Promotion - rethink targeting

Discuss ideas about promoting Genesis and inviting more players into the Genesis community
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Laurel

Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Laurel » 20 Aug 2012 00:40

Based on poll results from this topic, because Kitriana most kindly asked me to move my thoughts elsewhere:
http://www.genesismud.org/forums/viewto ... f=5&t=1602

Food for thought:

Considering the result of this poll, maybe it is not quite wise to go for completely new players as a start? Maybe it's better to re-activate the horde of ex-Gen-addicts in the first place? If this horde created 1.5 new chars on average and played them a little, we'd still end up increasing activity by ... a lot?

There's 100+ Genesis FB group users (mostly ex-players) registered with even more chars. The result of this poll show, that it addressed 11 people, who claimed to be new players (tho I don't believe it, cause noone wrote a single line of text about it, aside from voting). In opposition to those 11, there's 28 who aren't new. Still they mostly do not play.

For answers to questions what to do, to activate them - ask those who don't play. Ask them on FB. Ask them what they would need to come back.
I know why I play, but I ain't them.

To summerize, it just occured to me, that the results of the poll would be a good lever for a complete overhaul of the promotion target market.

The poll result also shows that member-get-member is the most common way to get new players. Another reason to activate dormant oldies. Even for a while, during which utter newbies would have a much more vivid playing experience.

Arcon

Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Arcon » 20 Aug 2012 01:11

It would be great to see some of the old names again but the question is, can we make them stay?

When AA opened Genesis got a lot of old players back but they did not stay. When we started the fb we got a lot of visits from old players as well but almost none stayed.

The problem isn't how to make them come back but how to make them stay. And for that we need big changes, AA reopening wasn't enough. We need huge changes for them to want to stay and feel excited about Genesis again.

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Kitriana
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Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Kitriana » 20 Aug 2012 04:14

Thank you for moving the post to a new thread---

Laurel bring up a good point -- I think capitilazing on FB is super important. And it definately gives us an audience that has previously been committed to Genesis. Arcon is right -- how do you bring them back and get them to stay. Personally -- I think a lot of us stay because of the friendships we've made. Thusly...

One of the ideas I had was to publicize an open house as part a kick off of weeklong activities.

As suggested previously on this forum -- we could post something about the open house on Reddit, Mudding Forums, and contact a few blogs to see if they would be willing to do a write up about the event. We would also post the Open House and Schedule of events on the FB page inviting old members to come back and at least visit with old friends. This gives people, both new and old, a schedule weekend to login to the game where they can expect a high turnout of players. Plus the current active base would be around to answer questions, team and just have general fun.

Then during the open house we promote further events we'd plan for later that week. IE: A Tournament . Additional ideas for activities for that week would be needed.

Lastly -- That Friday -- we would launch an recycled event from the past. IE -- something easy but that would draw people into continue playing. My first suggestion would be the butterfly event. But we would be publicizing that the event would be starting on Friday...

Additionally to support this Open house idea -- I see on topmuds website all the time they are posting different open houses, or events, or different things to draw people into the game THAT week or day or weekend.. outside of just a basic advert about how their mud is awesome. Plus -- those types of activites and events give us excuses to post on that forum. It shows we're active.. it shows that we're doing something and it puts us in front of people's faces.
If something I wrote sounds confusing ... assume you misunderstood it.

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gorboth
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Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by gorboth » 20 Aug 2012 06:57

Loving the ideas!

G.
Mmmmmm ... pie ...

Bertram
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Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Bertram » 21 Aug 2012 14:24

What if those old chars don't play gen any more for the same reasons as the new players don't start or continue to play?
I don't want to spread negative energy, only try to think logically. If they know the game very well and still don't what to play it
there must be something in it. On the other hand after thinking about it a little, it is not that bad idea after all. I mean its funny that after 15+ years
of having contact with this game, I still feel its dedicated for a group of some old buddies only. Even more now than before.

Laurel

Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Laurel » 21 Aug 2012 14:34

Bertram wrote:What if those old chars don't play gen any more for the same reasons as the new players don't start or continue to play?
Nobody asked, afaik.

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gorboth
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Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by gorboth » 21 Aug 2012 17:23

Laurel wrote:
Bertram wrote:What if those old chars don't play gen any more for the same reasons as the new players don't start or continue to play?
Nobody asked, afaik.
Genesis can only do so much to build and develop on it's core offering - a text-based environment that excels best at offering a unique and rich world in which roleplay is superior to gameplay. If people are looking for something entirely other than this, we are not able to cater to them more than at a tertiary level.

The redesign we are capable of doing right now is very minimal with our given staff, as has been described in recent Common Board essays. The greatest staff we have are the players themselves, who can do a great deal to emphasize and bring to life our above-mentioned core offerings: roleplay and a lived-in feel to our unique and expansive realm.

G.
Mmmmmm ... pie ...

Laurel

Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Laurel » 21 Aug 2012 17:50

I was rather thinking along those lines:

a. I stopped, cause I needed more time in RL
BUT did you know that now it's really not a problem to get geared up in Genesis? you can even join guilds, that are totally undependant from the eq-run hassle, hence you can always spend just as much time on Genesis as you have

b. I stopped, cause of stupid buttheads giving me a hard time
BUT did you know most of them stopped playing / were deleted?

c. I stopped, cause I found application/joining procedures to be fucked up long
BUT did you know, that this issue has been dealt with either by code or by mortals themselves in the game already?

d. I stopped after my chars were deleted
BUT did you hear about the restoration of old chars run by Gorboth a while ago?

etc. etc.

If you don't ask questions, you will hardly get answers to work on the issues (if they weren't already dealt with).

You can run information campaigns on FB too, just like you did on this forum. This month we advertise, that there is free restoration for old chars. Next month we advertise, that X number of new guild members (aside from free-join guilds) have appeared over the last Y months, with an average of Z hours of play-time apprenticehood.

I don't know - that's shooting at issues that were not researched, so in other words shooting blind.

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Cherek
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Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Cherek » 21 Aug 2012 18:35

I agree with Laurel. There are actually a number of reasons people may have stopped playing, that would mean they could be interested now since some things have changed for the better imho. Actually much has changed for the better, the "only" big thing that is worse now than 10 years ago is the amount of players. Imho the game itself is greatly improved. Also, its been years since we last invited old players to try the game, if I am not mistaken it was long before the Facebook page we did that the last time?

Definitely worth a shot.

I earlier suggested we should also use the mail-adresses we have stored to send out an invitation mail to each mail adress we have. I think all those mail adresses have potential that we arent using. And I am not talking about sending them spam, but I doubt anyone would be angry if they got ONE mail in 15 years from us...:)

Arcon

Re: Promotion - rethink targeting

Post by Arcon » 21 Aug 2012 19:32

We have had some waves of returning players, the opening of AA and the opening of the Genesis FB group. I would like to know why those players did not stick around. I think that is much more important then knowing why they left in the first place. They came and they saw the "new" and changed Genesis, why didn't they stay?

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