SSCU Trench Wars on Facebook

[A fem bot]

why is this K guy the only one who talks sense in this place? I take it he's not staff?

[Kim]

Keep up the good work. Facebook isn't defunct for advertising our game as kthx thinks. I'd say the more exposure the better, especially if it doesn't cost us anything. If we decide to go with the paid advertising route on facebook, we should look at how our funds are being allocated with respect to other places we could also be advertising on to make a logical decision.

[kthx]

Why not just say I am right instead of typing out a paragraph about how I am wrong but might be right Kim?

[forwards]

Steph?

[Pressure]

Honestly I think the best choice at this point would to be to try to work out some deals with some middle-level youtube gamers and see if they would be willing to play this game for 30 minutes on a stream one day. I don't think that it would cost too much money to convince them, especially up and coming people. Maybe try to find some streamers who play niche type genres or do walkthroughs from older games.

10000000% this.

When looking for YT gamers, make sure you determine how many views they get in the first few hours of their posts. This is crucial, because there are some people who go viral, get a shitload of immediate followers, but no one actually keeps up long-term. There are actually some YT gamers with loyal subscribers who would be down to listen to the YT gamer when it comes to a video game suggestion. If someone gets more than 50,000 views / 5,000 likes within 24 hours of posting a new video, you should pursue them for advertising. Just make sure you give proper directions on how to enter TW and who to contact and how to contact them in-game to learn how to play.

Imagine what 250-500 new players downloading and logging in would do for our activity. If we kept 10% of the players who log in the first day the video was posted, we'd have 25-50 new players in the first day, and more over time.

[roxxkatt]

didnt tw already have one of these already

[kthx]

What, a distension zone? I don't think it had many players?

[forwards]

10000000% this.

Dude 10000000% is like the boldest claim you could ever make, hope you're not making it up brah.

didnt tw already have one of these already

'ow's Distension going, Guvnah?

Trolling aside (lol) I think having a Facebook page is a good idea. Do we have a Twitter page too? If so someone link me 'cause I'm not gonna go looking for it otherwise. TY in advance!

[Wirah]

Do we have a Twitter page too?

https://twitter.com/SSTrenchWars

Not very active but I'll dump FB content on there too.

I'll investigate promotion with streamers. It's a great idea, I'm just not clear which twitch streamers would be most suitable.

[kthx]

Ones that aren't girls that play continuum would be the first place to start Wirah, just.. tossing that out there. I mean unless your trying to use donation money to get a blowjob or something like the other guy.

[Turban]

It all depends on the amount of money you are willing to throw at a streamer on Twitch, but I do feel like YouTube would be better as a long-term investment where as Twitch is better if you want immediate results with perhaps hundreds of people willing to try the game out live with someone they follow. It is an option we have explored in the past and something which I should have pressed forward more back in the day despite it not really being my responsibility.

However none of this matters unless we can fix the player retention rates. There is pretty much no reason for a new player to stay longer than a couple of minutes or with very good luck, a few days. The community need to be engaged and welcoming if you want anything to ever work in my opinion, and .. well, even then it might already be too late.

There are tens of thousands of people who have played this game in the past with great memories, and surely many are still willing to try the game out again with a (theoretically) high chance of someone sticking around for longer.

[Jessup]

If we did some type of new launch I've wondered how it could work out where instead of players being sent to pub initially they were put into arenas with a series of 3 vs 3 games to 5 vs 5 games taking place. Say in the ships warbird and jav perhaps. It would be a basic streamlined presentation and add an immediate competition factor into their equation.

Base during the steam launch was a cluster fk. We used one giant arena and strays and bombs were flying everywhere. The chance of being spawn killed was insane too. We had the pub store with people doing crazy stuff confusing players.. Basing is honestly the most complex part of Trench wars. The basing pub would still be an option when they learn how to change arenas of course but I really feel a simple and immediate 3 vs 3 to 5 vs 5 type set up could hook people more quickly. There is nothing better than an introduction using teams and competition to players. Perhaps don't even spec players at 10 deaths and instead do a timed game with the most kills winning after 7-10 minutes or something. I think this would hook players much more quickly while at same time introducing them to the basic game mechanics.

What do y'all think??

[Zeebu]

i think if youre going to do that, make sure try and get the streamer to agree to doing a walkthrough of the game with a person beforehand. having a streamer just show up and then not know how to talk to a person or change arenas or any of that stuff will just lead to a frustrating experience for the streamer.

[skyforger]

Agree with Jess. Basing is confusing to complete newbies.

How many of us were basing, when we learned the basics of ship control and other basic game interface mechanisms? Not many I believe.

With automation of something like elim or what Jess is suggesting, I think new player retention can be improved significantly.

Also key point by Turban about the community needing to be more welcoming, if anything is to succeed. This is really critical.

[Jessup]

Maybe use a default *arena message explaining chat options that spams reminders on how to use it. Like how we have twdt reminders ect.. zone spammed to everyone in pub. Elim style could work... but the issue there is being knocked out and then having new players sitting around idly in spec. We want as little idle time as possible which is why I was thinking doing timed games with most kills winning rather than a 10 death KO type match. Also one issue with elim is it is solo gameplay.. you against the world which would not help them learn team chat options or that blue ships are enemies and yellow are friendlies. The teaming aspect imo is better.

Also.. the green help spam chat on default that we all make a sigh of relief when we learn to turn it off is terrible.. i hate it. it confuses players.. makes chat run by even faster and imo does not help new players at all. a simple f1 to open all game commands notice is MUCH more effective.