BIS community is steadily growing!

[nettrucker]

Hi all

browsing lately through the forum I noticed more and more new community members. A lot of new people have signed up to the forum. The BI community is definitely growing, which I do personally welcome. I would say that the massive posting and uploading of ArmAverse videos on You tube and other video sites has definitely done it's part to draw the attention of new players.
I would like to ask some of our new members how they came to know about BIS games in the first place. Which advertising method draw your attention to the games.
I found out about OFP throughout a friend.
I set up this poll because I would like to know which advertising method is the most effective. It is just my personal curiosity, moreover it might help BIS to understand which method keeps growing their fan base the most.
thanks for your kind replies

[Przemek_kondor]

browsing lately through the forum I noticed more and more new community members. A lot of new people have signed up to the forum. The BI community is definitely growing,but and others leave the community without unregistering.
For me it's easier to track activity on polish forums and I would say that the community (at least polish one) is not growing, it decreases

[Opticalsnare]

I played a demo of OFP which came on a cover of PC Gamer to which feels like 500 million years ago, been hooked ever since.

[Mr Burns]

For me it's easier to track activity on polish forums and I would say that the community (at least polish one) is not growing, it decreases

Same for german. There´s some newbies, mainly drawn with OA and now asking questions why they cannot join A2OA Warfare servers. Not much to be expected communitywise from that niche imho.

The "old guard" is grasping at straws.

[Maciek95PL]

I was just looking through available demos on Steam. And I saw demo of ArmA 2.

[NoRailgunner]

Maybe its just only a peek because of DLC release and special offers?

[])rStrangelove]

It was the OPF demo which hit me like a bomb. I can still feel its effects. :)

[SteveJA360]

When i was little, dad let me have a go on his OFP, been hooked ever since :)

[NeMeSiS]

Either a review or a preview of OFP, cant remember exactly.

[kyfohatl]

I have a friend who knows precisely about my "eccentric" taste in games (that is; I didn't like COD and Halo much, prefered lots of realism and couldn't stand games that wouldn't let the player different ways to approach challenges and were linear, hence not liking Half Life too much either). So when he played the demo, he immediately knew I'd like the game, so he showed me the demo and I loved it. Went out and bought ArmA2 the next day.

[[APS]Gnat]

I played a demo of OFP which came on a cover of PC Gamer to which feels like 500 million years ago, been hooked ever since.

lol ... same.


The "old guard" is grasping at straws
It goes up, it comes down, it goes up, comes down ............ its been doing this for how many years now?

And how many still play and stay involved in a community of some of the other "finished in 2 hours" games from a year or 2 back.

[Jakerod]

I noticed recently that 3 of the top 5 posters haven't posted in over 2 years and yet no one has really caught up to them. I'm not sure if I should take that as a good or bad sign. I do miss The Avon Lady though. I haven't been coming here as much for the past 6 months or so either.

[Flash Thunder]

Codemasters gave BIS a big boost in publicity with their Epic failure that was Dragon Rising

also Youtube most arma 2 videos have more than 20k views

[KevinWI]

I played a demo of OFP which came on a cover of PC Gamer to which feels like 500 million years ago, been hooked ever since.

I'll chime in here and say that PC Gamer US also had a OFP demo on their CD and that's what got me hooked on this game (series). Does feel like a lifetime ago.

[Macadam Cow]

I know the question is aiming at newcomers but I'll never forget my first meeting with ofp.
It was during summer holidays, there were a preview in a video magazine.
I remember lying on my bed staring at pictures for hours (litteraly) reading and reading again the same preview.
I was so excited I knew this game was what I was looking for for years.
Didn't even tried the demo, bought the game as soon as I could, a few months later

I kinda miss that excitement, what ofp offered was really something new, never seen before. I think I'll never forget that moment.
I guess some newcomers feels the way now with ArmA 2, I envy them.

[walker]

Hi all

That OFP Demo disk same as others said.

played it and played it and played it played it and played it played it and played it played it and played it played it and played it played it and played it played it and played waiting for the game to come out. I did it so many ways that in the end I completed the mission on my own killing every one of the enemy AI for zero losses my side. I drove the car south of Houdan and left the captain? there. Then ninjaed my way up to where the tanks were based in the next town, killed the crew and the infantry stole a tank and used it to kill everything else including the shilka that shoots the helo down in the mission as set. I also completed it as purely an infantry man blowing up all the tanks and IFVs with RPGs.

And of course I drove all round the island sightseeing for days on end, just like everyone else back in the day.

But the thing that realy hooked me was the full version with the editor.

Kind Regards walker

[johncage]

mouth to mouth advertising sounds unsanitary

[nettrucker]

mouth to mouth advertising sounds unsanitary

I bet if it would be a beautiful girl you would think otherwise. LOL:D
kind regards

[Haystack15]

The way I got into the community was a simple yet stupid way.

I did a search on arma with google and at the bottom where it gives you the other related searches it said "arma mod" then I got a lot of modding websites.

So Basically I got into the community by Google. Damn you Google!!!!

[NeMeSiS]

The way I got into the community was a simple yet stupid way.

I did a search on arma with google and at the bottom where it gives you the other related searches it said "arma mod" then I got a lot of modding websites.

So Basically I got into the community by Google. Damn you Google!!!!

Didnt you Bing it? ;)

[ryguy]

I saw it posted on another forum. They planned on starting a clan, and after watching a few youtube videos I was more than impressed. Didn't get the game for a few months later but MAN when I got it I was impressed.

[Soul_Assassin]

Actually remember noticing a whole page ad in US PC Gamer a whopping year before the release of OFP. Back then it was still called FLASH POINT. Actually, if anyone has a link to à scan of such an ad, it will be wildly appreciated.

[CameronMcDonald]

Saw it in PC Gamer, suggested it to a bunch of the lads at school that we purchase it for use in the boarding house.

Got talked down in favour of some shouse bodyboarding game, so I went and bought it myself. Never looked back.

I wonder what happened to that bodyboarding game - god it was terrible.

[KevinWI]

I wonder what happened to that bodyboarding game - god it was terrible.

Developers are probably developing training simulators for the pro bodyboarding industry - no doubt.

[Haystack15]

Didnt you Bing it? ;)

Bing didn't exist back in 07, Sadly :(

[Dwarden]

if you want socialize more remember there is IRC channel in my signature ;)

[NeMeSiS]

if you want socialize more remember there is IRC channel in my signature ;)

Yeah, but IRC is annoying, we prefer to just go offtopic every once in a while until we get a topic/subforum for all our real offtopicness. :p

[Dwarden]

Nemesis well ...
IRC is for realtime chat ... ofcourse some will prefer e.g. forums

then we have Facebook, Steam community groups, xfire group etc.

but i'm open to suggestions :)

[soldier2390]

damn...my storie my be a bit more wild lol! for me i had no interest ingames(still dont..btw Arma2/OA's not a game to me, but a life style)! but when my life and dumbazz choices led me down a long dark road to hell, and "bad choices" to sell and smoke too much weed, got me locked up...my mom punished me and left me with only a magazine to read..thankgod it was a military magazine that had an article about OFP, and i begged my mom to buy me the game or to let me get work it off while one spring break from school(was only like 11-12yrs old when OFP came out)!

because of that tho, it keep me hooked(but on something good lol)! OFP plus my grandfather/cusins/uncles was the main reason i ended up joing the military(well started off with military programs, schools, USAF Aux. C.A.P.ext.) but then from that i later joined the USAF! so i owe you a big thank you BIS..really, alot of the ppl i use to hang with back then are all locked up and a few killed over drugs/gangs...thanks BIS, and a big thanks from my mom aswell lol!

[***LeGeNDK1LLER***]

comunity growing? oh boys i didn't noticed. at least on PvP servers :(

[BasileyOne]

last one.
because bought/played BIS products from OFP Demo to Arma2[inclding anything between] and therefore don't need any kind of "advertisement" for staying attracted.

[NeMeSiS]

last one.
because bought/played BIS products from OFP Demo to Arma2[inclding anything between] and therefore don't need any kind of "advertisement" for staying attracted.

So how did you get to the OFP demo? ;)

[rexehuk]

Mouth to mouth advertising? I'm yet to meet a girl who talks about Arma 2.

[vasmkd]

And talking to girls about ARMA 2 would be asking for trouble
They then expect you to listen to them about some dress or shoes they want ;)

[DOA]

I saw the box Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis on a software shelf in some store. I honestly can't remember if it was a game store or a department store. I got it home and my PC couldn't run it very well. A week later my new PC ran it very well. I think this was early 2002. Why would anyone ever leave this series? Nothing else even comes close.

[RangerPL]

I saw OFP before on a Polish FPS gaming site (ofp.fpp.pl) and thought it was cool but never got around to buying it. This was around 2003.

Later (around 2008) some of my friends showed me gameplay videos from ArmA and I played the demo but I couldn't get used to the controls and ultimately didn't buy it even though I liked it.

ArmA 2 was on my shopping list for a while and I finally got the opportunity to obtain it for Christmas 2010. :yay:

[Jake_Krieger]

It started with my Cousin playing Operation Flashpoint back in the day . I watched him playing him as a kid but i didnt realise how awesome it was . The main thing i remembered was the training course in the begining and the awesome music . After i was like 15 i played a bit OFP again but i didnt really finished it. After sometime, my school friend told me about ArmA and lend it to me , i installed it , completed the game and that was it .
After Arma 2 released i really was a fixed Bohemia Fan .

[-Puma-]

My little brother had OPF on his PC and i thought it was the coolest thing. I remember a couple of missions i played, but had other "activities" then, which took most of my time. Allsso my brother wanted to play quake wars all the time and didnt even dare to try opf on my 166mhz pentium II :pet5:

Later when i got my own PC that could play games, ARMA was the first game i ever bought, and been playing since :bb:

[DMarkwick]

I bought OFP on release, but shamefully I took it back for a refund because it didn't work properly.

The fault turned out to be my keyboard. Shame on me :)

But I didn't rebuy it again until rather later. After an online group of us got a LOT of enjoyment and mileage out of both Battlefield 1942 and Ghost Recon I was persuaded by a good friend to get OFP as it represented exactly the gameplay we were gradually migrating to. After an online session where we were verbally taken through some simple aspects of the editor, I began to see the value of it.

This is why I sometimes mention that it takes about a week to "get" the BIS paradigm. Once you get it, you're hooked. But it's getting that initial hook that's the thing.

I've since made up for my initial buffoonery by buying several copies of OFP, most recently just last week when I saw all 3 original OFP released games/addons for £2.00 each.

[paecmaker]

I read about Arma 2 in a game magazine and started looking at cinematic movies on youtube. So those of you wich make beautiful ARMA 2 videos probably made me want this game. :)

[maionaze]

I got OFP as a gift from a friend back in 2001 . It was the coolest thing ever . Back then my idea of an awesome FPS was CS 1.1 Flying the Cobra was my favorite thing , then I got into commanding units , stealing UAZ's :P .
This may shock you but , I bought OFP: resistance off my girl cousin . It costed me 1 pizza and 1 week of being her "man servant " :P , she was more of a RTS fan anyway , but she did play it for almost half a year .

Then I just kept buying BIS products . The only one I did not buy was QG because I simply could not find a hard copy of it here .

10 years of Arma .... good times and good times to come .

[Herbal Influence]

I tried hard to find out, but I cannot remember why I bought OFP in 2001 (and after that all games from BIS).
I know that I recommended it successfully to some people, to many without success - for it being toooo complicated and tooo realistic. What I like - both of it.

I am really wondering since a ten years why I never read something about BIS games in the most interesting german journal on computer, called ct from www.heise.de. I would really estimate that they have the highest potential of readers especially for games like this (tech freakz, free thinking, OpenSource addicted etc. etc.). And they have an enormous reach all over Germany (Switzerland, Austria ... etc. - I don't know, but believe there too).