TW Marketing

[DUMBRIT!]

Google bombing is a process of using a certain SEO technique yes, but there is a lot more to it.

[Krazie_Killer]

incure, i like the yellow one.

vewwy pwetty

[Doc Flabby]

check out the new improve http://getcontinuum.com site its awsume

getsubspace.com will be redirecting to this site soon

[Maurauth]

Yeah that does look preety awesome now, I'm trying to find out who made that jav banner.

[Sweet]

letter to pcgamer

I just sent a letter to PCgamer, in which i summarized our need for publicity and continual growth. It would be sweet if they did a game review on Continuum in an upcoming issue.

[Adoni]

HeavenSent

HeavenSent runs a bunch of website stuff, and runs advertisements.

Maybe he can put us up on his sites?

[Xp.]

i found a very effective way of gettin new members is just seraching forums there are hundreds of forums out there with ppl looking for a free mmo game try posting on your local craigslist to under the free section that seems to have alot of hits as well

[StarKitty]

This is a really old thread that's been resurrected..

But I think it's been resurrected with good cause to be honest... This should be addressed.

[Lemmin]

I've been thinking about this on and off for years.

Subspace is actually quite a hard game to get started with. I suspect that a lot of people who download the client don't stay with the game long, and that most of the people who DO stay have been recommended and introduced to the game by a friend. It would be useful to have some way of tracking this - statistics are always good, but I imagine its not possible.

Maybe we could have some kind of "introduce a friend" campaign to get people to show the game to their friends and help them get started? Its not very self explainatory.

Alterantively, as I've suggested before, maybe we could set up some kind of protected tutorial system for new players (or even a "new player zone" like the old alpha zone) because it would be really discouraging for a new player to come to TW and get killed all the time by the vets.

LEM

[Pressure Drop]

I've been thinking about this on and off for years.

Subspace is actually quite a hard game to get started with. I suspect that a lot of people who download the client don't stay with the game long, and that most of the people who DO stay have been recommended and introduced to the game by a friend. It would be useful to have some way of tracking this - statistics are always good, but I imagine its not possible.

Maybe we could have some kind of "introduce a friend" campaign to get people to show the game to their friends and help them get started? Its not very self explainatory.

Alterantively, as I've suggested before, maybe we could set up some kind of protected tutorial system for new players (or even a "new player zone" like the old alpha zone) because it would be really discouraging for a new player to come to TW and get killed all the time by the vets.

LEM

problem is most people probably have introduced the people they would do to the game, i know i introduced my friends who like video games but they quickly lost interest and that was a long time ago.

I doubt we would have the population to sustain a new player zone and if we did it would be hard to enforce (you could have ?usage limit but ppl could make a name and go be a dick killing everyone.

good ideas just i don't think it would make a difference at this stage.

That i think is needed is more niche marketing, why doesn't this game have huge japanese or korean markets, is it purely a language barrier etc ... why do we have more finns and dutch compared to the much bigger populations of france and germany etc ...

this game is older now so harder to market now than it used to be but it's obvious to everyone that new blood is needed it's going to be harder to flog the game and even just get attention in an increasingly competitive market.

Perhaps write to some gaming and pc mags or something saying to ship the game on a multi game cover disc and do a retro article might be a viable option. Not sure about copy right etc though

[HateTheFake]

I've been thinking about this on and off for years.

Subspace is actually quite a hard game to get started with. I suspect that a lot of people who download the client don't stay with the game long, and that most of the people who DO stay have been recommended and introduced to the game by a friend. It would be useful to have some way of tracking this - statistics are always good, but I imagine its not possible.

Maybe we could have some kind of "introduce a friend" campaign to get people to show the game to their friends and help them get started? Its not very self explainatory.

Alterantively, as I've suggested before, maybe we could set up some kind of protected tutorial system for new players (or even a "new player zone" like the old alpha zone) because it would be really discouraging for a new player to come to TW and get killed all the time by the vets.

LEM

The tutorial has been talked about many times as of now i dont even know where their at with it. However even if we were to recruit more people, i foresee 2 problems.

1- No guarantee they will be coming to our zone
2- The zone doesn't exactly have a positive attitude, which doesn't really help with keeping new players.

[WingZero]

Sell?

Mmmm, doesn't saying SubSpace just make your mouth water?

What are we trying to advertise, Trench Wars, or Continuum? This brings me to my next point, Continuum sounds like someone is trying too hard to come up with a name that can't be beaten, SubSpace. A big part of marketing is the language used (and it's also a huge part of this game). Trench Wars, as a name, gives people the wrong idea. When I was first introduced to Trench Wars I thought it would be some kind of ww2 game or something. Having not heard of what TW really is first, SubSpace, I wasn't able to grasp the awesomeness of the game originally (as I wasn't a huge fan of the genre at the time).

What I am trying to suggest is that you guys shift your focus to the whole game rather than just the zone, or perhaps making it a sub-objective. If someone has never played the game or heard about it before, they will be more inclined to like it if they know what to expect. I think any advertising should promote "2d space combat" over a more specific niche of the game.

I wish there was a way we could go back to calling "Continuum" SubSpace because SubSpace makes the game sound much more appealing. I know there are probably legalities preventing that but, maybe there is a way around it.

[EDIT] I forgot to comment on the tutorial arena... I don't see why such a thing is really necessary. Time is better spent on other things, like real events; events that have skill foundations. Also, there are plenty of places to get strategy and tips for all of subspace. The guides on trenchwars.org are excellent but the link placement isn't aligned with priority properly. Instead of putting the help link in an obscure section of the page, it should be included in the nav panel (maybe two links then instead of one in order to draw more attention). I don't think the link as it is does the quality of the guides much justice.

[Doc Flabby]

I wish there was a way we could go back to calling "Continuum" SubSpace because SubSpace makes the game sound much more appealing. I know there are probably legalities preventing that but, maybe there is a way around it.

The legal issues with the name "SubSpace" have now disappeared. The trademark expired in 2006.

I'm pretty sure some legal issues with Subspace IP still exist (ie. The use of graphics (sounds?) from the original game) but these were here already.

IANAL however so I may be wrong!

[StarKitty]

Mmmm, doesn't saying SubSpace just make your mouth water?

What are we trying to advertise, Trench Wars, or Continuum? This brings me to my next point, Continuum sounds like someone is trying too hard to come up with a name that can't be beaten, SubSpace. A big part of marketing is the language used (and it's also a huge part of this game). Trench Wars, as a name, gives people the wrong idea. When I was first introduced to Trench Wars I thought it would be some kind of ww2 game or something. Having not heard of what TW really is first, SubSpace, I wasn't able to grasp the awesomeness of the game originally (as I wasn't a huge fan of the genre at the time).

What I am trying to suggest is that you guys shift your focus to the whole game rather than just the zone, or perhaps making it a sub-objective. If someone has never played the game or heard about it before, they will be more inclined to like it if they know what to expect. I think any advertising should promote "2d space combat" over a more specific niche of the game.

I wish there was a way we could go back to calling "Continuum" SubSpace because SubSpace makes the game sound much more appealing. I know there are probably legalities preventing that but, maybe there is a way around it.

[EDIT] I forgot to comment on the tutorial arena... I don't see why such a thing is really necessary. Time is better spent on other things, like real events; events that have skill foundations. Also, there are plenty of places to get strategy and tips for all of subspace. The guides on trenchwars.org are excellent but the link placement isn't aligned with priority properly. Instead of putting the help link in an obscure section of the page, it should be included in the nav panel (maybe two links then instead of one in order to draw more attention). I don't think the link as it is does the quality of the guides much justice.

WingZero makes a lot of sense.

I've always wondered. Why the hell aren't there any adverts anywhere on trenchwars.org or here on the forums?

I know a lot of you probably prefer that - I do too BUT:

If we had adverts, i would happily make a some click throughs everyday for the zone. This money could be going into a pot which would ultimately be paying for banners and advertising in some of gamings biggest marketing networks (newgrounds? Ctrl+alt+del? Kongregate?)


It seems that staff have forgotten - or never even realised, that here at TW we are all one big community. We don't play this 2d spaceship game on and off (on for some of you) for 10 years purely because of it's amazing graphics and gameplay, ahem. We play because the community of friends and others on here force us to keep coming back.

The community loves it's game. We all love this stupid game. EVERYONE here would be more than happy to take 5 or 10 minutes out of their gaming time per day to do something like click a few adverts, or vote on a toplist site.

Why has no staff member stepped up to the plate and push this? Lack of charisma? Lack of initiative?

I'm never controversial, but the time that Lunar Cresenc was in staff was one of the best times for TW.

[DankNuggets]

WE need pop-up ads! and someone could make banners that have like three or four wbs and one jav scrolling along the bottom: shoot the jav to win a free* XBOX360 !




*ads are annoying as shit, i've never, ever, ever followed a banner that looked like advertising on any site.

more important to keep people here once they d/l the client than to just get 100 d/ls and no one figures out how to play. Look at the continuum client itself: do any of the links from the menu bar work? Is there a help file that teaches you all the ins and outs? NO. Even if you know what you're looking for, it's damn near impossible to find. Not to mention that all the SS related information is spread out over several websites that don't do a lot to reference each other efficiently. And one thing's for sure-- all advertising needs to hype up the communitity beyond what it is, don't go advertising saying "We despartely need population, our game is dying". Instead, hype it as an underground game with a huge international population that's completely self-sufficient and highly addictive.