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eSimGames logo is iconic and brilliant


frankiekam

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Quite brilliant actually. A boomerang-shaped brush stroke on both ends of the word "eSimGames", and you have an abstraction of the iconic Mark V tank from the "War to end all wars". Which other tank is shaped like a parallelogram?

Takom+2034+Mk.V+WWI+Heavy+Battle+Tank+-+

 

The logo is simple, elegant and effective. I can't think of any combination of curved lines and text that would combine to bring about the silhouette of a known tank. So that's why I find the logo brilliant. It conveys the focus, purpose and soul of the company which is a tank simulation, "all the way!". To the person who designed the logo, I applaud your brilliance and creativity. Kudos.

 

cheers

Frankie "TornadoMan" Kam

 

 

Edited by frankiekam
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Yes, the logo's been around since 2004. I taught Desktop Publishing and logo design in college back in 2008-2010. Yup, if I had half a brain back then, and if I had been on SB Pro PE back then, I definitely would have added the eSimGames logo to my PowerPoint "What makes a good logo" presentation. Prior to that, I played the original SB from 2000 to 2002. It was only in 2015, when I got back into the saddle with SB Pro PE 3.025., that I noticed the logo. I am sure that every virtual tanker knows the Mark V logo. Just sharing my views why it is a good logo, from a design point of view.

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Hi Gibsonm, et. al.
 
Why all this interest in nostalgia for me? Though this be madness, yet there is method in't (Polonius, Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 193–206) . I have a plan how I can popularise Steel Beasts which will generate even more sales for eSimGames from the civilian market. Here's the game plan as I see it.

 

Target market: pre-teen and teenage kids who are into military sims and history. 
Premise: most normal kids can't afford the USD125 price of SB Pro PE, that is until they start working and earning their own income. Steel Beasts Legacy, hitherto referred to as SBL, is available via auction sites, old game sites or from SB Pro PE players whose have a working copy. Therefore SBL is more accessible.
Note: some kids with means to deep pockets will bypass all this. They will purchase a copy of SB Pro PE straight away.
Strategy: Rekindle interest in SBL 1.226 / Steel Beasts Gold and create a thirst for SB Pro PE. "If one cannot bring a horse to the water, one can make the horse thirsty by giving it salt cubes".
Tactics: Here are the salt cubes. Create a tribute site to SBL that contains not just links to SBL related stuff (e.g., reviews), but also to any M1 and Leo-related public domain material on the Net (e.g., documents like Fire Commands for the M1 Tank), create tutorials how to run SBL on Operating Systems higher than XP; publicise existing SBL mods, create new mods, new colour palettes, blog about SBL and create Youtube video tutorials on SBL, at the same time highlight the newest features of SB Pro PE that are light years ahead of SBL using the same social media tools. Buzz. Thirst. Interest. Enthusiasm.
Expected Outcome: When kids grow up and mature, they'll want to buy SB Pro PE. Steel Beasts becomes less of niche product, but will gain more popularity in the mainstream gaming crowd, thus generating volume sales for eSimGames from the civilian market; more kids will choose to join the ranks of the military - so the plan will contribute towards recruitment. Win-win situation for all. Yes, I am a cockeyed optimist. When the sky is a bright canary yellow. I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen. I am more than just a gamer. I am a poet. An artist. A dreamer. A doer.
Target date to do all this: 1 to 3 years
My risk: time spent on SBL by me would be better spent on SB Pro PE. This may be an exercise in futility. If that be the case, then I say that it is better to have tried and lost, than to have never tried at all.
Summary: My plan will either crash and burn, or succeed. Either way, I think that it's worth a SABOT shot.
 
I am open to suggestions.
 
Regards
Frankie Kam 

Edited by frankiekam
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30 minutes ago, frankiekam said:

Strategy: Rekindle interest in SBL 1.226 / Steel Beasts Gold and create a thirst for SB Pro PE. 

 

Frankie,

 

I guess my concern is a whole bunch of people having "interest" in SBL 1.226 / Steel Beast Gold then contacting eSim about:

 

- It wont run on my Windows 10 machine?

- The graphics are dated?

- Where can I buy my copy?

- Where is the update?

...

 

To which eSim has to respond "We haven't supported this product since 2005 (or thereabouts) and you are on your own".

 

Customer's response - eSim / SBL 1.226 / Steel Beast Gold / SB Pro PE sucks! or is "Cancer" or some other wave of negative comments which are dumped on eSim through no fault of their own.

 

Meanwhile the SB Pro PE community start complaining about the resources being diverted away from "their" product (e.g. the new terrain engine is delayed 6 months while we deal with SBL 1.226 / Steel Beast Gold issues).

 

Then more negative comment from the current user base.

 

I don't think anyone wins from that plan.

 

Edited by Gibsonm
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Okay, Gibson, now I see the bigger picture. I never saw that. Now I do. Thank you for letting me know. eSimGames has its plate full and overflowing with the amount of work on SB Pro PE. IMHO, eSimGames has the right to say "We don't supported this product" and everyone should understand that. By right, no normal person should think negatively about the company, just because they politely decline to support a 16-year old former product. Especially so, when it is all hands on deck for the newer versions of SB Pro PE.

 

Well, if no one objects or takes issue with, I volunteer to be the unofficial person to whom any SBL question can be directed to. With forum communication, not on steelbeasts.com so that the forums here get minimal SBL stuff in it, but on my SBL fansite.  My SBL fansite will be in no way sanctioned by anyone, least of all of by eSimGames. I will not promote, publicise or share about my fansite on the forums of steelbeast.com. 

 

So as a SBL enthusiast, I will do what I can within my capacity and limits. Got a SBL question like "How to run SBL on Windows7?" Ask frankie. Or read his tutorial on his website. How to mod SBL? Ask Frankie. If I don't know how to answer a SBL-related question, I will say "Read the manual" or I will just say I don't know. Most importantly, any questions I get that I can't answer, I won't ask SSnake or anyone on Steelbeasts.com. If anyone asks me why eSimGames is 'not supporting' SBL, I will respond that they are working hard, under deadlines and limited resources, to bring out the next SB Pro PE for you and I.

 

On my site, I will not profess to represent eSimGames in any way or capacity. I will also be careful not to misrepresent eSimGames or SBL in any way. It won't duplicate what steelbeasts.com already has, for example SBL downloads. At the same time, if there is anything on my website that Ssnake or you feel or prefer that it shouldn't be there, let know and I will remove it. It will be a site for gamers who like or liked SBL, to see SBL related stuff on that exists on the net. For now, if I were to lose one arm and a few fingers of my remaining hand, I would still be able to count the number of gamers who fall in that category. The fansite will have old previews, old reviews, a screenshots gallery, guestbook and such.

 

The other big picture is that the fansite and my mod work on SBL is to be a signboard that points the gamer to the real deal, SB Pro PE. You like "Steel Beasts Legacy 1.226? You ain't see nothin' yet. Wait till you get Steel Beasts Pro PE 5.0.! It will knock your socks off". More sales for eSimGames. Win win.

 

 

 

Edited by frankiekam
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As a friend of mine used to say (he worked in sales) plant the seed and watch it grow.

Not everybody has access to a machine capable of running SB 4. but may do in the future

Although i agree with Gibsonm in that if esim still supported the legacy version it would be a distraction form current projects

But if a individual like your self wants to take up the mantle kudos my friend and good luck.

I have always liked the logo as well.

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Frankie, you might really want to consider that you're not doing something never attempted before. Years ago in the Steel Beasts legacy era, users did attempt to spread news and get more people aware of Steel Beasts. While no doubt it brought in some, that is to say, people already interested in the subject matter would likely tend to gravitate anyway, in no way did was this effort going to attract a mass market. And now you want go backwards, pull people over to an obsolete product in the age of modern graphics and production values. We simply recognize that the interests of the mass market is more likely in tuned with products like World of Tanks, Battlefield, Call of Duty, and so on. I wouldn't compare this to the phenomenon of retro gaming and this sort of thing, I don't think comparison is really on the mark in this case.

 

Really, the behavior is in plain sight- the irony is how much human behavior is actually in plain sight and how much people presume that it isn't or don't see it or something. If Steel Beasts was going to have really mass market appeal like those other products, it would be doing it. There's already videos and content out there, word of mouth, great reviews out there in all kinds of publications, if that's not doing it, you might want to consider taking this all at face value, therefore, you're not going to be the messiah to bring people into the promised land. So consider 'if you build it, they will come'- the structure is built, the people coming are the ones attracted to it, the ones who aren't, are the ones who are not. Look at how people are actually behaving, and that should give you an idea of what you're selling, this is like selling a Rembrandt at a McDonald's, it's just not the audience.  Remember that a product can be awesome, but if the market isn't interested or ready for it, that's just the way it is. Lots of things have went that way. There are lots of great films, books, music and so on were made that never generated huge interest in their own times like the blockbusters or the popular hits, which in my view are often not so great or the formula has worn thin along time ago- but that's what people want, so you can't argue with that even if you aren't affected the same way.

 

Of course you're free to try, but really consider how much time you think can invest in something in light of all this.

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On 4/11/2017 at 4:05 PM, frankiekam said:

... shaped like a parallelogram?

 

Rhomboid to be percise.

 

You can't possibly be the only person in the world that feels this way about SBL.  Live your passion and do what enjoy.

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Homer,

Geometrically spot-on. But Frankie should be pleased that there were other rhomboidal designs. My vote for the "Best eSim Logo Lookalike" is the 1918 Skeleton Tank from Pioneer Tractor Co in the USA. The framework of the letters echoes the tubular struts of the tank, plus the position of the S and the dot of the I mimics the turret and gun.

A picture is worth...

eSim_SkeletonTk.jpg.dd43ba6a2b7a6c5a628f05e6d5a5945c.jpg

 

then again, if it is not a tank, then the logo reminds me of several designs of military collar patches is have seen over the years.. but that will be a whole new aethstetics conversation!

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
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9 hours ago, dejawolf said:

i prefer the older separating sabot petal logo.

 

Only as long as you have infinite resolution. That's why we had to replace it - the thin lines in it simply didn't scale well and usually looked terrible - unless printed.

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