Forums » Suggestions
After the Client Update...
After the client update and all the bugs and problems are worked out i think guild should try and get a few more players in here.
Here are some ideas...
1. Free weekend
You offer a free weekend (either sat sun or fri sat sun) in which people can join and play for free for just the weekend. Probably a small chunk of new people would start playing the game. Problems: Could result in a few people saying negative things about the game if they disliked it.
2. Free week for old players (not age wise)
They give a free week or even a month to former players of the game who are not playing anymore. They send out an email to every subscriber ever and hopefully a nice amount of former players re discover the game and end up subscribing again. Whats good about this is that you already know that most of these people were interested in your game before ang could possibly rejoin the game.. again.
I am sure there are more but what do you think?
Here are some ideas...
1. Free weekend
You offer a free weekend (either sat sun or fri sat sun) in which people can join and play for free for just the weekend. Probably a small chunk of new people would start playing the game. Problems: Could result in a few people saying negative things about the game if they disliked it.
2. Free week for old players (not age wise)
They give a free week or even a month to former players of the game who are not playing anymore. They send out an email to every subscriber ever and hopefully a nice amount of former players re discover the game and end up subscribing again. Whats good about this is that you already know that most of these people were interested in your game before ang could possibly rejoin the game.. again.
I am sure there are more but what do you think?
Well, once it's all ironed-out and Guild software feels comfortable doing so, I'm sure that even the slightest bit of advertising will bring in a good bit of people.
I mean, they got reviews on the Apple website in Dec 2004, just after release, and there was a surge of new people (like me). I bet a combined review/update on a couple of gamer sites along with some well-placed banner ads and Guild would triple membership in a month.
However, they want to KEEP people, not have a bunch of folks show up, play the trial, and then say "There's no one here and no content, although the game is pretty." So I think they're waiting to make sure they can put their best foot forward before they start inviting people in.
It's close. I can feel it.
I mean, they got reviews on the Apple website in Dec 2004, just after release, and there was a surge of new people (like me). I bet a combined review/update on a couple of gamer sites along with some well-placed banner ads and Guild would triple membership in a month.
However, they want to KEEP people, not have a bunch of folks show up, play the trial, and then say "There's no one here and no content, although the game is pretty." So I think they're waiting to make sure they can put their best foot forward before they start inviting people in.
It's close. I can feel it.
I'd say it's "end of the year" close, but yeah, once the Devs feel the game is ready, I'm sure they'll do a pretty bitchin' PR campaign.
i think you need to consider this...
what kind of people do you want playing vendetta?
what kind of people would pay for it?
----
my first answer is 'people who pay for #$($ on credit cards and are too @#$#$ lazy to cancel it'.
that instantly brings to mind the elderly. they are not only too lazy, sometimes they just forget. they can figure out how to sign up (or their grandkids can help them) but they cant figure out how to sign off, nor even to ask a question about how to sign off, or if they do figure out how to ask, it will be a 500 paragraph forum post going back to world war ii, and nobody will answer.
second of all, people who just dont care and have too many credit cards to keep track of. this means recent college grads. they often have so many credit cards they cant keep track of what went where.
this brings to mind another strategy; obscurely naming what your company is. this is important for when forgetful old fuddy duddy or lazy trust fund kid looks at their credit card statement (if they ever do.) if you have something from 'guild software' they might try to remove the account. however, if they have something from 'gas station', or 'grocery store', they will just think 'oh well, ok'. i suggest changing guild software's name to "Wals-Mart", at least on credit card statements.
now last of all, you have the sad sack bleeding hearts who just feel bad and dont want to cancel their support of an indie game company. these morons tend to read sappy 'i hate everthing' crap like The Nation, Mother Earth News, Linux Journal, Organic Gardening, Slashdot, etc. What you need to do to get the bleeding heart dollar is to advertise as a 'liberal, green, fair trade, eco friendly, independent, non corporate' corporation. put a little picture on there of a happy child or a hippy looking woman in a field, with like grains of wheat in their hands or something, smiling at the camera. Youll make sure that 2006 wont be like 1984!
Also start to work payola scams into these magazines; give them free schwag in exchange for positive reviews. Once you become a big time company, start to threaten them if they give bad or mediocre reviews. The same goes for online.
Actually come to think of payola scams, you dont need one to get on slashdot. Do something like declare linux 'no good for game development'. Either that or declare it 'the best OS for game development'. The former will probably get more flamewars going, so that will be more likely to make front page slashdot, since their income is based on 'impressions' which means the more flamewar threads and comments they can get going, the better.
-------------
Building on this 'targeted marketing strategy', you can also branch into other fields and 'communities'. I think you should leak out the fact that 2 or 3 of the guild leaders are gay, then you could even advertise in the back of The Advocate, sort of like Budweiser does. They are 'the beer of gay people', so you can be 'the mmo for gay people'. Then slag blizzard CEO Paul Sims as a gay hating jack booted brown shirt.
Another good idea would be to pretend that one of you is black, or perhaps get a DNA test since alot of white people are %10 black or something anyways. Then you can advertise as 'black owned' in some of the black magazines like Ebony or regional Black newspapers. Another good idea would be to hire Derek Smart as a consultant. Plaster his face on an advertisement and publish it in the back of Vibe magazine, with a quote from him.
Now the best part would be to pretend you are mentally handicapped. Then you could advertise at the Special Olympics and get sweet deals on hardware from people like Apple, HP, Dell, and especially Microsoft. Everyone likes to help the mentally retarded.
Another strategy would be to claim your game is in line with scientology. Perhaps you can somehow relate the Itani vs Serco to fighting a battle against Body Thetans or whatever, and have scientologists join up to 'fight against the Thetans'. Start to name ships after stuff from L Ron Hubbard books, with a payoff/tie-in to the official church organization.
Finally if you can make your way into 'Cat Fancy' then you will truly know you have it made. The best way to do this is to have some kind of feline race or something. Or maybe pictures of cats on your ships or something. Or the ability to buy kitty cats, rescue them from euthanasia/pounds, a giant space kitty that plays with your toy ship, or maybe some missions where you feed kittens, i dont know. I do know that everyone loves kittens.
If you get in with the kittens you will have a viral marketing campaign going on. Imagine the email going across the globe with people looking at some cute kitten in a game. Ally the Space Station Kitten, you could do a tie-in with Disney, they could produce a show centered around the cat that lives in a station and gets into all sorts of cutesy hijinx from week to week. Like the time it got into a bunch of FutureMeat that was being transported to a starving refugee camp in gray space.
------
This brings me to the last trick. Register as a 503c non profit. Since you are helping the mentally retarded get a job, and providing computer entertainment for the mentally retarded, you should be able to say that you are contributing to society and not purely a money making venture. This will save you a bundle on taxes, and you will also be able to buy stuff like Windows Professional for like 10 dollars per machine.
--------
I give this advice for free, based on 25 years of marketing experience, not because I'm trying to sell my marketing consulting services, but rather, because I care.
Won't someone please think of the children?
Thank you and goodnight
what kind of people do you want playing vendetta?
what kind of people would pay for it?
----
my first answer is 'people who pay for #$($ on credit cards and are too @#$#$ lazy to cancel it'.
that instantly brings to mind the elderly. they are not only too lazy, sometimes they just forget. they can figure out how to sign up (or their grandkids can help them) but they cant figure out how to sign off, nor even to ask a question about how to sign off, or if they do figure out how to ask, it will be a 500 paragraph forum post going back to world war ii, and nobody will answer.
second of all, people who just dont care and have too many credit cards to keep track of. this means recent college grads. they often have so many credit cards they cant keep track of what went where.
this brings to mind another strategy; obscurely naming what your company is. this is important for when forgetful old fuddy duddy or lazy trust fund kid looks at their credit card statement (if they ever do.) if you have something from 'guild software' they might try to remove the account. however, if they have something from 'gas station', or 'grocery store', they will just think 'oh well, ok'. i suggest changing guild software's name to "Wals-Mart", at least on credit card statements.
now last of all, you have the sad sack bleeding hearts who just feel bad and dont want to cancel their support of an indie game company. these morons tend to read sappy 'i hate everthing' crap like The Nation, Mother Earth News, Linux Journal, Organic Gardening, Slashdot, etc. What you need to do to get the bleeding heart dollar is to advertise as a 'liberal, green, fair trade, eco friendly, independent, non corporate' corporation. put a little picture on there of a happy child or a hippy looking woman in a field, with like grains of wheat in their hands or something, smiling at the camera. Youll make sure that 2006 wont be like 1984!
Also start to work payola scams into these magazines; give them free schwag in exchange for positive reviews. Once you become a big time company, start to threaten them if they give bad or mediocre reviews. The same goes for online.
Actually come to think of payola scams, you dont need one to get on slashdot. Do something like declare linux 'no good for game development'. Either that or declare it 'the best OS for game development'. The former will probably get more flamewars going, so that will be more likely to make front page slashdot, since their income is based on 'impressions' which means the more flamewar threads and comments they can get going, the better.
-------------
Building on this 'targeted marketing strategy', you can also branch into other fields and 'communities'. I think you should leak out the fact that 2 or 3 of the guild leaders are gay, then you could even advertise in the back of The Advocate, sort of like Budweiser does. They are 'the beer of gay people', so you can be 'the mmo for gay people'. Then slag blizzard CEO Paul Sims as a gay hating jack booted brown shirt.
Another good idea would be to pretend that one of you is black, or perhaps get a DNA test since alot of white people are %10 black or something anyways. Then you can advertise as 'black owned' in some of the black magazines like Ebony or regional Black newspapers. Another good idea would be to hire Derek Smart as a consultant. Plaster his face on an advertisement and publish it in the back of Vibe magazine, with a quote from him.
Now the best part would be to pretend you are mentally handicapped. Then you could advertise at the Special Olympics and get sweet deals on hardware from people like Apple, HP, Dell, and especially Microsoft. Everyone likes to help the mentally retarded.
Another strategy would be to claim your game is in line with scientology. Perhaps you can somehow relate the Itani vs Serco to fighting a battle against Body Thetans or whatever, and have scientologists join up to 'fight against the Thetans'. Start to name ships after stuff from L Ron Hubbard books, with a payoff/tie-in to the official church organization.
Finally if you can make your way into 'Cat Fancy' then you will truly know you have it made. The best way to do this is to have some kind of feline race or something. Or maybe pictures of cats on your ships or something. Or the ability to buy kitty cats, rescue them from euthanasia/pounds, a giant space kitty that plays with your toy ship, or maybe some missions where you feed kittens, i dont know. I do know that everyone loves kittens.
If you get in with the kittens you will have a viral marketing campaign going on. Imagine the email going across the globe with people looking at some cute kitten in a game. Ally the Space Station Kitten, you could do a tie-in with Disney, they could produce a show centered around the cat that lives in a station and gets into all sorts of cutesy hijinx from week to week. Like the time it got into a bunch of FutureMeat that was being transported to a starving refugee camp in gray space.
------
This brings me to the last trick. Register as a 503c non profit. Since you are helping the mentally retarded get a job, and providing computer entertainment for the mentally retarded, you should be able to say that you are contributing to society and not purely a money making venture. This will save you a bundle on taxes, and you will also be able to buy stuff like Windows Professional for like 10 dollars per machine.
--------
I give this advice for free, based on 25 years of marketing experience, not because I'm trying to sell my marketing consulting services, but rather, because I care.
Won't someone please think of the children?
Thank you and goodnight
Yeah, I heard about the game from a review in MacTech magazine. I saw the words "....much like an online, 3D version of the popular Escape Velocity series...." and was hooked.
EDIT: Ananzi, I'm betting your post is either sanitized or deleted within 8 hours.
EDIT: Ananzi, I'm betting your post is either sanitized or deleted within 8 hours.
nahh, ananzi is harmless.
And I'm inclined to believe jex is right.. sometime around the end of the year (maybe as a 2 year anniversary) the game ought to be ready for some significant advertizing.
And I'm inclined to believe jex is right.. sometime around the end of the year (maybe as a 2 year anniversary) the game ought to be ready for some significant advertizing.
We actually had a slashdot article, ya know...
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/02/1515232
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/02/1515232
>> what kind of people do you want playing vendetta?
Those that can pay for it. I don't care if they use PayPal, credit, debit, or Ginno's loansharks.
>> what kind of people would pay for it?
Those that either have the cash or can get their parents to fork it over.
Simple questions, simple answers.
Those that can pay for it. I don't care if they use PayPal, credit, debit, or Ginno's loansharks.
>> what kind of people would pay for it?
Those that either have the cash or can get their parents to fork it over.
Simple questions, simple answers.
/mod ananzi -5 (troll)
the 8-hour trial definately needs to be increased to at least 12 hours if we want to start keeping more people than we lose... 8 hours isn't long enough to find your groove and start getting addicted.
the 8-hour trial definately needs to be increased to at least 12 hours if we want to start keeping more people than we lose... 8 hours isn't long enough to find your groove and start getting addicted.
i agree cunjo 12 hours would be better...