Posted by E S W N doesn't bring you home on December 22, 2000 at 02:33:08:
In Reply to: Alternate idea OR why stickers won't work (text) posted by Amish Boy on December 21, 2000 at 07:09:29:
> 1)Money - I know little about these things, but I imagine that any incremental funds would have to go towards equipment to handle an influx of new players > ***Warning, fuzzy math follows*** > Word of mouth however will get you some more quality trials and is free. The way to go about it would be a pledge month on CF (speaking out o' the arse here so it'll be rusty). Every active player tries to bring in 2-3 people and OOC rules are slackened a bit for that time. Or *perhaps spruce up the academy a bit to make it more *interesting (mob-wise) and let people slide on OOC *there. That way you're bringing in more people, *flattening the learning curve, and still maintaining *the integrity of the game. For all people who take interest in the concept I sell them, put don't have the sheer experience in any MUD to survive the bloody war outside the Academy. The Academy could use a few more secrets to find and important aspects illistrated in more dramatic importance. (ex. the need to type
> 2)Stickyness - sure you could get folks to try the mud with a mass effort, but as innumerable posts have stated, there is a steep learning curve to get to a playable level and the newbie channel ain't...sorry, ai not gonna cut it.
> 3)Chinese marketing - Chinese marketing is the idea that if we can market to China (i.e., 1 billion people - said with pinkie in mouth) and only get 1%, that's still 10 Million people. The problem is, what if you're selling Christmas trees? My point is that CF isn't a broad interest item so you can't expect a high success rate.
> Stickers will get you a .5% return at best so you'd be spending $40 per trial. Estimate 1 in 5 stay on because of the learning curve and the fact that society is a bit more visual and won't eat up a text-based game. So you're talking $200 per new player.
> Just a few thoughts.