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tommi · 10-26-2009, 11:23 PM

The keys things IMO are as follows:

1. Know your target audience.
2. Know how to locate your target audience.
3. Go to your market, they will not come to you, unless your WOW.
4. Select strategies that appeal to your market.
5. Understand that your market might not be MUTE savvy, so have extensive help files, web helps, tutorials and a web client that connected directly to your game.

Most Mu* devs seems to to be people who make games that they themselves would like to play, that manta has been said to pretty much every new dev at some point. While it is great to be making the game you want to play, often no thought is given to WHO is going to play it other then you and how to reach them. So, they end up with a great game and have no business plan on how to market the game to other people. Ultimately that's the key issue here for you, is formulating a business plan to develop the player side of your game.

Think out of the box, the internet is a massive place and you will, if you look hard, find many opportunities to market your game directly to the people who would most likely play it. Thinking of your game theme, where do people who are interested in your theme hang out on the web, do directly to them and tell them about your game, offer intensives to get people to try the game, nothing like the chance of 50 bucks to get people motivated to try the game.

Also, you don't have to limit yourself to the internet, there are many ways to reach potential players who live in your own city, just by reaching out to clubs, schools, trade fairs, game shops, etc and none of these things have to cost you big money to achieve, a few letters or emails or the entrance fee to a convention where you hand out some cards or mini cds with your game on it. Of course how you go about it really depends on who your targets are and the more niche your game, the more effort it will take to achieve anything substantial.

If my game was complete and i was looking to gain some players, i would burn 1000 mini Cd's containing a preconfigured game client that connected to my game automatically, and use local game stores as a distribution method along with a promotion offering cash prizes etc, i would also make promo type posts on a selection of certain large game websites where my potential customers congregate and i would email a huge list of clubs based around my theme nforming them about the game and the promo's asking them to inform their members as to the existence of the game. This would be my approach over a 3 month period, and i would stop at any point through out where i felt that I could not deal with the number of new players connecting.

I would not bother with places like TMC, TMS, MB or any other mud related board, because i do not see the current mudders as my target audience, the only time i would post on those places would be to get beta testers, as experienced mice find the cheese quicker.

Hope you find some of this helpful.

10-26-2009, 11:23 PM	#10
tommi New Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 23	Re: Advertising Woes The keys things IMO are as follows: 1. Know your target audience. 2. Know how to locate your target audience. 3. Go to your market, they will not come to you, unless your WOW. 4. Select strategies that appeal to your market. 5. Understand that your market might not be MUTE savvy, so have extensive help files, web helps, tutorials and a web client that connected directly to your game. Most Mu* devs seems to to be people who make games that they themselves would like to play, that manta has been said to pretty much every new dev at some point. While it is great to be making the game you want to play, often no thought is given to WHO is going to play it other then you and how to reach them. So, they end up with a great game and have no business plan on how to market the game to other people. Ultimately that's the key issue here for you, is formulating a business plan to develop the player side of your game. Think out of the box, the internet is a massive place and you will, if you look hard, find many opportunities to market your game directly to the people who would most likely play it. Thinking of your game theme, where do people who are interested in your theme hang out on the web, do directly to them and tell them about your game, offer intensives to get people to try the game, nothing like the chance of 50 bucks to get people motivated to try the game. Also, you don't have to limit yourself to the internet, there are many ways to reach potential players who live in your own city, just by reaching out to clubs, schools, trade fairs, game shops, etc and none of these things have to cost you big money to achieve, a few letters or emails or the entrance fee to a convention where you hand out some cards or mini cds with your game on it. Of course how you go about it really depends on who your targets are and the more niche your game, the more effort it will take to achieve anything substantial. If my game was complete and i was looking to gain some players, i would burn 1000 mini Cd's containing a preconfigured game client that connected to my game automatically, and use local game stores as a distribution method along with a promotion offering cash prizes etc, i would also make promo type posts on a selection of certain large game websites where my potential customers congregate and i would email a huge list of clubs based around my theme nforming them about the game and the promo's asking them to inform their members as to the existence of the game. This would be my approach over a 3 month period, and i would stop at any point through out where i felt that I could not deal with the number of new players connecting. I would not bother with places like TMC, TMS, MB or any other mud related board, because i do not see the current mudders as my target audience, the only time i would post on those places would be to get beta testers, as experienced mice find the cheese quicker. Hope you find some of this helpful.