Marketing
 

What ideas have been put forward and implemented to try to increase the game's profits?

How has the game tried to increase its playerbase in the last 2-3 years?

Re: Marketing
 

Jolt and OMAC had us on rotational banners. I know Pete has been looking at advertising on some top mmopg sites around signups, but i think he's wanting enough money for food/rent and improving signups first.
The pa team numbers no one with advertising or marketing knowledge, and no one has really come forward to offer support despite requests. And at least those feckers on a shoe string budget had shoe strings :(

Re: Marketing
 

a lot of these threads follow the same theme. Noones happy about whats being done to keep the game afloat or advertise it. People are being kept in the dark. Discontent in the ranks.

Re: Marketing
 

To attract more players you first need to have a better game, make planetarion more unique, have a decent 'backstory', make it more userfriendly, have an overall idea where you want to go with the game (face it, ever since pax we've been running around like a headless chicken), make it more visually appealing, ...

When all this is done, you can put more effort into marketing and attrackting more (paying) customers.

Re: Marketing
 

One of the biggest rules in marketing is to "stay ahead of your competitors" so maybe start with that? because thats going to take long enough.

Re: Marketing
 

Have there been considered putting up a paypal donation box so people if they wanted could donate money towards advertising?

Re: Marketing
 

Generally speaking it's a bad idea to throw money into advertising if your product isn't good enough to get new customers or get them to stay...

Re: Marketing
 

maybe they could use it to hire new designers at fubra..or contract out

Re: Marketing
 

With all that money lunar lamp got from galaytarion why doesn't that go to advertising planetarion??

Re: Marketing
 

I think VdM is right here, spending any effort on advertising whilst the game is in it's current state is pointless. It'll either be a waste of time or money if you actually go and buy advert space.

The game needs to become something I'd recommend to friends before you even think about it. Ask the question to yourself, would you recommend this game to anyone you know? I personally wouldn't bother, chances are they wouldn't understand how to play because it's just too unfriendly and complex to the average user. Even if they did manage to get started they'd probably get bashed quickly.

Only once a new user can join the game and actually stick around for long enough should any attempts at marketing be made.

Re: Marketing
 

Back story?

This is PA, not RP, and im pretty sure RPers have noticed that.

Re: Marketing
 

I can only speak for me, but i got all the money back.

Re: Marketing
 

The thing with advertising Planetarion is that it wouldn't work. How often do you see adverts and try to ignore them, or have them blocked by your pop-up blocker?

Fubra as a business need to see an increase in sign ups to make the venture worth while, even if those people are unpaid planets, they're still generating revenue for Fubra through what appears to be "Google-style" adverts.

The first thing to increase sign-ups would be to issue a proper press release, detailing the history of PA, information about the community and how nice (lol?) it is and the direction in which it's going. Information about how the game works etc is obviously important here.

This followed by posting to popular internet forums within the IT industry and other "hobby" style sites can prove beneficial. For example posting on a forum stating that you've found a game which is really enjoyable, requires a level of intelligence and can be played for only a few minutes a day, or hours depending on your dedication.

Viral marketing is king, at least in the current environment.

Re: Marketing
 

Viral marketing is the best bet you can take at this very moment. There is no use in investing any money into advertising an outdated, unattractive game which still lives from its brand and the old playerbase.
What this game needs is quite an upfront investment to turn it into something very decent again. Tthen it can get required advertisement.


OT, but still worth noting:

A back story adds to a game's depth. Give some background on the universe, about the races available, how they emerged and made progress.

Re: Marketing
 

Interestingly, posts of this nature always seem to contain the same thing. "What have they done?" to make this game a better place and increase the user base.

I suppose the other question to ask is "What have I done?"

We all want to play this game and enjoy the fun, drama and silliness of the politics - Why aren't we all encouraging more people to join?

Find internet forums, get posting. Go go go!

Re: Marketing
 

its not our job? nor our game?

Re: Marketing
 

We are customers, not volunteers.

Re: Marketing
 

Better. :D

Re: Marketing
 

Not wanting to sound insane but how about you exploit the fact that the economy is crashing everywhere by offering someone work from home experience with cash rewards for increased signups.

I'd suggest there are people who would take this up, particularly if they wanted to work in the online industry.

Re: Marketing
 

how about introducing the old, invite a friend scheme. Invoite a friend who pays for an account, you get a point, if that person then invites someone else you get a free credit?

Re: Marketing
 

Would be a good idea, but could increase multi accounts D:

Re: Marketing
 

So in summary (and let's be honest I doubt PA Team have bothered to read this thread) it's been established that someone with some leadership skills (ie: a vision and the drive to get there) needs to be recruited to help with PR and Marketing.

Or at least someone who responds to these type of threads with something concrete and useful.

The problem is that PA Team is a bunch of geeks (no offence guys, but it's true) without any kind of business/target based goals.

If only we could employ Zar on side :salute:

Re: Marketing
 

Back stories are important. Let's face it most people sign up to an space-based internet browser game are going to be somewhat nerds. Being able to read about something and feel like you understand what it's about is a great way of providing the initial "hey cool" factor which gets people involved in the parts of the game which can actually provide lasting interest.

Re: Marketing
 

You cant market a game which doesnt know what it is. Its a setup for a marketting disaster...

What would Planetarion be marketed as? a game for casuals? a game for hardcores? easy to learn? fast paced? graphics look nice? etc.

You need to fix the flaws in Planetarion and get it into a state which serves your goal before you should even think about marketting it.

Re: Marketing
 

market it as an MMORPG? the member base or how fast different people can pick up a game shouldnt factor into it as it differs from person to person.

Re: Marketing
 

There is no such thing as 'just a MMORPG' anymore, they are all divided into subsections catering for different audiences. At the moment, Planetarion isnt in any subsection and isnt catering for any audience.. Its just a muddle of 'We want to be casual friendly but we also want to keep our hardcore players'.

Re: Marketing
 

PA is the sort of game that genuinely only appeals to those who have either been playing it for years or know people who have. If it was to start up now, looking and playing as it currently does, it'd be dead before it started. That should say enough about why marketing is currently pointless.

Re: Marketing
 

Indeed, allthough i think, people may be lonely, but not stupid. A person who signs up looking for an online sequal to the dune trilogy, arent gonna stick around when they see PA is a space ship version of a contact sport. Imo the nature of PA is a competitive/team oreinted game, so your target market would be people who fit into that type of category. WoW players, Dream Team fanatics, egotistical arseholes. Theres no point putting time and effort into attracting a specific type of customer, if the product they are looking for in the first place, is not Planetarion.

Yeah, getting customers in is half the battle, but its just as important to keep them. Dressing the game up as something its not, i dont think is where we should be headed.

Re: Marketing
 

1. PA has its originality values -> create rankings based on the info that are stored:
Best alliances based on ranks
Even best galaxies if there are some long lasting ones
Best players based on ranks
Biggest roid amounts on round ends and so on...
The accuracity isnt everything, people can come play to turn them nicer if they feel they are wrong, this is all just to show how long term game it is.

Market as: Do you got what it takes to beat the elders/first on the genre. Eperience the wind from the past...

2. PA has its community values -> Accessbility to IRC rooms. MSN created PA community. Facebook community. IRC-galleria communitys. List of players and option to add profiles/images. Data of old PA meets. Allow users post columns, create some news team who can report round battles and so on, whos against who to show how alive the game is, regardless its textbased and booring outlook. Also add some shortened version of the tool sites to show changes in the game. Give a section for users in the portal.

Market: lifetime friendships, contacts all over the world, chats regarding the game and life in general. Tactical discussion and paths to suggest game developement to the wanted direction. Drama brought by losses and political events in the game, shared happiness of victories and the joy to turn the knife at your opponent :)

3. PA has its strategical values. -> We dont really need to add anything here, ofc u can add more factors to specify everyones game play even more.

Market: You can profile your own game play and outplay others with your strategy. Show the mastermind you are. The game, regardless its strong structures allows the game to be played in various ways and often the ones with most unique strategies find their way on top. If you fancy manager/strategical games, heres one challence for you in the name of space war.


and so on... the initial point is to get more visible the things we have in here and what makes the game so addictive and so more alive than the first impression shows. This wont need real changes, just some info forwarded to portal and so on...