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**This post is unsanctioned by the devs (so if I am out of line feel free to put stop it, or if you agree feel free to bless it)**
What I see when I look at VO is an amazing game that has been developed bootstrap style by some passionate developers with a seriously dedicated community. I mean seriously, this community is so dedicated you get intense debates over... ice...
What I also see is a game that has yet to really pick up steam, and as a result it hasn't yet reached its full potential.
So I ask myself, what can we do to help this game pick up steam? Whine about ice and constantly suggest new ships and new weapons... tell the devs how to run their business and change their game... complain constantly about features that haven't yet been implimented...? No, I don't think that will help one bit.
What we can do though is help this game pick up steam so the devs can do what they do best: Develop.
How do we, the rabid fans of Vendetta Online help our beloved game pick up steam? Simple: We tell people about it. We recruit more players, we blog about VO, talk about it on our facebook pages, write about it in the other forums we visit, get the game featured on popular gaming websites... stumble it, digg it, mixx it, tweet it... anything you can think of to spread the word and bring in more players.
VO has a dedicated adoring community, and all of us probably have different circles we can promote the game to. Spend what energies you have building up the player base of VO and you will genuinely be helping this game grow.
More players= More money= More time and resources that can go into development.
Getting the game developed faster is probably going to be incentive enough for most of us dedicated fans. Though incentivizing it further by some ingame perks (monies, exps, etc...) might be beneficial to motivate the new players even more to spread the word about this game.
I think, with the community we have here, some great things could be accomplished by way of promoting Vendetta Online to those in the great Greyspace outside these forums. So if you have an idea about how you can help Vendetta Online build up steam, post it here and go do it and actually do something to help this amazing game achieve its full potential.
What I see when I look at VO is an amazing game that has been developed bootstrap style by some passionate developers with a seriously dedicated community. I mean seriously, this community is so dedicated you get intense debates over... ice...
What I also see is a game that has yet to really pick up steam, and as a result it hasn't yet reached its full potential.
So I ask myself, what can we do to help this game pick up steam? Whine about ice and constantly suggest new ships and new weapons... tell the devs how to run their business and change their game... complain constantly about features that haven't yet been implimented...? No, I don't think that will help one bit.
What we can do though is help this game pick up steam so the devs can do what they do best: Develop.
How do we, the rabid fans of Vendetta Online help our beloved game pick up steam? Simple: We tell people about it. We recruit more players, we blog about VO, talk about it on our facebook pages, write about it in the other forums we visit, get the game featured on popular gaming websites... stumble it, digg it, mixx it, tweet it... anything you can think of to spread the word and bring in more players.
VO has a dedicated adoring community, and all of us probably have different circles we can promote the game to. Spend what energies you have building up the player base of VO and you will genuinely be helping this game grow.
More players= More money= More time and resources that can go into development.
Getting the game developed faster is probably going to be incentive enough for most of us dedicated fans. Though incentivizing it further by some ingame perks (monies, exps, etc...) might be beneficial to motivate the new players even more to spread the word about this game.
I think, with the community we have here, some great things could be accomplished by way of promoting Vendetta Online to those in the great Greyspace outside these forums. So if you have an idea about how you can help Vendetta Online build up steam, post it here and go do it and actually do something to help this amazing game achieve its full potential.
Talking up an unpolished, no-content game=loss of credibility and no more money for VO
Try again.
Try again.
Lecter, you have incredibly constructive responses. Thank you for those pearls of wisdom.
What I suggest is instead of bitching, you let the devs Develop and use that pent up emotion you've got there to help bring in more money so that they can.
What I suggest is instead of bitching, you let the devs Develop and use that pent up emotion you've got there to help bring in more money so that they can.
How about I let the Devs do their thing AND decide when the game is ready to be something more than a $10/month Beta, hmmm?
Brawny, what you say is all well and good, and has been proposed on the forums many, many times. The developers of the game are not fools; when they want to advertise they shall do so.
Right now, it's best to think of VO as a kind of "open-beta". Even though it is pay-for-play, it's not ready for thousands of players. Like the Doc said, they need content and to fix a few more things before they go for it.
You're not alone in wishing they would "just go for it already." Many of us have been wishing for that since 2004 when we joined.
The content is happenning... slowly. There are some major gameplay issues that need to be resolved first, like faction fixes and getting a real galactic economy on its feet. Then the only issue is scalability. It'll all work out, eventually.
Right now, it's best to think of VO as a kind of "open-beta". Even though it is pay-for-play, it's not ready for thousands of players. Like the Doc said, they need content and to fix a few more things before they go for it.
You're not alone in wishing they would "just go for it already." Many of us have been wishing for that since 2004 when we joined.
The content is happenning... slowly. There are some major gameplay issues that need to be resolved first, like faction fixes and getting a real galactic economy on its feet. Then the only issue is scalability. It'll all work out, eventually.
Actually, Leber, I think the main excuse given for not advertising is cash flow. That doesn't make it such a free choice for the devs.
Honestly, when I saw this thread's title I thought it was a suggestion to put VO on game portals, like Steam, and was about to reply with a boilerplate "hey, there's a forum for this, guy". Then I read the post. Moral of the story: reading posts takes too much effort to be worthwhile.
As to the actual content of the post, I can only reiterate what Lecter and Leber say. Lecter's a troll, sure, but his first post in this thread is perfectly valid - the game's not in a particularly polished state right now, and there's not a lot of content currently implemented. It's in a sort of uncomfortable transition period between SpaceQuake and MMORPGWithLazers.
The presence of the PCC is helpful in terms of contributing content - Phaserlight's Triangle Trade series is one of the most notable examples, but there are quite a few missions in the game right now that were written by players, and many more in the process of being written. (Hi CrazySpence!) The other issue, though, the polish, is entirely in the devs' capable hands. We're approaching a major turning point in VO, what with the upcoming faction and economy reduxes. At this point, it would be a bad idea to run a major advertising campaign and bring a mothload of newbies into the game, only have the entirety of the infrastructure shift underneath their feet just as they're getting acclimated to the current one.
Incarnate has stated in the past, I'm fairly certain (someone with more forum-fu than me look this up), that there will be a marketing campaign that coincides with the launch of Vendetta Online 2.0. Until then, while you should feel free to tell your friends about it and recommend they give it a shot, launching a full-on viral campaign across the Webosphere is probably not the best idea.
Your enthusiasm is nice to see, and I'm glad you're so passionate about the game :) But it would be prudent to wait until the game's in a slightly more newbie-friendly state before exerting that level of effort in bringing floods of new players in.
As to the actual content of the post, I can only reiterate what Lecter and Leber say. Lecter's a troll, sure, but his first post in this thread is perfectly valid - the game's not in a particularly polished state right now, and there's not a lot of content currently implemented. It's in a sort of uncomfortable transition period between SpaceQuake and MMORPGWithLazers.
The presence of the PCC is helpful in terms of contributing content - Phaserlight's Triangle Trade series is one of the most notable examples, but there are quite a few missions in the game right now that were written by players, and many more in the process of being written. (Hi CrazySpence!) The other issue, though, the polish, is entirely in the devs' capable hands. We're approaching a major turning point in VO, what with the upcoming faction and economy reduxes. At this point, it would be a bad idea to run a major advertising campaign and bring a mothload of newbies into the game, only have the entirety of the infrastructure shift underneath their feet just as they're getting acclimated to the current one.
Incarnate has stated in the past, I'm fairly certain (someone with more forum-fu than me look this up), that there will be a marketing campaign that coincides with the launch of Vendetta Online 2.0. Until then, while you should feel free to tell your friends about it and recommend they give it a shot, launching a full-on viral campaign across the Webosphere is probably not the best idea.
Your enthusiasm is nice to see, and I'm glad you're so passionate about the game :) But it would be prudent to wait until the game's in a slightly more newbie-friendly state before exerting that level of effort in bringing floods of new players in.
The game lacks content but this year has put more things into the game than any of the years before it so the time when people who join VO will actually stay is coming but it isnt here yet.
Content is a bitch to make, it took 9 months to get 4 missions out and it has been 6 months for another 10 I'm working on right now that continue that story and I still have double that to go before my entire story arc is complete so you won't see me jump on the "make content now" whining wagon because I know it takes for fucking ever to get it to a state where its actually playable by the average joe and i'm just using an easy mission editor and not API's and 3d modelers...
anyways to the point. The devs will do their little campaigns here and there and when they're ready they'll go bigger.
Content is a bitch to make, it took 9 months to get 4 missions out and it has been 6 months for another 10 I'm working on right now that continue that story and I still have double that to go before my entire story arc is complete so you won't see me jump on the "make content now" whining wagon because I know it takes for fucking ever to get it to a state where its actually playable by the average joe and i'm just using an easy mission editor and not API's and 3d modelers...
anyways to the point. The devs will do their little campaigns here and there and when they're ready they'll go bigger.
That's cool, I'm sure the devs will promote the game nicely once 2.0 comes out. I just figured with their most recent 14 day trial key push, that perhaps there were some better ways they could promote it and implement it and the community could help out. It's annoying to see how many people complain, and how few actually do a little to help out is all.
And I'm sure VO isn't going to go anywhere, after 10 years of development it's not going to disappear any time soon.
I'll have to find your missions Spence, they sound fun.
And I'm sure VO isn't going to go anywhere, after 10 years of development it's not going to disappear any time soon.
I'll have to find your missions Spence, they sound fun.
go to an Itani barracks station and look for a mission about joining the jallik defense force.
That's the intro tree.
I'd like to say the rest is coming soon but I wont lie. It'll be some time before the rest of the story comes out.
That's the intro tree.
I'd like to say the rest is coming soon but I wont lie. It'll be some time before the rest of the story comes out.
I concur with the Doc and LeberMac.
I think that while VO has come a long way from the 2002-2004 testing days, it still has awhile to go before it's ready to support a community of 1000+ active players.
Presently, as odd as it sounds, VO already does what you're suggesting as well. Because there is almost no advertising being done by Guild Software, the community has become somewhat self-sustaining. That's why you see couples, and friends playing together so often.
I think your suggestion is a good idea, the problem is that it's already being done. The next phase, logically, would be as LeberMac said, which is when the Dev's decide it's right, to open major advertising.
I think that while VO has come a long way from the 2002-2004 testing days, it still has awhile to go before it's ready to support a community of 1000+ active players.
Presently, as odd as it sounds, VO already does what you're suggesting as well. Because there is almost no advertising being done by Guild Software, the community has become somewhat self-sustaining. That's why you see couples, and friends playing together so often.
I think your suggestion is a good idea, the problem is that it's already being done. The next phase, logically, would be as LeberMac said, which is when the Dev's decide it's right, to open major advertising.
Well, I think his idea is decent. We do advertise, we have google ads and occasional banners and things, but we just can't afford "real" advertising (the $30k-$100k per month that EVE drops, for instance). We try to do everything we can with "free" options, like promos and things.
I have mixed feelings about the whole "game unpolished" arguement, these days. It's true, I know, but the game is a hell of a lot more polished to new people than it was last year. We actually have training sectors and stuff now, and a bit more streamlined tutorials (if still flawed in some ways). There's still a lot to be done, even aside from real gameplay changes.. things like a new mission interface would go a hell of a long way. But, we could also really use some exposure, so if people want to talk about us, or whatever, I'm ok with that. If some of those new people say "well, this game isn't there yet, but it changes frequently, so I'll stay on their mailing list".. that's cool.
I'm a perfectionist (hard as that may be to believe, sometimes), so I never want to show off something that isn't utterly polished. Game development "reality" has kind of beaten that part of me into the ground, but it's still there. That being said, I don't want to wait "forever" for the Next Big Thing (or set of Things) that'll finally make the game "polished". I do believe in the concept of "there's only once chance to make a good impression" and all that, I'm just freakin' tired, we've been saying that crap for years. I have to work really hard to get any exposure, these days, and a big chunk of what we do get is due to players like MiexonBionic. Part of this RSS/Atom feed thing recently was to try and wire in Facebook and stuff (I've set up a VO facebook page, but it isn't public yet) and try to draw on as much free/social stuff as we can.
So, I guess, we could use the marketing help if people are willing to give it (ie, if you think the game is worth mentioning to people; if not, and you'd rather "wait", then that's cool.. it's a personal choice). There are also banners for anyone who wants to do the traditional thing. For our part, we are working on things like "Buddy Keys" that subscribers get automatically (only usable for new people) and so on, but our resources have been kinda limited for the last couple of months.. so.. we're juggling what we have the best that we can.
I have mixed feelings about the whole "game unpolished" arguement, these days. It's true, I know, but the game is a hell of a lot more polished to new people than it was last year. We actually have training sectors and stuff now, and a bit more streamlined tutorials (if still flawed in some ways). There's still a lot to be done, even aside from real gameplay changes.. things like a new mission interface would go a hell of a long way. But, we could also really use some exposure, so if people want to talk about us, or whatever, I'm ok with that. If some of those new people say "well, this game isn't there yet, but it changes frequently, so I'll stay on their mailing list".. that's cool.
I'm a perfectionist (hard as that may be to believe, sometimes), so I never want to show off something that isn't utterly polished. Game development "reality" has kind of beaten that part of me into the ground, but it's still there. That being said, I don't want to wait "forever" for the Next Big Thing (or set of Things) that'll finally make the game "polished". I do believe in the concept of "there's only once chance to make a good impression" and all that, I'm just freakin' tired, we've been saying that crap for years. I have to work really hard to get any exposure, these days, and a big chunk of what we do get is due to players like MiexonBionic. Part of this RSS/Atom feed thing recently was to try and wire in Facebook and stuff (I've set up a VO facebook page, but it isn't public yet) and try to draw on as much free/social stuff as we can.
So, I guess, we could use the marketing help if people are willing to give it (ie, if you think the game is worth mentioning to people; if not, and you'd rather "wait", then that's cool.. it's a personal choice). There are also banners for anyone who wants to do the traditional thing. For our part, we are working on things like "Buddy Keys" that subscribers get automatically (only usable for new people) and so on, but our resources have been kinda limited for the last couple of months.. so.. we're juggling what we have the best that we can.
I heard about this great new thing called "Twitter" and...
Cool, it's good to know I wasn't entirely off base about this. I figured after a decade of working on this game perhaps some of the original spirit might have been beaten out of you all! This is where we as a community could help.
There's multiple free ways you could/should go to promote this game and the community can assist:
1.) Twitter is a growing and very useful platform for talking with your fans and getting new ones. Join up, follow gamers and those who are talking about Eve Online or Escape Velocity or Mac Games and stuff. Start tweeting about your updates and what you guys are working on, short little blurbs here and there to keep people interested. Have conversations with fans, offer promotions to your followers, and expand your realm of influence in that direction.
I see you have a twitter account already with 116 followers, so next step is to start following some people. Go to search.twitter.com and find people mentioning the above topics or anything related to your field. Twitter is give and take, the more you talk and be social on it, the more results you will see. Talk with the ones that have 1000's of followers a little as that gets their followers to follow you. Great job on sending out promotions via twitter, but at the moment you're only sending out to 116 people. You need to have A LOT more people.
What we can do: Everybody who has a twitter account can help:
a) follow Vendetta Online at http://twitter.com/vendettaonline
b) tweet about vendetta online, add links to the web page and screenshots, tell your friends to follow VO on twitter for updates and special offers
That's simple enough to implement and do without too much effort.
2.) The other way you can get some quick exposure is to put together some cool in game videos (2-3 minutes each) and release them on youtube. However, the key here is to put a link to your site in the video itself, put one in the first line of the description (it's automatically clickable), and use the Title of the video to your advantage.
Include in the Title and description of your videos terms that are highly searched like "Space MMORPG" "Escape Velocity in 3D" "online space game" "space shooter game" "space trading game" and these kinds of things. Play around here for ideas on keywords: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Youtube videos get almost instant front page rankings in Google for their title if you choose them right, and often they get a thumbnail associated with it as well which will get lots of traffic to your site. They are awesome to get thousands of visitors very quickly.
What we can do:
a)Favorite and rate those videos and comment on them and twitter them(!!)
b) make our own in game videos and post them on youtube and mention them here so we can all vote on them and rate them up so they appear to more users.
This step takes a little more work, but it reaches a lot more people in your target demographic very very quickly: kids who have plenty of free time.
That's just a couple ideas for free ways you could expand the promotion of the game and the VO community could help.
There's multiple free ways you could/should go to promote this game and the community can assist:
1.) Twitter is a growing and very useful platform for talking with your fans and getting new ones. Join up, follow gamers and those who are talking about Eve Online or Escape Velocity or Mac Games and stuff. Start tweeting about your updates and what you guys are working on, short little blurbs here and there to keep people interested. Have conversations with fans, offer promotions to your followers, and expand your realm of influence in that direction.
I see you have a twitter account already with 116 followers, so next step is to start following some people. Go to search.twitter.com and find people mentioning the above topics or anything related to your field. Twitter is give and take, the more you talk and be social on it, the more results you will see. Talk with the ones that have 1000's of followers a little as that gets their followers to follow you. Great job on sending out promotions via twitter, but at the moment you're only sending out to 116 people. You need to have A LOT more people.
What we can do: Everybody who has a twitter account can help:
a) follow Vendetta Online at http://twitter.com/vendettaonline
b) tweet about vendetta online, add links to the web page and screenshots, tell your friends to follow VO on twitter for updates and special offers
That's simple enough to implement and do without too much effort.
2.) The other way you can get some quick exposure is to put together some cool in game videos (2-3 minutes each) and release them on youtube. However, the key here is to put a link to your site in the video itself, put one in the first line of the description (it's automatically clickable), and use the Title of the video to your advantage.
Include in the Title and description of your videos terms that are highly searched like "Space MMORPG" "Escape Velocity in 3D" "online space game" "space shooter game" "space trading game" and these kinds of things. Play around here for ideas on keywords: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Youtube videos get almost instant front page rankings in Google for their title if you choose them right, and often they get a thumbnail associated with it as well which will get lots of traffic to your site. They are awesome to get thousands of visitors very quickly.
What we can do:
a)Favorite and rate those videos and comment on them and twitter them(!!)
b) make our own in game videos and post them on youtube and mention them here so we can all vote on them and rate them up so they appear to more users.
This step takes a little more work, but it reaches a lot more people in your target demographic very very quickly: kids who have plenty of free time.
That's just a couple ideas for free ways you could expand the promotion of the game and the VO community could help.
Great Idea. Let all the ships and stations and stuff be Steam Powered. With smoke-stacks and such.
Heh, I remember steam engines. Just . I'd be about 12 when the last ones ran in the uk ....
No offense, but I highly doubt that pile of crap twitter will be the savior of VO. I would like to be happily surprised but at the same time twitter = meh.
Anyways, the movie idea is a great one. Perhaps I'll start on that one..
Anyways, the movie idea is a great one. Perhaps I'll start on that one..
I must confess that my post was Twitter mockery. We're kinda Twittered out in my area.
heh, ecka, you probably remember when tourists came to the uk in longboats.
(but who am I to talk. my daughter asked me if my parents' cave-drawings were in color or b&w)
(but who am I to talk. my daughter asked me if my parents' cave-drawings were in color or b&w)
we have facebook? add me! ;) I was actually thinking of making a facebook page for this game y'know ;)