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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 16:29   #1
ComradeRob
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Marketing suggestions

1) What the hell is the page at www.planetarion.com? Can nobody even muster some screenshots and some blurb about how great the game is? No mention of having won MPOGD? No mention of the fact that a new round is starting tomorrow and that people should sign up now!!! This isn't just amateurish, it's downright careless. The suggestion - that someone should fix this asap - is rather self-evident.

2) A PA Facebook application. If you don't know what Facebook is, imagine MySpace but not shit. If you want to know why Facebook matters, go here (you may remember the author of this blog post, Marc Andreesen, as the man who founded Netscape. Or you may not. Either way, listen to what the man says). In my opinion, the whole of PA could be implemented as a Facebook application (which interacts with the main game).

3) For goodness' sake, do something with the portal that isn't just a lick of paint. Allow people to post their own content and create their own communities through the portal. This means giving groups (alliances?) their own image galleries, forums etc. Allow alliances to design their own logos, post up information about recruitment etc., and make all of this browsable for non-allied players. Yes, this means turning PA a bit MySpace-ish, but this is hardly the invasion of a foreign concept to the PA/NG community - in my opinion, PA's biggest mistake was to allow the NG Gallery to become the focus for that aspect of the community's development - it should have been the 'PA Gallery', with assorted other features to tie it to the game.

4) Kill the forums. OK, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I've heard from several people in PA team that they don't regard marketing the game as being a worthwhile idea whilst 'the community' remains so 'hostile' to new players and new ideas. This is only partly true, but if this is what PA team really believe then they should get rid of the problem. If that means killing the forums, and moving the PA-based discussion elsewhere (to a redeveloped portal?) then so be it. Otherwise, admit that the forums aren't an insurmountable obstacle to further growth.

5) Catch up to how the world works now. IRC and the web were pretty cutting-edge in 2000. They're not now. PA needs to integrate with instant messaging, Skype etc. - this could be as simple as putting a 'add this person to MSN' button next to planets on the galaxy page. Integration with services like Twitter seems like a natural fit for a game designed for internet addicts.

6) Create marketing graphics that people can display on their own websites. Ideally some kind of widget which displays some interesting information about the game, updated in real time (or with each tick). Perhaps the ranking of the person's planet (anyone who responds to this suggestion by rambling about 'intel' is a ****ing moron who deserves to be shot (yes Kargool, that means you)) or just a listing of impressive-sounding stats - '300 battles took place last tick'.

7) The marketing angle should be 'you're missing out by not playing'. It's sick, I know. As a long-term PA addict, I'm advocating using the dirtiest trick in the book to hook new people on something that probably won't be very good for them. The angle I'm thinking of is, to build on the idea above, '300 battles took place last tick - you can join the fray too'. Make people feel like there's this great opportunity for strategic space combat against thousands of other hardened space veterans, and all they have to do is click this button to sign up... Of course, the other complimentary angle is the 'hang out with our cool community and rule your own planet'. The second angle is often forgotten (or perhaps it is regarded as impossible; see my earlier point on the forums).

8) Stop listening to 'the community'. Do not make a portal that the existing community wants to read; these people have read everything that could possibly be written about PA. Create something that new players might just find interesting and engaging. Very few people in the community have the ability to step back and realise that the game will only grow if it does new things, not the same old stuff that they've been enjoying (if that is the word) for the last six+ years. Individual contributions can be valuable, but any kind of test of 'public opinion' is likely to be dominated by whoever can shout loudest and this always favours conservatism over change.

9) The game itself matters less than the marketing. It looks like we're going to have fewer players this round than last, despite various improvements (giving them the benefit of the doubt) to the game and the fact that it's a free round. This suggests that signup rates are not responsive to new game features (at least not in the short term) nor to economic incentives. I hate to say it, since this was far from obvious, but it would have been better to have charged money for r22 and then spent all of it on marketing.

That's all I can think of, doubtless other people have some other - hopefully better - ideas. Let's hear them!
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 16:36   #2
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by ComradeRob
5) Catch up to how the world works now. IRC and the web were pretty cutting-edge in 2000. They're not now. PA needs to integrate with instant messaging, Skype etc. - this could be as simple as putting a 'add this person to MSN' button next to planets on the galaxy page. Integration with services like Twitter seems like a natural fit for a game designed for internet addicts.
Fantastic idea.
When I first started playing PA I was a bit wary about going on IRC, this would sort out the problem.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 17:09   #3
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by ComradeRob
1) What the hell is the page at www.planetarion.com? Can nobody even muster some screenshots and some blurb about how great the game is? No mention of having won MPOGD? No mention of the fact that a new round is starting tomorrow and that people should sign up now!!! This isn't just amateurish, it's downright careless. The suggestion - that someone should fix this asap - is rather self-evident.
How many times have do you visit the portal whilst the round is running? The fact is most of us that play the game never go to the portal, while its the very first page a new player would see [and by being butt-ugly it is also usually the last page]

It can be improved drastically in a number of ways:

1] Sort the uglyness [if you dont have the time to code it up from scratch set up a joomla page or use some other CMS solution for a quick fix].

2] Make it informative [for new players]: Describe the game, the community, the awards, the irc network, the alliances, the history. Link up to the rules in detail, have PATeam make [small] posts whenever a new game feature is introduced or updated [forcing us old/current players to use the portal as well as the quickest source of info]

3] Make it useful: Whats the point in ever visiting the portal if all the information is found firstly on the forums, and in much more detail. Have info appear on the portal, update the damn thing, link it to forum posts. Link it to some of the tools [hello sandman's and wiki]

Neglecting the portal is tantamount to neglecting the game, and as much as you want to hide behind the whole volunteering thing/not having much free time excuse, you signed up for the position [for whatever reason] now it is your responsibility to do the very least to ensure its existence.

Edit: I refer to you in a number of places where the intended target is clearly PACrew/PATeam/whoever is responsible.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 17:13   #4
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Re: Marketing suggestions

The page at www.planetarion.com has now been updated with a notice about the new round. One down, eight to go
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“They were totally confused,” said the birdman, whose flying suit gives him a passing resemblance to Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. “The authorities said that I was an unregistered aircraft and to fly, you need a licence. I told them, ‘No. To fly, you need wings’.”
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 18:01   #5
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by ComradeRob
The page at www.planetarion.com has now been updated with a notice about the new round. One down, eight to go
It might be my Firefox, but I had to scroll down to find the message.. The picture looks like it's the only thing on that screen, because of the large black space on the bottom
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 18:03   #6
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Re: Marketing suggestions

I think it might have more to do with your screen resolution.


A great post, though, and little to disagree about. Maybe they should institute Rob as a volunteer to run the marketing side.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 18:05   #7
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Re: Marketing suggestions

The problem is that most of what I have suggested would take time (and thus, realistically, money) to implement. There are probably some free things that can be done to promote PA, but not many are worthwhile (because every other game out there is already doing them).
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“They were totally confused,” said the birdman, whose flying suit gives him a passing resemblance to Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. “The authorities said that I was an unregistered aircraft and to fly, you need a licence. I told them, ‘No. To fly, you need wings’.”
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 19:04   #8
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Obviously, that's because they are free.

It's the fact that this pay-to-play game has been run on resources that have been provided for free that causes the below par performance. Obviously, if money was invested, it could be (much?) better, but as far as free games go, there's loads of free games out there, which are quite a like to planetarion, and are run in similar ways, but are just.

Free.

Completely.

Which is I guess a huge step for a lot of people to start a game, having to pay for it. Ah, bloody hell, I'm straying off the topic.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 20:19   #9
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Rob, you're counting on the fact that someone who matters will actually read this and act on it. Very very little major ideas have been implemented via the Suggestions forum--and in my expierence the primary means of development of PA (including game dev, community dev, and community outreach/marketing) has been done independently of players.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 20:36   #10
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Re: Marketing suggestions

What I was on about, is, that it'd probably take an independent player initiative. Ie. a group of able players with an able organizer all with time and interest to sort these out - it's unlikely Jolt is going to invest. Or, to have Jolt invest to it, someone should come with an organized structured plan on how it's going to be done, and on which schedule, to get the business boys convinced. Which could turn out to be difficult.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 20:42   #11
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by NitinA
Rob, you're counting on the fact that someone who matters will actually read this and act on it. Very very little major ideas have been implemented via the Suggestions forum--and in my expierence the primary means of development of PA (including game dev, community dev, and community outreach/marketing) has been done independently of players.
Quite true. This is a 'last resort' - I've raised all of these ideas (except the Facebook thing) with PA team in the past and they haven't been taken forward. I'm not saying that my ideas are necessarily the salvation of PA, but something has to be done and the community should try to play a role in that.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 21:19   #12
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tietäjä
I think it might have more to do with your screen resolution.
That shouldn't matter - 1024 * 768 is one of the most common screen resolutions and it's not displaying the page properly.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 22:30   #13
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Re: Marketing suggestions

It does matter. Or then someone has a fked up Firefox.

Opera, Firefox (Torrify), and Internet Explorer all show it good to me (ie. I don't need to scroll, in fact, I don't have to scroll). And I'm on 1680*1050.
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Unread 21 Jun 2007, 23:03   #14
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Re: Marketing suggestions

on the talk of the portal

http://www.zpgaming.net/

that is what a portal should be, thats a 'portal/fansite' for DoD (hl1 mod) it has community ppl posting about things, forums within the actual portal not an external link, useful stuff everywhere, colour etc, yes its a fansite but it was basically a portal in that everything game based went through it all ups etc and news of everything

get rid of the shitty grey blackness, yes it looks authentic but it looks shit, even a pure black looks shit, get some colour in to entice ppl.

edit - or make the portal part of the game, so its a clicable link next to overview or something similar, alot ore integration basically anyway
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 06:20   #15
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Re: Marketing suggestions

I believe there could be improvements to the current portal without redesigning everything.
Here is an example of what could easily be done to solve some of the following issues:
- the current all grey portal is far too sad, and the only thing that really stands out is the advertising banner...
- the top third of the screen show a blurry logo on an unidentified background... it is a big loss of space, it provides no information.
- nowhere is it written that the game is free (free sign up, free basic game)
- there is nothing for new players to start with.
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 08:25   #16
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Re: Marketing suggestions

New portal design
Thats what i got so far, but as usual the portal isn't a priority so i'm not getting much help or feedback...
Though it's my personal belief that the portal is a priority to get new players started, if it looks good and has nice info on it and is frequently updated people might look into it further.
Unlike now where the latest news is the eorc or something and the news before that is the eorc the round before it...
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 08:42   #17
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Veedeejem!
New portal design
Thats what i got so far, but as usual the portal isn't a priority so i'm not getting much help or feedback...
Though it's my personal belief that the portal is a priority to get new players started, if it looks good and has nice info on it and is frequently updated people might look into it further.
Unlike now where the latest news is the eorc or something and the news before that is the eorc the round before it...
So you are working on the design - which i agree had to be worked on but is anyone assigned to come up with some fresh content?

And by fresh content i dont mean to add a news post "PA Round 22 has started"
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 08:42   #18
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Sign Up should be right below the Login module and there should be a mention that it is free (not register yet ? sign up now, it's free). There still should be a module for the newcomers (more important than a fancy poll). The Game Status is also a key info that has to be on top somewhere.
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 09:03   #19
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by jupp
So you are working on the design - which i agree had to be worked on but is anyone assigned to come up with some fresh content?

And by fresh content i dont mean to add a news post "PA Round 22 has started"
As far as i'm aware, no...
but then again i'm hardly aware of anything really
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 09:07   #20
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Re: Marketing suggestions

All of the portal designs look like every other portal design we've ever had, but with nicer graphics. This misses the point
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 09:22   #21
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by jupp
So you are working on the design - which i agree had to be worked on but is anyone assigned to come up with some fresh content?

And by fresh content i dont mean to add a news post "PA Round 22 has started"
I will come up with a new idea for a column this weekend, remind me though, what with all the excitement of PA I might forget!

On topic, rob is right, while the portal vdm designed there looks a lot better it's the fundamental approach to the portal that needs re-evaluating in the light of whether or not it actually encourages new people to sign up.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ComradeRob
It looks like we're going to have fewer players this round than last, despite various improvements (giving them the benefit of the doubt) to the game and the fact that it's a free round.
Actually I think we're just ahead of the total signups at the start of last round now. I reckon by tick start we'll be about 100 ahead or something close.
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Last edited by JonnyBGood; 22 Jun 2007 at 09:49.
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 09:24   #22
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by ComradeRob
All of the portal designs look like every other portal design we've ever had, but with nicer graphics. This misses the point
I'm aware of that but from my point as designer i can only design it the way it is now, due to pa-coders having limited time to work on the portal anyway.

I think that the best step would be to let the community take a shot at the portal, I'm sure there are alot of able coders on this forum who could make a portal with new features like allowing comments to news items, alliance related items, alliance advertisements on the portal, a mini sandmans/pilkara that shows who is winning, who lost most, etc etc

I'm willing to work with anyone who can do this and has the time for it (no use in signing up for this if the soonest you'll get it ready is round 35), though i doubt pa-team will just let non-team members just do it without strict supervision.

PS: I'd also prefer if the login + register pages we have now at http://game.planetarion.com be deleted all together and have everything going through the portal, but the portal would have to be shitloads better than it is now...
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 10:24   #23
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Oh, something positive posted on the pirate (yarr) : o r l a n d o b l o o m :
There should be a possibility to get in touch with bigger (nonprofit) websites that are used to running proper community sites and ask them for help and guidance, cause, to be honest, the ones doing work for pa as far as design goes (if there are any) know puck all

http://www.multigamer.no is a good example of how to do this, and its based on drupal
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 12:26   #24
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Oh and is that advert banner really needed and especially at that position?

it ruins the whole page .... but i guess it's some deal with the devil we have made there
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 13:19   #25
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tietäjä
It does matter. Or then someone has a fked up Firefox.

Opera, Firefox (Torrify), and Internet Explorer all show it good to me (ie. I don't need to scroll, in fact, I don't have to scroll). And I'm on 1680*1050.
Well no wonder you can view it easily if you're on 1680*1050
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 19:24   #26
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Veedeejem!
New portal design
Thats what i got so far, but as usual the portal isn't a priority so i'm not getting much help or feedback...
Though it's my personal belief that the portal is a priority to get new players started, if it looks good and has nice info on it and is frequently updated people might look into it further.
Unlike now where the latest news is the eorc or something and the news before that is the eorc the round before it...
Looks quite nice. The design looks a bit large, it would probably need a lot of tweaking and size reductions to get it down to 800x600 or 1024x768 instead of the massive resolutions. It does look far more colourful than the current boring design though!

My main concern with the portal though is the content. I've just checked out the Google cache of the portal here (might not work for too long). The main page is just paragraph after paragraph of text, this is not appealing to the eye! Take a look at the round 22 announcement as a typical example, instead of making the first paragraph as the teaser and the rest of the article on a separate page - the entire ugly thing is on the front page.

If you're just going to serve out the same shit under a new design then just cancel the portal straight away. You need people who are willing to generate some regular front page news.
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Unread 22 Jun 2007, 20:02   #27
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by GReaper
Looks quite nice. The design looks a bit large, it would probably need a lot of tweaking and size reductions to get it down to 800x600 or 1024x768 instead of the massive resolutions. It does look far more colourful than the current boring design though!
Thx for the positive comment m8
about the size: it's alot easier to scale something down than up, when you scale up the whole thing pixelates quite easy so i prefer to make my things at a big resolution


Quote:
Originally Posted by GReaper
My main concern with the portal though is the content. I've just checked out the Google cache of the portal here (might not work for too long). The main page is just paragraph after paragraph of text, this is not appealing to the eye! Take a look at the round 22 announcement as a typical example, instead of making the first paragraph as the teaser and the rest of the article on a separate page - the entire ugly thing is on the front page.

If you're just going to serve out the same shit under a new design then just cancel the portal straight away. You need people who are willing to generate some regular front page news.
Couldn't agree more on that
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Unread 26 Jun 2007, 22:02   #28
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Re: Marketing suggestions

That idea about a Facebook is absolutely brilliant, Rob. I honestly do think that'd drag people in. I currently play a stupid version of paper-scissors-stone against my friends through Facebook, which is ridiculous as its a pretty dull game in itself. Planetarion would merge nicely with Facebook, but I don't know how hard it'd be to code...?
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Unread 26 Jun 2007, 22:39   #29
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Re: Marketing suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomkat
That idea about a Facebook is absolutely brilliant, Rob. I honestly do think that'd drag people in. I currently play a stupid version of paper-scissors-stone against my friends through Facebook, which is ridiculous as its a pretty dull game in itself. Planetarion would merge nicely with Facebook, but I don't know how hard it'd be to code...?
Not hard (says the person who just coded his first Facebook app a couple of hours ago ).

It's one of those 'how long is a piece of string' questions. The actual coding, like almost all coding tasks, is fairly trivial (like pretty much any task that can be outsourced to a third-world country). The hard part is figuring out how to integrate it with the existing code (which I can't comment on since I've not seen it) and solving the general 'political' question of a) getting everyone to agree that it's a good idea, b) finding the necessary resources and c) finding someone to do it.
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