Re: PBM deposits & value for money

From: jonmmorris@aol.comnospam (JonMMorris)

Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 00:00:00 +0000

>James Gwinnett <tenchi@iinet.net.au> writes:
>> Summary:
>> 8-10 people on the net seem happy to pay for things in advance.
>> 95% of net users are too lazy to even do things that are free :)

David desJardins replies:
>All that I conclude from your posting is that your publicity hasn't been
>very effective.  Promoting services on the web is *hard*.  Especially in
>a niche market like pbem gaming.  I don't think that's a comment on the
>viability of the product; it's a comment on how hard it is to get the
>product together with the people who might want it.
>
>It's not at all clear what kind of publicity you have been relying on.
>I've never even seen an announcement about your game in this group
>(mentioning it incidentally in one of the interminable flame wars
>doesn't count).  In fact, I couldn't find a single article about it,
>ever, either by you or by any player.
>
>My advice on publicity probably isn't worth much, but I think it's
>particularly important to achieve a "critical mass".  Make a big push,
>get lots of players into one or several games (depending on the size of
>your game), encourage diplomacy and communication among them (with
>mailing lists, newsletters, etc.), encourage them to recruit new
>players, and so on.  If you can't get an enthusiastic core group, then
>it will be very hard to build up.

I remember seeing James' announcements for the 100-player game and then the
scaled-down 40-player game.  They prompted me to check out the website.  Very
impressive, I bookmarked it for "when I have more free time" <g>

I agree with David's observations about players.  Cultivate the ones you've
got.  Communicate with them regularly and  make them feel like they're part of
a community and not playing solitaire on the web.  Games are always more fun if
you share them with people you know - remind them of that on a regular basis
and make it easy for them to refer their friends to you.

Word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising in most industries.

--John

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References

Re: PBM deposits & value for money
David desJardins <desj@math.berkeley.edu>
Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00:00 +0000