How to attract new players... ideas, opinions, actions!

[Aramara Meibi]

since this is a roleplay focused game (allegedly) why don't we highlight the roleplay features? and, you know, attract more roleplayers. Or, like I proposed in another, almost duplicate thread, share the user created content, the fanart/fanfics, roleplays on other roleplay centric sites. There are numerous roleplay forums, forums dedicated to MUDs, MUSHs, d20s, roguelikes; hop onto those and talk about this game and all the great things going on around here.

recently I found a forum for tabletop gamers in my city. In my welcome post I talked about this game and the things I've taken part in, providing links and such. it lead to some nice discussions and meeting some interesting people, although sadly I don't know if any of them have taken the plunge.

[Rigwyn]

I thought about that, but showing four people with text bubbles might not look so exciting xD

I agree, there are a few places in the game that are rather impressive.. the eagle fort being one, the laanx dungeon was pretty impressive to me too when I was new to the game.  This brings up a question.. given the small size of the world ( in comparrison to say WOW or other games ), would it be spoiler-ish? ( To me, thats kinda gray ) But videos showing players having fun is definitely a plus if you ask me.

[tman]

I thought about that, but showing four people with text bubbles might not look so exciting xD

My thought exactly.  Advertise for the game world in the video and emphasize the roleplay in the text description.  If someone doesn't have the patience to read the video's text description they won't have the patience for RP anyway.

As for being "spoiler"-ish, I'd say yeah it probably is.  If I had seen the bronze doors in a promo I wouldn't have been so impressed by seeing them in the actual game.  That begs the question, would we rather impress players all at once, right at the beginning, or let them discover everything for themselves (and possibly get frustrated and give up before ever making it there).  It's a question I can't answer.

Maybe some sort of compromise?  A quick fly-by? Showing just little pieces of the dungeon, BD, death realm, etc. so they don't seem so familiar in-game?  Leave some of the most impressive features as a surprise?

[Aramara Meibi]

it can't be spoilers if it's included in the official promotional artwork:
http://www.planeshift.it/screenshots.html

and the official trailer:
http://www.planeshift.it/movies.html

[gonger]

Hello,

Thanks to all who contributed to this topic. But still, some more proposals for actions would be appreciated.
Here is one more example: Everybody who is at Facebook should "Like" the official PlaneShift page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/PlaneShift/120037538009535.) This is easily done, and maybe some of your friends will see this and become interested in Planeshift.
Please share similar ideas for other social network sites.

Trave safely!

Gonger Xaraha, of the Bounty Hunters
Miner and Weaponsmith

[Under the moon]

I am really confused as to why my previous post was deleted, but the deletion itself is part of the problem I was trying to illustrate. People having bad experiences in the game or on the forum will not tell their friends to try the game out, and will, in fact, warn them away from it. As it stands, bringing more people to the game with expectations of the fun had in a typical MMO will only send more people away with less than stellar opinions.

The title of this thread is "How to attract new players... ideas, opinions, actions!"  I gave a valid opinion and a suggestion on how to present the game to friends in a way that highlights the main reason people stay (the community theater aspect).

My main suggestion here? Be completely honest to people you are presenting the game to. Don't sugar-coat anything. If you do, and they don't find the promised sugar without digging through piles of lemons, they will only leave with a sour taste in their mouths.

[miadon]

This is something I suggested many years ago now.. sadly never used... but to my knowledge relatively easy to implement...


create loads... 1000s even of dummy objects... default image/model for each could be a sack like it used to be when I played in the 0.3 days. 
These dummy objects can be all kinds of things like tools, clothing items, foods, drinks, raw materials, plants, planks of wood, inks,.... basically any object you can think of that would be in context with the game.

Then you could have NPC merchants selling these dummy objects and then that allows for players to roleplay certain jobs. like a tailor or a carpenter..or a merchant in whatever...

none of the dummy objects have to have the models made immediatly .. and can even be slowly added

helps create a bigger economy IMO and helps roleplay.. as you have the 'objects' even if they dont look like them.. yet.