Grassroot DAoC Promotion

[Deepflame]

Maybe you should change To Discovery into Of Discovery, makes more sense with the Dream part.

 

[Esselinithia]

Thanks for the suggestion Will see what can I do with it. But since I make a lot of stuff now, I don't know if I still have it editable or not. I tought about the text, and as you see, the left side has a heretic, who dreams about going to TOA, and the rest of the image is "monochrome" and tried to make it a bit dream like. The sky, and the "glow" around the small pyramid shows that part of the picture has one set color. So that area is the "dreams" part

The right part has some effects too, to make it brighter than the source image, with pronounced edges, etc. Yes, that part represents "discovery" or in other words: ML raid. As you see ther is no clear border between the two halves, but there is a "gradient" one half with one effect flows into the other half with other effect

This is what the text should represent. A "dreams of discovery" would go well if I wouldn't have two halves and I wouldn't build the concenpt on it, at least I think it should work this way

 

[Svartmetall]

I'm a newbie, I demand help! I demand help I tells ya! Nah but.. Is there any newbie friendly guilds out there willing to take on a young apprentice? I've been in AO(for a couple of months), EQ(for a couple of months) and WoW(since the european release.. Wich would make it.. A couple of months). I roleplayed in WoW so roleplaying shouldnt be a problem(even thou I've only done it for.. yep.. A couple of months, but Im willing to learn). I currently play on EN Excalibur as a troll but can change server, race and those kinda things if needed.

/Cheers from some one fleeing WoW and trying out DAoC

Keep playing Excal with your Troll my guild will have ya

 

[Lamp]

The question is, what can we, the grassroots, do ourselves to help promote this game?

QUOTE]

Shouldn't Mythic / GOA be doing this ?

I admire your enthusiasm - GOOD LUCK !! - but unless you're gonna stand in every shopping mall and give out free copies of DAOC to ppl your efforts will go unrewarded and will be an exercise in futility

 

[Belomar]

I admire your enthusiasm - GOOD LUCK !! - but unless you're gonna stand in every shopping mall and give out free copies of DAOC to ppl your efforts will go unrewarded and will be an exercise in futility

Why not? Is it really too much to ask that you read (and, optionally, comprehend) the full thread before posting things like this. My whole point is that there is things we as players (the grassroots) can do. Please motivate why the individual suggestions raised in this thread are exercises in futility instead of spreading more useless garbage.

 

[Outlander]

Im gonna tattoo my willy with daoc and go flash ppl

 

[UndyingAngel]

Im gonna tattoo my willy with daoc and go flash ppl

:E disturbnig thought

 

[Rediknight]

:E disturbnig thought

dude, your avatar looks a lot like Russel Crowe, just after he's been arrested at some nightclub, and all the cameras are being jammed in his face as he's marched outside...

it was like a two second thought - came then went as quickly.

I've left this thread, it's safe to come out now

 

[Krakatau]

The question is, what can we, the grassroots, do ourselves to help promote this game?

Below is an incomplete list of things, help me out here!

• Recommend the game to your friends (perhaps giving them the full SI copy you got with Catacombs)

• 
  
  Muppet release of CATACOMBS = a lot of people bought it online to be able to play it as fast as possible...
  And with online shopping of cd-key, you got no full SI copy of the game to give away...
  
  Had I been able to buy it on release day, I had 2 mates that was gonna get one copy each.
  
  But GOA happily didin't think that far when allowing DLGamer to sell the game on-line, which was a solution perfect to handle release crisis, but fucked up the giveaway part :kissit:

 

[Esselinithia]

Wrong, you can send them invite emails, etc. and they can still get classic + SI + trial period Just no CD

 

[Krakatau]

Wrong, you can send them invite emails, etc. and they can still get classic + SI + trial period Just no CD

Invite friends: It's 7 days free trial + the need of downloading the game

Free SI CD that comes with Catacombs: 14 days of free time + game on CD

 

[Esselinithia]

You can predownload the game and give it to friends on CD if you want And the 7 extra days won't change the fact they can try the game, and if they like they can play. The question: How the game looks like before they log in, and in the first 2-3 days. If the game looks tempting, and they can enjoy it when they start to play.

Wallpapers, etc. help with the former, guides etc. can help with the later.

 

[Krakatau]

You can predownload the game and give it to friends on CD if you want And the 7 extra days won't change the fact they can try the game, and if they like they can play. The question: How the game looks like before they log in, and in the first 2-3 days. If the game looks tempting, and they can enjoy it when they start to play.

Wallpapers, etc. help with the former, guides etc. can help with the later.

Ofc I could do that...But hey..sounds like a job for GOA's PR department really...
And besides 7 days seems a bit short really....
Let's say you activate and then go away during a weekend - then you don't have that much time to play ...
Anyhow, great effort for grassroot promotion, but GOA should really think about doing something themselves too

 

[Deepflame]

Actually, I think they upped it to 14 days, didn't they?

 

[UndyingAngel]

dude, your avatar looks a lot like Russel Crowe, just after he's been arrested at some nightclub, and all the cameras are being jammed in his face as he's marched outside...

it was like a two second thought - came then went as quickly.

I've left this thread, it's safe to come out now

rofl thanks for that

 

[Esselinithia]

Actually, I think they upped it to 14 days, didn't they?

Yes, if I know well, but if they say 7 days it doesn't make any difference.

And if GOA promotes how many people will believe in their words? If people see many nice screenshots, wallpapers, screensavers, can find DAoC sections with a living, nice and helpfull community on many forums, meet friendly people who invite them to DAoC they will join.

GOA can help by posting galleries with such content, and links back to the site that created them. Also they can make press releases about community events, and "awards" given out for such creative work.

What You can do? Post your own screenshots, help with making guides, provide feedback about wallpapers, use the wallpapers, send it perhaps with a link) to friends, send out your invite emails, etc.

 

[fortunefish]

I invited a friend to play the game

gave him 1p

1 hour later he was level 24 and he said he payed someone to PL him

he was running round BG naked ffs so i sced him some things...left him alone for a week...logged on and did /who and he had made it all the way to 50 on his own (Playing a thurg)

I think the game has it downfalls and its cracks but if someone wants something in the game...a scroll or LGM or even a new FOTM 50...they will do everything in there power to get there. Some even resort to e-bay. This game is adictive and after a week or two I,and you aswell im sure, were hooked. Just if you know someone from work/school even then just boast about it. Say how amasing the game is...dont talk aloda crap about this rr11 hibbie grp ganking you...tell him/her about the dragon! and the Master Levels etc

those are much more appealing than some ml10 highrr peeps running round killing everyone.

I would also encourage a friend of yours or a work buddy to play on your BB account

this may sound strange but its a easy way of getting them hooked and they wont have to worry about paying to start with. Then after a while hint on them getting their own acocunt after they have tried a few char's you have recomended


and remember 10g will kit out a tank for 1-10 levels!

remember that when u see a level 1 in goth....give a little and maby he will help you later...or even the game.

people are greedy...i went MAD when someone gave me 2g on my first day

thought i could buy the world


regards

FF

 

[Deepflame]

i went MAD when someone gave me 2g on my first day

thought i could buy the world

Hehe, reminds me of my early days, before scouts were fotm (Mine is still level 30.. ) I was exping my first char, a little scout and he was like, level 11, all done solo (During the golden days of Prydwen at that time, but people didn't like scouts either then, though for different reasons now, hehe).

Then along came a level 32 scout and he handed me a stack of 60 Barbed Footed Flight Broadhead arrows, the 76s ones. I was so happy with them (Especially since they were a fortune to me) I _still_ have 54 of them in my vault. I was afraid of using them because they were so expensive.

<sigh>

The good ol' days of being a newbie..

..

Then at level 19 in the 15-19 Battlegrounds I figured there weren't enough rejuv clerics running around, so I made one and levelled him to 50 in a year. About a year later I got a paladin to 50, and now I have a minstrel and an infiltrator closing in rapidly.. Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I could view DAoC with the same eyes I did back then.. <dreams>

 

[Esselinithia]

Deepflame: It all depends on you, and only you. You can try to enjoy the game like you did in old days And if you do, others will do it too

Know why I like infils in xp groups? Because they like friendly xp groups, and like to work for their xp. Sadly it isn't true for all classes. When I brought a level 50 without an alt to PL to any grp, my leech slot was always open for friendly infil. Too bad, that all stealther friends want to bring me to rvr too

 

[shaark]

i think is not our porblem to promote Daoc , Mythic most promote Daoc like any others company does , look at EA how promote NFSU, big campain on TV etc etc , look at San Andreas he was on TV then all ppl goes mad to buy that game , Mythic can do same thing with Daoc but i never read something on a magazine or seen on tv something about Daoc
all this cost money and if mythic wana do that he can do but seems the publicity of the game is too low and Mythic dont care too much on that
after il pay for this game i think is not my business to promote the game, lets get real why Mythic dont do a big campain with Daoc? take a good game movie on market and promote on tv's, pc magazines and etc?

 

[Deepflame]

Deepflame: It all depends on you, and only you. You can try to enjoy the game like you did in old days And if you do, others will do it too

The problem in that is that I know the entire realms topography out of my head, I know a lot about game mechanics, about specs, templates, etc. It's just a new area to explore if I roll to another realm on Excal. I tried it repeatedly, but mostly just failed because I started looking at end specs, templates and stuff like that. Quite often, if a character supports autotraining I do that, etc. It's just mentally impossible for me to enjoy it like I did the first time. Now I get most of my enjoyment out of the community.

i think is not our porblem to promote Daoc , Mythic most promote Daoc like any others company does , look at EA how promote NFSU, big campain on TV etc etc , look at San Andreas he was on TV then all ppl goes mad to buy that game , Mythic can do same thing with Daoc but i never read something on a magazine or seen on tv something about Daoc
all this cost money and if mythic wana do that he can do but seems the publicity of the game is too low and Mythic dont care too much on that
after il pay for this game i think is not my business to promote the game, lets get real why Mythic dont do a big campain with Daoc? take a good game movie on market and promote on tv's, pc magazines and etc?

Ofcourse GOA and Mythic should promote DAoC more themselves, but surely you want more people to come to play too? Would it hurt you so much to try and do something about it? Or would you rather have it to die out? Just talk to a friend or two about these awesome fights you had on RvR, or some funny situations on PvE. I got a random guy from IRC interested just talking about the keeps when their walls became destroyable.

I'm going to try and make a DAoC version of Monthy Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

 

[Rediknight]

i think is not our porblem to promote Daoc , Mythic most promote Daoc like any others company does , look at EA how promote NFSU, big campain on TV etc etc , look at San Andreas he was on TV then all ppl goes mad to buy that game , Mythic can do same thing with Daoc but i never read something on a magazine or seen on tv something about Daoc
all this cost money and if mythic wana do that he can do but seems the publicity of the game is too low and Mythic dont care too much on that
after il pay for this game i think is not my business to promote the game, lets get real why Mythic dont do a big campain with Daoc? take a good game movie on market and promote on tv's, pc magazines and etc?

The difference between NFSU, GTA:SA and Camelot is the fact that both of them other games are stand alone, console oriented and have (relatively) fixed content. The biggest thing that goes for them, however, is the fact that are sequels of hugely popular titles. EA's Need for Speed series has seen how many spin off titles???? GTA has been doing the rounds since its original top-down scroller and one expansion (London 1969), then GTA:II (top down again) from back in the day. The marketing team at Rockstar then hit on a gem of a forumla - with such a leap in technology and graphical possibilities, strip the original three islands down into three sperate title. After we all played GTA:III we knew we had seen a REAL piece of work. Vice City just blew everyone away and earnerd R* millions. It's only going to be natural that they're going to spend on the marketing of it, as they know that with a few half decent tunes, and a few swear words, it'll sell in its millions, off of the backs of the other two triumphs.

Personally, i thought the bugs in the PS2 version of SA made it suck balls, but im waiting for next week when i get payed so i can see if they ironed it all out for the PC release...

*crosses fingers*

 

[shaark]

Ofcourse GOA and Mythic should promote DAoC more themselves, but surely you want more people to come to play too? Would it hurt you so much to try and do something about it? Or would you rather have it to die out? Just talk to a friend or two about these awesome fights you had on RvR, or some funny situations on PvE. I got a random guy from IRC interested just talking about the keeps when their walls became destroyable.

I'm going to try and make a DAoC version of Monthy Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

i do this and i just give the 14 day trial to a friend and now he start daoc for real so i do anything i can BUT Mythic dont do to much about, and if he dont wana promoto to much the game why should i do that part, that is what i wana to tell and its not a problem to promote Daoc like GTA or NFSu or others game, they can do that and all nows that publicity is the heart of sells and bussines

 

[Esselinithia]

Well said, but there is a little something more: Costs for development, costs for game maintenance and the money Mythic has. A good MMORPG is much more complex than a banking system, and most "transactions" are realy timing sensitive, so they have no time for extra checks, etc. guess why most MMORPGs have persistent bugs?

 

[Honza]

Hmm, what to say to express exactly what I mean...

1. Mythic/GoA advertisement of Dark Age of Camelot is (very politely said) very poor. It definitely would not hurt to see some effort from their side of table.

2. We all know DAoC has some troubles with balancing of characters out. On the other hand fact is that DAoC (or MMORPG genre in common) is one of the most complex problems to be solved. Especially thanks to fact life in such a game simulates evolution progress and develops itself over time. Yes, I think there could be some things that could've been done better (for example remove overpowering of every new introduced class), but otoh I can Imagine difficulty of controlling balance of things (you know till now modern science wasn't able to develop any scheme to control balance of things in more complex environment). So I would not be so hot to flame Mythic in this.

3. DAoC can be divided into several parts - Exping, MLvling, RvRing, questing/artihunting and Epic-actioning (Sidi, TG, Galadoria etc...). Some pple might not want to participate on all of this, some might, this is all about free decision of every one of us. Thing is that thanks to size of realms and ammount of players the most of locations are less occupied by players. To get people to focus themselves into groups/battlegroups it's needed to increase usage of whole-realm forums like FH is.

4. Centralised guild working to teach and keep new players is a good idea, but might bring troubles - waste of < lvl 50 chars in one guild, all others guilds pure 50s

5. How to attract and keep new players...
New players can be attracted quite easily (I myself know about 7 or 8 people who are going to try DAoC over holiday - how did I get em? Over my own freeshard I run on university network (which pretty sux, but even in the way it is it was able to attract them very fast)... this game really is addictive - it's like with the Lord of the Rings: there are two kinds of pple on the Earth: those who love it and those who hate it. Now comes the point. Since at least 60% of the game is communication & comunity, the more comunicating and caring comunity, the more happy new players. So idea of scanning /who 1 10 and pming them is very good idea. There could even be some almost permanent chatgroup held on some buffbot or so, where we could get these new players and communicate with them.

6. Helping out new players...
We can help players several ways... Some of them though can bring more bad than good. When I started DAoC (2 years ago), I stared on all that like a newborn babe (even though I played many classical RPGs)... I did not know how to reply private message, how to switch chatwindow to group one (I thought I have some bug so I can't see what they speak )) ). When my little Paladin seen some tank on horse with shiny red plate, I stared on all that in silent amazement. Some player gave me 10G and told me 'spend it wisely'... I am sorry I don't remember who it was, but in those times when all the controls were big unknown for me I was happy to say thanks. This leads back to topic (sorry, got to nostalgic mood remembering my painful beginnings and went abit offtopic). We can help newbies by giving them some gold. Question is how much to give them to be good tip on start but adequate not to spoil them. Further way we can help them is to teach them hundreds of little tricks we learned playing DAoC. This won't do any bad. We can roll some lowbie chars to group with them and help them level a bit... Neither this won't do any bad - they'll learn group fighting, proper control of their character etc. etc... Of course, we can also powerlevel them. But there comes the thing... They'll get to "high" level with no effort and won't have neither skill neither equipment with their characters. I guess it won't hurt to help them overcome some difficult periods, but full powerlevel will lead to high chars with no idea how to play them. Of much help would be crafters who would craft these new characters simple suits cheap (not much can be talked to do so though :-( ).

7. Players propagation...
Creating movies/arts/being active on forums will definitely help alot to bring new people, but we should also consider where to get those people from. Most promising source of new players would be countries where fast cheap connection to the internet is quite fresh and where people are not used to play games at all - countries like Czech republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland etc. could provide great ammount of players if the info about DAoC would be spread well enough to them to notice.

8. Current comunity...
If we want to bring new people, we should stop arguing between ourselves. I know every one of us is different, this player does/does not like that one. There will always be differences, but let's handle them in polite way. It's a game. And as a community game WE ARE THE ONES WHO CREATE IT, nor Mythic, nor GoA, they just plough the field and plant the tree. But what comes from it is just up to us.

9. Further development of DAoC
Mythic is commercial company and as such they wish to profit on their product. The more player they have the more money they get and the more they can develop DAoC. Even though I sincerely doubt they could create such a software monster like DAoC is without deep enthusiasm for the thing.

10. Honza's going in DAoC aka how the online life looks...
I came to the DAoC because of few things - I've read review in a magazine and read there about amazing adventures people lived in the game, about it's huge size and about it's difficulty. This was what brought me to DAoC. And definitely DAoC more than exceeded my best expectations. I am that kind of player who seeks to achieve all what can be achieved - it started with level 50, legendary grandmaster, continuing with all the masterlevels and ending with getting the ultimate realm rank. I like both PvE and RvR parts of game, though lately I'm mainly seen in RvR.
Although I am not playing too much nowadays (nerf exams imo), I try to help new players, I find a time to craft them some armour when they pm me and taking low interests on it (don't remember to refuse someone if it was in my capability to fulfill the request). When I see new player, I give them some gold (don't care if they are some cheating noobs pretending to be lowbies or true lowbies), with about 60p on account I can afford not to care for 100g more or less.
Also I tried with few raids, but wasn't much good in leading them - mainly for being unexperienced in it and further for getting so few people that task was far over our strength. I don't give up that though yet and hoping for opportunnity to prove myself (so you may start to fear already ;-) ).
There was also thing I done and am not proud of concerning me and Avengers of Pendragon guild. What happend was my fault, even though I did not have bad intentions it came to that way I used their help and left the guild for my current one. For that I am sorry.

But enough about me and let's see how we can improve our artificial homelands. I can offer my help as experienced C/C#/Delphi/Java/PHP coder, can do a bit about video editing, but am very UNskilled in desing & graphics.

Sorry for typos and my weak English. And before anyone starts flaming me about speaking about myself - it is not mentioned to put myself angelic wings or devil's horns. It's just to paint up picture of what DAoC life looks like in my case.

 

[Esselinithia]

Honza: One more idea, which I have: roll some new alts on cumbria, and try to help the spanish folks to enjoy the game, when they want to try another realm they will come to excal / prydwen and will have friends already. Spanish speaking countries all over the world is a HUGE market.

And for art: Most people used to see nice screenies and art from the publisher, and says: We will never see such stuff in the game. But when they see the same from fans, they start to believe in it, and say: "WOW That is nice! I want to play that game like now!"