Arelith Promotional Drive

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Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by Irongron » Sun May 27, 2018 10:13 pm

As players who were with us in the years before EE was launched may remember, we invited our members to help promote Arelith beyond the NWN community, during a time in which we saw Arelith continue to grow despite the age of Neverwinter Nights.

While donations certainly help with this, we really have something better – a community of players and fans spanning much of the globe. It has always been their efforts, far more than our own, that have helped ‘spread the word of Arelith’

Right now we’re seeing record numbers during peak time play, though many of us feel that there are many others who would greatly enjoy what we offer...if only they had heard of us.

With help from the Loadscreen Project we’ve updated the Promotional Slate, found on the server Promote Page while the flyers and postcards submitted by Artos remain excellent.

Beyond the above I would say a few things, that perhaps may answer questions some members may have about this.

First and foremost is that I really do not wish to promote Arelith at the expense of other servers, or among their own communities. Many of these offer something important that we cannot, and I really feel that our own players really benefit from the choice that they offer. I believe that by promoting Arelith we also promote those, as having tried Arelith many may find another option that fits their style of play elsewhere.

Next Is the question of why I would even wish to expand Arelith yet further, after all, we are currently in an extremely healthy position and are sometime hitting the current cap on the Cities & Planes server.

The answer to this is that we are still experiencing a surge in interest that came with the release of the Enhanced Edition, but that’s unlikely to continue indefinitely. Especially during the ‘quiet hours’ there is still plenty of space to fill with Arelith. As a player I greatly enjoy the presence of a diverse range of characters, and as a developer I find that we attract more talent, and more importantly it opens up the possibilities of other more extensive updates, such as the second city that remains in development until such a time as I feel the size of community warrants it.

Ultimately though...it is that there may not be a better time for us to make this effort than now. EE is new, Arelith has been featured in a few media articles, and we currently have more players to help us do this than ever before.

So we appreciate any efforts to help promote Arelith, but players shouldn't feel obligated. Even if not – purely by being here and enjoying the game you’re the ones behind making Arelith what it is.


Thanks for listening,

Irongron

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Swords to Rust » Mon May 28, 2018 10:58 am

While the fliers are very nice looking, its just not true that Arelith is "free to play". I would be a bit hesistant handing those out since it might give people the wrong expectations since they actually have to buy Neverwinter Nights. If possible, I'd consider updating them and mention that Arelith is a Neverwinter Nights persistent world.

The new promotional site is really cool though!

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Irongron » Mon May 28, 2018 11:46 am

Swords to Rust wrote:
Mon May 28, 2018 10:58 am
While the fliers are very nice looking, its just not true that Arelith is "free to play". I would be a bit hesistant handing those out since it might give people the wrong expectations since they actually have to buy Neverwinter Nights. If possible, I'd consider updating them and mention that Arelith is a Neverwinter Nights persistent world.

The new promotional site is really cool though!
The flyers themselves were not recently updated, and were made when NWN was extremely cheap. I do take your point though, thought thankfully not flyers all do say 'Free to Play' so they at least could be used if changing the others isn't possible (though will look into it)

The promotional slate has been updated though, and well worth looking at if one hasn't already.

I must admit I do prefer physical promotion where possible though as I do think given how spread out our players we could feasibly cover a great many RPG shops and groups.

As with the previous promotion push I'm also especially keen for us to reach people in the traditionally quiet time zones (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore etc). Even just reaching a handful of D&D players in those regions would make a big difference in those hours when we tend to drop to around 60-70 player online.

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by TimeAdept » Mon May 28, 2018 6:01 pm

Oh heck I hadn't seen the Astrolabe art yet that is killer af

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Irongron » Mon May 28, 2018 8:36 pm

I was advised we should have a Twitter account, something I'd been meaning to do for a while. There is an old one from some years ago, but we've started afresh.

I'll try to keep it up to date with articles from the news feed, teasers of new content, and related NWN and DnD articles

https://twitter.com/AArelith

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Miskol » Mon May 28, 2018 11:06 pm

The "Visit Baator" poster seems to have a Balor and takes place in the abyss instead...

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Ebonstar » Tue May 29, 2018 1:39 am

Miskol wrote:
Mon May 28, 2018 11:06 pm
The "Visit Baator" poster seems to have a Balor and takes place in the abyss instead...
bloodwars balors and pit fiends in the wastelands of the Bastion
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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Senshi » Tue May 29, 2018 4:47 pm

Hey..

I'm from ACT Australia.

I'd be happy to hand out flyers to local board game and table top shops or put up some posters around town if it helps.

Cheers.
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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Shrouds_Abyss » Wed May 30, 2018 8:26 pm

I've already started to send out tweets on my Twitter to try and spread the word. Not sure how much good it's going to do, as mostly everyone seems to be exited for strictly Battle Royale crap that's going on or releasing soon.. but I'll keep posting every so often to try and get the word out!

Besides.. we all know that there's people out there, who secretly wish they could rule an island, or save a group of refugees. Arelith will let me do that.. providing they put that work in, yo.
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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Irongron » Sat Jun 02, 2018 2:28 pm

Senshi wrote:
Tue May 29, 2018 4:47 pm
Hey..

I'm from ACT Australia.

I'd be happy to hand out flyers to local board game and table top shops or put up some posters around town if it helps.

Cheers.
Shrouds_Abyss wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 8:26 pm
I've already started to send out tweets on my Twitter to try and spread the word. Not sure how much good it's going to do, as mostly everyone seems to be exited for strictly Battle Royale crap that's going on or releasing soon.. but I'll keep posting every so often to try and get the word out!

Besides.. we all know that there's people out there, who secretly wish they could rule an island, or save a group of refugees. Arelith will let me do that.. providing they put that work in, yo.
This is great, my thanks to you both.

Now we have the increased player cap the sky is the limit really. I am sure there are many more people out there that would enjoy Arelith, and I believe if we make a group effort here the effect may soon snowball.

There are plenty of ways to promote Arelith. Be it recommending it to friends/gaming groups, contacting RPG groups & websites to spread flyers, or simply using social media.

I am definitely open to hearing other suggestions if any players have them. I do think at very least subscribing and sharing posts from our Twitter feed will definitely help.

I doubt of course we'll approach our current cap of 750 players, but I'm ready to be proven wrong!

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Senshi » Thu Jun 07, 2018 1:28 pm

If there is any Flyers you have made, feel free to send them to me. Ill print em out and get them out there.

If i can help increase the AUS player base then i will.
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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Irongron » Sun Jun 10, 2018 12:05 am

Senshi wrote:
Thu Jun 07, 2018 1:28 pm
If there is any Flyers you have made, feel free to send them to me. Ill print em out and get them out there.

If i can help increase the AUS player base then i will.
The original post on this thread links to our promote page (seen at the bottom of the home page) which has flyers there ready to use.

Personally I would suggest this one.

And that would be fantastic yes, I don't think anything beats physical promotion.

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by thelonesomedwarf » Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:37 pm

Maybe this is the wrong place to post this but...

I have played nwn rp modules from back when the original game launched. I stopped playing for maybe 7-8 years. Obviously a lot changed in that time. When EE was released i was incredibly excited to read about Arelith and jump back in.

As a newcomer who organically arrived here without advertisement, I must say the regulars are not exactly welcoming. It all feels very "cliquey". And the coldness does not feel like role playing, it feels quite ooc...flat out ignoring things I say in game, or giving the bare minimum back no matter how much effort I put into my role playing. And I would say compared to what i've seen so far I consider myself one of the better role players on the server.

Anyway, if the idea is to get more new players involved, I think an important first step is to be more inclusive. The second I left Skal I feel like all my relationships with other PC's ended.

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Senshi » Sat Jun 16, 2018 7:04 am

Hello,

I have had a busy day today. Walking all over the central ACT Australia popping up posters and handing out flyers.

Ive put below my progress so far.

So it begins... 15 Posters, 100 flyers..
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... oyw3rz.jpg

I decided to hit up the central city area. I walked around the high traffic areas like the "City walk" and The Central bus interchange. They have poster poles (i guess you could call them that..) that i used to Have maximum visibility.

http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045458
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045456
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045455
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... pfobfk.jpg


And then i hit the city shops i knew would have a interest. I dropped in to the "Games Capital" And they took 20 flyers and 1 poster. They told me they would have to check with the manager before they put it up. So that shops a maybe..

And then i went to Revolution CD a Game trade and pop culture shop. They were happy to put the poster up for a limited time. I also had quite a few people asking me about it. I handed out a few flyers to the interested party's.

http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045457


And then.. The big one.. The Australian National University.. Dun Dun DUUUUNNNNN.. I hit every high traffic poster board in the uni.
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045453
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045451
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045452
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045449
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 1529045448
http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t37 ... 9bpcmb.jpg

i still have about 50 flyers left.. Not sure what to do with them.. Maybe pop em in letter boxes in apartments around the uni..

And thats my day.. Now to play :D
Last edited by Senshi on Sat Jun 16, 2018 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Irongron » Sat Jun 16, 2018 8:56 am


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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive - 2018!

Post by Diegovog » Wed Aug 29, 2018 5:48 pm

Trying to convince some friends to play Arelith. Does anyone have a good screenshot of the Paladin Cave in the Radiant Heart?

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by Irongron » Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:12 am

I think its time to ressurect this thread, especially for new players who may not have seen it.

Arelith heavily relies on the players themselves to promote the server, and both before and after EE this has made a great difference in increasing our reach. Please read above for details on how one can help.

While overall player numbers remain strong on Arelith (and overall have grown), I am once again concerned about our 'off-peak time zones'. It is still my hope that we can one day establish a large player base in those countries, where we frequently drop below 75 players.

Players from such time zones Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia could really help make this a reality.

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by Irongron » Wed Feb 10, 2021 4:44 pm

We are getting close to the big launch weekend for the new city, and I've promoting it where possible. Arelith numbers are super healthy right now, but given this might be the last big 'release' moment for extensive content on this scale, it's also an excellent time to bring others on board, and to ensure an active server for years to come.

But, as always, I can only do so much, so any promotional help from the community itself is where we'll really find an audience.

To repeat a point from above though - I've no interest in taking any players from other NWN servers, so any promotion we do should be beyond the familiar realms of the traditional NWN community.

Today I also wrote an article on 'How to Get Started on Arelith', with new players in mind. So in addition to the fliers and other resources linked above, it might be an excellent article to share with anyone you know that might have been considering Arelith, but not yet given us a try.

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by Irongron » Mon Jan 22, 2024 4:11 am

So, times have changed a fair bit since last time, and I'd really appreciate some input and help from playerbase.

Before I go ahead and explain what has changed, and why I think it important to raise this again, please go ahead and read my original post, a lot of it is still valid.

...

Okay, I'll press on then.

So a lot of Arelith numbers have been due to promotion, from myself, from Beamdog, and of course from players. Arelith's general player health owes a lot to these efforts, however the first two of these are no longer really happening;

Beamdog, without the support of WotC in promoting NwN have moved on to other projects (Mythforce).

I shut down what had become our primary means of reaching new players, when I closed down our Twitter account.

(Much as i try to keep Arelith apolitical it reached a point where I could not comfortably link our Discord and website to a platform where the owner was pushing his own hate speech front and centre.)

Our players, of course continue to recommend others to try it out, but while our numbers are currently healthy I do feel they will eventually slip into decline without further efforts.

Over the last months I've held discussions with staff as to a different social media we could use, but the general consensus is that there aren't great options right now.

Media and website attention comes and goes- this month a relatively minor website listed Arelith as number one in a chart of 'best games for online RP (and no, I had nothing to do with that, though was of course highly amused by the genuine suggestion that I had set up an RPG MMO fan website 4 years ago, written dozens of articles on different games just to cover my tracks when the big payday came as the list was finally released).

Streaming has likely helped a little too, but it has raised issues of privacy from some, and is really dependent on the size of the streamers on audience.

While the approach 'if we build it it they will come' just simply isnt true for NwN - it is graveyard of wonderfully crafted dead servers.

As I've stated before - growth, for its own sake, doesn't really appeal to me, but there are additions, often requested, that while I think would definitely improve the setting, just simply aren't viable.

To list a few, along with the numbers I think we'd need to justify the additions, and the order in which I'd likely approve them...

Regularly passing 300 at peak - Wharftown Ressurection

Regularly passing 375 at peak - second Underdark City / Sibayad rework

Regularly passing 450 at peak - Sigilesque planar city.

Beyond that, well I don't think realistically we could handle much more without significant technical issues.

I do definitely think the above numbers are possible though, I would just very much like input from players as to just how they would go about it in my position, and for any efforts they could make on our behalf.

Thanks!


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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by xanrael » Mon Jan 22, 2024 6:12 am

Few thoughts:

  1. An elevator pitch video in a Youtube short format. Come up with a rough draft and run it by the player base for critique before making it live. This should be done before # 3.

  2. Either make or pick a pre-existing short video on the new player experience and the basics of RP. I dunno if you're run statistics on how many new players try things out for <2 hours before giving up but I suspect it's not a trivial amount and a little bit of direction could go a long way.

  3. Similar older gaming communities can draw new people. For example doing some organic advertisements on an EverQuest or gaming subreddit. For example you might see a question like "are there any games that have a similar class to an EQ enchanter?" Arelith could be mentioned with several classes that can dominate 2 critters and warlocks spamming "mez-like" spells like charm/hold/sleep/etc. MUDs would be another similar game. I'd argue that Skyrim and similar games would have some players interested in Arelith due to both being pseudo-sandboxes.


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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by 98lbs of sad carryweight » Mon Jan 22, 2024 4:53 pm

I love promotional stuff, I drag all my friends onto Arelith eventually because I was myself dragged here by friends.

For reference I started in 2020 or 2019, my forum acc was made in 2021 so something like that. I've played a ungodly amount of Persistant Worlds and Seasonal Servers before in WoW (pserver, not official much), Starwars galaxy, Life is Feudal, M&B: Warband and basically any MMORPG that had a roleplaying scene. While people do RP in just text chats with 0 mechanical input I think Arelith has a lot to sell in promo stuff.
I dont know the good old days of Arelith therefore and will draw upon what I like in other games and what got me playing in the first place. What would catch me if I saw it online.

But why should someone playon Arelith?
The gameplay is very old, very dated. I still play(ed) through old WoW with its resurrection and people still play through the other MMOs that simply beat Arelith in its gameplay where most classes pre-buff, stock healkit and then either LMB or infi-cast 1 cantrip until you hit a boss fight where you maybe use 3 spells? Exception being warlock having more impactful repeated casts and Hemomancer/Elementalist who seem more fun to play but for the most part the leveling and mechanical experience is very flat and that is possibly a bane from being a 20 year old game. Its just not very fun for a lot of people and some of my friends quit here.
The level speed luckily isnt that slow anymore, and it does not require someone to grind orclands for 8 hours a day to make noteable progress, even for someone fresh starting and unaware of where to be, you can get an in and be mechanically somewhat up to equality with the rest of the sever in a month or two.
And I think this matters most, the New Player Experience and of course also retaining the people that play on the roleplay server. Even if you have nothing to do, you can go out and do something for mechanical gain, and interact with others to get something tangible out of it. Naturally you can also do things for the roleplay sake of it but then why play Arelith if you get greater authority and freedom by just writing in a pure-text based RP platform. Arelith is very static in comparison.
The Main Story Quest (MSQ) of FF14 is somewhere between 100-120 hours which at 4 hours a day is about a month of daily playing to get to what is essentially level 30 on Arelith, where you start to gear and do stuff still and for FF14 - raid?jobs? Stuff like that. Except that has a full ride of gameplay you wont get on arelith, and story you might get depending on the current weather of characters about.

The other part is what even is the setting. I run a lot of tabletop, for starters and people who have played for longer than I am alive and I think a fundamental part of getting people interested in the game. What is cordor? What is guldorand?
What lore are we actually following. I had to piece that together from our wiki, from asking on discord and the actually cool part of finding out the arelith specific history ingame. Want to get new players in and keep frustration of misaligned expectations and clashes with the team low? Make it accessible to read and find.
Adding wharftown would do what exactly for more players? Another location to hang out in but if this was my table (even a table big as 300 players per session) what would I put there to make it a unique place? Another evil town? Guld and Cordor could contrast each other but they don't really do that. Their biggest difference is who plays where and a mild aesthetic difference. Cordor doesnt allow pirates, Guldorand lets them walk around, the rest doesn't matter since it's so subtle or just the same. Zhent Keep and a Duergar or a banite Queen. Stuff like that. But there could be so much, mergin Myon to Guld alone is really cool for the setting but it sadly ends at just being "that."

FOIGing
Mechanics should not be FOIG unless it makes for a better narrative or gameplay experience to explore. Having to hand wrestle a build of the hands of existing players isn't great. The compendium helps a ton here but its half-baked and lacks critical components like a direction for gear.
I can't hand this to a new player. This game is balanced around people having 4000 hours perfectly knowing the world half the time and having a functionally broken build isn't fun if its not made as a deliberate choice. Every other MMO can promote their classes and while Arelith has such a cool way of building characters that we cant because you need to have a phd in building characters to not default to 'my greatest strength is that I too can use /say' to participate.

Getting people to play
So what would you put out that makes people actually play. And what is the step by step path they take to login and RP. Keeping them around for long is probably just a topic for server health so I will pass on it.
Streamers, Videos, Trailers all that works but going to nwnarelith.com is great, it looks good, the articles make you go "wow there is story happening" but it also just doesnt help you to join at all. I know Discord is the devil but that is where everyone goes once they run into the real issue of "now what". You basically need to already own nwn and how to use it to get into arelith, maybe something there could help a lot. I handed a friend just the website once and they also couldnt figure out how to join on their own - or how to find the server actually.

TL;DR
Promo is cool and should probably highlight the strengths of arelith and make it convenient for people to start by making the lore and setting accessible and the mechanics of the game a fun experience - which you then can highlight and promote also.
The world is really neat if it wasnt so hard to read and understand whats going on so you can play your part in it.
The gameplay is bearable if it wasn't such a steep curve to even get in.

I know this misses the topic a bit but I'd like to promote arelith, but anytime I do get someone into arelith its through workshopping their build, answering their lore questions and drawing upon a dozen or so established people to do so - something newer players that see a article somewhere or a cool video don't really have as a framework.

Maybe (short) videos of a character story would get people interested, like stuff that happened and is concluded. But someone on their own still wouldn't know how to get in anyway.


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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by Aradin » Mon Jan 22, 2024 7:06 pm

Context for the below: I was a professional content creator on Youtube/Tiktok/other social media, full-time, for 5 years. If you want to attract more players, you absolutely need a bigger social media presence.

At the moment, short-form videos on TikTok + Youtube shorts + Instagram reels are the triple-threat of "master these if you want to gain followers". A few trending videos on any and all of those and you'd have lots of new people interested in giving Arelith a shot. D&D is in the mainstream right now thanks to shows like Critical Role & Dimension 20 and games like Baldur's Gate 3, so there's no better time to tap into the zeitgeist.
The tricky thing is that Arelith is a tough game to market when it comes to that sort of thing. How do you distill the slow-burn nuanced roleplay experience of Arelith into something that will thrive on 2024 social media? I don't think you can. I think you have to showcase the scale of things, the number of players involved, the stuff that's immediately attention-grabbing.

Take Baldur's Gate 3 for example, which benefitted massively from player-shared clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iihaqbANnqU
That particular edit showcases a lot of good shareability checkboxes for the current climate of the internet: funny moment, immediately understandable, CAPTIONS (captions are an absolute must on everything since many people scroll social media with mute on), pinned comment linking to more content, creator 'heart'-ing comments, etc.
These are the kind of game edits that get clicks and shares right now. While Arelith couldn't quite do the same, if you had a savvy video editor on staff who's in touch with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, you could find some success there. Short highlight reels of PvP tournaments, shots of political speeches, other events, etc. I don't know how you'd manage to find game footage without being constantly on the lookout though. Maybe have players submit footage. Hope this sparks some ideas!

edit: accidentally clicked send too soon!

Pair the shorts with longer-form videos on Youtube, text/image posts on Instagram + Threads/Blue Sky (if you're opposed to Twitter). Get the full use out of those platforms.

Last edited by Aradin on Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by Irongron » Mon Jan 22, 2024 8:37 pm

I really appreciate the comments thus far.

In answer to 98lbs - I really enjoyed reading your comments and definitely gave me some food for thought. I think you are right that there are some hurdles such an old game cannot surmount, at least not without even further departing from 3.5 D&D.

There is actually a 'how to get started on Arelith' article on our home page but it is out of date, if only a little. In general I should get back to regularly publishing there.

Do you think it would help to actually make myself and other key staff personally available for new players in a monthly Discord chat? We could likely easily add a tag/role to all recently joined so such Discord events were only for them.

Aradin - part of the reason I stopped doing so much promotion was really that with more limited time I wanted to focus on producing content. Your post does rather convince me I either need to get back in the saddle, or put together a new player/staff team solely concerned with the task. A good idea? Is there much appetite from existing players to get involved?

Xanrael - I think you make a really valuable comment in saying that a short video that highlights some key figures would go a long way. With reddits - thankfully our players actually weigh in quite often, unfortunately so do the same few ex players who most often reply about what unmitigated bastards our staff and players are - in such moments the only thing that really helps are more supporters than detractors, and I don't think many of us enjoy getting into arguments with strangers. For myself I read these things, but never answer, as given my role here I'm not really an objective voice.

I am watching this thread, and will try to answer all comments and insights personally.

Thanks again.


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Aradin
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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by Aradin » Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:30 pm

Irongron wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2024 8:37 pm

Aradin - part of the reason I stopped doing so much promotion was really that with more limited time I wanted to focus on producing content. Your post does rather convince me I either need to get back in the saddle, or put together a new player/staff team solely concerned with the task. A good idea? Is there much appetite from existing players to get involved?

It's a job for sure. There's a reason companies have full-time social media / PR people. I think having a new player/staff team solely concerned with it is a good idea if you want to go this route, since your time as project lead is likely better spent somewhere else. In an ideal world, you'd have a 2-3 person team to get footage & stills/coordinate getting them from players, edit videos together, do text & image posts, and otherwise maintain a vibrant social media presence. There's solid potential to draw new players in.

If you put out feelers to the community you might get some volunteers, but I don't have in-depth analytics on Arelith's playerbase demographics so it's hard to guess. I don't think there's any harm in asking, even if you don't get any bites.

Was Lloyd Grimm, Sai Aung-K'yi, Stink Spellworped, Ikarus, and Revyn the White.


LurkingShadow
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Re: Arelith Promotional Drive

Post by LurkingShadow » Tue Jan 23, 2024 1:06 am

I do not think things should be to, so called, dumbed down for the sake of "selling in the server". It is the biggest server in an very old game.


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