Planetarion Forums

[GAP]Obiwan · 27 Dec 2002, 14:42

Obviously we all loved it back in the earlier days when the universe was considerably bigger, the question i'm asking is:

What would be the best way of advertising PA? (eg internet, pop-ups, magazines, word-of-mouth, banners etc)

Simple question really - but just wanted to know everyones opinions on how to get a bigger playerbase?

MrPeach · 27 Dec 2002, 16:58

I'm pretty sure that PA grew to what it is now by word-of-mouth? this is a pretty unlimited way for the game to grow and is obviously free. Unfortunately this will only work if the game is good and worth mentioning to mates... so the best way to attract more players... is to make the game ace again! :smiley1:

-QS- · 27 Dec 2002, 17:20

The game is ace already, far better than in the past. Player got more professional, better organized and P2P with a boring R6 cost lots of player. I`d say make it 2 rounds free, develope the game even more and go for lots of advertising.

Myself, I can say I attracted lots of ppl to the game, some stayed, some didn`t. With free round I can personally "recruit" at least 5 player to play again.

Cochese · 27 Dec 2002, 17:22

Since round 9 will be pay, it will help to have a good amount of free accounts available (up the maximum to maybe 10 million, but don't give them news/mil scans).

JC · 27 Dec 2002, 18:16

I remember back in r4 when about 10-15 people from my school played PA, when it went p2p in r5 that number dopped to 4 i think, now it just 2 of us

. I got to know about PA by word of mouth but back then people would quite happily sign up and give it a go because it was free, people are less willing to spend cash over the internet when they havent sampled the product before.

Right now i would say any publicity is good publicity, PA desperately needs new players before the player base shrinks to nothing. Imo magazines would be a good way to go if it was possible.

Obliterate · 27 Dec 2002, 19:00

well it used to be word of mouth (that's how i found the game anyway) but now, since the game costs money, even if the people that do play recommend the game etc..... people just don't want to pay for something they might not like.

Advertising in game/PC magazines, banner ads on other game sites etc.... would help - but the fact still remains that people don't want to pay for something they might not like.

The only way (imo) to increase the player base is to have at least 1 free completely free round. At least then when it goes back to P2P there will be more players who will pay for it because they know what it's like etc. etc.

G.K Zhukov · 27 Dec 2002, 21:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Cochese
Since round 9 will be pay, it will help to have a good amount of free accounts available (up the maximum to maybe 10 million, but don't give them news/mil scans).

Anyone said "an extremly small universe"?
whats the point in taking in cash, when its going to be small pocket change?

/me salutes the inteligence of the creators & co

Scaggydo · 27 Dec 2002, 21:49

word of mouth was the way it spread, but current opinions of pa arent quite what they were when ppl discovered what was a fantastic free online game. it is possible that pa may need a more active advertising. surely the Jolt community have heard all about it now, what about advertising in other forum communities in some way? maybe when the game is as good as it was, word of mouth will again be enough to bring in fresh blood and eager talent, but atm, imho it will take a little more to bring ppl in.

Shakky · 27 Dec 2002, 21:59

It was done by word of mouth for me and i dont think my friends are willing to pay over the internet.

OI SCAGGY how u doing?

Scaggydo · 27 Dec 2002, 22:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Shakky
It was done by word of mouth for me

was me who attracted j00 shakkeh..

Wishmaster · 27 Dec 2002, 22:30

keep it free some rounds, let us(the players) do the main work with advertising, and u develop the game. Some advertising in magazines could be worthwhile.

Free pa and people will come back.and more will be willing to pay after the round.

(Hey JC`)

NightSinner · 27 Dec 2002, 22:43

y not make it free but people can pay to become members and those members have extra privelages....such as they get more resources each tick, or they get more metal, cristal or eonium to start of with, with an option to buy more as the game goes on. i suggest go to www.mobfather.com and have a look at how they have done it.
It seems to work fine or at least i play it and there r thousands more who do. The paying members just have more benefits than the free ones and that encourages new blood to pay and those who seriously wanna play will not give up the chance to pay in order to get extra resources and a better start

Scaggydo · 27 Dec 2002, 22:53

maybe pa could attract mor eppl if there were quiet actions taken against certain pa "clones" ? i dont know any of the legal side to that, but many games appear to be almost but not quite exactly the same as pa.. elimination of competition and the superior product will win through. that or competition should make the pa ppl improve the game drastically.. ah the promise of rnd 10..

lokken · 28 Dec 2002, 00:18

make it free.

think long term. treat round 9 as a way of getting new players, new ideas (may be an investment). Keep the old players (and possibly bring some back) as they won't pay for something that they've seen all before in rounds 7 and 8.

Advertise. Call round 9 a free trial round. It's worked for several other successful businesses. I'm asking the people running Planetarion to be brave and really go for it rather than be conservative and watch players dwindle. I think people like Spinner could certainly say they got greater satisfaction from watching 50000 players plus play the game rather than the measly turnout for round 8.

If you really must get people to pay, make people pay for private galaxies, and have separate random galaxies, with limitless scores, all free.

Cochese · 28 Dec 2002, 00:20

Quote:

Originally posted by lokken

If you really must get people to pay, make people pay for private galaxies, and have separate random galaxies, with limitless scores, all free.

I think you're on to something here

lokken · 28 Dec 2002, 00:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Cochese
I think you're on to something here

The theory being that most newbies start in less able galaxies anyway and that people will almost certainly try something if it's free. Doesn't mean that a group of the better newbies can't be succesful and like the game, either though, does it? Give old players a chance to play for a laugh rather than seriously. They might even come back.

Oh, and while we're at it, get someone to write an authoritative newbie guide to planetarion, alongside the manual. They aren't all leet, and they certainly don't have exclusive access to the 72 hour and beyond plans that some galaxies get.

Oh, and limit numbers to ensure reliable servers. Make this number preferably above 100k though

Cochese · 28 Dec 2002, 00:29

Yes, YES, YES!

lokken · 28 Dec 2002, 00:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Cochese
Yes, YES, YES!

ideas, Cochese, not orgasms :o

Coffee · 28 Dec 2002, 01:03

To keep it fun you need full random, 15 players per galaxy, 15 galaxies per cluster, a 10% increase in E cost for overy cluster traversed (to help stop bashing).

Free accounts should have no limits, except their 'roids produce 15%-ish less than a paying planet and they cant have news/mil scans.

And make the account upgrade cost £5 or so - no more!

cbk100 · 28 Dec 2002, 01:24

Still the only right way to do it is to make some kind of mix between free and p2p, but well that is what I have said for many rounds now... PA HQ will not listen even if we made another thousand posts about it here on forum...

cbk
/moo

Domin · 28 Dec 2002, 01:56

I agree about priv gals are pay and you do have mil/news scan.

Free you go to random gals.

Prob about the way in round 7 was that you could see the diffrent on a private galaxy and a random galaxy so manny early attacks went to random gals wich was considered "easy" roids.

if u got 10 or 15 in each gals u could not so easy say the diffrence on a pay and a random galaxy.

Another prob is that the game is alot harder to play now than round 4 when it was free.

it was sugest what they need is a realy good newbie guide

Gayle29uk · 28 Dec 2002, 02:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Domin
it was sugest what they need is a realy good newbie guide

I refuse to be drawn into the pay/free argument again but this bit is REAL important

Baco · 28 Dec 2002, 05:00

Quote:

Originally posted by lokken
The theory being that most newbies start in less able galaxies anyway and that people will almost certainly try something if it's free. Doesn't mean that a group of the better newbies can't be succesful and like the game, either though, does it? Give old players a chance to play for a laugh rather than seriously. They might even come back.

Oh, and while we're at it, get someone to write an authoritative newbie guide to planetarion, alongside the manual. They aren't all leet, and they certainly don't have exclusive access to the 72 hour and beyond plans that some galaxies get.

I agree with it.
The 72 hrs plan is a nice ideia to make ppl at the start paying if they r doing well (or the galaxy since they were going to play random) but better than that was creating a chan for n00bs with trusted ppl to teach them how to play and a few strategys or even tell them what they need to join an aliance and which ones r the best for each person...not that difficult imo....
the best way to "hook" a player, imo, is through the comunity...

/me opinion

28 Dec 2002, 05:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Coffee
To keep it fun you need full random, 15 players per galaxy, 15 galaxies per cluster, a 10% increase in E cost for overy cluster traversed (to help stop bashing).

Free accounts should have no limits, except their 'roids produce 15%-ish less than a paying planet and they cant have news/mil scans.

And make the account upgrade cost £5 or so - no more!

The E cost has close to no effect to prevent the bashing that makes people quit. E cost isnt a problem until atleast amonth into the game. All newbies will be gone by then.

Fred of Bedrock · 28 Dec 2002, 06:39

My round8 gal had 4 active. One was a part of a pyramid chain for a farmer in the top 50 who was never deleted despite my reporting with mil and news scans. ( good on you spinner for being an inactive twat on that one). 2 of the others were killed off and basically 6 of them never logged in more than once a week leaving just me to try and kindle the gals interest by spamming them everytime they came online.

If all galaxies were random that scenario would replay itself over and over. Random gals suck and I would rather not play than go random again. I bet even Kile agrees with me that random gals are horrible.

Make it free and big..... all this selective pureness that crew had killed the game as much as spinners untested tweaks in stats did to satisfy his ego. If you wnt newbies to play and prosper a p2p wont attract them and the hardcore ppl have already moved into new games. So the choice is simple.... make it free and have private and random gals.... lots of clones cope with being free and some are bigger than PA was in rnd8.

Kileman · 28 Dec 2002, 11:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Fred of Bedrock

If all galaxies were random that scenario would replay itself over and over. Random gals suck and I would rather not play than go random again. I bet even Kile agrees with me that random gals are horrible.

I wont ever play random again

Sure I had some nice people in my gal and they did reasonable, but its no where near as fun as spending a round with friends. At least with private gals if your getting raped u can still have fun. With random gals, people just fk off and go inactive.
________
Marijuana Vaporizer

Radium-^ · 28 Dec 2002, 11:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Kileman
With random gals, people just fk off and go inactive.

No they dont, don't tell lies. They'll just go as inactive as anyone being raped in a private galaxy.

Im living proof

Kileman · 28 Dec 2002, 11:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Radium-^
No they dont, don't tell lies. They'll just go as inactive as anyone being raped in a private galaxy.

Im living proof

My gal got smashed from #1 to #500 in r6... yet I still had a **** load of fun that round

________
Slk-class

Rachael · 28 Dec 2002, 13:00

i tried word of mouth but then again noone listens to me

get someone influencial to broadcast it

cbk100 · 28 Dec 2002, 13:25

Well I don't realy like your suggestions about giving p2p ppl Mill and news scans and take that option away from the free ppl. How many of you realy active ppl have ever made a mill scan and a news scan?? not many that is for sure cause we (active ppl) have ppl to do that for us.

The option to make p2p ppl be in priv gals and free ppl in random gals is an option, but to be honost I don't think its the best way to do it cause the old ppl we have lost over the last rounds will not come back unless they can play with their old friends, and new ppl should get the chance to end up in serious gals and not just end up with a bunch of totaly n00bs like themself.

I think what has to be done is to make a little (doesn't realy have to be that big) bonus in the game for the p2p ppl. Maybe give the p2p ppl a 10 tick bonus (let their round start 10 hours earlier than the free ppl). Maybe only 5 ticks... 10 ticks means a LOT for the VERY active ppl in the beginning, but for a n00b it kinda doesn't matter if they lose some 5 or 10 ticks cause they lose some allready. I know that this will make the p2p ppl get an advantage, but HEY!!! don't you think they have a HUGE advantage allready cause they are in priv gals and have ****loads of contacts allready? the difference might be some 5% bigger by giving them a 10 tick lead, but in the whole picture the difference will not be much bigger... so all in all such a move is VERY important for the serious players but for the n00bs it more or less doesn't matter.

the bonus could also be other things and this suggestion is only an option.

cbk
/moo

DrunkenViking · 28 Dec 2002, 13:32

Quote:

Originally posted by [GAP]Obiwan
Obviously we all loved it back in the earlier days when the universe was considerably bigger, the question i'm asking is:

What would be the best way of advertising PA? (eg internet, pop-ups, magazines, word-of-mouth, banners etc)

Simple question really - but just wanted to know everyones opinions on how to get a bigger playerbase?

there are a tread about this already: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showth...hreadid=155724

pls read the forums before you post.

Obliterate · 28 Dec 2002, 14:05

Quote:

Originally posted by DrunkenViking
there are a tread about this already: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showth...hreadid=155724

pls read the forums before you post.

that thread is a suggestion for making round 9 free. This thread is a discussion about different ways of getting more players to play the game.

pls think before you post.

DrunkenViking · 28 Dec 2002, 16:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Obliterate
that thread is a suggestion for making round 9 free. This thread is a discussion about different ways of getting more players to play the game.

pls think before you post.

That thread is a suggestion for getting more players to play the game by making it free, also if you read more than the first post you will see other suggestions on how more players can be introduced to the game without making it free.

pls have a head before you post.

Coffee · 28 Dec 2002, 18:25

Quote:

Originally posted by cbk100
Well I don't realy like your suggestions about giving p2p ppl Mill and news scans and take that option away from the free ppl.

So that people dont just use free accounts for what they are famous for - scan planets.

Cochese · 28 Dec 2002, 19:38

Heh, I almost always do my own mil/news scans cbk

Dizzyness · 29 Dec 2002, 09:09

rd 4 was great, i convinced 15 rl freinds and 5 online freinds to join my gal with 4 others who were sorta new too. we all had fun and planned to return to rd 5 with more experience and aim higher then just top 200, but p2p killed it. 7 of them played rd 5 but lost interest as the universe had shrunk so much (that and we were nocex \o/) and only i played rd 6+

point being: bring back free to get interest back, then find ways to keep people interested in the game even if it goes to pay

cbk100 · 29 Dec 2002, 11:53

hehe with the amount of scans I need done every day a free account is not enough anyways and the serious ppl in this game doesn't care if they have to pay for one extra account and then let a m8 run it as scan planet.

the difference between this advice and the one I gave is that this one hurts the n00bs A LOT more than it hurts the experienced ppl. The n00bs don't know many other ppl and therefore they will not have as easy access to mill and news scans but the experienced ppl will cause they know a lot.

How good would you be able to perform without news and mill scan?? How much chance would you have to survive?

cbk
/moo

29 Dec 2002, 15:44

send it to mobile phones

29 Dec 2002, 19:09

How about 2 PAs like it was announced in the early beginning of r5. One P2P with all its goods and possibilitys and another One with only 2 races with each 4 different Shiptypes less researches....etc. Somekind of Demo before u go buy the real complete Game....

31 Dec 2002, 11:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Jonny
send it to mobile phones

NO! Be active or get used to being battered once in a while

Cochese · 2 Jan 2003, 07:20

Let's try to get this thread back on topic *cough*

I believe once the game is re-coded, and fundamental balance issues resolved, it will be vastly more playable to the newcomer, and thus, word-of-mouth will again help it grow, to an extent.

Coupled with extensive advertising, I think we'll be fine.

Eol · 2 Jan 2003, 13:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Cochese
Let's try to get this thread back on topic *cough*

I believe once the game is re-coded, and fundamental balance issues resolved, it will be vastly more playable to the newcomer, and thus, word-of-mouth will again help it grow, to an extent.

Coupled with extensive advertising, I think we'll be fine.

You'll need a more appealing 'shareware' account. Maybe put the limit on time (like most software) instead of score?

Eol · 2 Jan 2003, 13:41

Quote:

Originally posted by Fred of Bedrock
My round8 gal had 4 active. One was a part of a pyramid chain for a farmer in the top 50 who was never deleted despite my reporting with mil and news scans. ( good on you spinner for being an inactive twat on that one). 2 of the others were killed off and basically 6 of them never logged in more than once a week leaving just me to try and kindle the gals interest by spamming them everytime they came online.

If all galaxies were random that scenario would replay itself over and over. Random gals suck and I would rather not play than go random again. I bet even Kile agrees with me that random gals are horrible.

Make it free and big..... all this selective pureness that crew had killed the game as much as spinners untested tweaks in stats did to satisfy his ego. If you wnt newbies to play and prosper a p2p wont attract them and the hardcore ppl have already moved into new games. So the choice is simple.... make it free and have private and random gals.... lots of clones cope with being free and some are bigger than PA was in rnd8.

If you had massive amounts of free randoms, but had to have people pay for the private gals, I bet you a lot of people would pay.

lokken · 2 Jan 2003, 14:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Eol
If you had massive amounts of free randoms, but had to have people pay for the private gals, I bet you a lot of people would pay.

I think this is the major point to be honest. With enough players playing for free to give a sufficient challenge, people who want to play private will pay.

lokken · 2 Jan 2003, 14:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Eol
If you had massive amounts of free randoms, but had to have people pay for the private gals, I bet you a lot of people would pay.

I think this is the major point to be honest. With enough players playing for free to give a sufficient challenge, people who want to play private will pay.

Eol · 2 Jan 2003, 15:12

Quote:

Originally posted by lokken
I think this is the major point to be honest. With enough players playing for free to give a sufficient challenge, people who want to play private will pay.

Well, the thing is, it would allow people to pay for an advantage that is only topographical, and not to avoid planet restrictions. It would be a positive incentive, not a negative one, and unlike incentives like 'you start with 10 roids' or 'your ships are half price' or 'your roids generate 20% more', the amount of success you get is still entirely up to the player - you don't *get* sometime, you just get a better location in the universe. I would pay for that if I was a new player, after playing a round. You could even offer a option for randoms to pay for their accounts and then be able to 'form' a galaxy from those (though that may be exploitable - I'm just throwing out ideas though, maybe it wouldn't be exploitable if the formation incurred some sort of planetary penalty during the move, like a self-exile).

Take LiveJournal.com as an example. When they hit the max of their server capabilities, he had to go for some financial solution. Nothing caught on though, before the benefited Paid accounts came in. You could have more pictures, change the style of your journal etc. Quite simply, people are not going to pay for a product on the internet unless they a) know what the product is and have used it for free b) paying gives them benefits. With a game, of course, it's more difficult, because you also want to preserve the fairness of the game, but we have had a combination of random/private gals in every round except the first two and round 8. That division to be honest has not been terribly unhealthy imo, as it allows for the entry of new players or can keep retired players, while it also allows for active players to organize themselves. So if you want to find a product that people will pay for, while offering a free entry to those who aren't that interested or simply curious (and generate less bandwidth/server usage etc expenses too), while not totally wreaking the balance of the game in favour of paid accounts (at least not in an unproven way), then what do you have? Pay for private galaxies.

Leshy · 2 Jan 2003, 15:43

I deleted several replies in this thread. Do not hijack threads with valid discussions to start accusing each other of things in past rounds, goes for all sides.

Cochese · 2 Jan 2003, 16:09

Thank you Leshy.

Back to the subject at hand; Eol, I think having time limits on the free accounts instead of score limits is a very interesting option...so players who get into the game will be able to to better, and be more excited about paying, instead of seeing it as a hinderance.

Having tons of free accounts, but paying for private galaxies is another option...perhaps coupled with the time limit idea...So long as the servers don't get bogged down by too many players, I have no problem with that. Let's see just how good Jolt is, eh