Advertising for Armageddon (more players!)

[Bogre]

Here are some things I think may draw in more crowd, without subtracting from potential.

1.) I think it would be eye-catching to put up a few player-submitted artworks on the mainpage. Maybe the race sheet or some random, hardcore oil-painting that Bisuits and OHST are so fond of pimping out for us. Let's look at popular MMO's and think to ourselves, "What makes me want to play this game?" (ie. Example One, Example Two, Example Three)

2.) Jazz up the ArmageddonMUD sign on the homepage. Don't make it glam and spam, but maybe a bit of cultural flavor from the game on it (I know, none of us can read in-game, anyways). Maybe have some drawing competitions and have the best staff-voted picture put up there. (ie. Example One, Example Two, Example Three, Example Four)

Putting the Zalanthan Race chart up on the front pace or somewhere close would be -killer-.


Edit: I've also seen, and appreciated our trend upwards- seeing 60ish around on the peak times is pretty killer.

[Lizzie]

Here's an idea for the front cover of the website:

The racial drawing at the top. And each race's head is actually a hyperlink to the helpfile explaining the race.

More graphics underneath - of a famous templar, a known Kuraci (Sargax is a good example), a Kadian, a Salarri, nobles of each known/open house...

and each one is actually a hyperlink to the appropriate info in the game's timeline, or the House documentation.

So they can SEE what the people might look like, and get the text version of who those people ARE and what their function is in the game world.

[Lizzie]

I've seen only a couple of people who play/have ever played Arm, posting on the TMS and Mudconnector forums. This gives the impression that Arm players are intentionally avoiding being part of the MUD community.

I'm basically not interested in any other MUDs.  I suppose I'd try SoI, or another "real" (permadeath) RPI, if something terrible happened to Arm.

But 99% of MUDs, even those that consider themselves roleplay-enforced, don't require serious roleplaying.  If I only wanted to explore and level up, I'd go play Eve.

I wasn't suggesting you try any other muds. I was suggesting you create an account on their community forum (which is like the GDB here, but for "mudders" and not just "armers"). And then, read a few topics, brows their forum, see if there's anything of interest to you. There's all kind of stuff about mudding in general - the history of it, Richard Bartle's works, the whole DIKU licensing monster, coding in general, roleplay...it's actually a pretty fascinating forum.

And then, if you see something that interest you, you - write a post! And say "wow - I never knew that. I've been playing Armageddon for 47 years and had no idea that Richard Bartle talked about it in his first book, written in 1847."

And then - VOILA - someone else just posted something about Armageddon. And a reader who doesn't play it might think - huh - another post from someone entirely other than the usual people, posting about Armageddon. I wonder if there's any truth in the rumors of its uberness.

And then a week later, someone ELSE posts in a DIFFERENT topic, and mentions Armageddon in reference to his response. And that reader from the paragraph above this thinks - hey - you know..this really does sound interesting. I'll have to try it out.

Then, 4 days later, someone ELSE posts in a DIFFERENT topic and the same reader says "That's it - I gotta apply for a character on that game. Where's the link to the website again? Oh yeah - CLICK"

And we've sucked in a new player.

As for me being the change I want to see, I don't want any new players. I like the game with a small playerbase, and I'm not as newbie friendly as a lot of you claim to be (and some of you actually are). I came to play Arm BECAUSE it had a small player base. But I know I'm in the majority, and that's okay with me, so I decided to post here suggestions for anyone who wants to see the playerbase expand.

[lordcooper]

Armageddon's web presence is low.

I spent years actively looking for things similar to this and only just stumbled across Arm.

That's interesting.  I have a feeling there's an untapped audience for RPI muds. For Lordcooper, or anyone else who stumbled upon Arm after a long search, how did you search (like what keywords did you use in search engines, what websites did you check)?  How did you eventually find the game?  What could have made the game easier to find?

I just tried typing 'permadeath' into Google, and Arm (arguably the online game that takes the concept of permadeath most seriously) doesn't appear in the first five pages of results.  "Dark Sun" MUD and a defunct MUD has a higher listing.  "RPI", and SoI and a couple of RPI MUDS I've never heard of have higher listings.  This says to me Arm might benefit from SEO tactics -- for example, posting links to Arm on forums that are highly ranked by google -- in appropriate topics.  Maybe loading future WordPress blog articles with noteworthy keywords and prompting discussion with some hot-button topics (like an article about something Armers like to whine about, and eliciting feedback/conversation on the topic).

Digg (and perhaps Rededit) should be pretty easy to game in it's current state, if a writer at a popular gaming blog/site can be coaxed into writing an article.  The WoD MMO is rumored to feature permadeath.  An angle might be holding Arm up as an example of how that sort of thing works in practice.

I think the main keywords I used when searching for Armageddon (without my knowing it) were mmorpg, pbbg (progressive browser based game) pbbrpg, rpg, permanent death, roleplaying, society simulator, virtual world etc etc.

Unhelpfully, I found Arm through a link posted on the Cantr website.

I think one of the main things that could be done to increase Amrs playerbase is having links on sites like http://www.pbbg.org/

If that was the case, I'd have joined a good few years back.

[Old Kank]

I can't argue with having a better web presence, but I think the most effective 'advertising' strategy is simply to recruit your friends.  Wasn't that one of the leading answers to the "How did you hear about Armageddon" survey of new players?

On the other hand, we've had playerbase highs of over 100 players, so maybe a better question to ask is, "Why don't those people play every night, and what can we do about that?"

[lordcooper]

I can't argue with having a better web presence, but I think the most effective 'advertising' strategy is simply to recruit your friends.  Wasn't that one of the leading answers to the "How did you hear about Armageddon" survey of new players?

On the other hand, we've had playerbase highs of over 100 players, so maybe a better question to ask is, "Why don't those people play every night, and what can we do about that?"

Real life, I wouldn't recommend trying to change it.

I've been trying for years to recruit my friends to RP with me.  No luck.

[Derain]

I learned about arm through MMORPG.com they had a whole article on it so that was why I ended up trying it a couple years ago now.

[Sokotra]

On the other hand, we've had playerbase highs of over 100 players, so maybe a better question to ask is, "Why don't those people play every night, and what can we do about that?"

Unfortunately that is one of the things I have have a problem with.  I don't have the time to play every night, or sometimes even every week.  So a more spread out type of playerbase with different kinds of players would be nice... some might be able to play every day, some just a couple of times a week.  I think making the game more friendly toward casual players would be helpful and I think we can do that in ways that won't sacrifice the quality of role-play.  It seems like it is hard to be welcomed to the game by staff and just the game world in general if you only pop your head out of a cave once in a while.  Time constraints severely limits the types of roles you can play which might look strange if you only pop in the game here and there just to hunt or make a raid or attempt a mugging.  Not everyone can or wants to sit in the taverns and chat or wander around or spar and train for endless hours and days before they actually get into doing something exciting.  

I remember one time I played a desert elf raider and I happened to attack like 2 or 3 people over a long period of time on the north road and I was accused of twinking.  When raiding you occasionally will try to engage in combat first, before they get away, and then throw out those emotes during or after combat.  I don't even think I ended up killing anyone or anything.  Sometimes I had time to emote, sometimes I didn't.  Sounded to me like someone just got upset because they actually encountered trouble on the north road besides a gith or gortok in the same location. The times that I didn't emote it was because they got away too fast, heh.  

So I think we can advertise and go for numbers without worrying about hurting the quality of role-play.  Either people will figure it out, like everyone else, or they won't and they will move on.  You've got to sift through thousands and thousands of players and let them try it out themself before you find those 100 that will be online and actually -trying- to "play the game" every night or every week.  I think it has improved recently, but still continuing to try to make the game more friendly toward casual players would help.

[number13]

I'm doing my part?  Are you?

Simple, painless things to try:

* Include a link to Armageddon in any .sigs you have on other forums.  Bonus points if you include keywords like ropeplaying, permadeath, etc. in the link.  Extra bonus points if you are posting to forums that rank highly on Google. (somethingawful, rpg.net, etc.)
* Bring up the idea of the game with real-life gamer friends, online acquaintances, guildmates, etc.
* Click that stupid Vote button daily.

[Barzalene]

Buttons. both buttons.

[jriley]

I'd like to repeat the following suggestions:

--Implement a quality control system to prevent valued players from leaking out of the game over minor issues. 

--Implement a mentor system to help players try out the game and guide them over their first year of playing. 

--Provide incentives to players who recruit people that end up staying for more than a year. 

[3kanks]

The only incentive needed is another player to play with. Incentives are for HnS muds.

[Is Friday]

Courtesy of meganlara.com

[Voular]

.. Could that be our website!? I wants it.

[Reiteration]

I think I just shat brix when I saw that.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

The only incentive needed is another player to play with. Incentives are for HnS muds.

This, I agree with.

Also, WTF, Buscuits. So sexy.

[number13]

.. Could that be our website!? I wants it.

Yes, please.

[Sokotra]

Just had a thought... is there any way we could have the capability (or option, not required) to be more like a modern "web browser game" with a couple of different interfaces that could be chosen, depending on how you wanted to play?  Everything right there on the web page could be at the noobs fingertips, while they are playing, without having to navigate around through different pages and telnet and all that jazz.  I imagine something like this would draw tons more players and make it a lot easier for new players to get into the game and figure things out.  

Heck, if you wanted you could have some simple graphics also... just pictures of whatever location you are at and that sort of thing.  Like in a nice fantasy novel you might be reading, nothing too video-gamish.  I wouldn't mind seeing a nice detailed drawing of a view like you were walking the streets of Allanak when you were there, and then a picture of the desert when you left the gates... things like that.  We've got some pictures of certain areas drawn up by the players already.  I'm not talking every room or anything like that - still leaving most of the game left to the imagination of the player - like reading a book and just seeing a picture for every chapter or something.

[SykotikGith]

Courtesy of meganlara.com

This +1

[Nana]

Just had a thought... is there any way we could have the capability (or option, not required) to be more like a modern "web browser game" with a couple of different interfaces that could be chosen, depending on how you wanted to play?  Everything right there on the web page could be at the noobs fingertips, while they are playing, without having to navigate around through different pages and telnet and all that jazz.  I imagine something like this would draw tons more players and make it a lot easier for new players to get into the game and figure things out.  
...

Yeah, this.

I have a friend I try to get to play, and though they are absurdly good at emoting and writing in general, and would make a fantastic addition to the game.. they need a little more help learning the interface and such, or maybe some tidbits to make life easier for them.

an enhanced web-based telnet client would give them that..

(we just have to make sure that we don't attract too many god-awful noobs that way. I think it should be possible)

[HunterKiller]

There's also an official Application page on facebook where you can play the game via a facebook app.   http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=144472147042

It has it's own wall (on the about page) which people could use to promote RPTs etc (hint hint).

I'm not done reading this thread so sorry if it's been suggested - a link to the arm board via the "Discussion" tab might not be a bad idea.

[Qzzrbl]

Courtesy of meganlara.com

This +1

Holy shit, this!

+1

[Wolfsong]

Courtesy of meganlara.com

This +1

Holy shit, this!

+1

+1

[HavokBlue]

Armageddon has pretty much nothing but positive mentions in the SomethingAwful thread about MUDs, but it isn't mentioned nearly as much as some other games. Someone with an account should get on that.

[Is Friday]

Dwarves are bald retards and elves are xenophobic thieves. Everyone is racist. Good stuff.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAA.