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queenofwordsandnerds · 4 years ago

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AnS Characters as D&D Classes

Honestly this is kind of difficult because all the AnS characters are so beautifully complex and it's hard to fit them into one class, but I tried my best

Shirayuki - Cleric/Ranger

I think Shirayuki might be the most difficult to classify. When I think of her, the first word that comes to mind is healer. She's very focused on using her skills, knowledge and research to help people. In the AnS universe, she's not a fighter. Not physically, anyway, although the longer the manga goes on the more skilled she becomes with using words to cut and discover. But Shirayuki is primarily a healer, and the Cleric class is the closest I could get to that. In the D&D world, she might be more of a fighter and maybe(?) have a god she devotes herself to? (There aren't really any deities or religious systems in the AnS world that I know of).

This is the closest I could get, and maybe Shirayuki could multiclass into a Ranger or something, since she also has a strong connection to nature and could probably use that knowledge to survive out in the wild.

(Plus I just love the idea of Shirayuki with a bow. Very Yona-like.)

Zen - Paladin/Fighter

I feel like 3/5 of the Zen Squad will be either Paladins or Fighters, tbh. Zen, Kiki and Mitsuhide could all multiclass into one or the other. The lack of any deity or religion makes it difficult to classify the knight-figures as full Paladins, which is the closest I could think of to Zen's princely natures.

Fighters can easily be knights too, but they tend to focus more on the art of combat and physical prowess. Paladins have a stronger sense of justice, right and wrong, and a desire to uphold goodness, which I feel characterizes Zen very well. He's a prince, and his primary responsibility will always be to his kingdom. Zen has a strong sense of duty but also fairness and rightness, which is why I classed him primarily as a Paladin and not a Fighter.

I mean, "knight in shining armor" heLLO?

Obi - Rogue/Monk

HOOOOOOOO BOY. If you know me at all you know my obsession with the Obiyuki ship (I WILL GO DOWN TO HELL OR UP TO HEAVEN WITH THEM) and Obi as a character particularly.

Obi is obviously a Rogue. For so many reasons. I even rolled up an actual D&D character for a campaign based off of him. That's how much I love him. Obi in the D&D-verse would be amazing.

"A scoundrel who uses stealth and trickery to overcome obstacles and enemies" (DNDBeyond) if that doesn't SCREAM Obi, idk what does. Especially pre-Shirayuki Obi. Before he met the Zen Squad, Obi was the classic rogue. Master of a wide variety of skills, putting those skills to use in mostly illegal or at least illicit activities, prioritizing cunning over brute strength...yeah. I don't really need to go on.

After Obi joins the Squad and becomes an official knight, he's not really a stereotypical rogue anymore in that he has a family, a home, something to protect beyond his own self-interest. He becomes much nobler, more loyal, a true knight. He just happens to be a different sort of knight than most others, putting his skills and cunning to use in a different capacity.

I would also definitely multiclass Obi into Monk because of the martial arts. Obi has extraordinary control over his physical self and can use his body to devastating effect in several ways, which is very Monk-like (sword-flipping handstand AHEM). I debated making Monk primary, but I realized pretty quickly that Rogue fits Obi first way more. The biggest reason against putting Monk first is that Obi doesn't have much of a spiritual connection to his skills, nor did he come from a monastery/academy nor have traditional training. Definitely a Rogue first.

Mitsuhide and Kiki - Fighter/Paladin

Mitsuhide and Kiki's fighting styles are very similar, especially because of their occupation as Zen's aides and guards. "Well-rounded" specialists" is a good way to describe them. They are dedicated knights and skilled warriors for sure.

The only reason I wouldn't make them Paladin-Fighters like Zen is because they have different goals and duties. Their primary goals as Zen's knights is to protect him. They don't have the same responsibility of running a kingdom and navigating politics the way Zen does. Okay, maybe Kiki does somewhat as the heiress of Seiran, but still not in the same capacity as Zen. They have strong senses of justice, etc, but it's just not the same feeling as Zen. I think of Mitsuhide and Kiki as warriors first and diplomats/nobles second, which is why I'd make them Fighter-Paladins.

I'm not gonna go through the whole cast of characters of course, I mainly wanted to describe the Zen Squad. But I'll add a few more here:

Ryuu - Wizard

Ryuu is a NERD™. Yes he's a healer like Shirayuki, but he's always been more prone to scholarly pursuits, staying up until ungodly hours to research something highly specific. He also has a fantastic memory, and of course he's a pharmaceutical prodigy by age 12. The kid's a genius, and he would be very much at home in any library, researching plants, medicines, diseases and cures.

Ryuu is very much a Ravenclaw, and Wizard is the most Ravenclaw, nerdy class there is. Learning magic from books, scholarly knowledge of the arcane, that's what Ryuu would be doing.

I could multiclass him into either Cleric for the healing powers like Shirayuki, or Ranger for the nature connection and knowledge. I mostly see him as just a wizard though, probably specializing in compounds and minerals to create complex magical effects.

Izana - Paladin/Wizard

Our King Izana is hard to classify, man. He's such a complex character but we don't know all that much about how he thinks or works. He might be even harder for me to classify than Shirayuki.

I don't really see Izana fitting any of the D&D classes strongly. He's very much a skilled warrior for sure, like Zen, but he doesn't really fit the Paladin bill in the same way his younger brother does. He's much more mysterious. He's also very very smart, skilled in politics and diplomacy. He's good at manipulating people too and using any means necessary to protect what's close to him. Very much a Slytherin. There's not really any D&D class that deals with the political side of things a whole lot. Charisma and Intelligence yeah, but most of the classes are focused more on fighting style or something else like music/art (Bard).

If I had to choose, I'd probably go Paladin anyway, just because of Izana's relation to Zen and the Paladin's focus on Strength and Charisma. I'd make him an Int-heavy Paladin though, and multiclass him into Wizard because of the strong emphasis on Intelligence and Wisdom.

Izana's tricky man

Raji - Bard

This one's mostly just for fun

Solely because of his violin skills

Also Bards have a reputation for being horny af, and although I feel bad, I think of how he wanted to make Shirayuki his concubine at first just because of her beautiful hair

I know Raji has changed and I think he's a great character who obviously learned from his mistakes

But it's just funny

I love Raji and him being a stereotypical horny Bard who loves his friends is absolutely hilarious

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gregoryandrew1991 · 4 years ago

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What Is A Reiki Practitioner Called

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Reiki Lessons

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#Reiki Les 9 Principes De Liba Ration Creative And Inexpensive Cool Ideas #Reiki Symbol To Manifest De

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thomasroach · 5 years ago

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast appeared first on Fextralife.

Catching up with Larian Studios Founder Sven Vincke and Mike Mearls of Wizards of the Coast and Creative Director of Dungeons & Dragons, we had a few burning questions in mind in the wake of the news that Larian Studios are working on Baldur’s Gate 3. The studio is well known for its Divinity Original Sin series, and we wanted to find out exactly how this whole thing fell into motion. It was Sven Vincke who originally approached Mike Mearls with the interest of developing BG3, but as we found out in this interview, a lot went into this collaboration.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast

We knew fans would be eager to know how previous games would impact Baldur’s Gate 3, whether it would continue the story or use different time frames like their Divinity games. Vincke explained that there have been “several instalments of Baldur’s Gate involving the Forgotten Realm’s lore so you have Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, as well as the tabletop campaigns”, with the newest one called called Descent into Avernus releasing on September 17th. Baldur’s Gate 3 will take place after these events “[meaning] you are going to see plenty of references to things that happened in city in the past” as well as seeing settings from BG1 was based on the Forgotten Realms, along with references to events that happened in the new campaign Descent into Avernus.

Vincke assures that this will be a new story for fans to enjoy, with “several characters from the campaign” so you will see some familiar faces if you’re fan of the series. We had a number of questions pertaining how their experience with Divinity would influence their development with Baldur’s Gate 3 as well further details features, multiplayer and more.

FL: What rule set will you be using?

Vincke: Based on the 5th Edition because we ported all the rules to the computer game and looked at what worked and what didn’t work. There are somethings that don’t work for video games. But there is also the aspect if you’re playing tabletop, the game master and imaginations is a large part of it. There are things that are just not described in the rule set that you could do and we obviously have to make it work inside of the video game, that is something that we have to add on top of it.

FL: Are you planning to add anything that you had done with Divinity to that, or will it be straight Dungeons and Dragons?

Vincke: No, if you are in combat you say “I take the table and I throw it at him” right so that is something that we have to describe in the video game also, that’s an interaction with the environment, things like that you will see we have gone quite far.

Mearls: We don’t have specific rules for all those interactions, its up to the game master to extend those rules.

FL: How linear are you planning on making it?

Vincke: It is similar to the original Baldur’s Gate, and especially in Baldur’s Gate 2 it has a really cool mechanic that I really liked and I referenced a lot throughout Divinity Original Sin to the team where it had earn I think it was 20,000 gold to be able to take a ship, that was the type of freedom that was present there which we offered in DOS and you will see in BG3.

FL: Can you create a save based on the actions based on your actions in the previous games Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2?

Vincke: No, as they are closed chapters.

Will BG3 have multiplayer?

Vincke: From DOS1 to DOS2 you saw a lot of change how we handled multiplayer. So from DOS2 to BG3 you will see an evolution on how we handle it. The party is a very big focus this time, the slogan of the game is “gather your party”. BG2 was very party focused, they had a lot of mechanics for that time, how they handled the party. So expect innovation in that direction. Yes it will have co-operative multiplayer.

We did asked more specifics on the mechanics of parties and how many would in a party but Vincke was not willing to share exact details at this stage.

FL: What engine are you using, is it the same as DOS2?

Vincke: It’s the next generation of our own engine, Dragon Commander was 1.0, DOS1 was 2.0, DOS2 was 3.0 and Definitive Edition was 3.5. Now we are heading to 4.0, a completely new shift, we’ve upgraded the engine, there’s a lot tech that has been developed for quite some time.

FL: In regards to the artstyle of the game is it going to be similar to Divinity or are you guys going in a different direction?

Vincke: You’ve seen the teaser trailer? That sets the tone.

FL: In terms of camera angles, are you going to use the top down isometric view or go with the approach that you had with the definite edition of DOS1?

Vincke:[Laughs]You’ll see.

FL: How long can we expect the game to be in terms of gameplay?

Vincke: I expect players to spends 100 hours, if they go through everything. We’re making it a more a length to what we had in DOS2, its hard to tell until everything is done but I would say approximately 100 hours.

FL: Are you going to keep the traditional D&D classes, will you maintain this or expand upon it?

Vincke: Yes. If you know D&D 5th Edition and start Baldur’s Gate 3, you will know what to do.

FL: Will you be able to take sub-classes like in other D&D games?

Vincke: Yes you will.

FL: Will you have any famous D&D players appear as Easter eggs in the game?

Vincke: No comment.

FL: This is a hugely anticipated sequel, how much pressure is that and how do you deal with that?

Vincke: Well there is obviously a lot of expectations, people have been waiting for this game for a very long time. We try not to think of the pressure, we focus on making a good of a game as we can, our team is very very talented. We have Dungeons & Dragons we have Wizard of the Coast helping us, the collaboration is very close, we also have the funding to do this also without the publisher pressure as we are doing it ourselves. We have all the ingredients to make a really good RPG, we could still fuck it up, but there’s a really big drive and passion within the team to make it really good, more so than what we saw with DOS2. For a lot of the members of our team, their first RPG was Baldur’s Gate. There are a lot of tabletop sessions going on continuously in the offices and the different studios, so there is a lot of drive in this.

This is what we’re trying to do with BG3, the video game is the game master we’re trying to give you as much possibility of doing things just like you would be able to in a tabletop, that’s literally the drive behind what we do.

FL: In Divinity Original Sin you added a Dungeon Master mode, are you going to add something similar to that?

Vincke: No comment.

FL: Are you going to have modding tools?

Vincke: No comment.

FL: What platforms will it be released on?

Vincke: PC and Stadia.

So far PC and Stadia are the only platforms announced for Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian were unable to comment on whether it will be open to further platform in future.

FL: What is your publishing time frame?

Vincke: We have a time frame we’re looking at, we know people have been waiting on this game for sometime, they will probably will wait a bit longer. We need to get it right, we won’t release it if it’s not right. This is a game we want to play ourselves also, so it’s something we’ve been waiting for ourselves for a long time. We are going to try really deliver on it, we’ll see how much time it takes. We announce now because we to want to talk with the community, really understand what they are looking for, match it against our vision of what we’re doing, then together evolve.

FL: Are you going to do an early access?

Vincke: What we are not doing is a Kickstarter. We will announce when the time is right.

FL: How do you guys know that Larian was the right studio?

Mearls: I was involved in the business side of things, once the deal was signed. It was funny because when I first was told “oh we’re working with Larian” I was running many DD campaigns, there was one DD campaign I was running, I asked people at the table if they were to make Baldur’s Gate 3 who would you want to make it? They all answered Larian. So that told me we were on the right track. I remember when we first started working together, started collaborating, it was just a natural thing. On a creative level I think we have very similar attitudes towards roleplaying games whether they be tabletop or digital computer RPG, and I think we also have a similar sense in idea of developing the community. Roleplaying gamers, it’s funny, we each tell our own story but I think like the role of telling our own stories together, that there just a natural sense of community. That’s what happens when you bring people together in a tabletop, or even in a video game, the idea of sharing what you’ve done or playing co-op. So I think its kind of reflected in how we work together, it feels like almost this adventuring party getting together and plotting out the next great D&D story.

One of our first meetings we just laid down a map of the Sword’s Coast in Baldur’s Gate, “what if we went here? What if we went to this location?” It just felt like a natural design jam, it just felt like the D&D team, it didn’t feel like outsiders coming in, it just felt natural. There’s stuff mechanically where we were thinking of making a change to one of classes of the tabletop game, so I sent email over to your side [Larian], Vicke said “oh we have something very similar, we’re already thinking of implementing”. Theres even some part we were working on in terms of the lore, that’s going to be coming back from the game to the sort of core of D&D, that might influence future tabletop stories. It feels very collaborative, if this wasn’t part of my career it would be something I would be dying to know about, it feels like a very natural partnership.

Divinity Original Sin has been spiritual successor of Baldur’s Gate, it has the same agency, you can do so many things in different ways. From talking with both Larian studios and Wizards of the Coast, this seems to be a match made in heaven. Baldur’s Gate 3 appears to be in very good hands, not only taking inspiration from the previous titles, but adding their own uniqueness with their story as they plan together the next great adventure.

If you enjoyed this interview be sure to check out the Baldur’s Gate 3 wiki which will keep you up-to-date with all the latest information as it unfolds.

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Interview with Larian and Wizards of the Coast appeared first on Fextralife.

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personalcoachingcenter · 7 years ago

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BOTH COUNTRIES HAVE ENORMOUS AND VERY POOR POPULATIONS. AND YET BOTH PLAN TO NOT ONLY MEET THE GOALS SET OUT IN THE PARIS AGREEMENT, BUT BEAT THEM. WE'RE ABOUT TO TAKE YOU ON A JOURNEY THROUGH ASIA TO SEE WHY CHINA AND INDIA ARE RACING AHEAD TO EMBRACE NEW TECHNOLOGIES, AND MAKING A KILLING IN THE PROCESS. SURPRISINGLY, OUR JOURNEY TO ASIA BEGINS, OF ALL PLACES, IN BROOKLYN. >> HERE COME THE RED LIGHTS. HERE THEY COME FOR RACE TWO IN THE QUALCOMM CITY E3. ALREADY DRIVERS ARE MIXING IT UP. >> BREAKDOWN ON THE INSIDE. >> THIS IS WHAT SPEED SOUNDS LIKE NOW. WELCOME TO FORMULA E RACING. ALL THE ADRENALINE, ALL THE EXCITEMENT, WITH VERY LITTLE NOISE AND ZERO EMISSIONS. AND IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF ELECTRIC CAR RACING, YOU PROBABLY ALSO HAVEN'T HEARD OF ANAND MAHINDRA, WHOSE TEAM CAME IN SECOND AND THIRD IN THIS RECENT RACE IN BROOKLYN. ♪♪ >> BUT IN INDIA, MAHINDRA IS A HOUSEHOLD NAME. IN A COUNTRY KNOWN FOR POVERTY, SPIRITUALITY, AND SOME OF THE MOST CONGESTED STREETS ON EARTH, HE'S A BILLIONAIRE WHO DRIVES A TINY, CHEAP, ALL ELECTRIC CAR CALLED THE E20. >> SUSTAINABILITY IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO INNOVATIVE DRAMATICALLY. IF YOU LOOK AT LEAPS OF INNOVATION, THEY'VE COME AROUND A SINGLE MOVEMENT OF INNOVATION. >> THE E20 IS THE ONLY ELECTRIC CAR MADE IN INDIA. THIS WOMAN COULDN'T WAIT FOR HER FATHER TO SIGN THE PAPERS AND FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY TO CLIMB IN. THEY THINK IT WAS CRAMPED OR BASIC OR SLOW. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS THE FUTURE. SO DOES MAHINDRA. >> INDIA HAS SUFFERED NOT SIMPLY FROM POVERTY OF INCOME OR WEALTH. HAPPILY, UNDER THIS CURRENT REGIME, THAT IS BEING RECTIFIED. SO YOU'LL SEE A LOT OF VERY AMBITIOUS GOALS BEING SET. >> STARTING WITH THE GOAL OF REPLACING EVERY SINGLE VEHICLE ON INDIA'S ROADS WITH AN ELECTRIC BY THE YEAR 2030. INDIA'S PRIME MINISTER IS BIG ON MOONSHOT GOALS. IN 2015, HE TRAVELED TO CALIFORNIA TO VISIT THE TESLA FACTORY AND MEET THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS ELECTRIC CAR PITCHMAN, ELON MUSK, WHO IS PLANNING TO OPEN A FACTORY IN INDIA. MAHINDRA WELCOMES THE COMPETITION. HE RECENTLY SAID ON TWITTER, "TIME YOU GOT OUT HERE, ELON, YOU DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THE WHOLE MARKET TO MAHINDRA, DO YOU?" >> HE MADE ELECTRIC CARS SEXY. HE MADE THEM DESIRABLE. HE MADE THEM ASPIRATIONAL. THAT IS WHAT WE NEED. THIS SHOULD NOT BE SEEN AS CARS FOR GEEKY TREE HUGGERS ANYMORE. THEY SHOULD BE MAINSTREAM. HE HELPED DO THAT. WE HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT. >> MAHINDRA'S CARS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE NOT DESIGNED TO BE SEXY. HE'S COMPETING ON PRICE AND SCALE. THE CHEAPEST TESLA, THE MODEL 3, CAN TRAVEL THREE TIMES THE DISTANCE THE E20 CAN COVER ON A SINGLE CHARGE. AND IT COSTS TWICE AS MUCH. MAHINDRA BELIEVES THE PRICES WILL DROP FAST. >> THE PRICES ARE PLUMMETING. IT'S CURRENTLY TWO-THIRDS OF THE VALUE OF AN ELECTRIC CAR. WE EXPECT THEM TO GO DOWN TO A THIRD VERY SOON. SO THE TIPPING POINT BETWEEN GASOLINE AND ELECTRIC CARS IS GOING TO BE REACHED SOONER THAN PEOPLE THINK. >> THE RACE TO MAKE BATTERIES THAT LAST LONGER AND COST LESS IS ON. MUSK IS FOCUSING ON QUALITY, WHILE CHOICE MANUFACTURERS ARE FOCUSING ON QUANTITY AND PRICE. MAHINDRA IS HAPPY TO WATCH THIS RACE PLAY OUT. >> NOW, WHEN THESE ELEPHANTS CLASH, IT'S ACTUALLY VERY GOOD FOR US. THE OLD ADAGE WAS, YOU DON'T WANT TO GET IN THE WAY OF ELEPHANTS CLASHING. WE LOVE SEEING ELEPHANTS CLASH, PARTICULARLY WHEN THEY RELATE TO THE SUPPLY OF BATTERIES TO THIS INDUSTRY. >> TO SEE THE IMPACT THAT CHINESE INDUSTRY CAN HAVE ON AN ENERGY MARKET, WE TRAVELED, OF ALL PLACES, TO RURAL INDIA. PEOPLE HERE STILL USE HAND TOOLS AND PRIMITIVE SOURCES OF ENERGY. BUT JUST OVER THE HORIZON, THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE. INDIA PRODUCES ABOUT 8% OF HITS POWER FROM RENEWABLES LIKE WIND AND SOLAR. IT'S ABOUT THE SAME PERCENTAGE AS THE UNITED STATES. BUT INDIA HAS SET AS A NATIONAL PRIORITY THE GOAL OF NEARLY TRIPLING THAT NUMBER IN JUST FIVE YEARS. THESE SOLAR PANELS ARE THE FRUITS OF AMERICAN INVESTMENT. SEVEN YEARS AGO, AN INDIAN EN GOLDMAN SACHS. THEY GAVE HIM MONEY TO GET HIS POWER COMPANY STARTED. NOW IT'S WORTH $2 BILLION. >> WE HAVE FACILITIES ACROSS DIFFERENT PARTS OF RURAL INDIA, 60 PLANTS LIKE THIS. >> HE WENT TO COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL IN NEW YORK. HE SAYS PRESIDENT TRUMP'S BASIC ASSUMPTION THAT GOOD OLD COAL IS A BETTER, CHEAPER SOURCE OF ENERGY THAN SOLAR IS OUT OF DATE. >> RENEWABLE ENERGY IS BECOMING MUCH CHEAPER THAN POLLUTING SOURCES. MAYBE THREE YEARS AGO OR FIVE YEARS AGO IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE CORRECT STATEMENT TO MAKE, WHICH IS THAT CHEAPER SOURCES OF ENERGY ARE MORE POLLUTING. BUT TODAY THAT IS NO LONGER THE CASE. >> NEW TECHNOLOGY IS HERE. >> EXACTLY. YOU HAVE SOLAR AND WIND NOW THAT IS FAR CHEAPER THAN ANY COAL-BASED SOURCE OF POWER. >> HE'S NO ECOWARRIOR. HE AND HIS INVESTORS WERE INITIALLY DRAWN IN BY SUBSIDIES OFFERED BY THE GOVERNMENT. THE IDEA WAS, IF YOU SUBSIDIZE IT, THEY WILL COME. AND THIS FIELD OF MIRRORS IS PROOF THAT IT WORKED. NOW, MARKET FORCES ARE DOING THE REST. >> THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT HAS HAPPENED IS THAT THE PANELS THEMSELVES HAVE BECOME CHEAPER. THEY'VE COME DOWN TO A THIRD OF WHAT THEY COST JUST THREE YEARS AGO. >> WITH EACH GENERATION OF SOLAR PANELS GETTING BETTER AND CHEAPER, CREATING A CYCLE IN WHICH DEMAND AND SUPPLY ARE BOTH GROWING RAPIDLY. WE DECIDED TO NEXT HEAD TO THE ENGINE THAT POWERS THAT CYCLE. CHINA. THIS IS THE FACTORY WHERE THE PANELS WE SAW IN INDIA ARE PRODUCED. THE SPEED WITH WHICH FACTORIES LIKE THIS ONE HAVE POPPED UP IS ASTONISHING. >> CHINA NOW IS THE LARGEST BUILDER OF WIND FARMS AND SOLAR FARMS AROUND THE WORLD, BY FAR. THEY'RE BUILDING AT LEAST TWICE AS FAST AS THE UNITED STATES. THEY'VE REALLY TAKEN OVER THE WORLD IN TERMS OF SOLAR CAPACITY AND SOLAR MANUFACTURING. YOU KNOW, 66% OR SO OF THE SOLAR PANELS THAT ARE SOLD AROUND THE WORLD NOW ARE FROM CHINA OR TAIWAN. >> ALVIN LIN IS WITH THE NATURAL RESOURCE DEFENSE COUNCIL. HE SAYS THAT CHINA, WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST POLLUTING AND POLLUTED NATIONS ON EARTH, CHANGED COURSE A DECADE AGO AND IS NOW RACING TO BECOME A GREEN POWERHOUSE. IS IT BECAUSE THEY TRIED THE OTHER EXPERIENCE, CHOKED ON THE BAD AIR, AND DECIDED THEY CAN'T DO THAT ANYMORE? OR IS IT A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, OR BOTH? >> IT'S BOTH. IT'S BOTH. YOU KNOW, CHINA HAS ALWAYS BEEN USING A LOT OF COAL BECAUSE IT HAS A LOT OF COAL. BUT BACK IN 2006, THEY PASSED THE RENEWABLE ENERGY LAW. SO THAT FOR THE FIRST TIME REALLY SET OUT THESE TARGETS, THIS PLAN TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF WIND AND SOLAR. >> CHINA SPENT $102 BILLION ON RENEWABLE ENERGY IN 2015. THAT'S MORE THAN TWICE WHAT THE U.S. SPENT. AND WHILE PRESIDENT TRUMP TALKS ABOUT BRINGING BACK JOBS IN COAL, CHINA PLANS TO SPEND EVEN MORE ON RENEWABLE ENERGIES OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS, AND CREATE 13 MILLION JOBS IN THE PROCESS. AHEAD, TAKE THE LEADERSHIP. THAT'S HOW YOU CREATE JOBS. THAT'S ALL CHINA'S DOING, RIGHT? I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL WE'RE DOING. >> CHRIS DEANGELIS IS AN AMERICAN LAWYER WHO WORKS WITH LARGE TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES IN BEIJING. HE SAYS WHILE AMERICANS ARGUE ABOUT THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE, THE CHINESE ARE RACING AHEAD. >> WHETHER OR NOT YOU BELIEVE IT, THIS IS WHERE THE WORLD IS GOING, RIGHT? YOU TAKE A VERY SORT OF BUSINESS FOCUS ON IT. THEY SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING. THE WHOLE WORLD IS GOING DOWN THIS PATH, OTHER THAN THE U.S. RIGHT NOW, RIGHT? AND IT'S AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THEM TO LEAD. IT'S AN OPPORTUNITY TO GENERATE JOBS. SO THEY'RE KILLING IT RIGHT NOW. >> AND IT DOESN'T STOP AT SOLAR PANELS. REMEMBER THAT RACE TO BUILD BETTER AND CHEAPER BATTERIES TO POWER ELECTRONIC CARS? CHINESE FACTORIES LIKE THIS ONE ARE RAMPING UP PRODUCTION SO QUICKLY THAT THEY WILL BE MAKING ENOUGH BATTERIES HERE TO POWER 1.5 MILLION TESLA CARS A YEAR. FOR ALL OF MUSK'S ENERGY AND INNOVATION, HE CAN'T COMPETE WITH CHINA ON HIS OWN. >> CHINA'S ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES ARE WAY AHEAD OF THE U.S. THEIR MANDATE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY FAR EXCEEDS THE U.S. SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT CHINA IS EITHER DRAGGING THEIR FEET OR SOMEHOW BEHIND THE U.S. IN TERMS OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PROMOTION. BUT THEY'RE BY FAR THE MOST AGGRESSIVE ON EARTH. >> EVERYONE SAYS TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, BE CREATIVE, BE AN THE FACT IS IN MANY WAYS CHINA ALMOST USES TECHNOLOGY AS A COMMODITY NOW. THEY'RE LIKE, WE CAN BUY IT, WE HAVE TONS OF PEOPLE, WE CAN MAKE IT. >> AND NOT ONLY IN CHINA. WHEN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES DECIDED TO SWITCH ITS BUS FLEET TO ALL ELECTRIC, A NEW FACTORY QUICKLY OPENED UP IN THE MOHAVE DESERT. IT'S BACKED BY WARREN BUFFETT BUT OWNED BY A CHINESE COMPANY. THE FIRST BUSES ARE ALREADY ON THE ROAD IN LANCASTER, CALIFORNIA. ANOTHER WIN FOR THE CHINESE WAY OF DOING RENERENEWABLES. BACK IN HIS OFFICE IN BEIJING, DEANGELIS SAYS AMERICAN COMPANIES WERE INHERENTLY THE UNDERDOGS IN THIS RACE. >> WE DO HAVE AMAZING POCKETS OF TECHNOLOGY ALL OVER THE U.S. BUT IT'S EVERYBODY ON THEIR OWN, VERSUS CHINA, WHICH IS THE ENTIRE COUNTRY THAT'S LIKE ON THE SAME MISSION. >> DEANGELIS HAS LIVED IN CHINA FOR THE PAST 13 YEARS. HE HAS SEEN HOW QUICKLY THIS AN GENERATE COUNTRY IS CHANGING ITS WAYS. WHAT HE CAN'T UNDERSTAND IS WHY OUR PRESIDENT CAN'T DO THE SAME. >> ALL HE DOES IS TALK ABOUT, HE'S GOING TO GET COAL JOBS. IT'S AN OLD WORLD HE'S FIGHTING FOR. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. THE FUTURE IS MOVING ON. THE U.S. NEEDS TO ACCEPT THAT, RIGHT? >> IS THE U.S. GOING TO MISS THE NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION HERE? >> THE U.S. IS STILL LEADING THE WORLD ACROSS ALMOST EVERY TECHNOLOGY FROM A PURE TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE. THE QUESTION REALLY IS, DOES THAT MATTER. >> CRITICS WOULD SAY, AH, WE'VE HEARD ALL THIS BEFORE, THE CHINESE WERE GOING TO BE EATING OUR LUNCH, DIDN'T HAPPEN. WHY IS NOW ANY DIFFERENT? >> BECAUSE NOW IS, WHAT YOU'RE STARTING TO SEE, I THINK, THE RESULT OF 30, 40 YEARS OF PLANNING OF AN ENTIRE NATION ALIGNED ON ONE GOAL, THAT AGAIN, IT'S NOT LIKE THEY'RE SAYING, OH, IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. THEY'VE BEEN PLANNING THIS FOR YEARS. THEIR EDUCATION SYSTEM, THEIR SUPPLY CHANNELS, EVERYTHING. IT'S MOVING UP THROUGH THE SYSTEM. >> AND THEY WERE WAITING FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY? >> YEAH. I MEAN, THIS IS, YOU KNOW, A 100-YEAR PLAN, RIGHT? >> WAS TRUMP A GIFT TO CHINA? >> I THINK SO. I WOULD BE PRETTY HAPPY IF I WAS CHINA. >> THERE WAS AT LEAST ONE PERSON HERE IN BEIJING WHO WAS NOT HAPPY WHEN THE PRESIDENT DROPPED OUT OF THE PARIS AGREEMENT. HE WAS THAT SENIOR AMERICAN DIPLOMAT WE TOLD YOU ABOUT. AND HE TOLD ME THAT FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HIS CAREER AND A POLICY HE COULD NOT ACCEPT, HIS FAITH LED HIM TO THE ANSWER. >> I'M A CHRISTIAN. I'M NOT A THEOLOGIAN. IF WE'RE STEWARDS OF CREATION, CHARGED WITH TAKING CARE OF THIS EARTH, THAT MEANS DOING THINGS TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN. >> THAT STORY, STILL TO COME. BUT FIRST, THE PRESIDENT SINGLED OUT ONE AMERICAN CITY IN HIS SPEECH, SAYING HE WAS ELECTED TO REPRESENT PITTSBURGH, NOT PARIS. TURNS OUT NOT EVERYONE IN PITTSBURGH WAS HAPPY ABOUT THAT.

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lightningwolf66 · 8 years ago

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How To Target Your Online Marketing To Reach The Right Customers With The Right Offer

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How To Target Your Online Marketing To Reach The Right Customers With The Right Offer

If you’ve been involved in marketing during the past decade, you’ve probably noticed that things are a bit different since this whole ‘online’ thing got underway.

While being online has starting to become an ‘ordinary’ part of many people’s day-to-day lives, the experience of being online is very different from any other type of popular media.

Those of us over the age of twenty clearly remember a world without the ‘Internet’. Back in those olden days most media consisted of marketing channels to which the majority of the population flocked. In exchange for giving people access to this content, advertisers were given access to the people who came to visit. They tossed their messages in front of us as we wandered around hoping that something would catch our eye. Sometimes it did. Mostly it didn’t.

Because these mass marketing models were based on ‘quantity’ and not ‘quality’ of consumers, there was an up-front expectation that there would be a tremendous amount of waste. Advertisers understood that even if they were targeting the very best demographic group for an offer the vast majority wouldn’t even see or respond to the marketing offer.

For marketers, it was the safety in numbers advertising approach that kept them going.

This approach also trained us, as consumers, to understand that our direct involvement in the marketing process wasn’t really necessary. The TV commercials would continue to run whether we watched them or not; the print ads would stay right where they were printed even if we didn’t open the magazine or newspaper; the ad on the side of the bus would keep moving down Main Street would keep going even if we ignored it.

But the arrival of the online world started to change things and pretty dramatically. Consumers now have millions of “channels” to choose from and advertisers have fewer places where they will reach mass markets. In fact, the very structure of the Internet means that consumers don’t even need to look at or interact with advertising anymore…unless they really want to.

Culturally we’ve developed a number of ways to share information with one another. We’ve also learned how to customize messages so that they reach specific people. We never pick up the phone and think ‘Okay, I need to talk to every person on Earth. What’s the number?’ We don’t send an email to everybody in the company every time we have a thought to share with Sandy in accounting.

When we start any new marketing campaign we need to first think about who the campaign is trying to reach. What is the ultimate goal? What is the campaign saying? What obstacles can get in the way of the right consumer receiving the message? What should the consumer do to take advantage of the offer?

In the past mass marketing has represented the ultimate delivery mechanism for advertising messages but paints the audience with such a broad brush that its goal of reaching the right people can’t be efficiently kept. To be truly effective, a delivery system has to reach the greatest number of individual consumers who can take action on the message being sent.

The bottom line is that a message that reaches 1,000,000 of the wrong people isn’t more effective than a message that reaches a single right person.

The ultimate goal of effective advertising is to maximize effectiveness while reducing waste. Correctly targeting a campaign means first identifying who the best people to receive a particular offer are and how to go about identifying where they are.

When we target online audiences that are three primary areas of exploration:

1. Contextual targeting 2. Database targeting 3. Behavioral targeting

Let’s take a closer look at the differences between these three areas.

Contextual Targeting

The simple definition for contextual targeting is the placement of messages where the people most likely to be interested are most likely to see it. Contextual targeting is perhaps the oldest type of targeted marketing. For years, trade magazines, area newspapers, local television stations and local radio stations have served as channels for contextual marketing campaigns.

Because each channel caters to a specific range of the population either based on topic interest or region, advertising using contextual targeting has generally meant reaching an audience that has already been ‘filtered’ down to a common interest or locale.

In online marketing, contextual marketing works in a similar way. Many web sites focus on, or have sections that focus on a single or limited range of topics. Like trade publications, these sites attract a self-selected audience who share a common interest whether its butterfly collecting, paintball battlefield strategies or exploring the validity of UFO sightings. For advertisers looking to communicate with these specific groups, good targeting is as easy as placing topically relevant ads on those pages.

Demographic Targeting

Demography covers a broad range of ways a population can be sliced up to define certain segments. A few of the more traditional segments include:

Age/ Lifecycle Gender Race/Ethnicity Socioeconomic status Location of residence Religion Nationality Occupation Education level Family size Marital status Ownership (of home, boat, car, etc.) Language

While many of these characteristics can effectively narrow a population down into an audience, traditional demography often offers just a generalized benchmark of behavior.

For example, I currently live in a fairly rural part of the country. While I share a number of demographic characteristics with other people within my particular zip code (middle aged, white, own my own home, went to college, married, speak English, or a variant thereof) those benchmarks do a lousy job at identifying us as a whole or me as an individual. My little town runs the gamut of religious and spiritual beliefs, political leanings, socioeconomic levels, education and what’s considered a fun way to spend a Saturday evening. In short, we share very few characteristics as a population apart from our choice to live in the same part of the country.

For marketers trying to reach ‘us’ based solely on where we live, the results of any geographically targeted campaign are going to be just about as untargeted as you can get.

To reach a more refined group of people based on attributes that aren’t as generalized as most demographic groups, marketers need to find ways to measure ‘who’ consumers are instead of ‘what’ they are.

Here are a few more recent targeting approaches that marketers are using to reach highly refined audiences.

Psychographic Targeting

For marketers to effectively target any audience they need to have a clear understanding of the personal interests that the target audience shares. Social scientists categorize this segmentation as the study of psychographics. Psychographics are commonly defined as individual attributes directly relating to personality, values, interests or lifestyles. There are sometimes referred to as IOA variables or characteristics (for Interests, Attitudes and Opinions). Psychographics often target the most personal parts of who we are.

We belong to multiple psychographic ‘groups’ based on our interests as individuals. Our relationship with each group ranges from little involvement to whole involvement. For example, I may take my bicycle out for a short spin on a warm summer day. This action classifies me as a bicyclist and helps me to identify with other people who enjoy riding bicycles. However, my involvement in this group is very different from the guy who’s training for an upcoming Tour de France and spends 6 hours a day on his bicycle. My identity with bicycling is one of enjoyable weekend pastime while for the guy in training it’s almost on par with being a lifestyle. If given the opportunity to purchase bicycling paraphernalia I’m going to have a different perspective as to its value and necessity than he will.

Marketers looking to reach a thin-sliced audience need to understand common shared traits and how individuals in these groups ‘weigh’ their interests in these areas. Whether targeting deer hunters, urban dwellers, backgammon players, people of Scotch-Irish descent, unicyclists or guys who mow their lawns on Saturday morning, the value of each psychographic slice is going to depend on how the people in these segments define themselves.

Technographic Targeting

Online targeting is often restricted by technological limitations that prevent marketers from reaching consumers. For marketers to effectively reach consumers it’s often necessary to know where potential obstacles or bottlenecks exist.

Technographic targeting focuses on identifying the technological foundations that consumers are using to connect with the Web. This includes things like computer CPU speeds, Internet connection speeds, Operating Systems, browser types, browser versions, and drivers or extra software availability.

A common example of technographic targeting is measuring the online bandwidth capabilities of a visitor to a web site. For example, if, as a marketer, I wished to send a video based ad to my target audience I’m going to want to know if they can receive the ad. While broadband adoption over recent years has made this task easier, there are still millions of people worldwide who are using dial-up modems to get online. Without knowing how my target audience accesses the web, I run the risk of wasting impressions by sending ad content to people who can’t receive it.

On the other hand, by measuring the connect speed of my target audience, I can then sort that audience out into sub-groups and provide separate ad units for each group.

Technographic measuring can also tell marketers a lot about a potential customer. A high-tech company looking to introduce a new cutting edge product can effectively target prospects by measuring the operating system on the recipient’s computer. Prospects running the most recent versions of Windows or the Macintosh OS might be classified as being technologically savvy while prospects still running Windows 98 on a 7 year old PC are probably not good candidates for marketers looking to reach ‘early adopters’.

Centrographic Targeting

While geographical targeting is generally considered part of standard demography there are a few variations that fall outside of the basic geographic targeting realm. Whereas most geographic targeting focuses on regions and areas of the country and world based on their proximately to one another, centrographic targeting focuses more on population characteristics that can be associated with specific regions.

For example, every winter across the Northern United States there is a need for snow removal services. There is also a need for services like heating system maintenance, fuel delivery and sales of things like ice scrapers and snow tires. Meanwhile, in the Southwestern United States the need for these services or products each winter is very limited or non-existent. On the other hand, the hot summers in the Southwest requires air conditioning and home cooling services that are not always necessary in the North.

Centrographic targeting can also identify and isolate differences between population groups. For example, people living in a city like New York are going to have a different perceived need for products and services than people living a few hours north in rural New York might. Even staying within the boroughs of New York, the cultural diversity of different ethnic groups alone makes for dozens of unique regional markets.

Significant differences can also exist among cultural groups that share a similar language and history, or current geography. For example, Hispanic populations living in Southern California and those living in Southern Florida may share common cultural histories and ancestry but represent very unique markets based on unique regional characteristics.

While reaching those audiences requires a new layer of understanding on the parts of marketers, if used correctly the ability to reach more of the right consumers with any marketing offer is also going to result in greater effectiveness and much less waste.

Rob Graham – LearningCraft, LLC. October 1, 2007

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zuranimukherjeenudexn · 8 years ago