FYI: For God's Sake MA/FPC/SDS or whoever's running this thing now, GET A GRIP OF YOUR MARKETING!

Stutoman

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(Please read the entire post before making assumptions about what I'm trying to say)

Okay, so more than half a year ago 60,000 CLDs were sold in order to raise $6million USD in which to use on a marketing campaign. What has become of it?

This measly banner ad has become of it:
eubanner.jpg


Now I'm sure some people are excited to see this thing around but let's be clear. If you don't already play Entropia or search for very similar games you WILL NOT SEE THIS AD. Whoever at head office is in charge of the google adwords account seems to have just used meta tags that directly relate to Entropia.

I stopped playing in May 2011 and recently returned, I have read on here these ads have been active since March or earlier, but I hadn't seen a single one before having returned to the Entropia Universe website.

So that's my first point: Ads yes, but they've not been optimised one bit.

Now onto my second point. Banner ads? Really? Since when do the large majority of people take to any game after seeing a banner ad for it? Rarely. That banner ad shows nothing of what Entropia has to offer, a picture of an avatar, a model, and a corny strapline. It looks like an advert you'd expect from an online casino, and although many ingame activities are indeed the equivalent of gambling, that really isn't the way to get more players. When you click this advert all it does is take you to the news page (Press releases, that sort of stuff) of the Entropia website; so for the few who actually bother to click an ad that tells them nothing, they're taken to a webpage that also doesn't tell them what Entropia Universe is. Infact the only thing that even hints at it being a game is the word 'Player' and the avatar. Nobody is going to download 10GB+ of content without knowing what they're downloading, and by now I'd estimate that 80% or more of the people who even click the advert don't bother looking further.
Why are people not taken to a specially made welcome page? Whoever was in charge of the production of this advert did a very poor job of it.

It's a complete waste of money, and I would like to highlight it before all the money that was raised has disappeared.
Games do not primarily get players via internet banners, those work better for online retail as they show what it is and what you pay to get it, a game is much more than that and therefore needs deeper explanation as to what it is.

Project Entropia started out really well in my opinion, the trailer that got me playing was this one:

Although it was fairly far fetched and unexciting, it explained in much more detail what the game was and showed off what the game looked like. That trailer makes me want to play the game in the state it was then, and despite the comparatively crap graphics, they still look great in the trailer. The trailer didn't focus on a storyline much, but it still had one; what do we have now in terms of a storyline other than little bits and pieces made up to explain the changes MA make to the game?

The game doesn't even have a trailer at the moment, other than a user-made teaser trailer created over 2 years ago.

My recommendation is that MA takes a big step back and approaches the marketing of Planet Calypso from an entirely different direction. If you have a $6 million USD marketing budget you don't simply create a banner in 10 minutes and top-up google adwords with $6million of credit, it's insane.

1) Make a trailer, a 2 minute cinematic trailer that focuses on storyline rather than being able to "utilise the latest technologies of community interaction" (that is quoted from the page the current ad directs you to), isn't shot 100% from the players perspective and must be produced spotlessly, no accidental item names being highlighted for example.
Don't go cheap on it by using the calypso music or titles giving information, go grand with lots of bass and heavy sound effects, pay for a deep voiceover. Maybe even take a page from Blizzard's book, celebrity endorsement worked wonders for World of Warcraft.

2) Get that trailer seen by all the right people. Video games are often advertised during cinema pre-rolls. In the UK alone an advertising campaign for a trailer specifically before the Dark Knight Rises movie (which has been the most successful in UK box office history to date) would have cost approximately £600,000 (estimated quote from a digital marketing agency) and been seen by more than 4 million people. The UK having one of the largest GPC's (gamers per capita) in the world means that it would have been brilliant value for money. In the USA it would have had an even bigger audience impact.

3) Prepare for an influx of new players. It doesn't matter if they're not the "type" of player that MA want (Gamblers judging by the current banner), more players will always generate more money. :yup:

Something I'd also like to question is why the entire Entropia Universe platform is being advertised instead of just Planet Calypso. The money raised was from Calypso Land Deeds so only new players who choose Calypso will be generating any additional return on investment. This is a cause for concern as our money is also marketing other planets for free, making the same amount of money for MA but reducing the investor's ROI. Seems a bit unfair don't you think? I realise that in the FAQ it states Entropia Universe marketing campaign, but I thought it had been made clear that each planet partner was responsible for their own marketing.

It's bugged me for ages that this game only ever seems to have small time marketing, internet ads and that's it. Face it MindArk, if you don't even try then this game won't rise an inch, and everybody wants to see it become a popular mainstream MMO.

I know it sounds like I'm having a go, and you'd be right for thinking that. But I'm not having a go to put anybody down, I'm having a go because I care for the future of this game, and this marketing campaign is pathetic to say the least.

Please leave your opinions, constructive criticism etc. I would also be interested if someone from MA were to see this, whether or not they could confirm or deny that this is indeed the marketing campaign detailed in the Calypso Land Deed FAQ.
 
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As a paying customer, I totally agree with this thread.

The Op hit the nail on the head. This game has insane potential. We just need more players.

A game trailer is brilliant. Look at what arkadia is doing with its limited funds.

Can you imagine what david from arkadia would do with 6 million dollars?

Please hire a marketing director that is a rockstar. Also fire people that dont cut the musturd.
 
Agree... To short.

Funny how you say it looks more like an online casino ad :p in my eyes this game is :)
 
Thanks Stutoman,

Very well written and hits all the right points to be made about advertising Calypso properly.

+rep for this

Cheers,
Viper
 
Maybe what you saw was an attempt at my suggestion at attracting more "right" players: https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...eeping-the-quot-right-quot-players&highlight=

Maybe if you go to more gambling-related websites, you'll see more of these adverts.

I really don't think types of player are the highest priority at the moment, we need players full stop, no matter what kind they are. At the moment the new players we get come thinly, more than half quit before making it past the training zone to the calypso gateway, and after that less than half stick around for more than a week.
Anything would be an improvement on the current influx.
 
...At the moment the new players we get come thinly, more than half quit before making it past the training zone to the calypso gateway, and after that less than half stick around for more than a week...

where do these figures come from? :scratch2:
 
Great thread! Agreed fully!

Funny how you say it looks more like an online casino ad :p in my eyes this game is :)

What was funny is when I first saw a thread about this ad, I wasn't sure if it was real or not. I thought the person posting it was making a joke about how MA could do it. Joke being that MA says we are not gambling in game, yet the ad says so in so many ways.

But MA is, sorry, Calypso Team is trying in so many ways to get the world out about about EU! Great job..hope to see more.
 
I just found the original player-made trailer from 2 years ago which I was talking about. It's far from perfect (quality/framerate issues etc), but it's infinitely better than what we currently have.

MA/FPC adapted this player-made trailer and changed the music (copyright issues etc) but the new soundtrack ruined it.


where do these figures come from? :scratch2:

Those are visual estimates. When playing I also tend to spend a fair bit of time around the newbie arrival area. My brother made a character and I helped him get started, running around the training area. The calypso gateway is open to everybody at the moment, and if you stand near the new player arrivals area you won't be seeing more than an average of 5 new players per hour at any point of the day.
Before I chipped and cashed out in 2011 I spent much of my time helping new players, and it was very obvious that they didn't end up logging in again more than about twice, and I highly doubt this has changed as nothing else had until the last update we just had.
 
@ 4:14 Where can I get a gun to 1-shot Allophyls? :D

Watching that video, there are a lot of questions about where and what happened to some of the features...not talking about taming. One example, was there ever a true stock exchange or was it just talking about the auction?
 
Video advertisements are the way to go... who clicks on banner ads these days?

MA should create an awesome trailer, even if it isn't 100% realistic to entropia (trailers never are), and pay for a targeted slot on PC game videos on youtube.
 
I've been scouring the internet for concept art lately and came across some of the Arkadia videos of weapons and I must say they were really well done. Just needed an Australian guy giving a voice over about the weapon and it could have been something as good as what is shown on the Discovery military channel.

The ad shown in this post just reminds me of Neverdie and while he is somewhat of an EU figure head I don't think that style of advertising works anywhere except Rocktropia. EU has a diverse group of players and in some sense your advertising should appeal to that diversity since that is what you current player base is.

The excitement is this ever evolving virtual universe where there is a RCE and amongst all the grind there are some really creative and astounding moments to be had with friends all over the globe.
 
Watching that video, there are a lot of questions about where and what happened to some of the features...not talking about taming. One example, was there ever a true stock exchange or was it just talking about the auction?

That video is from around gold, half of what you see in it were not in-game at the time. It was a trailer, not a game-play video.

The entropia exchange was real and in-game, though. But for one reason or another it did not work properly and was removed rather quickly.

I've been scouring the internet for concept art lately and came across some of the Arkadia videos of weapons and I must say they were really well done. Just needed an Australian guy giving a voice over about the weapon and it could have been something as good as what is shown on the Discovery military channel.

The ad shown in this post just reminds me of Neverdie and while he is somewhat of an EU figure head I don't think that style of advertising works anywhere except Rocktropia. EU has a diverse group of players and in some sense your advertising should appeal to that diversity since that is what you current player base is.

The excitement is this ever evolving virtual universe where there is a RCE and amongst all the grind there are some really creative and astounding moments to be had with friends all over the globe.

Personally, I want ND as far away from Planet Calypso as possible. Well, not the guy, but his style and work. I don't fancy it and I don't want it rubbing off on Calypso.

@ 4:14 Where can I get a gun to 1-shot Allophyls? :D

A young Allo "only" has 560 HP.

Here's your gun:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?231509-Unique-Meckel-amp-Loch-PSG-45-Sniper

Crits up to 664. ;)

(Again - at the time of the video there was no way to 1-shot an allo.)
 
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well,


a good product/service markets itself through happy customers. investing in ads is always risky - will it be worth it or not. I'd recommend MA to develop the areas that people desire more content in, such as the space for instance. all the potential is there, just create the good enough content so that players take care of the marketing. MA should just hire the brains to make it happen =)


J.
 
This is a excellent post,Kim really should quote it and send to Mindark advertising department.
 
REAL BALLS





:dunce:


(Nice thread.... I just find it hilarious with the ad, it's more of a joke than an ad)
 
Banner advertisement is huge FAIL, who in his mind will click on banners? Cryengine trailer is awesome, it must be on hard rotation on gametrailers.com, old EU trailer is also very good, need more girls in latex ;)
 
If it helps...

... to add to the "weight" of the poster's position by adding agreement, then I will happily sign my name to support his point of view as well.

I am happy enough for ads to be part of the mix, but I also see loads of value in a decent trailer, and smarter landing-pages to provide more detailed pages relating to the purpose of the campaigns.
 
Real Brains, Real Balls, Real Bucks
we want smart, rich males?

funny :)

but seriously, i agree that the ads of MA are generally useless if existent
facebook was an interesting idea, to the point that the people who play facebook games are casual gamers who play "easy" stuff (not saying its bad)
but considering the complexity of EU, well, meh :)


they generally appear to do things half assed in many cases, so it doesnt surprise me


where do these figures come from? :scratch2:
unless the figures changed drastically, from my mentoring experience like 90% of the people quit in the first week, about 50% on day 1-2
best incident explaining that i ever had was a disciple i brought to swamp camp (didnt want to deposit) and showed sweating
i said "this is sweating", he said "i relog", didnt see him again :p


as to the gateway
during the adviser program we didnt have too many people around at any times either, i think tops it was 15


i also agree with the point to be prepared for the players
again the guide/adviser program experience i had showed a severe lack of handling many new players
when CP sold the, what seems to be the standard, MA marketing kicked in "rich dude buys virtual something for lotsa real cash"
that brings amazingly many "dude, i wanna get rich with games too" people, who dont survive the sweating shock often enough (see example above :D)

either way, despite that i think that this kind of marketing wont necessarily bring enough of the usual target group MA seems to have (rich guys and gals who invest lotsa money)
the masses of arriving newbies especially during the CP sale were handled very very badly (at the time CND sold the first time it wasnt better either, so they didnt learn from it)
what happened in the end were so many people arriving that the PA (at that time the only newbie arrival place) could handle all the people
they were send to TI
so bring newbies right to the hogglos to sweat, great way to start, eh?
(for the record, during CND sale and after PA got too busy too and people got send to Argus, Troy and i think Corinth)

if the new gateway can handle real masses i simply doubt, although it wasnt put to the test yet, so maybe
didnt see if thats useful for newbie experience yet either, i am currently on another planet and dont dare landing on calypso cause of stuck sleipnirs and shit ^.-


either way, point being
i totally agree on the pretty useless ads currently and thus agree with the topic
i also think that getting new players isnt the only thing, but keeping them is a big issue as well
and especially the ones with real brains and real balls may actually use either (or even both ?!) and spend their real bucks elsewhere
 
either way, point being
i totally agree on the pretty useless ads currently and thus agree with the topic
i also think that getting new players isnt the only thing, but keeping them is a big issue as well
and especially the ones with real brains and real balls may actually use either (or even both ?!) and spend their real bucks elsewhere

Excellent post Alice,

And yes have to agree, I did a bit of research before coming back to the game and made a thread of concern on EP called "Is Entropia a Dead End?"

But I screwed up being tired and put the Is behind Entropia - Entropia is a dead end lol

Link > http://www.entropiaplanets.com/forums/threads/entropia-is-a-dead-end.7860/

I have yet to see a MindArk/Calypso ad so yes something is totally up as I have seen two arkadia ads so far. It must be something to do with the metatags mentioned in the OP being wrong /shrugs

Anyway point being, that most people with real brains would exactly do that, invest in property or something more material than virtual for any sort of return.

This game I feel is being advertised completely wrong, it is RCE PAY to PLAY and enjoy yourself with the POTENTIAL to turn a small profit from time to time from my POV.

The idea of making bucks instantly in some computer game is just a FAIL! And ofc most will leave in no time, most usually calling the game a casino, a scam a ripoff or whatever.

A new approach to marketing needs to be thought out in my opinion for the future.

Regards,
Viper.
 
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nless the figures changed drastically, from my mentoring experience like 90% of the people quit in the first week, about 50% on day 1-2
best incident explaining that i ever had was a disciple i brought to swamp camp (didnt want to deposit) and showed sweating
i said "this is sweating", he said "i relog", didnt see him again :p

Yeah, I can believe that. It was a long time ago, but I remember running around for a few hours trying sweating. Initially I was a bit confused, then I got it, and also realised how long it would take to get anywhere. I'd downloaded the game mainly intending to play it occasionally as a break from poker, so I was comfortable depositing money at that point. If I wasn't so used to playing games with real money I doubt I'd have come back again.

There needs to be some way people can experience more of the gameplay before depositing. I don't know if the Gateway achieves some of that or not though, I've never been.
 
Many very well written post and i have to agree with all points. As to have the game advertised completely wrong etc.
We need better advertisement but we need much more a better player retention. Most of the newbies quit after couple days when they do realize that they can't get rich in 2 weeks or 2 months, or even lose everything in couple hours.

Here i don't ask for something impossible, i don't want to get rich nor do i want to withdraw any money from the game i just want like most of us to have more fun for the monthly deposit.

A happy average player is the best retention for any game.
 
...At the moment the new players we get come thinly, more than half quit before making it past the training zone to the calypso gateway, and after that less than half stick around for more than a week...

unless the figures changed drastically, from my mentoring experience like 90% of the people quit in the first week, about 50% on day 1-2

I find it hard to believe 75%-90% of new players quit after a week!

I find these figures to be a bit exaggerated without any actual hard evidence!

claiming to hang out at the New Arrival Zone taking head counts or using your failed disciples to represent the entire new player base just doesn't cut it for me!

(sorry if I'm getting off-topic) :offtopic:
 
I find it hard to believe 75%-90% of new players quit after a week!

I find these figures to be a bit exaggerated without any actual hard evidence!

claiming to hang out at the New Arrival Zone taking head counts or using your failed disciples to represent the entire new player base just doesn't cut it for me!

(sorry if I'm getting off-topic) :offtopic:

I think you're right, it's probably more like 95 %.

I know it's not scientific but...

Have you ever had a disciple? I've taken on about 30 in my days. Two graduated, two or three went as far as about 10 %, one got to 40 % and the rest quit that day. And of the two that graduated - one was a friend of mine that had played Entropia before. So only 1 (to me unknown person) of my disciples ever graduated, one played for about two weeks and all the rest quit either instantly or within days.
 
I find it hard to believe 75%-90% of new players quit after a week!

I find these figures to be a bit exaggerated without any actual hard evidence!

claiming to hang out at the New Arrival Zone taking head counts or using your failed disciples to represent the entire new player base just doesn't cut it for me!
:

Having spent a lot of time in the last couple of months at Genesis, I totally agree with Alices %%'s. Having befriended around 2 dozen noobies so they can PM me for game info any time they see me on, guess how many log on now??. It is 2 !! - one who was a disciple of mine and one who is a son of a long term player.

I also agree with the OP's post. WTF are MA so totally against advertising "Their" game?? Make a Point of saying you Wont get rich in the 1st week unless you are very very lucky-it has happened-but we also know those players cash -out without a backwards glance too!

Make a point also of saying players will need a certain amount of disposable cash to ease their way through this game It Aint FREE TO PLAY Only to download and be a part of! I dont consider sweating-for more than a month -to be Playing!

K done :)
 
Well, I was hired for that banner and I can say MA has paid the entire CLD money for it so don't expect anything in the future!
 
Watching that video, there are a lot of questions about where and what happened to some of the features...not talking about taming. One example, was there ever a true stock exchange or was it just talking about the auction?

yes... there was an in game exchange, and MA decided it was too fake and unbalanced, so they 'bought out' those that bought in to it... same thing with the 'buy out' of those that bought personal revives,and a few other things over the years that have unbalanced things... You see, the old MA was not afraid to try new things, and if they failed, they paid off those that were hurt by the accidents. The new MA doesn't care, and just wants to let those that bought in to false pipe dreams to go away, i.e. the tamers, beauticians, etc.

Let me see if I can find the links about various compensations from the past... think it's in my visitor messages or somewhere... Ah, here's a couple of examples:

shopkeeper compensation to Hades booth owners when booths were malfunctioning several years ago:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?124918-B-Shopkeepers-5k#post1514504

personal revive buybacks (traded in for revive chips ir 5k ped)
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...ival-Terminals&p=169797&viewfull=1#post169797

PE Exchange closed down and payout:
http://www.entropiawiki.com/Info.aspx?chart=VU&id=18
VU 6.2 Content List

PROJECT ENTROPIA VERSION UPDATE 6.2

2004-11-02...

Share owners
All avatars owning shares from
the time the Project Entropia Exchange was in operation will have their
shares reimbursed at twice the purchase sum. The shares are then
removed from Project Entropia. The Exchange is closed but may be
reopened in a later VU.

Probably shouldn't put this up here, but will... When my booth was out of commission after vu 10 for many, many, many months MA finally made it right and compensation on that was a fairly small stack of welding wire. I don't remember the tt value, but I do remember the 'compensation' was much smaller than I believed it should have been. The fairly high markup at the time helped a little, but it still didn't help a lot.

Putting this out here since I think some other estate owners that were hurt by similar estate escapades may not have received such compensation, so if your estate is still screwed or was and you were never compensated for that, get those support tickets in now. Better late than never, even if the compensation is substantially small.
 
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Having spent a lot of time in the last couple of months at Genesis, I totally agree with Alices %%'s. Having befriended around 2 dozen noobies so they can PM me for game info any time they see me on, guess how many log on now??. It is 2 !! - one who was a disciple of mine and one who is a son of a long term player.

Well, as we all know this game isn't for most people. You spend a lot of money to get somewhat started or you spend 1+ years getting your avatar up to speed to start playing the game somewhat well. In both cases, it takes a lot of money just to hunt larger mobs or mine and hope for something big in return.

I have been in game for over a year and plan to stay but it's so easy to see that this game isn't for most people - case in point really since I LOVE THIS GAME. :)
 
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