Media resource: form letter

[Rae]

I saw in the 'media' thread that a lot of people are going ahead and contacting outlets. I'm not sure if we're /meant/ to, because Tony hasn't listed it as a call to arms just yet, but I thought this may prove useful.

Here's a sample 'approach' letter that might be useful to people.

Send it to the features editor, and feel free to alter it as much as you deem necessary to make it appear that it's ideal for that particular publications readership:


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Dear Sir,

I was wondering if you would be interested in running a story about a group of virtual superheroes trying to save their world.

Last Friday, NC Soft announced the shock closure of their City Of Heroes/Villains MMO. The games was launched eight years ago, boasts a population of 43 million avatars (the same number as the cities of Tokyo and Moscow combined) and was still very much in profit.

The game allows players to create either their own, fully-customisable super hero or villain, and battle either to save the world, or make their name as one of the bad guys. It was one of the first non-fantasy MMOs on the market.

The announcement left the game's community in shock, but within hours, a rallying cry had gone forth.  A player-based campaign to save the game was launched, with in-game protests drawing thousands of players to protest, a letter writing campaign which has seen hundreds of letters delivered to the CEO of NC Soft, and a petition which has attracted over 13,000 signatures.

What you basically have is the players behind a group of virtual superheroes battling to save their city (or, take it over, if you're a villain) but in the real world.

Our fight (yes, I am a City of Heroes veteran) story has began to attract attention from news outlets including Massively, CNN, Comics Alliance, Escapist Magazine and Scifiwright. In the UK, Starburst Magazine has also greenlit an article on the campaign to save it.

If you would be interested in running a feature on our campaign, please let me know. I can provide you with player testimonies and screenshots of protests and vigils in game, as well with comment from the organisers of the campaign to save it.

If you would be interested in running this feature, but do not have the staff or time to write it, I would be happy to submit an article, as well as any screenshots from the game itself.

I would not ask for payment if you decide you would like me to write it.

I have included a few links to places where the story has already been featured, and a screenshot of the rallying cry that united the players, so you can see exactly what we are trying to achieve.

Thank you so much for your time,
Kind regards,

----

Links:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/09/03/city-of-heroes-being-shut-down

http://www.gamerzines.com/mmo/heroes-online-petition-nearing.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/efforts-underway-to-save-city-of-heroes

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/05/city-of-heroes-fans-rally-to-try-to-save-the-game

http://www.gamerzines.com/mmo/rumour-paragon-discussions-heroes.html

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/09/04/city-of-heroes-shutting-down/

[emu265]

I would encourage tweaking for a little bit of personality though.  I believe our image will be strongest as a community of hard-working, real people trying to save their game rather than a group of video game players mass-mailing media outlets trying to soak up attention.  It'd really suck if two people sent identical letters to the same place.

Great post though, we need the organization and some guidelines to be sure.  And to everyone who's been doing this, thanks for the enthusiasm and effort. 

[Rae]

Yes, yes. Definitely write it in your own words, rather than mine

[emu265]

As an aside... are those links you provided all of the articles that have been written?  The CNN one isn't there, though that one was... rather minimal.  It might be beneficial to update your post with any new ones that come out.  That way people know where to send follow-ups rather than normal letters.

[Rae]

No, they were cherry-picked with the submission I was making to SFX magazine (UK based), as most likely to be sites they'd heard of, or their readership were likely to visit, or could be considered their competitors.

For anyone sending to US sites, then yes, the CNN link would be the one to link to Thanks for pointing that out.

[Cannonfodder]

This was very helpful.  I just used most of the text to reach out to an organization with similar interests. 

I'd love to see more of these types of documents where we can use the text and customize it to our audience.

Once again, thanks, you've made it more efficient to get our message heard! 

Edit: www.HeroMachine.Com so we don't duplicate efforts.  Quick follow-up:  Less than 10 minutes later and they've agreed to feature us front page. 

[Rae]

This was very helpful.  I just used most of the text to reach out to an organization with similar interests. 

I'd love to see more of these types of documents where we can use the text and customize it to our audience.

Once again, thanks, you've made it more efficient to get our message heard! 

Edit: www.HeroMachine.Com so we don't duplicate efforts.  Quick follow-up:  Less than 10 minutes later and they've agreed to feature us front page. 

Thanks! I'm a bit nervous of stepping on people's toes, honestly. I'm well aware that I'm not a designated organiser here, but I want to help so desperately that it's driving me a bit mad

[TonyV]

Hey all, I hate to ask this, but could you please hold off on this?  I've actually worked with someone who has a lot of experience with press releases and who is very familiar with the game.  I've been sending out press releases on our efforts to a lot of news sites and blogs, and they've been very successful so far in getting some really positive coverage on gaming, comic, and other news sites.  I'll try to post them somewhere later so that everyone can see what we're sending out, but I just mainly want to make sure we're not barraging press contacts with this info, that they're getting it at a steady feed as news develops.

[Cannonfodder]

Hey all, I hate to ask this, but could you please hold off on this?  I've actually worked with someone who has a lot of experience with press releases and who is very familiar with the game.  I've been sending out press releases on our efforts to a lot of news sites and blogs, and they've been very successful so far in getting some really positive coverage on gaming, comic, and other news sites.  I'll try to post them somewhere later so that everyone can see what we're sending out, but I just mainly want to make sure we're not barraging press contacts with this info, that they're getting it at a steady feed as news develops.

Crap, I'm just now catching up on my Titan forum reading.  It got posted today.