A method for increasing playerbase

[Ergorion]

I already wrote an idea to the immortals about this, but I figured I'd toss it out to the public.

I was watching Attack of the Show the other day and they were talking about Halo 3 and how alternate reality gaming was one of the ad campaigns that was put together for it. And I thought that alternate reality games could be used to increase the playerbase of AR. If the immortals and mortals alike took down pay phone numbers near them and called advertising AR in some catchy way or another, then I bet the playerbase would increase. Besides, I don't think Aarwolf, Carrion Fields or any of those other MUDs advertises this way, so we have a monopoly on the market.

Oh. And if I don't respond to anything for like two weeks, it's because I can't access a computer, which sucks, cause I can't play.

[theobserver]

Are you suggesting I ring pay phones and tell random people to play AR?

[ryokan]

i think we should make some phony myspace pages with sexy pic's and then invite people to play when the surges come on through bulletins after you make a bunch of friends/people stupid enough to add a bot.
tell them to enter the game and give your self a character name, teach them to play once you get over the first learning bump its all goodness.

[Grayden]

All you need to increase the player base for AR is to destroy WOW. I think warcraft stole more players then anything else.

Grayden Grim of the Bloody Fields of Flesh

[Xazappith]

Lets get those cool tee shirts. <PK> on the front and www.abandonedrealms.com on the back. It would work. And you could try to sell them for like 5 bucks to other people who play other video games and then they'd buy them cause its only 5 bucks and they'd be all like. "what's abandonedrealms.com?" And they'd go and they'd click and they'd play.

[Grayden]

I would put a bumper sticker on my car, and a few that are not my car if there were some available.

Grayden Grim of the Bloody Fields of Flesh

[Shughurd]

Send some reviews to a local gaming magazine imo. It worked wonders for some other muds. Maybe even if theres a tech-show on TV, try to get someone there to represent AR. Or just face the fact that theres 1k+ muds out there that look almost all the same (ROMROMROMROM!) from the moment you have logged on. So yeah, not really happening imo.

[deauja]

during surge just stop in at a bunch of smalltime muds and send tells to every one at once, say 'try this great new mud abandonedrealms.com 9000' then quit the mud right after you say that and they'll have no choice but to come check us out, really.

and put items back into the emporium, even if they aren't all acurate.

[Accident-Prone]

[Davairus]

Word of mouth is best. Oh, and the best thing muds have going for them is the price.

[jaran]

Word of mouth is definately best, however voting is also very important. Maybe we should see about getting a formal mud connector review? I know that I started playing based on a mud connector review about ermm.. 8 years ago or something.. so if it worked for me it will work for others...


Remember to vote!!

[Kedaleam]

I am yet to this day, trying to figure out what the hell brought me here...

[pip]

i just noticed that on the mudconnector site it hasn't been updated in three years..and what's this about pk being restricted? when did that happen? might need to do some updating to get easy interest in the game

[E-ant]

pk is restricted

[Vertas]

I dunno about you guys...But im pretty sure no one but my room mates know i play ar...Sooo I'm thinking we just recruit older "done" players. That would be better than calling random people who just might be serial killers or anything like that...Soooo if you have aim and the names of people who used to play and no longer do then try and get a hold of them and sucker them into being addicted again.

[trance_monkey]

I wonder if we ought to look at this from a perspective of taking ownership of the game we like so much.

First off: What can we identify as main the components attraction to this game?

How did WE find this mud?
In those ways we found it, how do we capitalize in those methods?

Was it pure luck? You just randomly came across the mud from a mudlist?
Then lets get the name out there with banners, more exposure and try to raise the chances someone comes across AR.

Your friends told you about it?
Then start telling your friends about it: IRL, and whatever "Online Friends" you have. (PS, don't ask them to play at first. Just talk it up for a while. Talk about how much you like it, how fun it is, how it's improved your life - the truth is what you make it - Cults also implement this strategy. It works. Trust me.)

You were looking for a very specific kind of mud: either an RP mud that wasn't totally gay or a PK mud that had at least a little substance?
Then let's appeal to both of those markets! There's lots of ways to get publicity on the web. This is a whole other topic, though.


Anyways... I've seen a lot of these threads over the years and, yet, no one seems to take initiative.

Who does invest in this game and take initiative?

It seems only people really invested in the game are the IMMs/IMPs. They code and work on a game that brings them nothing but joy (hopefully). Certainly not money, certainly not praise (flames, sure). They like doing it.

If we as players want to see something happen with the playerbase (more people would be totally awesome, btw), we need to take some responsibility both in our own time and our money.

Yes, money.

What can we do?

Making a website is free. There's all kinds of methods for publicity in free websites such as Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, etc. They're actually great resources to tap. Bots alone might bring more people (totally ethical: if someone comes to AR because of a Bot, they came because the Bot gave them a link to something they're interested in. This isn't a scam, because we're not asking for money.)

The best way to get a website or URL noticed on sites like Google, however, is getting different sites with similar and adequate content to link to said site. Besides social networking sites like the aforementioned, one can make their own website dedicated to AR or MUDs or Roleplaying or Fantasy Writing or whatever! Free of charge! There's tons of free hosting sites out there, and even free dynamic DNS sites (meaning you can host your own Website and pay no yearly DNS registration fee).

My monies! Noooooooo

MONEY, however, can also make it happen. Maybe, even better. "Put your money where your mouth is" so to speak.

Go and look into what sites like www.mudconnector.com and www.topmudsites.com charge for banners/ads. It's not cheap. It's not terribly expensive, either, for anyone with a decent job*cough* who really likes AR and wants to see it grow.

I've looked into this several times in the past, but couldn't make decent banners. FF and someone else said they'd make me a banner, but never got around to doing it or giving it to me. I'm a shitty artist. Right now I can't really do it, but in a few months (after my wedding and hopefully landing a new sweet prospective job) I might be able to. (and breaking the news to the wife that I play muds...)

Summary

Anyway, my main point is that I see a lot of talk and not a lot of action. Do we need to appoint some press chairmen of AR publicity to get it started? Someone to organize and lead us all towards a goal? T-Shirts would be fine (though I think online publicity will pay off more), but do we need someone to get it done?

I, for one, think AR is one of the best MUDs out there. There may be better, but AR is where it's at imo. We need to start helping the publicity campaign as much as the IMMS/IMPS continue to work on code and make the game better for us, despite the lack of playerbase.

They do it because they love it. So should we.

[Davairus]

In order for word of mouth to work, there has to be something worth talking about. We would benefit a lot from more people finally maturing a bit and making decent level 50's, playing characters at max level like they're supposed to. That'd lead to winter/underworld/redhorne runs and inevitably uber-geared pkers. That's what really gets tongues wagging. If you look at the recent graveyard, there's a lot of low level rage deleted trash in there, its pretty negative if people are just talking about that, and even if they aren't, what else is there to say? I mean people are just going to see that and say that AR is a trash place with no roleplay. I think we have enough people already to have a crowded level 50 scene, its just a matter of people pulling out their fingers and stop hiding from pk's in the low levels. Or we could try to outbid "Iron Realms Entertainment" on mudconnector rotations. *shrug* The game has enough players for more level 50 action than we're getting, that's all I can say. I understand the grouping problems, but its a fact that the present playerbase is underutilizing classes all over the place, people are not even going for 50 and trying pk out before deleting, etc etc.

[Esivole]

There are reasons we have 15 people on at high times.
anyone remember 35+ people on at a time? when you had to actually scroll the who list? oh the days I miss, oh the days.
*sighs*

[jaran]

Yeah thats mainly down to the rise in games such as WOW, D&D Online, LOTR Online, etc... and also due to a lot of the older players simply not having the time anymore to devote to playing AR due to work, family, etc...

It's no fault of AR, in fact I believe the game we have right now is the best it's ever been in terms of coding and content. There are still many people out there who would get hooked on AR given the chance, there are more graphical muds (which is basically what things like world of warcraft are) out there that have been attracting their attention in the past few years but AR still has significant pulling power once somebody plays it for a while.

1) It's free

2) It includes a high standard of roleplay (something which the popular online games severely lack)

3) Excellent PK'ing system which requires actual skill and knowledge to do successfully (again something which the graphical online games lack)


So yes we may not have as many people playing as we did 5 or 8 years ago but that is a trend you will see in almost every mud out there, AR still offers a fantastic experience for people and it remains free to play... so for me there is no comparison..

That's the message we need to be spreading around to our friends and online.

[Viggs]

I scream out Abandoned Realms Kicks Ass every time i reach orgasam ,,, that should work just as soon as Im not yelling it alone.