Themis Group Turns Full Attention to Escapist, WarCry

[Susan Arendt]

Themis Group Turns Full Attention to Escapist, WarCry

Themis Group has decided to focus all of its attention on its media properties, which include the award-winning The Escapist and its MMOG-centric sister site, WarCry Network.

Themis Group, Inc. was previously made up of two distinct groups: media arm Themis Media and marketing arm TAP Interactive. The entire TAP team has been integrated into the media business, and will serve as the company's marketing and PR team.

"We've experienced tremendous success over the past year and we need to reinforce that success," noted Themis Group President & CEO, Alexander Macris. "The support of the top-notch marketing team from TAP Interactive will ensure Themis Media maintains momentum into 2009 and beyond."

The decision to focus on Themis Media came after 14 consecutive months of growth in monthly unique visitors, page views, video streams, and advertising impressions across Themis Media's properties, along with winning two Webby Awards.







Permalink

 

[TomNook]

So more funny stuff?

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

So does this by chance add anything else to WarCry or just escapist?

(Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I've bought stuff from WarCry, so I'm curious.)

 

[Jumplion]

Whatever happens I hope it's for the better.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Now that is a damn shame. That Heroes of Might & Magic webgame was badass, even if it was just rock, paper, dragon. Are you guys still going to write the market trends and predictions for the upcoming year? Macris's theory of "snack" games seems to be proving true, although he was a little bit ahead of the curve.

 

[Melaisis]

Honestly can't complain. More content and all that, innit?

 

[Danny Ocean]

innit?

Pikey! Burn him!

Seriously though, new stuff can't be bad, right?

 

[Virgil]

Now that is a damn shame. That Heroes of Might & Magic webgame was badass, even if it was just rock, paper, dragon.

Yes, it was (we won an award for that - statue and everything). We'd like to do more of those, but in the future they'd be hooked into our sites and not be owned by someone else. Fun fact: The badges on these forums are based on the same code as the badges in Heroes Mini.

Also, we have a little game-like-thing coming up this month hooked into the profiles, based on Fable 2, as a part of their ad campaign with us. It's part of their campaign here, but we came up with the idea and put it all together. You'll be able to win a badge, there's a contest involved - hopefully it'll be fun My goal (as programmer guy) is to still be able to make the 'fun stuff' we did for our clients, but to do it for us instead. And to spend less time building user registration systems.

Are you guys still going to write the market trends and predictions for the upcoming year? Macris's theory of "snack" games seems to be proving true, although he was a little bit ahead of the curve.

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess if we were to do it, it would show up as a feature article on the site instead of purely as a whitepaper or presentation.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

So more funny stuff?

The last time they 'added more funny stuff' it sucked. Hard.

Perhaps they have learned from their mistakes?

At least Unforgotten Realms is here to stay.

 

[Chimaera]

Macris's theory of "snack" games seems to be proving true, although he was a little bit ahead of the curve.

As Research Manager I can confidently (and very proudly) say that we have a very high track record of being ahead of the curve on trends and predictions for the industry at large, so I'm really not surprised.

 

[Blayze]

We'd like to do more of those,

I wish to suggest a successor to Arcomage.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Macris's theory of "snack" games seems to be proving true, although he was a little bit ahead of the curve.

As Research Manager I can confidently (and very proudly) say that we have a very high track record of being ahead of the curve on trends and predictions for the industry at large, so I'm really not surprised.

Yeah...lets see, he gave this talk in January at a Tech school in NC. The theory banked on the fact that most people don't have time to play full scale games and are going to naturally be drawn to shorter titles and simpler concepts that still provide the basic components. At the time he had very few examples and most of the games he was showing to argue that this could go beyond Peggle were very rough and niche. I don't know how long he'd had the idea, but if you were inclined to make an Escapist/Warcry Flash Game that's a 9 month development window providing publication occurred today. Not bad.

Now...between Pixel Junk Eden, Orbital, Braid, Castle Crashers, and the once in a blue moon when WiiWare isn't awful (Orbient is really fun), shorter & cheaper are steadily getting a foothold with older gamers. So yeah, I'd say it proved true.

Anywho, I'm rambling now but *shakes magic 8-ball* we give them another 6 to 9 months before people start selling to these console junkies via Flash Games or the Web. Borrowing from the marketing and info mechanics that the consoles have used to turn their DL markets into a viable money-maker, websites will gain in popularity by controlling content and having a careful critical eye about which games they post. It will, in effect, be the equivalent to why I tune into Comedy Central instead of NBC. I like their shows better, except now we're talking about the games they put up.

Which means exclusive licensing contracts. Which means copyrights. And right now, the legal system is not even remotely equipped to deal with games because they still shoehorn them into audiovisual representations, which ain't gonna cut it when people are stealing code or game design. Which means in 1 to 2 years, when people start ripping each other off royally for ideas and concepts, when user generated content starts to add fuel to the flame...the rivers are going to run red with royalties litigation.

Geez, sorry, I guess I shoulda PM'd this or something, I'm just avoiding doing work and I'm researching Video Game Litigation for a paper, so it's on the brain right now.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

So we get more funky thingys on here? Seems good to me.
Also:

Also, we have a little game-like-thing coming up this month hooked into the profiles, based on Fable 2, as a part of their ad campaign with us. It's part of their campaign here, but we came up with the idea and put it all together. You'll be able to win a badge, there's a contest involved - hopefully it'll be fun My goal (as programmer guy) is to still be able to make the 'fun stuff' we did for our clients, but to do it for us instead. And to spend less time building user registration systems.

Awesome! I like Fable, and I like the Escapist, both of them together may just blow my mind.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

So I suppose your marketing and PR team is pretty saturated now, huh? Well, if there's ever a spot, I graduate this December *big flirty wink*

...I need money.

 

[Archon]

L.B. Jeffries, I appreciate the kind words! I think the "Gamer Snacks" trend is just in its infancy. It's a natural outgrowth of the increasing cost to develop games. Higher cost means that you need larger audiences to recoup. Larger audiences demand homogenized, mainstream content. That leaves audiences with niche preferences looking for new content streams. In any event, that's a topic for a separate thread.

 

[PhoenixFlame]

This is nice to hear. At the risk of being too lovey-dovey, it's nice to see that there is buy-in for endeavors like the Escapist and Warcry from folks. A lot of times it is difficult to really get people to "believe" in what you're doing and to allocate the resources necessary to make it a success.

I hope the Escapist is around for a long while to come. It's a nice community.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

Go us! This site rocks (and has done for a very long time), and I hope that this will only increase the top quality of this humble stream of 1s and 0s.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Kudos if this means you guys are going to get more resources and support! But... the combination of your MARKETING Department with this site... doesn't mean your going to start trying to sell us a bunch of stupid crap, does it?

Sorry, I have to be the one cynic. Fundamentally, what does this mean for The Escapist?

Also, never visited or heard of WarCry. Guess I ought to google it later.

 

[Virgil]

Kudos if this means you guys are going to get more resources and support! But... the combination of your MARKETING Department with this site...

In addition to these sites, we have also done specialized marketing projects for other companies. For example, as L.B. Jeffries mentioned, Heroes Mini [http://www.heroesmini.com] was one of my favorites. It's not so much a marketing department as a clan of contract web-assassins deploying marketing-funded ... somethings. Metaphor broke down there.

And yes, we are trying to sell you a bunch of stupid crap. Like our weekly issues, Zero Punctuation, Unforgotten Realms, de-rez, posting on our forums. Just because we don't charge for it doesn't mean we aren't trying to sell the Kool-Aid