Overview
Version 1.1 of Natural Selection will be the release that starts it on the road to massive clan popularity and is refined enough for more wide appeal for “casual” players as well.  This release fixes all the major problems found in previous versions, and will set the stage for larger long-term growth.  In short, the game is now there, we just need a massive splash to get it noticed.  This document will serve as a press release plan, and will be maintained by Charlie, Ned and Bailey.  I technically have final say here, but the only real things I would veto are some type of lurid, hyper-violent or otherwise out of character ad compaigns. :)

I want this release to at least double the size of the active NS community.  I think we can do this, but we need a huge PR push to drive people into a frenzy.  I think we can do this through this general approach:

-	Early info for the hard-core players (this has already been done through the Veteran program and the Beta Information forum).  Target CAL, NSA, Clanbase, ESReality and the clan community.
-	Continual info for attentive players via previews, website updates, and downloadable content. Sites that have been responsive thus far and like our work include Blues News, Penny Arcade, Gamespy, GameHelper and PlanetHalf-life.
-	These drive: the casual droves that play what everyone else is playing and talking about

Contact info
Charlie “Flayra” Cleveland – flayra@natural-selection.org, ICQ: 14056133, (617) 905-6741
	Evil overseer that tries to take all the credit while you guys do all the work.

Ned “MonsieurEvil” Pyle - monsieurevil@natural-selection.org, ICQ: 135490305
Ned has done all the PR for NS up to this point.  He has tons of contacts throughout the gaming news sites, knows many of the clans and generally knows what’s going on.

Bailey Stoler - bailey_stoler@yahoo.com, IM IrishCream4000
Bailey has done PR, marketing and writing professionally.  She’s good at writing press releases, advertising copy, web content, brochures, etc.  Bailey, I’m not sure if you have expertise or desire to help with the overall marketing plan or not.  I know writing is your true passion, but I didn’t know if you loved driving people into a marketing frenzy or not also.  If so, you and Ned can refine the overall plan here, else just say so and Ned will do that part and you can help write the press releases and whatever else you think you can contribute.

Timeline 

T – 30 days	Start allowing previews to as many news sites as want them.  Work with Grendel to make sure they can easily play without a lot of set up (WON id). Don’t release previews yet, but assign a date to each site.  Aim to have them released evenly starting at the 21 day mark, all the way to release.	
T - 21	Countdown begins. With that announcement, release all new feature info in a more concise and readable format, and some teaser screens. For the next week, send off tons of screens and such to as many HL and gaming websites as possible, using an updated list (a lot of the old sites have gone by the wayside, unfortunately.) Emphasis is on best sites, as usual.	
T – 20	Update site with NS banners and desktops if they are ready.  This will help our fans spread the word.	
T – 14	Release a series of small action vignette movies - only 10 seconds long or so, the around 5 MB variety. These show off newest features, and are especially attractive to 56K users as they are not a huge download. Get as many out there as possible - around say 10. Also possibly some 1st-person movies of the new art features like the GL or the Fade abilities. Also, emphasis on highlighting the new maps and new animations and effects.	
T- 8	Update n-s.org, mentioning that the 1.0x T-shirt won’t be available for much longer, and to order it now if you want one.	
T – 7	Release the main trailer.  Tell all news sites that NS 1.1 will be released in one week.	
T – 2	Release the updated manual.	
T – 1	Release the dedicated server code.  Remove old 1.0x T-shirt design from NS store.  Add new design.  Get n-s.org news update ready for uploading (make sure to thank Constellation members)	
Release day
(Holiday?  I’m thinking mid-July right now, after Warcraft expansion)	-	Get Adrenaline Zone installed in the morning.
-	5pm IRC countdown and release party.  Update n-s.org news.
-	6pm-12pm Adrenaline Zone party.  Dinner at Borders cafe at 10pm with dev team, PTs, whoever else wants to come along.
-	Sleep.
	
T + 1	NS Radio interviews on the state of the release.	
T + 2	Big HLTV clan game.  We need a sponsor to provide all the bandwidth.  Perhaps sYn vs. RED?  Or perhaps a PT/Vet/Dev game?	
T + 7	Announce NS Olympics.  This is an international contest that ATI will be sponsoring.  The winners will all receive the latest and greatest ATI radeon boards, care of ATI.  We’ll have to find someone to organize teams for this, as we can’t do it ourselves.  Perhaps get CAL to run and judge the competition?  We can wait a bit longer then this before announcing it also, there isn’t a huge rush.	
Continuous	All the while, we are sending off as much daily updates top websites as we can stomach, and getting as many people to hit readyroom and n-s.org as we possibly can for centralized news sources - the Day markers above are mrely milestones; not like we won't be newsing in between those days as much as possible. RR.org can handle the load much better these days, so I will try to utilize it as much as I can. 
Bailey may have more elaborate or imaginative ideas than these, and I also don’t know how many interviews you can stomach, as I can arrange plenty of them with NS' fame at this point, at PHL, Gamespy, other big-name sites, etc.	

Link banners
We need a couple banners for fan sites and news sites to link to us.   Ned, perhaps you could do something like your Ready Room logo competition to get a few of these for our n-s.org?  Some of these can be 1.1 specific, some should be more general.

Desktops
We should get Cory to make a couple desktops for us.  I’ve written him about this, and I hope to get him to make a couple images that people can download before release, to spread the word.  I’m thinking of something like Blizzard’s wallpaper section.  Cory may or may not have time to get these done in time, so let’s not depend on them.

Manual
I’m going to do my best to have an updated manual ready before release.  The manual currently on the website may not be updated quite in time because it’s so large, but we should have a quick start guide ready a couple days before release.  I can’t totally commit to this, but I think there’s an 80% chance or so of it being ready (even if I have to write it myself).  I’m going to work with Jeff to get this going.  Note that from here on, the manual will be updated much more often then it has been before, because it will automatically be updated as the game balance changes.

Updated screenshots
By the time we release, we need to have the n-s.org screenshots area populated with updated screenshots.  I think Ned should be in charge of this, with perhaps myself and Cory making the final decisions on them (an artist should definitely be involved at least, non-artists aren’t usually very good at this).

Release party
Have an open release party at Adrenaline Zone in Harvard Square.  Reservations won’t be accepted, so arrive early.  It will be free to play NS there from 6pm until close.  Charlie will be there, along with other members of the dev team (probably Cory, Mike, Jeff, maybe Mike).

NS Radio strategy
How to integrate dev team interviews here?  Experiment with NS Radio integration into the game.

Trailer
We have an NS community member making a gameplay trailer for us.  He’s done lots of in-game movies before, and is pretty good.  His name is Justin Phillips, and can be reached at ns_regis@hotmail.com.  He is about half done with the trailer so far, and he will be showing off new maps, features, and artwork.

Previews:
Ixion at NSA: efinkelnburg@allthingsfoul.com
Fragmaster at PHL

NS Olympics:
Prizes sponsored by ATI