So:

Even though I haven't played CF in quite a while, I hate seeing it slowly die due to playerbase woes. While grass roots internet advertising through websites etc. is fine, have the staff ever considered taking out a newspaper or TV ad in a major market such as NYC or LA? Granted, I have no idea how much that would cost, but I would imagine that off-peak runs on a local TV channel such as FOX 5 in NY wouldn't be completely insane (I see local ads run all the time on these channels). An ad like that would reach hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, even during an off-peak period.

In print, just printing the CF skull with the website address might even work. Has anyone looked into something like this? I bet a number of the more affluent CF'ers would contribute to more major ad campaign.

Anyway, crazy ideas aside, I would also like to reiterate my request for a ringer T with the text skull at the cafepress shop.}(

Im going to spend my time trying to spread the word for carrionfields through various avenues I can think of rather than logging on for hours on end.

I started a thread at a site and someone came by and tried to start playing but apparently they couldnt because of some java related thing. Can we make the way to connect more informative? Obviously one person could not get through.

Here is my bright idea.

CF is text... it's an asset, not a fault, for reasons that us here all get.

The strongest lure to CF is the ability to play a character in an ever-changing story. Basically, helping write the giant story of Thera. If you do well, your character makes an imprint in some memorable narratives.

Muds, RP-muds in particular, are the pre-cursors to reality TV. Often, not always, compelling stories are created just by planting seeds of conflict together. That's the basis of CF, and it's the basis of Survivor and The Real World.

Anyway, nevermind that, what we should try is to pool together our writing talents and take some of the cool stories from CF and stitch them into chapters of a greater novel, and post them on the website. Can even self-publish a CF book at Lulu.com.

People may not be ready for mudding, but the idea of this text that is generated by the actions by the prime characters in the game would be pretty cool, and might grab the interest of folks. I haven't seen anything like this, but lots of the stories from this game are hell of a lot more compelling than a Forgotten Realms book, and they're written by us.

Basically, I think, if somehow we are able to write stories, even if a little rough, based on the occurences in CF, it would be cool. Hell, we could make a few good chapters based on Victoria, Ravon, and Nihavera. This is something players that want to conribute in a greater way can do.

Maybe we need a "story" command to supplement role! I'm not even talking about writing all flowery, just, "I stood up to Ravon today, and the fetish remained ours. Major actions, deaths, and so forth, and then an ambitious writer can embellish and research with the character for details. I ramble.

I really like this idea. :D

Some suggestions I would offer.

Those who have websites they run, or a myspace account, try adding a link and mention there.

Those in school, print up a flier and post it here and there.

Visit the Mud Sites and write a postive review from time to time.

You don't have to go big to market, and a lot of those people who would play the game will be hitting spots like that.

If someone sends me a Word file of the text skull, I will post an ad-page on boards all over Rutgers-Newark.

sam.goffinet@gmail.com

I have some insight into this issue, in that I work in a marketing department for a non-traditional product. Specifically, I market pensions for Norwich Union (the UK's largest insurer).

I do think that there would be benefit to such an advert. But equally, I think that we'd get attacks by competitors over such an advert, and I don't mean "legal" ones.

>But equally, I think that we'd get attacks by competitors over such an advert, and I don't mean "legal" ones.

I'm not sure that any "attack" would amount to much beyond some temporary annoyance. But you have a point. There are always drawbacks. However, playerbase is probably CF's #1 problem at this point so needs must and all that.

Heck, I'd be interested in seeing any kind of marketing going on.

It's the most important thing for the future of the game that I have no talent for or drive to produce. Alas.

But when people are drawn to the site via some marketing ploy, it'd be nice to have something flashier than the ol' maroon n' black. People have talked about this forever, and volunteered to help, but no one is grabbing the bull by its friggin' horns.

>But when people are drawn to the site via some marketing
>ploy, it'd be nice to have something flashier than the ol'
>maroon n' black. People have talked about this forever, and
>volunteered to help, but no one is grabbing the bull by its
>friggin' horns.

On the Contests forum, we've run a number of contests to generate new content for the web site. We've gotten some good content, but there's still quite a bit more to be done. If you want to help, that's an easy place to begin.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I swapped a couple emails with Kastellyn and then never heard from him again.

Getting things like the above idea are what I do on a daily basis, and I'm happy to lend a hand.

Do you guys think I'm not qualified or are you for some reason adverse to using my services?

I don't suppose you are hiring? I learn quick.

asdf

~

Tae Kwon Do school.
Music school.
Consulting/Coaching business.

Consulting the longest, martial arts school owner for 2 years, music school owner for 1 week. :)

~

I've offered my help to them as well. Got no answer.
I am not so cool as you, just the owner of the web-marketing agency in Russia.

I dont promote games, mainly concentrating on average small businesses promotion (furniture, HR agency, some shops and so on). I do this not in USA even, but in Russia. But I still supposed my experience could be useful in some measure. Seems they think otherwise :)

And I have the familiar colleague, who is specialized in promoting games. MMORPG games.

As for this concrete idea, I am against that. In this case we have low budget, not very large market (sorry, I am hard with English terms). WoW has, for example. But CF is not the game for everyone and there are not big money.

I would concentrate on advertising in Internet. There are still some ways to do it without spending much money. Define CF's benefits comparing to WOW and show them.
Hidden marketing on forums, cheap PPC campaign, some website promotion, maybe banners (I am not familiar with banners, but in game promotion this might be effective) - something from this could work. And it does not takes a lot of money, a hundred of dollars should be enough to test each of ways and see what it does.

I also (and I would do this as soon as possible) set up google analytics or another good system (like Dio has) to analyze traffic. As some IMM said recently, they dont have it at all. How could you measure your efforts and see, whats interesting to visitors (so they enter the game) and whats is not?

Just my opinion. Sorry for poor English, I am sleepy