Ryzom

Gonna see if i can give you a few free tips to market Saga of Ryzom here, just because I want to help you, and because I am in a good mood

1: WinchGate Properties Limited, Who runs it, whats your vision in 3 years, 5 years and 10 years from now?.
- Management.
- Vision.
- Staff.
- Funding.

You may wanna inform your customer base of this, it will not alienate your customer base, it will create trust. Honesty is better then nothing.

2: Customer Representative Teams.
- Your event team is doing fine, they are creating content for the playerbase. Good job.
- Hire a fulltime community Manager, or hire a project based consultant for support.
- Create 2 new CSR teams:
A) One that goes out and handles tickets, harassment, exploits, bugs and similar. This CSR team needs to have enough rights to handle any possible situation that may come up in a short notice without having to go to any superiors. This is to limit any waiting time and petitionline for the customers.
All members of this team needs to answer to the team leader of course, if a decision that was taken was wrong according to the guidelines that you write for this team.

B) A guidance team, this is a team with no other powers then muting individuals in global chat channels and handling /stuck petitions.
This team exists with the sole purpose of showing a presence ingame at all times (which means it needs a sufficient amount of members) and guiding new customers through the first parts of the learning process in ryzom.


3: Contact the guild leader(s) of the largest gaming clans in the world, say the top 10/15 ones. Offer them the chance of trying the game, and tell them that per 50-100 people that come from their clans and try the game out, they will receive 1 lifetime account.
Create monthly contests among new members, where one member may win 1-2 months of free gaming time, and one clan may win the privilege of having their guild banner on the frontpage of ryzom.com.

4: Contact tentonhammer.com and tell them in detail about the new future of Ryzom, who WinchGate is, and what WinchGate wishes to do. Offer them the chance of covering that article exclusively, and a chance to cover your first ingame event in their weekly newsletter. (they have aprox 500 000 readers every week, if not more). Give at least one member of the community a reward ( for example a special title ingame + 2 months of free gaming time ) on behalf of tentonhammer.com.

After that, talk to mmorpg.com and let them cover your next ingame event exclusively.

And the third event you can talk to IGN or Warcry and let them cover in their newsletter.
Then go back to tentonhammer for the 4th etc.

Or make a exclusive deal with tentonhammer if they are willing to do so.


5: Contact skype (the voice program) and try to arrange a deal with them, of finding a way of integrating skype into the out of game support site. Maybe by giving the players access to customer support (faster then mail support or petition support) through skype, and let skype pay you for that service, OR let skype integrate your banner/logo to their website or having a redirect link on their website.
As long as you find a way of marketing skype, they will repay the favour if you make them a decent offer.


6: There are numerous gaming conventions coming up this year, hire a representative to be present at these conventions with CD's with the ryzom client on them. Hand them out with trial accounts at the conventions, and make a contest at each convention with a chance to win an account with one year of gaming time paid.

A few examples:
- http://www.e3expo.com/
- GothCon (swedish gaming convention).
- http://www.gdconf.com/

There are numerous others as well.




If you wanna make money, even a slight amount. These are reasonably fast and simple to do, and has the potential of getting you a huge amount of subscribers.

Regards,

Thomas

Let me quote:
(Highlighted the most important sections in red for you, to avoid "wall of text crit's reader for 10 000 electrical damage. Reader is no more"

The importance of PR in the gaming industry.


Each day gamers are flooded with a variety of online, print and TV ads from publishers trying to push their latest titles. Behind the scenes, however, there's another force that's equally important (if not more so) to marketing a game: public relations. We take a look at the role of PR in game marketing.

by David Radd on Monday, March 06, 2006

To an industry outsider, most aspects of a video game marketing campaign are pretty transparent. You have TV, Internet and magazine ads, trailers, reviews, and perhaps a specially devoted website. While marketing teams are known and sometimes given special credit for the success of a product, less is known about the people who run gameplay information, screenshots, and review copies to the press: public relations teams.
The role of a PR worker in the gaming industry is vital, yet under appreciated. They're the ones that help members of the press stay informed, and from a video game marketing perspective they can be crucial. They'll speak to anyone gamers will listen to, including bloggers, webcomic artists and web-TV programs. But doing this is very behind-the-scenes, almost to the point of being invisible. It is reminiscent of a Gustave Flaubert quote, "The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him."
GameDaily BIZ talked with David Tractenberg, President of Traction Public Relations, and Corey Wade, Partner in Sandbox Strategies about PR work. We discussed the importance of PR to games, the hidden challenges associated with the field, and alternative means of advertising.

Basic PR such as distributing screens, game info and review copies is all well and good, but the PR worker first has to have a proper understanding of the game and the press that game will be pitched to. Most games don't have the sort of clout of something like Grand Theft Auto, and when you're trying to raise awareness of some unknown mobile phone game, for example, the challenge is evident. When distributing review copies, PR workers have to make sure that the reviewer has the right hardware to play it. A PS2 review copy of a game is useless if the reviewer only has an Xbox in the office.

Speaking about the vitality of PR work, Tractenberg said, "Our component when done correctly can be the most important one though. Studies show that people are about 3 times more likely to believe an article from a reporter than an ad. This makes sense because in our culture as we understand what an ad is and is not. I personally research games on GameRankings.com before I ever buy one, I like knowing that other people played the game and think I would enjoy it. Well those reviews don't just happen. In most cases a PR person has sent a copy of the game out to the press who wrote that review and pitched them on why this game is the greatest in its respective category. If they like the pitch and the game we can get a good score which translates into higher sales. While ads will help you know when the game is coming out and what features it has, PR gets a consumer to put down their hard-earned money for it."
"PR is hands down the most important aspect of promoting a game," agreed Wade. "No marketing spend can save a pathetic PR effort. A game ultimately sells on word of mouth, and obviously without seeing it, gamers are going to look to the press to form opinions. If journalists are going nuts about an upcoming game, the hardcore will pay attention to every detail. Not only that, if a journalist has been given a great introduction to the game in the months preceding the release, he or she will be more inclined to give the game a proper amount of play time during the review stage. There are seemingly countless games out there these days -- journalists are just swamped and don't have much time."

Because of the "backstage" nature of PR, it tends to be something that's only ever noticed if it is done poorly. Without naming any particular companies, GameDaily BIZ has witnessed certain gaming sites giving lower scores because they received a review copy late. On the other hand, certain PR companies choose to play favorites, affecting scores both upward and downward depending on who's being favored and who's being slighted. Should things of this nature really affect review scores? No, but it's certainly in the back of a reviewer's mind when he receives the review copy, and they're only human.
In the more mundane examples, reviewers may just not be all that interested in a certain product. Generating interest where there is little to begin with is hard, and requires a lot of "boot strapping" for a PR team. Tractenberg put it this way, "We do not ever have full control of what a reporter is going to say; it's what makes the articles trust-worthy and keeps PR people up at night. We have to convince someone that a product is not only worth their time to play, but worth their time to write about it and say positive things. One of our other big challenges is that we may be up against a few games coming out that the reporters are more interested in. We need to prove our game has what it takes to compete in a tough landscape just to make sure it gets seen at all. For instance, we represent a lot of smaller developers and it can be very difficult to show off their titles when a reporter is waiting on the next [batch of] Morrowind screenshots. If we were in advertising we could just buy a page and a few banners and be okay. As a PR professional though it's our job to make sure everyone gets their day in the sun from small dev houses to large publishers."
"The challenges are endless, and vary from game to game... but in my experience working some big titles, the main issues are working with ever-changing code, asset creation and approval, working out exclusives, and international coordination," Wade explained. "Sometimes the developer doesn't want to let go of its 'baby', so I think building trust with the people who are putting in brutal hours to make a game is an important skill."
He continued, "The task of balancing print and online press is constantly tricky, especially when trying to keep magazines and websites overseas happy. I think managing the review process is never easy, because you want to make sure the reviewer has all the info he or she needs, but at the same you don't want to be a pest or too pushy."

Certain alternative aspects in marketing have gotten plenty of attention lately, especially viral advertising. Consumers have grown up barraged by commercial messages, making them very wary of standard ways that products are sold. Efforts such as ILoveBees.com interest people, even the press, while spreading the word about the product.
The necessity of a good PR team, however, remains. "Alternative means of marketing are great, but not as a company's primary way of reaching the public," said Tractenberg. "There are always new ideas coming to market that claim to revolutionize the industry. Some work and some don't. We offer blogging, V-blogging, podcasting, EPKs and viral abilities. They are great add-ons, but anyone who wants to replace their traditional campaign with one of these is not going to get the results they want. You still need to contact the press, talk to them, meet with them and give them a copy of the title to make a solid impact. As soon as we stop giving that personal touch and rely on tricks we will loose what little control we have over the public perception of our product."

Regarding this great Article, the first thing a WG-PR-Team should do is:

Give out new Screenshots and produce new Trailers that show the current Game!
Those "official" pieces that are out there are all from Beta and even Alpha.
That´s just completely inadequate.
I know no Website that does have up to date official screenshots and/or Videotrailers of Ryzom. Only that stuff that was already outdated by release.

I freely offer WG to use my Videos to do so, or to contact me to create one for them after their guidelines. I´m currently on sick leave with a damaged knee, so I´ve nothing else to do but sit around all day anyway.
I´d be glad to help.

Or even better!
How about a Video Contest?
You give us guidelines to use and we´ll see what we can come up with.
It worked great for the Banners, so why not with a Trailer?
We´ll probably need some kind of new licensed music though, or license free stuff. Or we could use the already existing Score.

CU
Acridiel

CU
Acridiel

acridiel wrote:Regarding this great Article, the first thing a WG-PR-Team should do is:

Give out new Screenshots and produce new Trailers that show the current Game!
Those "official" pieces that are out there are all from Beta and even Alpha.
That´s just completely inadequate.
I know no Website that does have up to date official screenshots and/or Videotrailers of Ryzom. Only that stuff that was already outdated by release.

I freely offer WG to use my Videos to do so, or to contact me to create one for them after their guidelines. I´m currently on sick leave with a damaged knee, so I´ve nothing else to do then sit around all day anyway.
I´d be glad to help.

Or even better!
How about a Video Contest?
You give us guidelines to use and we´ll see what we can come up with.
It worked great for the Banners, so why not with a Trailer?
We´ll probably need some kind of new licensed music though, or license free stuff. Or we could use the already existing Score.

CU
Acridiel

CU
Acridiel

While I agree with you that the "on site" stuff needs to be updated, I also agree that a video contest would be a PERFECT contest for an eventual contest within tentonhammer.
Let me quote another piece from that article:

The necessity of a good PR team, however, remains. "Alternative means of marketing are great, but not as a company's primary way of reaching the public," said Tractenberg. "There are always new ideas coming to market that claim to revolutionize the industry. Some work and some don't. We offer blogging, V-blogging, podcasting, EPKs and viral abilities. They are great add-ons, but anyone who wants to replace their traditional campaign with one of these is not going to get the results they want. You still need to contact the press, talk to them, meet with them and give them a copy of the title to make a solid impact.

This is why the first thing I suggest after informing the current clientbase of who you are, is approaching a possible customer base, and then the PRESS (Tentonhammer). Tentonhammer is one of, if not THE largest force in online gaming news.

WinchGate needs a PLAN, and it needs to have a beginning,and an end.
Hence why my points where set in the order they were.

I enjoy making videos and like the video contest idea. I don't have anything to capture the game footage though, so I don't think I'd join the contest. However, for any of you that do and need some music to go with it, Jamendo ( http://www.jamendo.com )is an excellent source of Creative Commons music. Just be aware of the licensing options, not all Creative Commons music freely available to be added to a vid.

Peace,
- Sui

What im curious about to be quite honest is how WinchGate intends on dealing with public relations, Because right now its close to non-existant.

It could be interesting to have a talk with them to get some answers to be honest.

Someone give him a job pls

hemera wrote:Someone give him a job pls

lol, I have a job thank you very much
I wouldnt have time to do another, unless they paid me more then I currently make, which I highly doubt they would do for a regular job.

Im honestly just trying to help.

I like the idea of contacting tenton hammer with exclusive rights to cover an event. Perhaps a PvP event for lower levels is worth a try. It would be nice if somehow the event was going to tie in with revealing something new about the direction Ryzom was taking.

I like the idea about contacting the gaming guilds as well, but most may have already played Ryzom so somehow they have to be convinced to take another look. Events are a start. Something in Silan after 3 days, another after 7 days?

Ryzom has a problem as an "older" game. Gamers tend to think newer = better. We all know that's not true. Ryzom was ahead of its time in many areas. They solved problems that newer games still struggle with. Yes, there are problems here and there, but the overall design is very good.

Re-introduction of the game at conventions might be worth while at some point, but one must have something new to sell to justify the expense of renting a booth, equipment, display panels & banners, a booth babe or two, etc.

Selling points Ryzom already has:
Realistic complete world.
AI behavior (predators actually hunt).
Interesting and unique storyline.
Outposts - world changing PvP. (needs a bit more along this line).
Realistic advancement, fight with a sword to get better at sword fighting.
The Ring - a diamond in the rough, but could be one of the best things Ryzom has going. A few suggestions here - http://forums.ryzom.com/showpost.php?p= ... stcount=49

I'd also suggest getting a couple of really good clips of an OpWar or a good team taking down a two star boss and putting them out on YouTube.