On Wed, 7 Nov 2012, Durk Talsma wrote: > No worries. :-). This is actually fairly subjective, and I'm afraid that I > didn't explain my concern too well in my initial post. The real issue is > salience, which you can describe as the subjective property of a percept to > stand out from it's environment (see > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salience_(neuroscience) ). So, a cool feature > that > easily dominates in a screenshot contest may not be able to capture our > attention very effectively in a different context, such as the one at > FSWeekend, where visitors are usually bombarded with high quality graphics. > > So, what I was actually looking for was new ways of *using* FlightGear, within > the limitations of an internet-free environment. Our lan based multiplayer > server was very effiective in the past, and in the last few years we also had > some new aircraft and/or a specific theme, or even an internet connection, all > of which served as great eye-catchers. This year was a bit of a step back in > those respects, so I found myself more often than not reverting back to the > tested and tried.
Only slightly exaggerating, there are two types of people at FSWeekend: those who have never even heard about FG before, and those who have faintly heard about it, but never actually used or seen it ;-). So, presenting FG really needs to start with the very basic stuff: what is FG, where do I get it, how much does it cost ;-), how is it different/better etc. People also ask questions like "Can I reuse the FSx addons which I already bought", "will my hardware devices work", etc. So, presenting FG is not so much a matter of concentrating on the latest development gimmicks - like we would do in a newsletter or release announcement for people who already know FG. It's more about explaining and showing how it looks/feels in general. But of course, *all* the nice features inside FG and all the nice aircraft absolutely help with demonstrating FG to an interested visitor and help making a good overall impression, so that people will actually remember FG when back home - and start downloading. I agree with Durk, maybe we have been a bit less effective this year in making people stop and look. And until people actually pay attention, it doesn't even matter what's on the screens at all (FG, Rembrandt or just random pixels :) ). As you can see on the photos, there are loads of tables at FSWeekend. Each has a computer with 1-3 displays. In that respect, our booth may not have looked different enough this year. Last year, the 10 display (or 12 displays for LinuxTag :) ) worked pretty well as an eye catcher - causing almost everyone passing to go "WTF!?? Brain-to-feet: full stop!! Brain-to-eyes: Check it out! What is this??". It also worked well as an ice-breaker: people would immediately start asking questions "How do you connect these? How many machines are running these? How much power does it draw..." ;-) So, I really hate to say it, but there really is something about "marketing". Or, to go with Durk: there really is something about psychology: to get people's attention, it takes more than a good product alone... ;-) On Wed, 7 Nov 2012, geneb wrote: > Durk, if you can find someone that's willing to cut the parts for you, I'd > be happy to donate a drawing set for my single-seat collimated display > system. You show up next year with THAT and I can just about guarantee > most folks will forget how to spell FSX. :) Yay! That would *definitely* trigger a major visitor stampede! ;-) cheers, Thorsten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LogMeIn Central: Instant, anywhere, Remote PC access and management. Stay in control, update software, and manage PCs from one command center Diagnose problems and improve visibility into emerging IT issues Automate, monitor and manage. Do more in less time with Central http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein12331_d2d _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
