A few ideas to promote growth

[DarkReaper0]

If there's anything we need on this game it's some good advertising, because god knows I'm not going to convince my friends to play a game with a yearly fee.

I thought about it actually, then realized how foolish I would actually look proposing this to someone without a Lifetime Classic Subscription.

[MiniOne]

When advertising graal, your suppose to advertise it as a package. Since that's what graal is, a package.
There are many ways of advertising though the simplest is offering something through the internet (speaking from a game's point a view) on a top 100 MMORPG game site, or as a FPS.

[Imperialistic]

Originally Posted by Matt

I see Graal advertisements here and there, but all that is shown in the advertisement is Graal Kingdoms and Zone. I'm suprised they don't include Unholy Nation and/or Zodiac at least.

So you're telling us you have seen Graal advertisements?
May I ask where?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Imperialistic

So you're telling us you have seen Graal advertisements?

That's what my post says doesn't it? x-x

Google. Most of them i've see either don't promote any specific server, or they just promote the Gold servers. Here's 2.

http://www.gamestats.com/objects/853/853339/
http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Graalonline

[Imperialistic]

-Forum Rules-

You are not permitted to make external links or url's (whether they be clickable links, copy and paste, etc...), if they are not pointing to a graalonline made/ran site, or websites for playerworlds (wiki.graal.net , graal.net, graalonline.com, the support center, etc..., or sites for playerworlds) . In some very rare cases, we may accept some links after being approved by a administrator or super moderator. Sites for playerworlds will be moderated for inappropriate content, and will be removed if found inappropriate

0wn3d.

[fragman85]

Originally Posted by Imperialistic

-Forum Rules-

0wn3d.

So mean.

lol

[MiniOne]

Originally Posted by Imperialistic

-Forum Rules-

0wn3d.

Technically speaking advertisements are actually a site for playerworlds, since it is advertising playerworlds.

[Stephen]

I'm personally offended by the nature of your thread.

Before you begin to promote your suggestions you first insult the reading public, indicating they're lazy. Then, in your first post you emphasize your own lack of knowledge of the current system but continue to suggest your own implimentation?

I don't mean to be entirely hostile - but if your suggestions aren't well developed (which you seem to acknowledge) you should present them more as a conversation piece and less as a speach from the pulpit.

Originally Posted by Imperialistic

So you're telling us you have seen Graal advertisements?
May I ask where?

It's possible, I've been paying for Google Adwords for the last few months to get a rough idea of the advertisement potential Graal Online would have if they funded a larger advertisement campaign.

Originally Posted by DarkReaper0

If there's anything we need on this game it's some good advertising

That's not entirely true. The problem is the community and game infrastructure has to be modified to better interest new customers before it should be advertised. They could pour a load of money into advertising now - but if new people started pouring in... do you think they'd stick around?

Originally Posted by Pimmeh

Most of your ideas require manpower and... well... ideas.

For playerworld and even gold server development - you've hit the nail on the head. To make matters worse, Graal doesn't just need more man power, they need more TALENTED man power.

Sure we could slap some circus together which would look like South Park - only it would be funny in the pathetic kind of way.

Originally Posted by thesmoothcriminal

These threads come and go, you wont get an answer

An official answer - absolutely not. But the recent increase indicates a communal interest... which I think is the only chance of anything serious happening - when it's player developed.

Originally Posted by DesolateRestriction

Just so everyone knows. This kid deleted our server's entire GP records, and wiped several players' comments and then proceeded to taunt us in such said comments. We immediately banned him from N-Pulse completely.
He then proceeded to harass staff about getting unbanned and even lied to PWA in an attempt to be unbanned. Proceed with caution if you ever hire this individual.

It's kind of ****ty to distract from your initial message just to persue a personal interest - shaming this individual.

Originally Posted by sweetbruz

This problem is only half out of our hands, though. The community can empower itself by using some of the methods outlined here. We, the Graal community need to take responsibility for our own experience, as far as possible.

This is exactly the case. We have the opportunity to fix any problems we see as long as we can become organized and cooperate.

Originally Posted by DesolateRestriction

The cash shop idea is good when you first look at it, but there's several problems just from the start:

A lot of different people contribute ideas into the making of NPC(s).
You have ganis, gfx, scripting, and even concept design (the guy who had the idea in the first place.) Very rarely does one developer do all the areas, so who gets what? And how would a Levels Design developer benefit?
(You can't put levels in a cash shop.)

The problems you outline are not unique to the cash shop - you face the same problems developing any other content for Graal.

As a means of personal income, I think the cash shop is a horrible idea which would only get abused. As a means as easy income for Graal Online, which would assist a healthy subscription policy, I think it's an excellent idea.

Originally Posted by Matt

I see Graal advertisements here and there, but all that is shown in the advertisement is Graal Kingdoms and Zone. I'm suprised they don't include Unholy Nation and/or Zodiac at least.

A review is not the same as an advertisement - to talk about it in that way in this thread will only cause confusion. There's no official advertisement for Graal Kingdoms or Zone.

Originally Posted by sweetbruz

I guess the playerworlds are a bit more difficult to advertise, since its unprofessional content usually in some stage before completion. Though the idea to be involved in content creation should be attractive to many, even if its just drawing some heads or something.

The problem with the playerworlds, even the more popular ones, is that the quality of the content is often very poor. You really can't advertise that... and the health of the gold servers are so poor right now that you certainly can't advertise those either. This is why I emphasize the need to improve the community and game infrastructure.

[MiniOne]

Stephen has some points there, though I would still say one of the main focuses of graal for this era is to get some advertisements which are easily accessible and findable by future players, as well as a clean up of the community.

[sweetbruz]

I feel as though this thread has reached a head as it has put across a few things we could to do improve the general experience of Graal. Stephen has wrapped it up in a neat bundle in my opinion, and we seem to just be heading in circles otherwise. So what if we put across our ideas that pertain to actions within the community, particularly on your part and not just suggesting how everyone else should behave. I personally am working on the idea of having a monthly Graal celebration day, and coming up with a small website to promote the idea. Who knows if it will come together, but we'll see.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by sweetbruz

So what if we put across our ideas that pertain to actions within the community, particularly on your part and not just suggesting how everyone else should behave. I personally am working on the idea of having a monthly Graal celebration day, and coming up with a small website to promote the idea. Who knows if it will come together, but we'll see.

I wouldn't do that. Any people interested should form a group and decide on a person to oversee the group. That person would be responsible for hosting a place to discuss concepts and development outside of the main Graal Online communication facilities.

I don't think there's anything wrong with what that group has in mind - ultimately the goal is to improve the quality of playerworlds and unifiy some game systems so the learning curves of the basics are very shallow... but ultimately that group could be perceived as aggressive or even hostile.

The thing which concerns me about this effort is how hard it would be to maintain - I'm sure there were be a decent start, but to keep the ball rolling is nearly impossible in my opinion... I can't see it being successful in the long run. One of the main factors I could see to increase the longevity of the project is to establish very clear short term goals on an overall road map so that it's easier to track progress - to see what has been accomplished.

[sweetbruz]

You're right. I suppose you've considered this a few times before?

[Unkownsoldier]

Actually they make you pay them so they can get a good server and then they make other people pay to play that server. So the only really expense they have it keeping the game up and running and the website. Other than that besides developing new versions and some content everyone else makes things for them and they get payed for using it with their name for credit.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Unkownsoldier

Actually they make you pay them so they can get a good server and then they make other people pay to play that server. So the only really expense they have it keeping the game up and running and the website. Other than that besides developing new versions and some content everyone else makes things for them and they get payed for using it with their name for credit.

That's a very uninformed and hostile assumption, likely the result of poor representation on the part of Graal Online.

Graal Online is a game engine. You pay to have access to the development tools and facilities needed to host your content on a broad level. So when you make a server you're paying for the hosting space, access to the game engine, and making your content public in the Graal Online community.

Additionally, payments for access to the game allows the administration to create high quality officially supported content like Graal Kingdoms (this is less the case recently than it was historically) and Zone.

You're not forced to develop when you subscribe your account - if you don't want to develop you can always enjoy the development efforts of other groups and players.



This sort of poorly considered opinion is probably not helped by the lack official content on a broad scale, especially as of recent. Graal Online isn't a massively successful business, but it's making a profit (no need to worry about it disappearing in the immediate future). You sort of derail the conversation at hand with these vitriol statements. The greater subject is players working together across all servers to improve the quality of their content and uniformly introduce tools to help standardize their help and instructional content. Once we develop the community and game infrastructure to meet certain (currently undecided) long term goals we can more seriously consider advertisement... either officially or player supported.

There's nothing wrong with being a healthy community and being a healthy community member is something to be proud of.

[fragman85]

If there'll be ads for Graal, they should be about how easy it is to learn GS2, make their own Levels, and get Staff.

Because that is what makes Graal unique.