Advertising for Armageddon (more players!)

[Sokotra]

Just had a thought come to me about advertising earlier tonight... and then I logon and see a post about player dilution.  It would be nice to have more players, especially in large cities like Allanak (or whatever larger points of civilization may be in Arm 2) where there are supposed to be large crowds.  I like the wasteland and villages and outposts and stuff, but the urban environment in a place like Zalanthas can be pretty cool as well.

Anyway, I just wanted to see if we could discuss or brainstorm on more ways to advertise for the game... especially on the web.  An idea I had was to start advertising Armageddon less as a MUD and more of a paperless D&D type game where all the calculations are done for you.  I guess they are both pretty much the same, but MUD is an old term that may be turning some people off or not even being understood at all.  I'm no expert, but that is just my guess.  I suppose we could call it a MMORPG, but then you might draw a lot of people looking for something like World of Warcraft and immediately leave without trying it because it is text-based. 

My main idea is to focus more on a new way of advertising... like along the lines of an "automated D&D" type game with our target group being people that would be interested in playing a text-based, paperless D&D type game.   Or find ways to advertise something like this, in an attractive manner, to the new generation of gamers out there.  I'm sure someone else could word it better than me and maybe come up with some more ideas along this line of thinking.  If this has all been discussed to death before, feel free to post the link to the thread.  I didn't see much when I searched for advertising here on the GDB.

[number13]

"An online text-based fantasy game featuring real stories, player impacted environments, player vs. player conflicts, and permadeath."  There has to be a sizable contingent of people who've come to realize that the typical MMO/MUD grind is a treadmill -- that they're looking for something a little different.  Permadeath is the kind of keyword that people notice. Though they tend to have a negative reaction at first, being noticed is the first step in getting people to log on.  Best place to advertise would be online forums, real life friends/contacts -- where you can take the time to explain the game.   With the new Dark Sun out, there could be 4e players looking for online Dark Sun games.  So, you know? Fuck it.  Try to get permission to call the game "Dark Sun" inspired.

One area of resistance I've seen (beyond the obvious:  that there's no graphics) is in the strict control of IC information.  Related, it's a shame that there can't be a "Where I Play" thread for Armageddon on something like rpg.net or somethingawful.  Threads like that are a huge reason why retro games like Dwarf Fortress and MineCraft are popular.  If a talented writer (and we've got plenty) could figure out a way to bang out a thread like that without tripping over IC-information sharing rules I think it could be relatively popular. "A Day In the Life of a Grebber"

One method might be to simply suspend the rule for the purpose of a particular "Where I Play" thread, with a header that existing Armageddon players should resist the urge to read it.  There's already all sorts of OOC information that we all disregard (or pretend to disregard, at least).  Honestly, any raider attempts against our grebber hero based on knowledge of where he's going to be might actually spice up the thread. I don't think logs or after-the-fact stories capture the "feel" of live play like a "Where I Play" would, but maybe something like a "Where I Play" thread could be constructed for a character that's a couple years old?  ...though that would probably seem too much like blatant advertising, and not very interesting to any thread readers, as they wouldn't have the opportunity to pass out real-time comments/advice.

With an advertising push, I think you'd have to marry it to an attractive tutorial/guidebook.  There's a lot of color in Armageddon's world and history that I don't think is immediately obvious.  The website is dated, somewhat incomplete, and the navigation could use improvement. Better website with the information a new player wants easy to find and upfront could increase buy-in.

[boog]

ARM has consecutively more players online everyday than many other muds do.

[number13]

ARM has consecutively more players online everyday than many other muds do.

The muds at the top of the mud site list tend to have several hundred everyday.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

One thing we need to do is to reach out to gamer magazines and gamer websites, irregardless of typical orientation. I was looking at a MMO site today, and mixed amongst the top ten games of the year was Threshold.

This means that the text based game was considered seriously enough to rank it amongst the top ten games that this website (which looked well developed) had reviewed and previewed.

[lordcooper]

Armageddon's web presence is low.

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

[Wolfsong]

ARM has consecutively more players online everyday than many other RPI muds do.

Fixed.

[number13]

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.

[HailTheAbyss]

There are plenty of boards for pen and paper RPGs where the game could be advertised.

I think a lot of people who normally do not play computer games much might be attracted to ARM, as it's based on roleplaying more than anything coded.

That's what attracted me to the game - I had no real interest in MUDs as a genre - if I am going to do grind with no roleplay I would rather have an MMORPG with pretty graphics. The roleplaying aspect has to be pushed constantly, as especially the fact that is is mandatory. We should describe the total immersion in another world that this creates, and also play on the fact that you can play with a lot more different people than you could with pen and paper.

Another thing, as people have suggested numerous times before, is putting up posters in your local hobby stores - I think someone had even designed one.

If we wanted to suddenly double the population of the game, one way would be for everyone that plays or posts here on the GDB to get at least ONE person they are acquainted with to play. If everyone could just commit a lot of effort to that only over the next 2 weeks, I think we might see an effect.

[Reiteration]

In all honesty, if the webpage didn't look like it was fifteen years old, we'd probably get more people.

[Is Friday]

I prefer quality over quantity. If we get a lot of players from a general demographic, we're going to pollute our playerbase.

[Malifaxis]

I prefer quality over quantity. If we get a lot of players from a general demographic, we're going to pollute our playerbase.

While true, those that can't hack it will quickly quit, and we'll pick up people that never would have had the chance to join.

I think advertising is a great damn idea, and I'm going to chop out a flier today and hit up my local gaming store.

[Kronus]

A few random thoughts from me.

• "Heavy" roleplayers are a very small minority of the MUD/MMO audience.  There are plenty of people who will say 'thee' and 'thou' while talking about the World Series - which qualifies as roleplaying in the broadest sense - but the people who can and will throw themselves fully into the mind of another being living on another planet are honestly not all that common. To a lot of people, Armageddon presents a front of being a haven for elitist roleplayers who will chop off your virtual head if your emotes suck or you break immersion. I suspect we get a lot of new players who spend hours on an application, enter the game, stumble around lost until they find a tavern, get mostly ignored by the people RPing inside, get all intimidated by the emotes they can't match (because they don't get the syntax if nothing else) and then go linkdead without even caring what happens to their character because they're never coming back.  Ever.  And then I steal the coins and tandu sausage from their inventory.
• The website doesn't just look 15 years old, it is 15 years old.  Quirky nostalgia will make long term players think 'I like the website!  It doesn't look outdated to me.', but they've been looking at it for 15 years.  It's as comfortable as an old blanket or that awful t-shirt your girlfriend secretly wants to burn while you're away on a trip. By comparison the Castle Marrach webpage is downright bleeding edge. It has images.
• Yesterday I went looking for the Armageddon MUD group on Facebook to join.  I really had just assumed it would be there.  Maybe get fed some tweets about new code changes and upcoming RPTs, yeah?   No.
• Generally speaking, text-based games of any flavor were an acquired taste in their heyday and these days are an antiquated relic.  People who don't even consider something a game unless it has 3D graphics and particle effects aren't going to look twice at something like Arm.  Yes, it's their loss and not ours, but it makes the hope of a massive playerbase somewhat unrealistic.

[Is Friday]

I keep trying to get my wife to play.... Maybe the newbie room will help her out a lot. (Maybe it'll help us retain more?)

[Sokotra]

One thing we need to do is to reach out to gamer magazines and gamer websites, irregardless of typical orientation.

There are plenty of boards for pen and paper RPGs where the game could be advertised.

Yes.  These are what I think might really give us a number of quality players.   As I said, I'm no expert, I don't delve into the world of gaming much anymore but many years ago I remember reading "Dungeon" or "Dragon" magazine a few times.  Doing a search on the internet for "pen and paper RPGs" and things of that nature might yield some perfect places to advertise for Armageddon.

I've seen a few other good ideas so far in this thread.  Hopefully some of us that have some time can pick through these ideas as they continue to flow and advertise in some new places with some of the other resources we already have.  I remember seeing a pre-written advertisement for Arm somewhere that we could use... and the banner.

[HailTheAbyss]

Yesterday I went looking for the Armageddon MUD group on Facebook to join.  I really had just assumed it would be there.  Maybe get fed some tweets about new code changes and upcoming RPTs, yeah?   No.[/li][/list]

There is an Arm facebook group by the way. It's just no one really posts much there apart from "Random Armageddon Thoughts" type stuff.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2301038942

[Kronus]

Yesterday I went looking for the Armageddon MUD group on Facebook to join.  I really had just assumed it would be there.  Maybe get fed some tweets about new code changes and upcoming RPTs, yeah?   No.[/li][/list]

There is an Arm facebook group by the way. It's just no one really posts much there apart from "Random Armageddon Thoughts" type stuff.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2301038942

The hell?  There are actually two?  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Armageddon-mud/110078165688002?ref=search

I swear to Tek, yesterday I searched for 'Armageddon MUD' and got a record label or something and some guys pretending to be on the movie poster for Armageddon.

Well, cool, so it's there. 

[Adhira]

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).

[number13]

• Generally speaking, text-based games of any flavor were an acquired taste in their heyday and these days are an antiquated relic.  People who don't even consider something a game unless it has 3D graphics and particle effects aren't going to look twice at something like Arm.  Yes, it's their loss and not ours, but it makes the hope of a massive playerbase somewhat unrealistic.

Game doesn't need the 500+ players at peak of Aardwolf.  It just needs about 100 players on at peak to feel full, or roughly double what there currently is.  That's one of the reasons why I think some epic demolition could be a viable solution.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Any boost in players is quickly noticed, honestly. A steady 70 at peak times would be amazingly beautiful. But in a game focused on story, we need to make sure that new players are welcomed in, by a story. By personality. By Armageddon.

This is as much the players' responsibility as it is the staff's. One of the hardest things about Armageddon, since it is not focused on H&S and raising skills, is getting involved in a story. The lack of instantly active story for new players and even veteran characters kind of sucks. This is one of the biggest reasons why I have always OOCly supported IC wars. It is an immediately understandable story, and fighting begs for fresh bodies. Even fresh newb bodies.

[HailTheAbyss]

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).

For some bizarre reason, when I try to use it it tells me that I am not logged into Facebook (?). I tried suggesting it to people, but even that did not work... Probably a bug or something.

[jriley]

THE PROJECT FOR A NEW ARMAGEDDON CENTURY


Just to give you cats the realpolitik spin on this, recruiting from the general gaming community is likely to be a wasted effort.  Typically, we could recruit a player, he might discover that he likes MUDs.  After that, he will vary likely move on to another MUD that suits his interests closely.  Since we as players are discouraged from forming gaming clans with our real life friends, there is little to keep a player here if/when he discovers that there are actually hundreds of MUDs and a different MUD will satisfy his particular tastes, statistically speaking. 

By contrast, sniping players from other MUDs promises a much better payout.  Lowest-Common-Denominator games like Achaea have a vested interest in recruiting from the general gaming community.  Certainly, hundreds, if not thousands of people who try Achaea must become dissatisfied because it is gay.  What then?  Some of them will go searching the MUD community for that one MUD that closely suits their niche tastes. 

Just as a point of strategy, it makes much more sense for us to let the bigger, more-generic MUDs do the recruiting from the general gamer playerbase, and then for us to snipe malcontent players and lure them into our MUD from within the MUD community. 

One strong vector for this is MUD interest websites like the famous Top Mud Sites.

Another, more controvertial tactic is to send teams of players over to the larger MUDs and try to lure them over to the RPI community.  Likely, this would eventually be detected by the administrators of the General Appeal MUDs.  Likely, there would be a showdown between their staff and the Armageddon staff, if they realized what we were doing, however if they were intelligent they would quickly come to terms with the fact that most people who enjoy RPI MUDs are likely to abandon a General Appeal MUD rather quickly anyway, and that siphoning a small number of players over to the RPI community does not really impact their bottom line.  Since the bigger MUDs are commercial MUD anyways, it is possible that a commercial solution could be found to this sort of conflict. 

In any regard, players who are interested in initiating a concerted clandestine recruitment effort from other MUD should feel encouraged to contact me through private message.  Doubtlessly, the staff will need to take the official position that these sort of efforts are publicly discouraged.  Hopefully we can reach an agreement with staff that some incentive will provided privately for partisans who successfully support a recruitment effort.

Further, the following ideas deserve consideration:

• Long term improvements to the Armageddon game are most directly contingent upon the successful increase of the playerbase, while maintaining or boosting the level of player quality.
• Infiltration of other RPI MUD staff administrations will elicit useful information about their operations
• The best candidates to improve the playerbase come from dissatisfied elements of existing, general appeal MUDs.

I did not say this.  I was never here.

[/list]

This is a terrible idea.  I could never approve of anything this controvertial.

[Marauder Moe]

 

[brytta.leofa]

Moderation in 3...2...

You're not exactly wrong; it just doesn't need to sound that sinister.

[Is Friday]

By contrast, sniping players from other MUDs promises a much better payout.  Lowest-Common-Denominator games like Achaea have a vested interest in recruiting from the general gaming community.  Certainly, hundreds, if not thousands of people who try Achaea must become dissatisfied because it is gay.  What then?  Some of them will go searching the MUD community for that one MUD that closely suits their niche tastes.  

That's what happened with me. Somebody on Achaea told me to stop roleplaying on Achaea and go play Armageddon, where people appreciated that kind of thing.