Marketing - AR college/university Blitz

[Kalist19]

Hey guys, looking for some input!

New marketing idea: create a one page advertisement for AR that can be printed out on a standard sheet of paper and pinned up/taped around college/university campuses.

It’s a pretty low cost project and there are enough of us that work/live near college/uni or are currently students that it is also easily executable.

I’d like to hear what you guys think should go on the ad!

In my mind I picture the AR logo clear and in the middle at the top. Below that maybe something like:

Do you like multiplayer RPG?

Do you like immersive character development and role play?

Do you like adrenaline pumping PvP?

Do you like levelling up?

Do you like acquiring and training new skills and spell?

Do you like slaying your foes and looting their corpses?

Do you like games that are completely FREE (you will never be asked for money).

Come and try the ABANDONED REALMS! The best MUD known to man.

www.abandonedrealms.com

https://discord.gg/S6Q8eYdxqM


I think it’d be nice to have the key words bolded and a different colour, maybe even all caps (words like RPG, PvP, looting, skills, spells, free, etc).

I have no idea how to do it but that’d be super cool if we could have a QR code that links to the website or discord (or both).

What do you think?

[Davairus]

Your idea is not bad, just outdated. I think the reason why the newsletter works is because there are deactivated players who forgot the place, and why the posting on reddit works (at least to get logins) is those are people who are disgruntled/banned and looking for new muds. i.e. your targetting is on point already. MUDs used to just spread like memes where you'd feel inclined to tell people about this cool shit you found. Thats why the university billboard posting would work in 1997. nowadays you have rocket league, dota, street fighter online etc. MMOs. extremely stiff competition for muds for university student attention. I think the best return for your effort would be to post where people are looking for muds, and also, that is not a hopeless thing by any means, because there are commercial muds recruiting and shedding players too. reddit's definitely an important feeding pool but thats a lot of BS, so I expect there's probably other social networks for muds

https://grapevine.haus/
https://www.mudlistings.com/
https://www.mudhalla.net/

examples of targetted billboard websites

Voting is still relevant.

[Kalist19]

Great points dav. You’re so right, this would have worked way better in the 90s. Still might be kind of fun to pursue but I will definitely be looking at the sites you linked and how to get AR out there. Thanks for pointing me in that direction!

[BlackWidow]

I somehow missed this...

I graduated from a technical institute in 2013 when some of my classmates were just getting into the Zork trilogy. That would've been a good time to link them up if I'd thought to get them involved. However, I was too busy with an internship and had to delete a major character during that time, so I wasn't totally focused on AR.

What I was instantly reminded of at another MUD 15 years ago was the Beyond Zork game only with a real-time component. AR with the minimap enabled is a lot like that as an interface.

The RP potential in AR is better than in D&D imo. With that said, the ability to have intense PvP action with obsolete hardware, and even play at a competitive level along with the best players without having to invest tons of money is appealing (I had a friend tell me there's no point to playing competitive Call of Duty unless you have a plasma TV, that's how big a difference it makes). The PC I'm typing at right now, which I've played AR from almost exclusively for nine years at this point, was originally intended to be a CAD workstation but turned into a computer for gaming and personal business.

Conversely, one problem which occurs in games as old as AR is the fact that our player base is not only older, but has more experience with the game. When I started out here, I wasn't a PKer, and for several years I didn't even try it out seriously. Somehow, over time, I became involved in the PKing side of AR, perhaps in part due to what Hemingway said about the hunting of men; no sport compares with it afterwards for those who have tried it and liked it.

One other point about the greater amount of experience... I played a game at one point online which was a remake of two games in a trilogy which never became three games (Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's Revenge were the published games). I lost countless games because I was up against players who had played the original games for a long time and had far more experience than me. It wasn't much fun even with an experienced player taking the time to mentor me and even tell me in a friendly 1v1 match what he was doing each turn as well as his plans and what he was thinking.

And I think that may be where we lose some of our newcomers. They aren't used to AR and its nuances, and might not have the patience to take the time to learn it.