if now is a good time to make games.

The Issue with the world opening up is something I feel acutely and I have the instinct of this, Asking people to spend more time in front of a computer, connected to their devices is a hard proposition. I don't even want to as much, myself.

Furthermore, most people now want to be paid for their time, So finding good reliable people willing to be glued to their computer or smart phone is a tough proposition.

Global Costs have steadily risen, making it harder and harder to justify anything that doesn't pay off in the short term.

midnight thoughts but if you want to get anywhere with a game you're making, you gotta market yourself. Otherwise you'll be the next metroidvania rpg roguelike with some generic pixel art style #44349. Seeking a publisher is a fast way to get people on your game, and if you want, you can then just self-publish after gaining a following.

@RamiMorrar

RamiMorrar said:

midnight thoughts but if you want to get anywhere with a game you're making, you gotta market yourself. Otherwise you'll be the next metroidvania rpg roguelike with some generic pixel art style #44349

I personally agree with this.

Beosar!

But lets turn this around in the other way. Do not even make a game without a market research, dont make something if there is no demand for it - dont even start if you dont know how you will make it popular, how you will advertise it, what will be the market strategy aroud it, how you will deal with trolls and potential enemies.

If you dont have these, and try to desperately marketing it after you have finished the game… then you already doing it wrong.