Promotional Campaign Experiment

[Rigwyn]

I thought it might be interesting to do an experiment in promoting planeshift to see if we can jack up the player count. While this would cause a heavy influx of noobies, it would at least make the game less barren. Without players, you can't play at, so 100 newbs is better than nothing at all.

The idea that I have would be for a group of us to come up with a strategy for attracting new players by spreading the word via social media websites like Facebook, twitter, ezine articles, blogs, and so on. With a good number of us doing this, it might be rather effective.

We would want to have something to attract them to.... such as a large event, andliK that event would need to be very noob friendly. Noob friendly meaning that settings knowledge is not really needed. Yes, this would be much like what illysia already did but much bigger. In this case, we would be reaching out to the internet for new players.

Now, before anyone starts shouting about the game's faults and shortcomings, there is a lot of good to this game. While it is not complete, its very playable and more than suitable for roleplaying.

One last point is that someone would need to be willing to run a large event. I would volunteer for this, except real life is not giving me enough time to do so. I've done my share of events and small roleplays; someone else needs to carry the torch. :-)

So... with that said, is anyone interested in taking a crack at this?
What are your thoughts?

[Mariana Xiechai]

  I like this idea. I like it a lot. The question is which media sites to use. I think that really a good way is to just ask gamer friends that you have if they would play, I've gotten some of my friends to at least try the game this way.

Also, wouldn't it be neat to have the artists of planeshift put their heads together to come up with posters for it? Maybe post them on deviantart or something. Advertising advertising.

I like the idea, Rigs. I'm in. 

[Aramara Meibi]

PS has a facebook page. Sadly, I have no friends.

[Rigwyn]

As for which media sites to use, I would say as many as possible/appropriate. I'm talking about starting a huge buzz. The buzz Illysia created had a significant effect on player numbers for a while but died out after a while. Newer players might have lower expectations than veteran players and actually stick around longer - especially if attract a rather large population ( 100 - 300 players ).  Just as people have left due to a loss in population, I'm thinking players may be attracted to a large/growing population.

I like the idea of some sort of art for the ad campaign, possibly a video or something too xD

As for timing, we would probably need some sort of strategy  - ie. get everyone to start posting/blogging at a certain date for an event to be hosted on date X, and continue to update posts, blogs, twits/twats or whatever daily until date X. A list of media/blog/forum sites and accounts would need to be made in advance.

I've never tried anything like this before.. but I think it would be interesting ..

[Aramara Meibi]

twits/twats

i believe they're called tweets, like the sound a bird makes.

although what you called them may be more appropriate.

[Rigwyn]

xD Thats why I don't use twatter and facebook.. I don't like all the trivial, meaningless informational crap like f-ing farmville seeds, purple ponies, maffia wars nonsense, likes and so on that these outlets are flooded with. Its steroid infested spam.. but from what I hear, its a good marketing/advertising tool.

[Zalya]

Just post a link to Planeshift in your forum sig for other sites

[Chessire]

The ad campaign sounds good, the ingame newbie event i'm not sure... I can't think of something that will attract people that never tried roleplaying before... because truth is many of PS new players join because its a free mmorpg and try roleplaying later but at first they usually prefer doing quests and leveling. Speaking for myself too.

Another idea i've had on my mind for a while is a webcomic, but as I tend to let many projects freeze I haven't progressed a lot so far. Mostly because I don't trust myself with storywriting much.

[Eonwind]

I like the event for new players a lot!

Unfortunately my working schedule is pretty busy at the moment but I am willing to help any effort as much as I can do 

[novacadian]

This seems like a wonderful idea; yet at least one GM's cooperation should be a prerequisite.

It does not seem far off the mark to expect that many n00bs attracted to a Role Played 3D world may, most likely, have table top or SkyRim-like game software experience at the minimum.

So blow their minds!  

Have a number of Scenarios already scripted for the GM. Each one could have nice GM booty associated with them. Each could only be used once. Create a few modular ideas, like 'Somethings wrong, go check it out, resolve it, get booty'. The same themes could be repeated at different map settings with different GM booty.

Forgotten Realms have been marketing their game world and settings, that way, very successfully.

Run the n00b event for two weeks with a half a dozen active GMs and the place should be hoppin!

Those GM scenarios used could be laid out in PDF file format to allow a PS table top experience for a small downloading fee. Make it optional if you want... but 300 players will be bandwidth hungry. 

Perhaps one other interesting experiment would be to allow a certain number of GMs be player voted GMs; with a term placed upon the positions. The Player Voted GM Accounts would only need the minimal privs required to run such a scenario. Each time they run one they need only mark it as having been used so other GMs would not be offered it.

A software mod is starting to take over my thoughts. Probably ranted enough....

Nice idea... just ensure admin partnership in the project would be my only advice.

- Nova 

[Aramara Meibi]

creating fanart and posting it on other forums isn't a bad idea either. It get's the word out, or maybe someone's already heard of PS and all they hear is the bad stuff. Let them know the project is still alive, and these are the people it attracts.

any fanwork would do the trick, visual or literary.

heck, the reason i started playing DF is because of this comic:


which is still the most accurate depiction of that game i have yet to come across. and it was posted on a completely unrelated forum.

[Gilrond]

Good one, Aramara 

[Gilrond]

For those who use Diaspora, rather than FB, just use the #planeshift hashtag (do it on your Diaspora pod of choice of course). To those who complain about FB and Twitter nonsense, see https://joindiaspora.com/posts/1150174

[Aiwendil]

The idea that I have would be for a group of us to come up with a strategy for attracting new players by spreading the word via social media websites like Facebook, twitter, ezine articles, blogs, and so on.

Sorry Rigwyn, wrong start. Stop discussing and just do. Create that group. Tell them your idea of spreading the word about PS. Then have them do it. And only after that ask for additional ideas how to improve the PR campaign even more. Half a day now and you have a thread full with ideas and useless discussions but only one person saying she wants to help.

For the event...better don't try to do it with only one person organizing it. You want something bigger than the masquerade ball? Ahm...even two people were hardly enough for that one.

[Rigwyn]

Well, this was a feeler. An effort like this would fail with only myself and one other person. Likewise, I also stuck it up here to see if there would be any negative reaction to the idea of baiting a shitload of noobs into the game. I'll think about it.. if I think it will fly and that there are enough folks interested in turning the crank, then I'll give it a shot.