I've been given the blessings not only to head up the revamp of our Website but to have it hosted and overhauled for future marketing purposes. There have been multiple discussions, on several forums, regarding how we can use our website as a Marketing tool.

Those of you who chimed in with great ideas and offers to provide assistance now have the opportunity to do so. I will be utilizing several tools to ensure that we get this project done in a timely manner (In fact, I've begun the initial drafting).

These tools include:

1: Microsoft Project - To plan, design and implement our website.

2: Ventrillo - for open communications to help facilitate design communications and discussions.

3: Webex - for online meetings to present the content of the website.

I'm extremely serious about getting this project completed soon. Anyone that has the desire to be a part of this project (mostly the graphic design aspect of it) is welcome to join. Please feel free to contact me at thror@carrionfields.com so we can begin scheduling some weekly meetings. I feel this is an important way for us to allow the players to help contribute. If you are talented and want to showcase these talents, please sign up and lets get this thing started!

I'm looking forward to working with some of the playerbase.

Suggestion:

Make the connection details larger and easier to locate and see.

Since most of the links don't work yet, it might be wise to put something on the website that says it's still under development. Since it's up on the main domain, new (or old) players may hit it and wonder why nothing works, thinking it's the regular, finished website.

We've currently got five volunteers whom I've placed in a distribution list and will begin working with on a recurring basis. I'm excited to collaborate with these players and believe we can make some serious progress with not only Website related activities but with Marketing in general.

Please feel free to email me if you are not part of this group and want to participate. Thanks again to those individuals who have signed up to assist.

A current *** ROUGH DRAFT *** of the website is up at http://www.carrionfields.com

It's going to be the basic design template for the content related to CF. Over the course of the next few weeks, Team Marketing will be focusing on several things.

1: Identifying key elements which have distinct value for both our new and veteran players.

2: Tailoring the these key elements into a vision which uniquely markets the website to new players.

3: Taking existing ideas and adding (through development tools) flavor to the "Marketing Message" via our website.

4: Using some creative artistic talent to help add a visual appeal to our website.

5: Creating ads, marketing material and content to deliver to the MUD community. This will be used to draw new players in. We would also like to gather existing statistics about CF to help us identify trends in our players (over time).

A big thanks to Jullias for his prompt help which allowed me to get the website published this evening.

An even bigger thanks to my Marketing Team members. The level of professionalism and commitment I've seen from these guys, in just two weeks has been tremendous. I'm quite grateful to be a part of a team that takes the integrity of this game as seriously as they do.

Please, for the love of God, don't use Papyrus font, ever. Currently, you're using it for "Carrionfields, LLC" and my eyes are bleeding.

Other than that this is really exciting! :D

Looks really nice. Much better/more professional than the old site. I would agree with not using that font for the CF LLC stuff mostly because it just doesn't look right to me. If it was the same look, but not all "fuzzy" that would look better IMHO, but I didn't volunteer, so obviously that's just my opinion.

How about Ringbearer or another Lord of the Rings style font?

e.g., http://www.fontspace.com/category/Lord+of+the+Rings

Might be cool to tie into recognizable imagery from the most popular and mainstream fantasy movie ever.

I like the look although not sure how the logo fits with this branding, and the fanfiction/image gallery section is an awesome idea! Kudos :)

Very good work by you and all the volunteers who've been on the team.

As stated below, this look is far and away superior in every facet to the old site's look.

Good job, all. :)

Here is my feedback. Some of it is probably stuff that just hasn't be "gotten to" yet, but I figured I'd throw it all up at once. Of course I realize it's a rough draft, and it's a good one too.



The placement of the logo seems kind of trashy. Would it be possible to get a copy of the logo in a different color scheme and/or with a transparent background? If not, perhaps part of the design to be tweaked to use a black background so it doesn't look quite so out of place.

Bring back the helpfile search box on the left nav or perhaps at the very top in the header.

The "Help" section seems to have gone away. Easy access to a more detailed view of races, classes, sub-classes (ranger breakdown, etc.), cabals, and all that stuff was helpful for character build research.

Vote / ranking badges.

The color used for links on the main page is too similar to some of the hues in the background color. Pick a color that contrasts more.

I would refer to CF as "Carrionfields" instead of "Carrionfields, LLC" wherever possible.

Like someone else said, ditch the Papyrus font. There are free fonts out there that have the same style without the pixelated look of an image that's been blown up 300% above it's original resolution.

Possibly add a newsletter sign up box on the homepage or in the global navigation.

The artwork is excellent. Some of it's hard to make out, but it all looks great.

The bullet list icon doesn't contrast very well with the background in some areas, and I can't figure out what it is. I would either use one of the default bullet sets for lists or go with something else. This one looks like a tiny picture or something, and I find myself continually trying to discern what it is.

Validate the XHTML. (Easier now than after you make ten pages based on this template)

The "paper" background images are tiled, which is nice. I'd like to see them a little smaller, though. 1280x1000 is pretty big for something you can tile anyway, even if it only weighs in at 76k (which isn't tiny).

That's it for now. If I can be of any help with the graphic design, XHTML/CSS/Javascript, PHP, SEO/SEM, etc., feel free to email me/PM me.

...drop the papyrus font. I can't put my finger on it but there's something with it...

Boast 15 different classes and 17 races. This means hundreds of combinations of races and classes!

133 to be exact. Or where is my dwarf invoker? You should change the hundreds since it smells like BS to a new player, particularly one that rolls something like dwarf or orc.

Also, should it be mentioned in the main page that the game is text based/MUD?

There should also be a how to play page link in the left sidebar. Then, in the how to play page you could explain how to play the game, have a few links to MUD clients such as MUSHclient and the connect button could also be there.

It's clear that in my initial post, it seems as if most people skipped the *** ROUGH DRAFT *** of the post. :)

I mean this in the most respectful way possible (not towards you Durnominator): Nothing is going to get put on the website without the majority approval of Team Marketing. I realize all the players have ideas of what "they think" should go on the website but if you want your ideas in place - join the Marketing Team. This team is putting forth the effort. Not one person because:

Time is a VERY limited commodity for me. I'm managing an IT team, a marketing team, a family (with two children) and this is by all means a hobby. The work *WILL* get done but not likely at the rate the playerbase expects.

You are right though, I meant to specify the different race/class combinations based on specializations and should have been clearer. This is a work in progress. Give it time and it will be much more concise - with information that is specific to drawing more players.

Thanks for the feedback but in an effort to keep you all from wasting your time - EVERY - suggestion on both this page and Dioxides has been brought up and tabled in the priority list.

Good stuff. Just a small piece of feedback. Instead of having a "Connect" link pointing to the telnet protocol, it would probably be better to have a "Get started" link, where the user gets to download a mudclient (ytin is free and standalone), with instructions on how to connect to cf. (I.e. #ses mud carrionfields.com 4449

The windows built in telnet client is horrible enough to deter anyone.