Hi,

I'm a very old school player that just cameback and I'm loving it.

I love new changes,etc. But the only problem that I've seen so far it's that there are not very many people around to play with. On my days before I left there were at least 50/60 people normally and around 20 at least (evening,weekends.).

From what I've seen that is not the case anymore. You don't get the same adrenaline rush of always looking behind your back, and I personally get more afraid to be as evil to people as my role would dictate for fear that I will make someone miserable and leave the game.

So all of that rant leads me to the question. What can I do to help?.

I click on the voting for top mud sites already, so that doesnt count.

P.D. What made me comeback were a couple of emails that I got out of the blue, after many years of not hearing about carrion fields. Made me try it out again and I'm enjoying it.

I would think an easy way for people to get the word out there would be an 8x11 poster. Maybe even just the CF log-in skull and website, really...?

Something we could easily print off and plaster around our respective towns, campuses, etc.

Target audience: gamers, students, general public. Most towns have these little niche game/comic shops where some people are still into DnD, Magic, etc. Campus bulletin boards, and so forth.

I'm thinking something real simple, to spark curiosity with the web link, a sentence or two describing what CF is all about.

Hobby shop year over year sales have been growing since 2008. I would hazard a guess that between pathfinder, star wars RPG and DnD, there are more people playing pen and paper RPG's today that at any point in time.
I play pathfinder in the SF bay area and would definitely be willing to put up posters. I semi-regularly visit about 10 different hobby shops for gaming, less so when I'm playing CF though!


Link on hobby shop sales:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/25373.html

For the first night of 100. Never had a chance to do so, however.

Plus I am not a fantastic artist, nor am I particularly skilled in graphic design.

1. Help out new players in game. Retaining a newbie is important! It can be a simple matter of them knowing the layout, what to gear for, and support for improving their roleplay.

2. Making review posts on topmudsites.com this helps us bring in more players that would not have found us otherwise.

You can post under our current marketing thread:
http://www.topmudsites.com/forums/advertising-players/7201-carrion-fields-goes-wild-honor-chaos-combat.html

Or you can create your own thread.

3. Donations for marketing CF you can do this through the donate button on the forums. These funds we can use for marketing initiatives of our own.

4. If you have other means of marketing do not be afraid to ask if it would be a good idea or not. Other ideas are welcome.

While there can be a trickle of new players from other MUDs via a site such as TopMudSites, I think there's more potential in people who are interested in fantasy/RPG maybe in other ways currently. In general a big target group should be people who enjoy reading fantasy novels (since reading is pretty much what playing CF is), and how in this game they can become a hero or a villain themselves in an interactive storyline.

In the Top100 at RPGgateway there are many more types of sites rather than just MUDs, so it seems there could be some potential for growth there.

Oh and for the imms, the RPGG voting button is still missing from www.carrionfields.com (it's only on the CF Forums site):

http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1147

Maybe start small?

Try to convince one friend to play.

Hi,

So I looked around and I found a post from Valguernera showing how she planned to make some advertising products (swag). And Also another thread about how to contribute to renew CF.

But they are very old posts, what is currently being done to bring back CF?.

I obviously see the constant improving of the game itself and I love the questions and community involvement on facebook, but what is the current broad plan on how to accomplish this goal?

Glad you're back from a long hiatus and are enjoying your time. Currently most of the projects we are working on regarding marketing are targeted in specific places. We have two considerations for marketing:

- Existing players, veterans and experienced CFers.
- New players, both first time MUDders and players from other MUDs.

The first marketing task involves the creation of new content, running quests and trying to keep things interesting for you guys. Personally, all things considered the current and previous staff have done a pretty great job here in my opinion. It is a hands on and time-consuming task to manage this part.

The second involves trying to get the word out and reach people who might be interested in this game.

With regard to this we are doing some targeted marketing on MUD listing sites (see link from Deaer above.) We are also attempting to make some maps and brand new newbie documentation for support, which is a pretty monumental task.

As things progress we will probably see a lot more on this front. As always it takes time and resources, so in the case of this current marketing it is a case of using limited resources where they have the maximum affect.

We also have a regularly updated Facebook page (feel free to like it, if you haven't already), and are trying to run events and making frequent newsletters.

Swag.

Hi,

Just wanted to throw something outhere.

First of all, in reply to the email I got about marketing: Awesome job on the PR, you've got amazing skills, your responses were concrete and friendly. Your donating those PR skills to CF is amazing, and you must be making a ton of money on your job.

About the voting, I've began to vote on rpggateway and not only mud connector.

Now for the idea, just wanted to share something that I did on my business. I own a gym and I didn't have money to buy big chunks of shirts and protein cups for marketing (doing these things in hopes of making money is just about impossible as a small unknown business because the competition is too big, you do it for the marketing).

Sooooo.... I made a deal with a company that sells shirts with logos,cups, caps,etc.: I put a space on my website for a link to buying these things, I gave them permission to use my logo and slogans on all kinds of stuff, but I dont get anything out of it except for the free marketing. They take care of absolutely everything, and I still keep control of my brands and marketing material.

Its a way to get more visibility of your brand outhere for free. You can make a clause that if your stuff starts to sell really well, you then renegotiate to get money off of it. Obviously you have to make a good contract on your favor to protect all your stuff, but its hassle free and well Free marketing.

I'm guessing that the reason for not doing the whole shirts and merchandise before (valguarnera's old post) was that it would be a hassle and costly for CF.

Jaegendar

Yeah. I see what you're saying: You sold a company exclusive rights to profits on merchandise to help boost your brand image. I know in the past we have had some merchandise.

Funny you should mention this but I Googled this the other day:
http://www.cafepress.com/+carrion-fields+gifts

On our Facebook page recently someone in Florida mentioned they were in traffic and saw a CF license plate. She said she was curious and might give the game a shot.

This is definitely something to discuss. I really don't know too much about it as I wasn't involved in the original merchandise, and don't know what was hashed out. It's a clever idea, I think.

>Funny you should mention this but I Googled this the other
>day:
>http://www.cafepress.com/+carrion-fields+gifts
>

I think I could try the hoodie or the carplate. Do you guys get anything for it?

Not sure. I am still trying to find out what the deal is with the Cafepress stuff. I will get back to you on that one, but I do not it was set up by us some time ago.

We did, and it was helping meet server costs, etc. We're presently trying to make sure we have access to the money in question, as we've changed servers, management, etc. in the last year.

It might be good to hold off on purchases until we run that down.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I've never seen them before, oddly enough, in what? 10-12 years? hahaha

A shame the license plateholders doesn't fit Swedish signs... But, a mouse pad, clock or a hoodie might suit me though.

Always shoot first and then call whatever you hit the target.