My first rough stab at the marketing process as I see it:

1. Determine who we want to market to. For a bunch of reasons mentioned before, I think we should focus on demographics outside of the existing MUD world. Some targets:

a) Existing MUD players. They're already interested in MUDs. We just need to get them to play ours. Website Notes: We should tailor their initial exposure to our website with this as an underlying understanding: they know what a MUD is and know how to play a MUD. They need a quick data dump on how to play ours.

b) MMORPG/MU* Players. They're already interested in online fantasy gaming. We've just got to show them how pretty and shallow their current MMORPG is when compared to CF. We're raw...we're detailed...we're complex! Website Notes: We should tailor their initial exposure to our website similar to a) above. They're probably familiar with most of our interface, but they'll need more of an introduction to how we combine PK and RP. So we'll need to talk them through the character creation process from this perspective, i.e., keeping PK in mind.

c) Fantasy fiction readers. They're already interested in text and fantasy. We offer a never ending story that they can be a part of.

d) Magic: The Gathering and / or D&D players. They're already interested in fantasy and gaming. We offer an in-depth, online framework to play a similar game within.

I'm sure there are other interests out there that we can target as well, but I don't think we need to market to all of these verticals simultaneously. Pick one group that we think will generate players and market to them. Evaluate the results and move on to another group if need be. What's the best group? We'll need to find out.

TASK: Poll our players to find out their side interests. See which interests are the most prevelant and potentially the most useful to market to.

I also think we should try to focus our marketing efforts towards the 18 to 25 age group. I think our product (free gaming and social networking) meshes well with their assets. This age group also usually has more free time to play, as well as what I would term a longer "shelf life", which means they can probably play for several years before RL duties (kids, serious jobs, family, etc.) impact the amount of time they can put into the game.

Remember, we don't need to market to the entire world. Our "niche" requires focused marketing efforts in order to generate the best return on our time investment.

TASK: Determine our target audience.

2. Get our target audience on Stunna's "path" (also known as the sales funnel). Here's how I see the "path":

a) Get them to come to our website. This goal, plus our target audience, should drive our marketing. There are plenty of ways to go about doing this, but we need to identify the target audience and then tailor our message to them before we can figure out the best way to get them to come to the site.

b) Get them to connect to the game. Once they come to the website, we need them to connect to the game. Two phases to this: website content and design. While both are important, I think content is more important than design at this point, for two reasons. 1) Simply put, we don't have anyone that has access to our website that has the skillset, interest and time necessary to revamp the design. 2) The design isn't terrible; given better content, we can move forward with the rest of the marketing plan and rely on the content to draw them in. One upside to this: I have access to the website content and can add/edit pages.

To elaborate: the html code for our pages has this at the top:

require "../config.php";
require $HTML_HEADER;

Then you see the content. Not being an html coder, I assume that 'config.php' is the file that stores the header, the links, the poll, in short, it contains the overall page layout and design. I don't even know how to mess with config.php, but I can edit the main content of the page (go to the About Us page, and you can see that I've rewritten the material there).

Here's a link to something I started a few months ago: http://www.carrionfields.com/welcome/welcome.html. It's new, and incomplete, but I think it represents one way we might modify our page layout and content to help new players want to connect, and once they do, to create a character. I'm open for suggestions on what this should look like.

TASK: Determine the best content layout for getting new players to connect to the game.

Once we've determined our target audience, we can tailor the welcome page to them. Marketing to Magic players? "Here's why CF is a great complement to your Magic skills!"

c) Get them to create a character. Might take a slight revamp of the character creation process. Goal is to make it simple to create new characters and get into the game. The website should complement this as well.

d) Get them to create an account on our website. This gives us access to their email address.

e) Get them to level 20? 30? Hero? This is probably where the CF Instruction Manual would come into play. They've started playing, so they're interested in the game. Now they want to get a bit more detail on things. In other words, I don't think anyone checking the game out for the first time will be too interested in this. This IM should complement the stuff on the website, not regurgetate it.

f) Get them to repeat this process.

4. During all of the above, we need to gather statistics so we can see if our process is working or not.

5. We need to follow up with ALL of our players. My thought: a quarterly email to all www.carrionfields.com registered users that summarizes the in-game changes (i.e., shifter revamp, edges for druids, new areas, etc.) from the past three months and gives a few easily gathered statistics and other relevant information (i.e., list of current Cabal leaders, average players over the last week/month, etc.) Something to try to draw former players back into the game and make newcomers feel like they're a part of the community.

TASK: Determine what information we want to send out, and come up with a means to collect it.

Post your thoughts below and I'll refine this post to include them.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

One of the first things you need to do is set up a per month PBF tracker with an emphasis on reaching a certain # of PBF's buys to finance a marketing budget. This should go up with the Vote buttons or someplace similar and be an ongoing tally where you aim for 30 a month or whatever. Nothing motivates like progress, just look at Ron Paul's Thermometer for proof.

In the post farther down the thread "The Role of PBF's" I mentioned we need to have at least 50 per month to even consider a marketing budget. Right now, we run about half that.

The guy has a good idea - it puts it in your face as a constant reminder. That's not the same thing as your post below.

Furthermore, how many people have said they'd make a marketing specific donation? Lots. At some point someone in authority will have to take the reins here and lay down the law about what is going to be done. Come up with a dollar amount that is needed, then ask for it from the playerbase. I think they will provide.

Didn't want to say it myself, but yea...

I was just replying to his post in regards to how many PBFs are going to be needed before we set up a budget. Nothing more, nothing less.

I need to bring this up with the IMPs; basically, yeah, we need some sort of marketing account that isn't tied into the regular CF PayPal account that Jullias manages (for all the reasons previously mentioned). And while I think a PBF tracker is a really cool idea, I disagree that it should be one of the first things we do.

I've got a rough timeline I'll post that basically outlines the order we need to work on things. Some things can be done concurrently (this is probably one of them), but they'll be harder to do, because we don't really have the on-demand resources (i.e. web coder) necessary. One goal will be to get a good solid list of website changes together; if I've got that, I can probably schedule some of Yanoreth's time to work on them all at once.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

asdf

>Here's a link to something I started a few months ago:
>http://www.carrionfields.com/welcome/welcome.html. It's new,
>and incomplete, but I think it represents one way we might
>modify our page layout and content to help new players want to
>connect, and once they do, to create a character. I'm open
>for suggestions on what this should look like.
>
>TASK: Determine the best content layout for getting new
>players to connect to the game.

First thing I noticed was that the content was a block of text (made my eyes glaze over) perhaps bullets would be better?

Second, the navigator for such a welcome page should be better laid out... Back, Forward, Home(back to welcome page) should be arranged horizontally like

Sorry, this got kind of long. There may be something useful in here, though. If nothing else, it might spur someone else to come up with a decent idea.

I read Kasty's welcome page, and it kind of got me to thinking... I thought the intro paragraph was good, but really geared toward people who are new to computer RPG's in general. That led me down computer RPG memory lane. I've played dozens, nay, SCORES of them over the years, as I'm sure many here have.

Before Al Gore invented the internets, I played single player RPG's. The linear storylines got boring. Linear worlds/dungeons/levels were tedious and predictable. The open-ended storylines were more fun. I could get into serious trouble in an open world, back up a few steps, go left instead of right, earn some levels and equipment, and then go fight those foes I stumbled into. And I didn't have to take the "good" path either. I could be as evil as I wanted, if I chose, and the open nature of the better RPG's made that a viable option.

Then the internet reared its ugly head, and I was introduced to MUDs, including CarrionFields. I suppose I was actually hooked on Legend of the Red Dragon, a BBS game, first. It was turn based (only 2 or 3 people could log in at a time to play one turn per day). Short story: my first introduction to text based PVP RPG. I was seriously hooked.

Skip forward ten years, and there is a flux of MMORPG's. They're graphically pretty astounding, and have loyal followers in the millions. Some are more fun than others. Some are more hardcore. Some are PVP, some PVE only.

OK...I know, get to the point. If I'm a new-to-CarrionFields player, I've probably been exposed to some sort of Computer RPG in the past. I would argue that most new-to-CarrionFields players have probably played (or currently play) MMORPG's as well.

So after all that garbage I just wrote, I have two points:

1) Add target audience: MMORPG players to the mix. Why do CF players play MMORPG's also? Why do long time CF players give up MMORPG's and keep coming back to CF? How do you highlight THOSE qualities on the welcome page to really grab a potential player's attention?

2) Consider a welcome page that caters to gamers. I wasn't really interested in moving any deeper because the information provided was too basic. I argue that in the world of MMORPG's, most gamers know that you don't "win", and they understand the concept of level progression, and picking a class/race. Consider the welcome page Kasty worked on as "Page 0" instead of "Page 1". Start the welcome page at Page 1 (targeting computer RPG players), and offer a link to Page 0 for "New to Role Playing Games?" players. Maybe that's what Kasty had in mind anyway...

I DO think a tutorial or getting started guide is probably a great idea. Kasty's welcome page is a good start....a step by step "what to expect when you log in for the first time" walkthrough.

CF has a lot of helpfiles, but no instruction manual. If I like to know what I'm getting into before I start a new game, there is a lot of information out there, but no real starting point for me answer: "I want to play- what do I do, and what can I expect that first time?" Again, I think Kasty's welcome page is a good start. I'd say go even deeper - make it a step-by-step tutorial, with links to external sources (qhcf race/class table, online fantasy name generators, etc)

Rambling still, but experienced players focus a lot on the mid-high level game. PK, cabal wars, etc. New characters reading forums and whatnot might be a little apprehensive about starting, due to the emphasis on PVP. They may not even realize that there's a 10 level grace period until PK begins, so maybe that should be stressed in the tutorial.

We tend to think in a very web-oriented manner here. Have a question? Search the forums or follow this link to more information, or type your keyword in the help files box! What if we had a section of the webpage that was more "manual" oriented? Go back and look at some of your old x386 RPG manuals. Labeled screen shots detailing the ins and outs of the user interface...basic command structure...how to navigate your inventory and stats screens are all in there.....

Punting. Hope someone can piggyback off of something here.

1. This is a "generic" page, not really aimed at anyone. If we market to MMORPG players, you can bet that form of marketing would contain a link to a similar page, but with language that explains why MMORPG players might be interested in CF.

2. You're a writer (this post is a case in point... ). When it comes to our webpage, content (not design or layout) is king. Don't tell me what you think that content should look like. Write it.

Not to bash on you, man, because we do need ideas. But I want to make sure everyone knows that nothing will bog this project down faster than 1,000 people suggesting what one guy should do.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

The CF Instruction Manual Project (tm) is off to a good start. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get it to a semi-complete functional state, but it's at 30 pages without any class descriptions at the moment. I'm reusing helpfiles where I can, but due to a variety of reasons, I'm having to summarize or completely rewrite some to be more readable or flow with the document. Other times, I'm going freeform under the assumption that this is intended to pique someone's interest. If they want more than a two-line summary of "feral growl", they can look it up in the help files.

What I really should do is roll up a newbie and go through the MUD academy, and base the manual on that layout. That way, a newbie who has skimmed the manual might at least find familiar tutorial structure in the academy.

Why bother? I'm doing this because I thought: how would I get my gamer friends interested in CF? Telling them to "Go to carrionfields.com and browse helpfiles" doesn't really cut it...but if I could email them a pdf that they could flip through to "learn" the game...maybe. Especially if there's a familiar RPG structure that they can connect with.

So it has to be a combination of instruction (for the rules lawyer bunch) and marketing (for the guys who don't know what CF even is). We'll see if it goes anywhere.

I think what you're doing sort of already exists. On the 'help' page under 'The Carrion Fields Beginner's Guide'. That is a 100+ page document which is, basically, a cut and paste of various helpfiles put together in 'order'. It has a few downfalls:

1. It's a huge undertaking to read the thing.

2. It slowly, but consistently, morphs itself out of date as things change and helpfiles are added or updated.

Before you go down the same path, I'd rather see us figure out what our Newbie Guide should look like. Should it be web based? Or should we have a printable instruction manual? Or a combination of both?

My gut says, we should do a combination of both. I think there should be a guide that you can read, in a logical order, that provides you with a general outline of the highlights of CF, that is linked to helpfiles from within. You can then print out (or just read) the guide and use that as a general reference, and click on the links when you need more data.

I worked up something along these lines; I'll post a sample and let you take a look at it, tell me if you think this path is worthwhile.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

Carrion Fields Quick Start Guide #2: Navigation

The World: The world that the inhabitants of Carrion Fields live in is called Thera (an anagram of Earth). It was created by the Lords of Order and Chaos at the dawn of time, and populated with their creations, who fought epic battles and lived solely to serve the esoteric purposes of their creators. The Lord of Order and the Lord of Chaos passed on to other realms, leaving behind a vibrant world filled with life…and conflict. Geographically, the world is divided into three continents: the Eastern Continent (where the city of Arkham lies), the Southern Continent (where the city of Seantryn Moden lies), and the Main Continent (basically the rest of the world, the cities of Galadon, Udgaard and Hamsah and their surroundings), all separated by the Dragon Sea and the Aryth Ocean. Each continent has its own specific geography: forests, mountains, jungles, seas, deserts, roads and cities, as well as its different inhabitants.

Rooms and Areas: From a game mechanics perspective, the world of Thera consists of a multitude of interconnected “rooms”. Each room has a “title” (the first line, this describes the basic theme of the room), a “description” (the surroundings of the room, i.e., what your character “sees” around him or her) and “exits” (one or more of the six cardinal directions: north, east, south, west, up and down). The “exits” connect rooms with each other; for example, if the top of this page were considered “north”, and you were in room E in the below diagram, by typing ‘north’, you would be telling the MUD to move your character from room E to room B. If you then wanted to move to room A, you would type ‘west’. ‘South’ would take you to room D, and ‘east’ would take you back to where you started, room E. ‘Up’ or ‘down’ work the same way; think of climbing or descending a flight of stairs, a tree or a steep mountain path.

A – B – C
| . | . .
D – E - F
. . | . .
. . G . .

This brings up an important point: in Carrion Fields, “rooms” are not always indoors, surrounded by four walls. Rather, the term “room” is used to describe the general surroundings of your character on a limited scale. The scale is not constant, either; some “rooms” describe a tiny cell in a dungeon. Other “rooms” could describe several miles of open ocean, a central square in a large town, the entry of a merchant’s shop, even the inside of a giant purple dragon. The important thing to take away is that rooms are descriptive and connected to each other, and you get to use your imagination to complete the picture that the individual area author has created for you.

An “area” is a series of connected rooms with a similar theme. Areas range in size from only a handful of rooms (some Cabals, shrines of Gods or short roads) to hundreds of rooms (vast oceans, large cities, extensive underground dungeons or great castles). There are over 200 different areas in the game, each of them designed by their author or authors to be individual creations that fit into the overall theme of the world.

These three separate concepts, “rooms”, “areas” and “continents” are important because they define different limits in the game. For example, the ‘where’ command will return a list of all players who are currently in the same area as your character, as well as the title of the room they are in. Melee combat with other characters or creatures in the game normally takes place in the same room. Teleportation will magically move your character randomly between areas, but you will appear in an area that is on the same continent as the area you teleported from. The ‘who’ and ‘tell’ commands are “global”, in the sense that you can use them to see or talk to characters regardless of their location relative to you in the game (provided they aren’t hidden from your sight by magical or other means!).

Moving Throughout Thera: There are several different ways to move throughout Thera, ranging from magical means of transport, to physically walking from one location to another. Most forms of transportation require your character to use up movement points, which loosely equate to their stamina. Every time you move from one room to another, it costs you movement points. Some terrain is easy to walk through (city streets, roads) and requires very few movement points, some terrain is moderately difficult (fields, low hills) and some can be quite tiring (mountains, upstream on rivers), requiring progressively more movement points.

Like mana and hit points, movement points are automatically regenerated every in game hour. This regeneration takes place at increasing rates depending on your character’s activity; sleeping for long periods of time regenerates mana, hit points and movement points at the greatest rate, resting regenerates slightly less per hour, standing even less than resting and, finally, your character will regenerate only minimally while fighting. Every time you gain a level, your character will receive additional movement points, and you can also earn permanent gains to movement through the exploration of Thera.

Magical or divine means of transportation are available to all characters, and can include spells (word of recall, teleport), communes (gate, group teleport) or certain special objects. Through level 10, all characters have access to the ‘recall’ command, which will return them to their hometown at the cost of half their current movement points. After level 10, potions of return (which, when quaffed, work the same way as the ‘recall’ command) are available for purchase in most hometowns, as are wands, staves and scrolls (though not all characters can use these more specialized magical items). Thera is a pretty big place, and it can be easy to get lost when you are first exploring, so it is a good idea to carry a few potions of return with you before you set out on a long journey, just in case.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

The beginner's guide is exactly what I had in mind. Would you like for me to update it to make it current? I can do that in Word and track changes for review.

Why didn't I look in the "help" section for something like this already? You might consider linking the guide/manual to the nav bar on the left.


-Help
+Game Manual (pdf)
+Races
+Classes
+Religions
+Cabals

I would say that the format / layout of the existing guide is probably pretty good, but there's too much detail in there. If we're going to have a game manual, it should probably be limited to 40-50 pages. If you think that's something you can do, go for it.

As for adding anything to the nav bar: I can't do that. Because of the existing graphics (that swirly dragon thing behind the words), modifying the nav bar isn't going to happen, unless it gets replaced, and that's well beyond the scope of what I'm capable of.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

But a dump of the site's contents (basically the directory(s) on the web server where all your stuff is) could be very useful for people wanting to help redesign...

For instance, when I was doing the tab thing (which I don't think you have 100% right because it should have been black background with that cream colored text) I was using web developer (or firebug) in firefox to pull the colors off the site... With all the graphics and whatnot available, I could do a lot more. While I *could* get that stuff myself, it'd be a lot easier with your aid (not to mention keeping the structure intact).

Also, I am by no means even 1% the web guru that some of our other people are, and they might be more willing to step up if they had something more to work with.

But a dump of the site's contents (basically the directory(s) on the web server where all your stuff is) could be very useful for people wanting to help redesign...

But I have no idea how to do this... I might be able to email specific files to folks (assuming I can find them), but that's probably the extent of my skillset in that regard.

For instance, when I was doing the tab thing (which I don't think you have 100% right because it should have been black background with that cream colored text) I was using web developer (or firebug) in firefox to pull the colors off the site... With all the graphics and whatnot available, I could do a lot more. While I *could* get that stuff myself, it'd be a lot easier with your aid (not to mention keeping the structure intact).

I'm planning on working this Saturday morning, so hopefully we'll have a rough idea of a design / layout to work with over the weekend.

It's weird; my wife doesn't mind when I MUD, as long as it doesn't interfere with whatever it is she's got planned for us to do. But tell her I'm working on the webpage, and she's always asking me "When are you going to work on your stupid MUD webpage? Do you want help?"

Also, I am by no means even 1% the web guru that some of our other people are, and they might be more willing to step up if they had something more to work with.

Guarantee that they're out there; probably just waiting on a plan and a little bit of progress.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

May I suggest something as radical as an open source code web building process. Essentially you open up a directory where you can store all the webpage-files, and you let the general community work on it as they please. Essentially you put up a list of what you want on the site, and ask the kind population of Thera to assist with their web-building skills.

EDIT: Need to be some sort of version check, so someone cant come along who dont know jack and scew the page up. If you have a version check, you can just backroll to the last one.

To do this you need to make the code that access the help files, or maybe a generic sample of help files for test purposes.

You could make the beginning and the overall way you want the site to look, then see how the population of CF want it to look. The thing is that the players of CF is a veritable well of various computer (and other wierd) knowledge.

"Open source" scares me. I'm not saying it can't or will never happen, but I don't think we're planning anything so super complex that I can't cut and paste someone else's html code or other inputs into a webpage.

If we bog down, maybe. The other option is along the lines of what someone (probably Stunna) suggested somewhere on this board: open up positions on staff for folks to do marketing / website maintenance. Not saying make them a Heroimm or give them an all access backstage pass, but I'm not naive enough to think that we'll never need outside help if we're going to get this project off the ground and moving.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

>"Open source" scares me. I'm not saying it can't or will
>never happen, but I don't think we're planning anything so
>super complex that I can't cut and paste someone else's html
>code or other inputs into a webpage.

The thing with making it open source, or just opening up of the source, is that people can work on it sudo independently, but you still get to control what goes "live" on the site, and other people can make test sites to give a preview/working demo or whatever of their vision and you get to cherry pick the best ideas.

It's sort of like Santa Zulg (we give the ideas, he cherry picks the best/easiest), only you don't even have to do the work since HTML is something people already know and there isn't any game balance to worry about.

I think it could be a good idea to use the beginner's manual to direct people to appropriate helpfiles instead of copy-pasting the said helpfiles into the manual. Sort of explaining the basics, using the help file as a reference.

>I think it could be a good idea to use the beginner's manual
>to direct people to appropriate helpfiles instead of
>copy-pasting the said helpfiles into the manual. Sort of
>explaining the basics, using the help file as a reference.


This is the direction I'm going. Copy/pasted helpfiles don't really read well together, or flow together. The guide/manual should be readable and mostly top-level. I should get some time this weekend to work on it a little more....

I'm no web designer, but it should only take a few minutes of googling to get some spiffy looking navigation going.

I'm no web designer either. Esplain what you mean by "a few minutes of googling"?

If it'll only take a few minutes, why didn't you just do that and post what you came up with? I'll stick it in the page and see what it looks like.

Don't teach me to fish, man, just throw me a cooked salmon fillet!

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

>I'm no web designer, but it should only take a few minutes
>of googling to get some spiffy looking navigation going.
>
>I'm no web designer either. Esplain what you mean by "a few
>minutes of googling"?

Know what you want it to look like in your head. In this case, I would probably actually want tabs with a play now java box embedded in them and those other pages as tabs that you can flip to for more information while you are still logged in. That is beyond my specific capabilities, but... approx 5 minutes of googling html tabs gives me these sites:

http://jon.hedley.net/html-tabbed-dialog-widget

http://www.barelyfitz.com/projects/tabber/

http://www.htmldog.com/articles/tabs/

http://www.htmldog.com/examples/tabs6.html#

This last one shows an example, that if it was outfitted with CF's colors, would look very nice IMHO.

>If it'll only take a few minutes, why didn't you just do that
>and post what you came up with? I'll stick it in the page and
>see what it looks like.
>
>Don't teach me to fish, man, just throw me a cooked salmon
>fillet!

I'm a novice fisherman myself. Learn to fish for yourself Also, I don't even know if that stuff will work. Originally I was just talking about setting table widths and whatnot, but you'd have to find the right values there anyway.

I've got a another idea for you... See if you can't allow people to have their own "homepage" that runs off of your webserver, so that people could play with the actual thing, while not affecting your live environment?

>Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends
>
>*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our
>marketing efforts! ***

Despite all this... I am working on it...

I did steps 1 and 2 from
http://www.barelyfitz.com/projects/tabber/ for you (as seen
below).  You can download the script and style sheets yourself
to get it up with something, and we can go from there if you
are so inclined (changing the style to match CF etc. etc.)

Code for steps 1 and 2 based on your original content:

<script type="text/javascript"
src="tabber.js">
</script>
<div class="tabber">

     <div class="tabbertab">
          <h2>Welcome to the Carrion Fields!</h2>
          <p>Carrion Fields is a completely free online
multi-player game set in a fantasy world of swords and
sorcery, similar to Dungeons and Dragons, and is a type of
Multi-User Domain, or MUD.  Players (such as you) create a
character which they then control within the framework of the
game world.  They interact with hundreds of other characters
controlled by players from all over the world, as well as
creatures and objects that populate the world.  Carrion Fields
is like a complex fantasy novel; we provide a richly detailed
world with its unique set of magical rules and built-in
storylines, you provide the characters that breathe life into
the world.  One does not 'win' Carrion Fields, in the sense of
completing all the 'levels' at the most difficult setting and
'finishing' the game.  Players set their own goals for each
character they create; in the end, it is up to them to
determine if they are successful or not.  With the large
number of race and class combinations, one can play over and
over again and experience a vastly different gaming experience
each time.
<br/><br/>

If you are still reading this, then you might just be the kind
of player Carrion Fields is looking for.  Why not follow the
below QuickStart links, create a character, and give us a test
run?<br/><br/>
</p>
     </div>


     <div class="tabbertab">
          <h2>Connecting to the Game</h2>
          <p>This is where I would embed the Java client
<br/><br/>
No special software is required to play Carrion Fields, though
third-party clients (MUD specific programs that can be
downloaded off the Internet) are available through various
websites. Most computers have a resident Telnet program that
comes with the Operating System; for example, if you are
running Windows, you can go to START, RUN then type TELNET,
and it will launch Microsoft Telnet Client. Then type
"OPEN CARRIONFIELDS.COM 9999" and it will connect
you to the game. If that sounds too complicated, just click on
the PLAY NOW button, which will automatically open a
Java-based MUD client. No matter how you connect, the first
thing you will see is an ASCII drawing of a skull and the
prompt: "By what name do you wish to be mourned?"
</p>
     </div>


     <div class="tabbertab">
          <h2>Character Creation - Naming Your
Character</h2>
          <p>This is where you enter the name of the
character that you will be playing the game with. In order to
maintain an atmosphere conducive to Roleplaying on Carrion
Fields, we are fairly strict with our naming conventions. The
Carrion Fields has a number of rules in place regarding names,
intended to provide a more immersive atmosphere. For this
reason, words from the dictionary (Killer, Bloodlust),
alternative spellings (Vyper, OrcKilla), literary characters
(Aragorn, Drizzt), or historical figures with strong
connotations (Stalin, Hitler), are not permitted. Use your
imagination and come up with something original - you'll add
to everyone's enjoyment! If you've chosen a name that isn't
being used by a current character, you'll be prompted to
confirm that you entered the name correctly. Type 'Y' and hit
enter, then read and answer the series of questions about the
name you have chosen, and choose a password. If you're reading
this, you should answer the next question (are you new to the
realm of CarrionFields) with a Yes! </p>
     </div>


	<div class="tabbertab">
          <h2>Character Creation - Selecting Your
Race</h2>
          <p>Your next choice is your character's race.
There are seventeen different races to choose from, each with
their own style of roleplay, backgrounds, strengths and
weaknesses. We recommend that new players start out by
selecting human, as humans can be almost any class and don't
suffer from an experience penalty (we'll talk about experience
points a bit later). Once you start learning the game, you can
always come back and try out the other races.

You can click on the below links for a very brief overview of
the races. For even more detailed information on a particular
race, you can search our help topics.
<table>

<tbody><tr>
<td><a
href="races/human.html">Human</a></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><a
href="races/elf.html">Elf</a></td>
<td><a
href="races/half-elf.html">Half-Elf</a></td>
<td><a
href="races/wood-elf.html">Wood-Elf</a></td>
<td><a
href="races/dark-elf.html">Dark-Elf</a></td>
<td><a
href="races/half-drow.html">Half-Drow</a></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><a href="races/storm.html">Storm
Giant</a></td>
<td><a href="races/cloud.html">Cloud
Giant</a></td>
<td><a href="races/fire.html">Fire
Giant</a></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><a
href="races/arial.html">Arial</a></td>
<td><a
href="races/felar.html">Felar</a></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><a
href="races/dwarf.html">Dwarf</a></td>
<td><a
href="races/duergar.html">Duergar</a></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><a
href="races/gnome.html">Gnome</a></td>
<td><a
href="races/svirf.html">Svirfnebli</a></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><a
href="races/orc.html">Orc</a></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><a
href="races/minotaur.html">Minotaur</a></td>

</tr>

</tbody></table>
I hate the layout of this table btw.
     </div>

	<div class="tabbertab">
          <h2>Character Creation - Selecting Your
Sex</h2>
          <p>Your next choice is your character's sex.
You can be male or female. There are no benefits or
restrictions to either choice; choose whatever sex you wish to
roleplay. </p>
     </div>

	<div class="tabbertab">
          <h2>Character Creation - Selecting Your
Class</h2>
          <p>You should now be looking at a list of
possible classes to choose from. This list of classes is
race-dependant, so you may not see all of them there. We
recommend Warrior, Thief, Ranger, Bard, Assassin or
Anti-Paladin for new players, as they are generally a more
survivable class at lower levels. Remember, you can always
come back and try out the other classes once you start
learning the game. You can click on the below links for
new-player oriented descriptions of the various classes. For
additional information on a particular class, you can search
our help topics. Warrior Thief Ranger Bard Assassin
Anti-Paladin Transmuter Shapeshifter Invoker Conjurer
Necromancer Shaman Healer Druid Paladin Berserker
</p>
     </div>
	
	<div class="tabbertab">
          <h2>Spare Tab</h2>
          <p>Content for another Tab</p>
     </div>

</div>

Download tabber.zip and unzip it into a folder (this can be done on any PC). Then save the attached file in that same directory, and you'll see what it would look like in the general sense... Getting it to work within the framework of the existing CF webpage... That I can't do for you.

Editted to attach a css file with CF's colors.

Attachment #1, (txt file)
Attachment #2, (txt file)

Love the tabs! That's definitely better than links. And thanks for throwing me a fish.

A few problems:

1. I can't download the files; I can just "save as", in which case I don't know what to name them, and they default to the same name (dcboard.htm).

2. When I do save them and try to open the first, I get a black background screen with no text (although I know the text is there, since I can see it when I view the source). I'm hoping this is just because I don't know what to name the second file.

Maybe you can email me the two files? I'm not an idiot; I *should* be able to figure this stuff out, but I look at all that code and just feel a bit...lost.

Thanks again for doing this.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***
Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

the css one should be example.css, and the other (the one with all the stuff) can be named welcome.html or something similar (it doesn't really matter). Let me know if you got it or not.

I had to make the background white again (black letters on black background...not work so well!) and my wife helped figure out the other problem (was with the break tags).

Looks good, I'm thinking I can take this and mod what I've done so far. Will probably have to wait for tomorrow, since said wife (Heather, Girl Genius) now wants me to make her dinner.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

One big point.

Bigger "Play now" button. Placed so its the first thing they notice when they enter the site. Right now you have to actually look for the play now text.