I don't believe people are seeing the bigger picture here.
Before Graal hit full P2P, the game had a strong viral marketing rate, which ensured that constant stream of visitors, encouraged repeat visits, and ultimately gained popularity through it. Unfortunately, this is no longer enough. The problem with advertising right now though is that there is none and people don't seem to be happy enough to refer the game to others. Recently I had an outburst in doing some basic PR work, such as distributing screenshots, game info and reviews to websites, and to my surprise, I had to manually submit it to quite a few major gaming sites such as IGN and GameFAQs. This is not helping. A new approach to marketing, in my opinion, is very much needed.
Most, if not
all people who have given a constructive view in current threads have claimed that Graal needs advertisements. I personally believe that potential players are more likely to connect with an article from a reporter than an ad, as--lets face it--we understand what an ad is and what it is not. I always enjoy reading player written reviews to games before playing them myself; I like knowing what other people who have played the game thought about it, mainly to see if I would like to play it myself. A game ultimately sells on word of mouth, and obviously without seeing it, gamers are going to look to other means to form opinions. Advertising gives visual information acquisition, however, it lacks depth. I suggest that you incorporate an advertising budget, but not too much, and appropriate far more time to public relations. Advertising is useful, but only when appropriate.
Viral marketing can still be used, although overall game quality needs to be ensured, and adding benefits to promote "passing the word on" could be added. Referral systems are one of the most highly effective, yet inexpensive techniques used to generate a steady flow of customers. The referee, however, needs the proper incentive. What players need is encouragement to pay for Gold, as their money is the greatest factor to them. Helping them save some could be an effective form of incentive, wherein if a player 'recruits' new members to Graal, he/she can be rewarded with say, 3 days on his/her Gold account per Gold signup.
A positive aspect to ad use is that Nintendo has left a niche in the gaming market. Zelda has so far not been designed as an online game, and probably never will be; this gap gives the opportunity to apply Graal to that market, as it was always very much A Link To The Past turned into an online game. I believe that Zelda fans would eat this up, I myself being a fan of the series found this game on the off chance that there would be a "Zelda Online" many years ago. Targeting this audience would be relatively cheap, using fan-site advertising such as
http://www.zeldauniverse.net/content/view/165/187/ of the more popular Zelda websites would increase revenue, and in return would not be detrimental to the profit, it would also be more relevant. Although this would be a very good idea, this should not be used as the only advertising campaign.
E-mail marketing is yet again both inexpensive and very effective. If people were automatically signed up for a monthly newsletter, and they left us due to "lack of updates," with progress and updates circulating via the newsletter, chances are they will come back to see it for themselves.
Most of all game sales happen in the fourth quarter of the year, Christmas being the season of both giving and spending ridiculous amounts of money; taking advantage of that is on the agenda of any marketing plan. With a surge in potential players writing out their Christmas lists, planning what great gifts they would like this year for their parents/grandparents to buy, a good start would be to implant the idea of a Graal subscription making a wonderful gift. Friends and relatives giving gifts are more interested in being able to physically give that gift and then see the reactions, you can't really have that satisfaction if there is no physical aspect to it as it is not at all fulfilling. Psychologically speaking, it is more satisfying for both parties to see the tangible gift. This "physical gift" psychology could be easily achieved simply by introducing subscription gift certificates. The idea is pretty simple and could be useful for more than just for Christmas, as I personally have wanted to pay for an account for someone who could not afford it, but have not been able to do it legally.
From an ethnic marketing viewpoint, conversion to multi-lingual versions is harmless and could make the game more internationally known. A good game is a good game, irrespective of race or culture. The website already has a multi-lingual feature, but there are other things that could be done. Atlantis has the appearance of a good server (although I can't play it due to the language barrier) but is failing due to a decline in German players, this could be easily solved if ethnic marketing was pursued, and it wouldn't be as lacking in player interest as it is now.
Of course, there's always those little things that need dealing with, such as making sure Graal is ranked at the top in major search engines, and has good search engine optimization. Everything counts.
In order to right the current situation, every aspect of advertising must be meticulously considered. On the other hand, doing just this can prove to be quite the downfall, as it often causes people to be blind to the bigger picture, and it seems to me like you are not thinking outside of the box.
10-12-2006, 12:18 AM
Linear Mode
