How can we help EL grow?

[Guest Trojan_Knight]

After the latest poll in a thread regarding the removal of rule number 5. I got the impression that maybe we need to, or could help do something to help promote the idea of aquiring more people to begin playing. Not alts, but actual people. New people. Now I alone, can't imagine how stressful it could be or is, to try multiple ways to recruit new players with out pulling players from other games. Because that could be bad business.

 

So I thought to make this suggestion or question. What are some things we as players, as the community, as the good guys & gals, the bad guys & gals. Able, willing, and could possibly do to help promote the game to help increase the population? So I thought of some ideas, and any ideas or suggestions you have please add.

 

~ Each GM could volunteer a small protion of they're guilds site, if they have one. To basic knowledge of EL and how to down load, play, get started under a public viewed setting? (I know a handful have done this already, yet if more did, I beleive that would help possibly.)

 

~ Individual sites, which are owned by someone other then the GM could also maybe do so as well? (these to are based on that you are approved to do so by Ent himself)

 

~ Maybe we could brain storm to possibly help think of places that may not of been advertised? (because lets face it, if I spend enough time thinking about which kind of cookie I want to eat today, after all the possiblities I get so confukd that I just pick the regular oatmeal cookie)

 

~ I think this is a great game, and I think maybe its time we as the players, community, etc return some sort of advancement of the game in a way which does not reflect anyone or anything in a negative way. Many people over time have helped make this game what it is. And I think maybe some of us could help give back in some type of effort.

 

Now I did not make this thread in the idea of desperation. But more so, in the idea that new players are always a great thing for everyone. No matter how you look a it, a brand new player is always a + sign of some sort. Also we can only make this game as much fun as we choose to have or allow it to be. Because each individual plays slightly differently. Thus each of us may have a different idea, or suggestion, or comment.. Whats yours?

 

~~> me <~~

[Infamous]

how about ppl just tell their friends about it?

Edited October 14, 2008 by Hardcore

[Guest Trojan_Knight]

how about ppl just tell their friends about it?

 

Thats a great start imho

[BloodSucker]

1. Signatures, EL website links or logos in profiles on other forums, facebook, myspace etc. etc. - small adds, but can really make a difference (I know it from autopsy of my own page).

2. Reviews written on the gamers sites - I've tried to write about EL on one of the biggest polish site about games (not only mmorpgs). Few people started playing, they asked their questions there, nice conversation began, few plays till now.

[Ermabwed]

You can also add information about EL on various games-related sites, by chance I found gaming.wikia.com a few weeks ago and it had an empty page about EL, I added some links, e.g. to the Wikipedia article and voila, something small to get started and interested players pointed towards more information.

Funny little add-on: two people started an EL-wiki at wikia within 1 month of each other, didn't contain any information yet... for a wiki go to DC's EL wiki.

[RotationZ]

Post on MMORPG.com, And Hype EL

Perhaps update those old screenies from client v 0.0.1 that still give a bad impression of the game there.

[Looter]

Word of mouth is probably the best way, its how i started to play and also i have brought quiet a few people here in the same way. Some of the people i introduced left before getting into the game, i asked what it is they didnt like, new players get frustrated because its so hard to hit those rabbits and beaver ect, another guy was stuck in hell for hours and quit, luckily i sorted out his maps and he now loves the game. My point is that alot of people who start to play quit in the 1st few days or even hours, IP needs to be less frustrating imo, for example if its possible make it so they can target rabbits ect a bit easier and give them a map to c1 hell from the start, also the chat system is complicated to a new player and for this reason i dont think its good to start new players on #jc 1 i know it seems sensible as it is the help channel but new players would soon find this if they want it and all the spam adds to their confusion.

 

make the game easier to get started, more people will stay, after all if someone tries the game and does not like it i doubt they will ever be back, those that get past the newbie stage stay for years, help them like it and soon numbers will grow.

 

edit: as a guild with some quiet pr0 members we decided to lower our requirements for joining the guild to the minimum, as a result we recruited 4 new members that where very fresh to the game, these newbies have settled in well with the help of our guild, if more pr0 guilds took the same risk alot of newbies would settle in more and stay in the game. most pr0 guilds i know are very anti-newb.... this is a bad thing.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Looter

[Nahtepa]

Best way to advertise-

Buy lots of spraypaint, find a large enough wall (if not more than one), paint a nice EL logo on it with the web adress so ppl check it out? pro, no?

[daiske1]

very pr0.

 

but won't the game get over loaded. I'm not sure but i think the server can only hold 3000 people.

 

Runescape has like 17million people playing at once......

[Infamous]

buy tickets to football matches or w/e, paint EL logo on your ass and streak across the field \o/

 

serious now - telling ppl about it is probably the best way, links on guild sites isnt, only ppl who already play EL visit those guild forums.

[Aphistolas]

I think HC's idea is best atm

 

@Signature links: Do we even have any of those? If Roja could design some I'd gladly include them in my signatures on the other forums I frequent.

[Entropy]

very pr0.

 

but won't the game get over loaded. I'm not sure but i think the server can only hold 3000 people.

 

Runescape has like 17million people playing at once......

 

That is a problem for us to worry about, not you.

And AFAIK, Ruenscape only has 150K or so players playing at once.

[Guest Trojan_Knight]

I think possibly another great idea. That I've not seen much of lately is that of video's. New video's. Some have been placed into utube for example, and thats free advertisment in a sense. Though there have been many ideas that I wouldn't even of thought of on my best day lolz.. Since some, like myself, dont have the ability to make gif files at the moment. Maybe someone could make a gif file w/ linkage, so that some, like myself that have other sites, or ordeals. Could place a uber sticker / banner type gif file onto they're sites. Maybe Roja would be willing to do this? Since I think anything she would do, if choosed to, would be auto approved We all know theres a number of ways to host it publicly so that all that would really need to be done. Is providing a link so that others could copy and paste the code of that "sticker" or "banner" for example.

 

Anyways, going back to the video thing. If someone could make one that could be "voted" on by those that take part in EL. As the pr0 video advertisement. I think that itself would or could make a greater impact then just information alone. Due to the player gets to see the graphics, the about how to play in one manner or another. Visuals are a huge part of things since we all know after a paragraph or two of a "about something" becomes a bore from time to time while reading.. Visuals grab your attention. But if one was made souly for this purpose. We wouldn't want to false advertise it. Meaning adding idk Pantera's "walk" to it for example, knowing that while we play, that song isn't auto included in the game lol..Because then what occurs is "Damn, and I thought this game was gonna play cool music while I played it" lol..

 

~~> me <~~

[Airakose]

I keep trying to get people to play. I show them screenshots on my MP3 player, tell them about how great EL is, and they are captured by it at first... Then when I tell them "O, it's free too! But you have to download it.." They all give up on it.

 

Runescape is so popular because it sucks graphically, and is browser-based for lower systems...

 

Something I've noticed is that big games like WoW and the new WarHammer get attention on YouTube, like Trojan said...

But their videos are specially tailored graphical masterpieces that introduce you to an in-game story (Which EL only has it's forum-based histories and stories).

I know how hard it is to 3D model everything for something like that, and animate it... It's insane what those developers do

 

 

 

So... Yeah, YouTube. Try making an EL MySpace (If not already done) All you have to do is screw with the MySpace CSS code. Give me a layout and I could do it for you ^^ An EL deviantART? Try all of the popular websites ^^

Try verbal approaches, just don't preach the gospel

Umm.. And all the in-game elements for catching their attention (That I can think of) are in development already.

 

 

 

Alot of it is what is in-game to, not just advertising. So consider that

 

 

 

--Air

Edited October 15, 2008 by Airakose

[korrode]

The type of person EL provides the best gaming experience for is not the typical MMORPG player, as such the potential playerbase is less than for other games.

Whether this is a good or bad thing is really a matter of individual opinion, and that's not what i'm looking to debate. I'm just saying that IMO if a big influx of players is wanted, the game would need to be significantly changed.

 

Of course, getting the word out to the niche that EL does cater to is still important, so any and all advertising ideas that don't cost anything are effectively good ideas.

[Ateh]

if there was some sort of banner/signature link we could use i would gladly put that on my facebook, myspace , any other forums i use

[Cruella]

Ummmm .... what's this ?

 

Clicky

[Ateh]

are we allowed to use that for forum siggys on other forums and for myspace / facebook amongst other things?

 

and if so, is there anyway to make that a clicky, or would we just have to include a self made URL and insert it under the pic ?

 

*edit* because it actually says '' You may not use this image without permission from the owner '' next to the banners

Edited October 15, 2008 by Ateh

[Cruella]

well, search is your friend again :

 

You can use banners and make them however you'd like for EL, as long as there's nothing obscene/perverted/deragortory..you get the picture.

 

as to making it clicky, it is just basic html code associated wit the image

 

<a href="http://eternal-lands.com"><img src="[i]name of your image[/i]" alt="EL" width="xxx" height="yy" border="0" /></a>

[Aphistolas]

@Cruella:

You may use these images on Eternal Lands related websites, or Eternal Lands related artwork that is in compliance with

[Raz]

The one thing I hear from others is the character creation process is strange - and a pain to do before you actually start playing!

 

I recently underwent a race change - and found it totally disjointed...

[Guest Trojan_Knight]

I got to thinking earlier last night (since now my day is over due to night shift). Theres a ton of people just like me that do what I do, that love playing a high paced game, and also a slower paced game like EL. EL works for me on just about any speed of net connection. And the only time I can't get on game is when either 1) I forgot to pay the bill for my wireless, lolz.. or 2) My cell phone won't even grab roaming towers thus my wireless wont either. So while I'm at work, and usually at home in between things. I play EL, when I'm in a mood to destroy some stuff, I toss in my favorite first person shooter game and take it online. Not gonna mention the name, only cuz this topic is about helping EL aquire a larger population of people. Some people may not know if they like EL or not, only because they have never tried it.. I honestly would have never thought I would have liked EL many years ago, if I would not have tried it myself. Due to the typical type of games I'm best known for playing amongst friends and etc. So sometimes to "assume" is not always a great thing imo.

 

Anyways, thanks for finding the linky to those banners and etc.. I forgot all about those, and when I search, idk wtf the deal is, but my searching ability pretty much sucks lol. If I had a program where I could make gif files. I'd probally take the white logo, some pics of all the big monsters, lil monsters, animals, some characters, slap them together in a slow scroll and link it to EL's main page, and end it with the black logo. But I don't have a program at the moment to do so. So if someone could get "okayd" to do so and maybe toss it up in here for so some of us could copy and paste it onto things like sites, myspace, facebook, yearbook, etc , web sites, other forums, etc etc.. Anything that moves grabs ur eye.. Anything w/ light also grabs ur eye. Its like your watching tv, yet some how the cat that you can't see, catches the corner of your eye so you look.

 

Also, due to the type of work I do. There is a large amount of people that also do the same things that I do.. However, maybe 30% of them have a lap top. Of that 30% I would be willing to say that 35% of those, use they're lap tops souly for gaming while have nothing else to do. Now that may be merely over 10%, but over all considering all the people, thats a huge number of people. Because when your 2000 miles from the house, and sitting in bum funked egypt (no offense to any egyptians) wtf else you gonna do? Play games .. So i think after I finish my guilds guildportal site page w/ EL info.. I'm gonna start tagging up all the pr0 truck driver forums. Cuz many have sub sections "games / leisure time / etc bs" area's. So I think like been suggested, anything of any kind of etc, could or may be a possible direction to help us help the game.

 

~~> me <~~

[Guest Trojan_Knight]

Gonna try to see if I can show this one properly on here lol.. I may have to edit, unsure at the moment lol.

 

 

 

~ Please, dont forget, if you include this onto other forums, to use [ in place of ^

 

^URL=http://www.eternal-lands.com]^IMG]http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/6899/705788c704ed6fm3ru4.gif[/img][/url]

 

 

~Below is a code for websites and such. That provides a caption box so that others can also copy and paste the code. You can clicky HERE To see a great example of how the below would look.

 

<a href="http://www.eternal-lands.com"><img'>http://www.eternal-lands.com"><img src="http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/6899/705788c704ed6fm3ru4.gif"'>http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/6899/705788c704ed6fm3ru4.gif" border="0" width="167" height="178" alt="BannerFans.com" /></a>

<br /><textarea style="font: 10px Verdana, Helvetica; color: #cccccc; background: #141414; border: 1px #000000 solid; width: 250px;" cols="40" rows="3" wrap="auto"><a href="http://www.eternal-lands.com"><img src="http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/6899/705788c704ed6fm3ru4.gif" border="0" width="167" height="178" alt="Powered by BannerFans.com" /></a>

</textarea>

 

 

Edited: Lol, for the 13th time today in the past 7 min.. Anyways, hope this is okay to use w/ other sites and etc. I added the name to the bottom to give those that dont know. A idea of what EL stands for. Also, if Roja or Ent could approve this so I could in lame man terms "spam" it onto approperiate sites I would appreciate it.

 

~~> me <~~

Edited October 17, 2008 by Trojan_Knight

[Cyprom]

Wouldn't this be easiest?

[url=http://www.eternal-lands.com][img=http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/uploads/1202328285/gallery_4_9_25571.jpg][/url]

 

Certain forums don't allow html, so this code may be better than Cruella's. Just a minor note

 

(PS: You can use a code box to show things like this..)

[cycrosism]

The game is growing a lot, it's already supported on xfire and there are stacks of users on that and if people see that i am playing eternal lands (just like it should say in my sig) they will probably give it a try then there friends will see it and you know