Publicity

[5c0rp]

First things first before we go anywhere, we can actually create publicity by sindicating Ryzom news to various gaming and mmo specific sites, this is something that would cost nothing to do. Along with this we can offer interviews and invite them to review the game, maybe for a second time if they have previously reviewed it.

Once this is in place we can then look at specific campaigns, incentives and offers that can be put in place to draw in new players.

As i said this is free and something that is easy to do and something that creates intrest and makes the gaming communities aware of Ryzom.

[katriell]

I've been submitting some of the news posts to mmorpg.com and OnRPG.

[acridiel]

I´m volunteering at mmorpg.com to be the new InGame-Correspondent.
Will write my first Article asap. More busy with my new Job than anticipated atm. -.-

Was Correspondent at German Onilewelten.com portal, but the games site was closed last week, wasn´t able to contact anyone responsible yet... *grumbles*

Still writing on the RP³ Project. (when time permits)
The Pen&Paper Conversion of Atys.

CU
Acridiel

[kalindra]

Indeed, for the player income to be constant, there needs to be constant news releases. You'll maybe want to shoot me for bringing this up as an example, but part of what caused AoC so much hype was all the interviews and news articles progressively released as launch was coming. It felt like no gaming community website was left aside. MMOlecule, Tentonhammer, MMORPG.com, Warcry, Gamespot, Wikia, they all had their information content AND contests held regularly.

You heard me, contests ! And most of them were for free beta keys or 1-2 month time cards. The prize doesn't have to be big, the objective is only to generate some hype.

Being a partner with those community websites sure can help get a lot of player income. The game needs to generate enough news content to attract new players. Interviews with devs, CSRs, the "player of the month" award, event coverage (be them player or CSR/dev events) are all good article subjects.

The question is : are the new owners ready to give us some news to write about ? The fact that a game company is daring enough to openly trust its loyal community to help them market the game is quite some big news content right there ! :cool:

[numbie]

In Ryzom it is very easy to get beautiful screenshots. Maybe we can try to get some publicity via Massively's "One Shots" feature (http://www.massively.com/category/one-shots/) or similar on other MMO-related sites.

[boroshi]

We have our own list of press contacts that get sent the major updates, but obviously we can't cover the whole internet. If you would like to (continue) helping us with this, we're very grateful :)

[sx4rlet]

We have our own list of press contacts that get sent the major updates, but obviously we can't cover the whole internet. If you would like to (continue) helping us with this, we're very grateful :)

Actually, it's not about 'major updates'. Please read Kalindra's post very carefully, as she says it all.

To get attention, you need to MAKE news. In the past, Ryzom devs have always been to shy, and only announced big things like the Ring and Silan on the sites, and that was about it.

When the new owners started, 'step 1' was announced, which got picked up on mmorpg.com, and was discussed by some players, keeping it in the news section for a bit.
Then 'step 2' happened, and again the game and new owners were being discussed.

Which is exactly how the other games do it. They announce something, it gets picked up, people discuss it, and after a while the discussions stop. Around that time they announce something else, give an interview etc...
Yes, that is a lot of work. Especially because you have to keep doing it.

For Ryzom it could be a lot of things. Interviews with the new owner, with the new devs, future plans, announcements of 'double xp weekend', announcement of event weekend, a contest, announcement of a kitin raid, interview with an old time player, interview with a csr, the experience of a dev playing the game, etc etc etc...

Like I said, yes it is a lot of work, but because the game gets repeated attention, it will attract new people and remind people that the game is alive...

[nanaruto]

We could also counting story we lived in the game, i'm pretty sure all of you had a short or a long story to tell, we just have to talk about us , about the dream we are living together, the night at Pyr's Bath, the war, the invasions, events , official and players made.
we could speak of what we lived arriving in the game for the very first time, discovering a yubo ! being killed by an yzam..., first level, the trainers.
Made them dreamed.

Yesterday, there was an emission on gameone, explaining the history of videogames, they explained why nintendo had such a succes, because all of the game where comfortable to play, there was a realy good gameplay, they made us dream.

[symolan]

I also think that newsflow is the most important marketing tool. As it was said in previous post it is crucial to have a plan when you want to release which news.

As it was said, news don't need to be big ones. Also tiny pieces of information (lots of suggestions made already) are creating the thing that is necessary: stir up the hype.

I think you should release some news at least every two weeks so that on every mmo-site it will have an item. This gives the impression of a lively game where developers make things happen.

I'd distribute everything from event-announcements to interviews, from announcements that the website has changed to reports on events. EVERYTHING.

Blogs should also be explored.

It may seem difficult first to create enough news, but it is feasible! Wouldn't it be nice to have an event every two weeks thats announced big time everywhere? And yeah, competitions would be nice too...

Regarding your marketing team: It might be an idea to look whether a MBA-School like INSEAD or IMD needs to have a project to let their students sharpen their skills. I know that sometime they do such projects where they seek to make a e.g. marketing plan for a given company.

Another idea was to make a deal with a youth organisation. In Europe some time ago Euro<26 existed, having some hundreds of thousands members that were under 26 years of age distributing special offers to this segment (there may be other organisations today or even more profit oriented organizations may be interested). Go to such an organisation, tell them you would like to give a free-trial month key to all their members. If you're lucky they implement it (as it comes with no cost to them) and you get immediate access to some x-thousand people that are, accidentally, within your target segment of the market. And, those people will value the key as it seems to be a valuable gift by said distributing organizations.

Do any internet-café chains exist? If yes, explore whats needed that ryzoms running on every of their pc's...

Talk to Starbucks and tell them to give away a free-month keys with every macchiato, globally... or let McDonalds put it to the BigMac Menue.

Idea behind: a certain percentage of people that are installing the game will stay...

good luck

embrel

menetekel - leanon

[acridiel]

Beauturkey and me will be producing Podcasts again, sometime in the near future ;)

CU
Acridiel

[Boar]

So, who takes the task of leading this project?
5c0rp ?
katriell ?
acridiel ?

No simple task, but this could be a very successful project!

[acridiel]

I guess this one doesn´t really need a "leader" as long as we all share the same goal and coordinate for example here, so that no two people try to outdo each other at the same job it should be alright as it is.
Or am I mistaken?

And releasing Patchnotes and other stuff, well that´s work for the new Bosses, not us ;)
We only relate the news to others.

CU
Acridiel

[kalindra]

The only thing we need is something to write about. ;)

And Symolan's suggestion is actually very, very good.

Is anyone here in a college with a school newspaper ? At my college, the newspaper team is DESPERATE for people to submit articles and content. If you're a student, you have the right to submit any article, poem, cartoon, caricature, delirium that you'd want. ANYTHING. Also, there used to be a videogame chronicle. You see where I'm going ? College students. You probably have a chance to hit the % of the college's geek people that might be interested to try the game for free.

I'm having a couple of article concepts popping into my mind. If I publish any, I'll link the file here. ;) (The articles, if there are any will probably be in French, due to the fact that I'm a French Canadian studying in a French college with a French Newspaper. MAYBE I will translate them. MAYBE.)

[5c0rp]

The project is simple and easy but not easy to arrange in a single forum and also envolved corperation from the Ryzom staff, espically if things such as dev plans and interviews can be posted. With so little news and information coming from the staff this project would no suceed.

There are various ways of taking it foward but again having such information and plans made public makes it kinda pointless.

[5c0rp]

We have our own list of press contacts that get sent the major updates, but obviously we can't cover the whole internet. If you would like to (continue) helping us with this, we're very grateful :)

And nothing has ever been sindicated to the various game journolist sites where alot of press released are picked up.

[memir]

i my self would love to know what the dev plans are.(and im sure others would too) just info on that would be a big leap since well(no one i know at lest)know of these dev's any info is good info, dose not need to be big info by any means.

alot of the marketing ideas here are really well sounded at lest thats my opinion.

[miraaz]

Ryzom already died twice. If continue that old marketing model its dies again that is sue! Get out here i see only 2 possibility.
1) Huge development (Ryzom 2). Make new graphics engine, rewrite guests....
Ryzom mast be again killer game like it was when it gamed out.
2) Not sell game but ingame items. Special armors, tickets some place where rare trops, cats, rare skill books.... That also needs lot development but not so huge when in point 1).
Why i think so? Because look what in game market happens now.
In mmorpg.com 1. place is http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com
There also game like cabal-online. If you not have millions and millions players like example EVE have and if you not have unlimited amount money for marketing like example EA have then nothing dodo you mast choose point 2) marketing system.
Sorry my eng not good but i hope you got a point.

If monthly fee coming again then that means owners nothing not learned. If Ryzom already died twice when used that marketing model why its mast survive now!?

Owners if im right please give me my first rare armor for free. Second one i already buy. Also what is price for supercats?

[hyaru]

I don't agree with that, Ryzom is still a great game. even by todays standards.

However, I have never seen a advertisement of Ryzom.

Advertising an MMORPG is nessasary to get a good player base.

That should do it.

[kalindra]

Cabal Online is one of the worst games I ever played. Don't compare Ryzom to it, it's nothing alike.

But now that we've had a great event and patch, we do have something to write about !

[hyaru]

Here is some from me :)


http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Saga-of-Ryzom/review/Saga-of-Ryzom-Dont-Overlook-This-Game

[bazak]

i agree with ryzom not needing to be remade in a ryzom two one way to get old played back would be more emails out i only remembered i played this game once and loved it because i was lucky enough to be reminded by an email you need to do more news letters also TV commercials would work wonders if you could afford it you dont even need to set the scenario up seeing as the ryzom rings exists find one of the best master scenarios in there and you could work wonders with a commercial assumeing a little editing here and there so as to make it not look like your actualy playing the game or you could make one and have it hint at the next part of the story and the past story of the game there are so many possibilitys if you can get this on tv

[meryan]

We need more information to pass along to people who have not heard about the game.

Maybe something every two weeks or so. Even if it is a guide to how crafting works or screenshots from the latest event.

[pre156kt]

I very much agree. There should be constant stream of little news, not just a big announcement once every two months.

Moonie pretty much said it, mini-guides and screenies would be good, or perhaps small trailers from latest invasion event?