Share Game Marketing / Advertising Ideas

[Klown]

Hey Everyone:

The members of this website are always so helpful - I figured I would try my luck once again with a request for suggestions on game marketing.

I am at a point where my browser game, a (multi-player sci-fi RTS) needs mass amounts of players, I have all the standard features in place; Vote at Top Sites Lists, unique referral link program which rewards players with game currency, a facebook page which is updated regularly, I have also spent some money buying display ads with two companies which allow you to display your banners on select sites at a Cost-Per-Click.

I have tried Facebook advertising, which seems to generate a lot of income for facebook and no new accounts for me.

I would love how you guys, game developers, other MMO games get such a large amount of traffic consistently to your games to provide a true MMO atmosphere for your players.

The feedback I get on my game is that most people love to play it, but more players would create more battles, more trades, more alliances, etc and make the game much more fun.

I have thought of a google Adwords / display network account but I wouldn't even know what keywords to setup and could quickly blow through a lot of money with very little results.

Tell me your story and share your experience!

Thanks again!

Dustin

[vitinho444]

Hum, i dont know about browser games. But the standalone clients I've created (3 so far), gained "views/plays" simply from youtube or the websites where i posted them.
I posted them on Gamejolt and Kongregate (gaining 5k+ plays/views). Road to Darkness was my first, and all i did was post the trailer on youtube. It got noticed because it was a slender-type game (wasn't a copy since i never played slender!).

So i dont know how ads would help me increase this, maybe lot more people would play my games :/.

[Callan S.]

The age of fable guy went around and registered on various forums where he thought talking about his game would be on topic somehow, then talked. Make up a list of forums where you think you could talk about it, as well as forums with open advertising sections (rpg.net has one). The age of fable guy seems to do alright by that method.

[MikuzA]

Hey, I wrote a massive reply but noticed that you done that already
**
I have not personal experience on advertising a game, but as an active gamer, I might be able to give a few pointers.

Anyways,
Just to get to know your current status,

-how many players do you have at the moment?
-is the game free-to-play, pay-to-play or pay-to-win? Or do you have some kind of microtransactions in your game?
-how many players would you need to be satisfied that your marketing strategy has worked, what is your goal?
-What game is this?

[hallsofvallhalla]

I second youtube. Make a video showing off play or teaching people how to play.

[Klown]

Hey, I wrote a massive reply but noticed that you done that already
**
I have not personal experience on advertising a game, but as an active gamer, I might be able to give a few pointers.

Anyways,
Just to get to know your current status,

-how many players do you have at the moment?
-is the game free-to-play, pay-to-play or pay-to-win? Or do you have some kind of microtransactions in your game?
-how many players would you need to be satisfied that your marketing strategy has worked, what is your goal?
-What game is this?

Thanks for the replies. I will make a more detailed post about my game in the show off section but I just relaunched the game last month, i have over 100 players about half are active on a daily basis. The game is free to play with in-game currency available for purchase to enhance/speed up game play. There are no features available to pay players that are not available to non-pay players, i think i have done a good job balancing the pay mechanics as the 2nd ranked player in the game has not spent anything to play and is very easily keeping up with and ahead of others who do.

The games url is: http://darkuniverseonline.net - there are two open servers, almost all active players are on Server 2.

The number of players needed to be obtained through marketing to be successful is a hard target to clarify. The game world is scalable so a steady flow of daily registrations would be required to offset attrition and keep the game lively. Games like evony get thousands of daily registrations, and most go inactive immediately. My game seems to have about 50% retention rate in english speaking players, so I would like to see at least 10+ daily registrations to start, and grow from there.

Thanks for all your input, its very greatly appreciated.

[Jackolantern]

I also don't have much first-hand experience, but as a gamer since basically the dawn of the Internet, I may also be able to give a couple pointers. They may seem a bit shady, but all is fair in business

-What did your ad banners look like? Can you post them? The general method seems to be to either buy some art or a skilled artist to make a character that will kind of function as the "mascot". That the character is a pretty girl should go without saying. What can I say? It gets clicks.

-Create a YouTube video called something like "Top 10 Free Browser RPGs 2014". Pick some games you like or just some at random to fill out the other 9 slots, but make your game #2. Putting yours at #1 is too obvious, and many gamers who search for these types of videos (I know I have many times before) are going to try at least the top 3 anyway. You will likely get many more views than a video titled with the name of your game.

[Callan S.]

-Create a YouTube video called something like "Top 10 Free Browser RPGs 2014". Pick some games you like or just some at random to fill out the other 9 slots, but make your game #2. Putting yours at #1 is too obvious, and many gamers who search for these types of videos (I know I have many times before) are going to try at least the top 3 anyway. You will likely get many more views than a video titled with the name of your game.

Oh, Jack, you scallywag!

[Callan S.]

Another thing one game did to intrigue me (It was called 'moon' something. Edit: Ah, it was moonstone!) was to have a secret about the moon whaever thing and pose whether I'd find it as a player. I was curious about it and had a goal to play toward.

[Jackolantern]

-Create a YouTube video called something like "Top 10 Free Browser RPGs 2014". Pick some games you like or just some at random to fill out the other 9 slots, but make your game #2. Putting yours at #1 is too obvious, and many gamers who search for these types of videos (I know I have many times before) are going to try at least the top 3 anyway. You will likely get many more views than a video titled with the name of your game.

Oh, Jack, you scallywag!

Always