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Well, for instance, at least half the purpose we put in gleam was because we were pretty sure we could get some coverage for it. We then anonymously submitted a story to slashdot about it, figuring they'd cover it if phrased the right way, and they did. Wired News then read the Slashdot article (they seem to get a lot of their gaming news from slashdot), and I assume TechTv picked it up from either Slashdot or Wired. A few other news sites picked up the story as well.
Small muds (and that includes every single one of us, as I use 'mud' to include Everquest and such too) have to work to get any kind of attention from media. Do something that you know the mainstream folk will perceive as edgy and then make sure that you let someone know about it.
Another thing I've made sure to do over time is participate in forums that game developers from big companies participate in. That's how I got to know Dr. Bartle, for instance, which then got me in as one of his two editors for his book (which ensured Achaea would get mentioned more than it otherwise might have). Did another thing recently like that with Lee Sheldon, who has a book coming out on storytelling in games. Since most media types are going to be, at best, vaguely aware of Achaea (and that's only because I work hard at it), I need people with bigger names in the mainstream gaming industry to know who I am and what our company is up to, so that when media guys (who probably will know who the big-name developers are) ask for someone to talk to about <X> (in our case it's usually politics in games, business models, or text muds generally), said big name developers can point them to me.
I've got another plan for some innovative PR that should be quite funny if it works, but that'll have to wait until after it's executed.
All the things you listed you do are fine and well, but they're also never going to get you media attention. Think of it this way: What you are doing is just advertisement. People see ads all the time, and there's nothing noteworthy to the media about them, unless the ads themselves manage to be creative enough and widespread enough to draw attention (and that's pretty impossible when you don't have an ad budget). Ads are good for bringing in players, but ads won't interest the media.
You might look around the net for writings on 'guerilla marketing'. Lots of relevant stuff out there. I also don't want to portray myself as an expert marketing guy, as I'm not. I'm just kind of learning as I go and feeling my way along. I'm sure professional marketers could do a lot for any of us, but they're quite pricey. I talked to the Themis group recently about hiring them to do some marketing/PR work for us. They wanted a minimum commitment of $15,000.
--matt
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