Spreading the Word

Joined: Posts: -19

I think all the Friends of Dreamscapes agree that attracting more new players is a good goal.

And I think everyone has voted on the MUD sites, one of the issues there is of course that without more players we can't really increase the votes very quickly. Kind of a Catch-22. So I am wondering what other ideas people might have for spreading the word.

Obviously there is the IRL stuff where you tell your friends and get them good and addicted (Check!) and spend time in-game helping newbies learn the ropes and make the game fun (Check!). However, there has to be other online venues for attracting players.

Any ideas? Do we think it is better to wait till we are out of ptest and pwipe has happened? What say you?

Joined: Posts: -19

Honestly.. imho.. I don't think attracting newbies to a game in ptest is a very great idea. If I was invited to learn a game that was in ptest knowing that in a few months all my work for trying to learn would be wasted or... I might be in the middle of something and be addicted and then it get closed down and I would have to start all over again. Us that have been playing understand and know this...

However, this also gives the person a chance to explore and find which guilds they like or not.. as long as there is limited RP involved.. but such is ptest. As of late a lot of RP conflicts and stuff have been popping up, and it would be BAD bad to draw newbies into any kind of conflicts which might scare them away... etc. Not that they won't ever happen... because I know they will, but just for those that are... bringing in newbies make sure they don't get involved... unless of course they like that kind o stuff...

There are a few pros/cons about bringing newbies to ptest... but I believe recruitment is possible... just not sure how... online forums... chatrooms.. about RPGs... probably even some main websites can be good promotions... we just have to find the right ones..

Just a few words... again..
-Aleigh

Joined: Posts: -19

Fo rnow I'd stick with voting, and reviews are a great way to get people interested. It is very obvious we are in ptest so people are warned before they roll ...

After we open fully then we can all go crazy promoting DS like never before Exclamation

Joined: Posts: -19

I am a newbie that has been attracted here during Ptest! Rolling Eyes

I joined knowing it was in Ptest, and continue to play, even though I know that there will be a pwipe eventually. It's a GAME! We learn, we die, we start over again, we get better! I continue to play, to RP, to have a laugh in the game AND IRL. This is a GREAT realm, please don't spoil it (as I've seen a few people trying to do) by INSISTING on RP ALL THE TIME! Try looking at the description of the realm on the mudlists... it says RP is ENCOURAGED, NOT COMPULSORY. Shocked

I RP because I want to.. each of my alts has a different and seperate personality (and I have 10 so far), but if people do not like OOC comments, there is an option on "Toggle" to turn off these comments, so they can concentrate on RP only.. I prefer to do both... RP AND be friendly towards other players, even if our characters are opposed. Cool

Please do not get carried away with "We have been here since the start, we don't want Newbies ruining our realm" because THAT WILL scares off newbies. There is nothing worse than joining a realm where the more experienced players are being cliquey and looking down their noses at newbies. Even Melleth was a newbie once! Surprised

The reason why we need to recruit as many new adventurers to our realm as possible is that the more we attract, the more people get addicted to ths realm, the more voluntary donations Melleth is likely to get, so the more he can afford to spend on the realm (don't forget that Melleth does all this off his own back, doesn't get paid for it, and relies on any help we can give him to try and finance it). Wink

Joined: Posts: -19

Personally, I've been holding people at gunpoint and forcing them to play. Mainly because all my friends hate me and I don't know anybody else.

Joined: Posts: -19

Sounds fair to ME! lol

Lend me your gun please?

Joined: Posts: -19

Okay the dreaded/much anticipated pwipe has been brought up. I think that as testers we shouldn't even know when this will happen. It askews our objectivity and testing ability if there were a post or notice that says : On date such and such pwipe will take place. If ptest happened tomorrow how many people would be playing today? And recruiting gamers during any state of the game is a good idea, although I can see why in ptest that certain noobs may feel a little overwhelmed.
Also, role playing by its very meaning cannot take place in full effect during ptest. If you're to remain in character being an rp purist, then you should NEVER use OOC, you should never use slang, and talking about anything nonrelevant to the timeline would cause your head to explode. The bottom line is this is still ptest, role playing is a good idea and should be encouraged, but its impossible to remain in character at all times during this stage in game development.
How to recruit other gamers? Here's a little homework assignment : Go jump on another mud and do some recruiting. What better way to get players than one's that already play muds? There are literally quadrillions of chatrooms out there also.....with every topic that has a name, so why not advertise in role playing chatrooms? Hey all! how you doing? like role playing in fantasy oriented worlds? come try Dreamscapes.....Its the shit!
Bug all the people on your friends list, make them forward that to thier friends, then make the forward the forward, etc. What about recruitment incentives/rewards? There are alot of options available for recruitment.
I saw a mud while searching that has an avg. player content of 100 players. What's ours? probably somewhere around 3 or 4...... Everyone has there specific time zone, so its not always plausible for a large player base to be online at all times, but if your not playing.........post! It only takes a few minutes, you can do it while your coffee/tea is brewing, and it breathes life into the game and as an effect boosts rp content.

Wink

Unless you think I'm a complete genius, reply to this and critique what I said. Put some thought into it, what do you think? What are some good recruitment ideas? Is it possible to completely rp during ptest? Is knowing when pwipe is going to happen a good idea?

Joined: Posts: -19

Well, as a new adventurer I really love playing Dreamscapes and working on my skills, advancing them as much as I can. By the way, what's a pwipe? Confused

Joined: Posts: -19

P = Player........... and wipe is what you do to players when the test is over and the real fun starts.

Question

There's a joke to be made here somewhere.......I just can't put it together yet Cool

Joined: Posts: -19

As far as I know. a Pwipe is when the immortals decide that they have done all they can to the realm and it is ready to go completely live and loud. Therfore, they stop Ptesting (getting people in just to find the bugs and come up with new ideas) in the main, delete all characters and start the world from scratch. This means that characters that are still on their databse, but are never used are cleared, and any active characters have to recreate themselves and start all over again from scratch.

So why bother doing all this when you know you are going to have to do it all over again? A good reason that I have is that I am taking this time to learn what skills I REALLY need in my playing, what character I like to play, where things are, how to get them, etc... So, when ptest is over and we are all Pwiped, I know what character to create, what skills to learn first, what guild I want to join, where I go to find the things I really need to advance my character and become the stongest charater I can. I think of all this as a kind of fun dress-rehearsal.

As far as I can make out from talking to Melleth and other guys who have been around for quite some time, no-one truly knows when Pwipe is going to happen, because we keep finding one more thing to change, or adjust, so the immortals have a never ending list of jobs they want to complete before ptesting is complete. I am informed it's at least months away, and possibly (this is my own opinion here) over a year away.

From what I can glean, Melleth is a perfectionist and isn't likely to want to end the ptest until he is happy that all the bugs are ironed out and all ideas have been implemented (which makes me honestly believe that he'll never really end Ptest, because there is always "just one more little thing").

Antubis's idea of promoting Dreamscapes within other muds sounds great, the only problem is that you are likely to get an IP ban from the immortals of that realm for trying to poach their players.

According to the blurb on Dreamscares, we have an average playing of between 20-30 at the moment.

Joined: Posts: -19

20 - 30 people at any one given moment? I guess I'm just playing at the wrong time of the day or something......

A fully functional mud should fear no competition from a ptesting mud....If the game is that insecure, then they deserve a massive player migration to our side *grins*
It is a necessity to leave ptest or we risk losing MORE players. Ideas and such can probably still be implemented during real play, although they may be more difficult, and not all additions/ideas are good ones. So instead of flooding the game with new stuff, it may be better to fix what's here and begin the final walk towards completion. Of course I have no idea what a hard task it is to create a perfect mud, with Imms like Melleth I think we're well along the way.

Twisted Evil

Come to the dark side !! All will serve the mighty Dreamscapes II !!!

Joined: Posts: -19

Pwipe...

Since we are in ptesting (Player testing) we are here to specific find bugs... and specifically get things fixed so that when we move from ptesting we can have characters without the bugs that we found in ptest. The pwipe is simply to level the playing field and basically say "If you find a bug still report it, but well lets hope they're all fixed" Player wipe means all characters are removed "wiped" from the game and everyone starts as that level 1 character... that we all hated...

However, then you get to be that one person and start over with everyone the same as you. No rank almost 200 people on when you're crawling around rank 5. This also means... no one being able to gather newbies more equipment... you'll have to deal with the hardcore stuff like we all did at one point. Using a non-enchanted, non-forged shortsword for 10 ranks! Oh dear *gasp*... or something like that. It should be a fun experience when someone asks "Can you get me Gold Pendants" *ROFL* "In another 100 ranks or so, sure Twisted Evil

"

Or... the "I need better rings... or I need better equipment... or.. sorry.. *hushes*" Not ranting.. right. But at the beginning we're all the same and no one can get anything as easily as before and nothing is handed to you Cool

.

So like someone said earlier... "The Real Fun Begins" Wink

-Torie

Joined: Posts: -19

I'm curious if Melleth will keep the MMOFRPG in the name, I believe he said he didn't like the term mud. I always get confused when I see MMOFRPG trying to remember what it stands for. It doesn't seem the game is quite Massively Multiuser just yet?

Joined: Posts: -19

I am sure you are all aware of this, but thought I would put this up in case anyone didn't...

As well as clicking on the link from our homepage to vote for this realm, most of the mudlist sites also give a bonus vote if you connect through their site to telnet for thsi realm (you don't actually have to play through telnet, just connect through their link).

Every little helps!

Joined: Posts: -19

Anonymous wrote:

I'm curious if Melleth will keep the MMOFRPG in the name, I believe he said he didn't like the term mud. I always get confused when I see MMOFRPG trying to remember what it stands for. It doesn't seem the game is quite Massively Multiuser just yet?

I was being rather ironic Very Happy

It will probably stay, as changing it means changing too many things on our affiliate sites.