Word of mouth for more players

[Patti]

What's the best way to get more players?   How can we advertise without getting in to any kind of trouble?     How should we say things to make other people give bus a tryout?  Any other ideas suggestions?

[Rathulfr]

Most of my friends are sick and tired of hearing me preach the gospel of CoH. 

 

"It's FREE!"  "It's awesome!"  "You can make any look you like!"  "Builds are diverse and flexible!"  "It's casual-friendly!"  "It's only 4GB on your SSD!"

 

I still can't pull them away from World of Chorecraft.  🤮

 

[Abraxus]

We know from the slow trickle of folks who find their way here, that there are a lot more out there who just don't know the game has returned.  But, the best way to reach them without crossing a line...I'm just not sure.  I want to see them come back, but without knowing where the lines are drawn, I have not aggressively pursued it myself.

[Chris24601]

I brought my laptop with CoH on it over to my Godkid’s house when I was watching them for their folks’ anniversary. We plugged it into the big screen and I helped them each make a character. And let them run around in Atlas Park.

 

They’ve been preaching to their parents about needing to play CoH together for me ever since as a result.

 

Mwuhahahahahahah!!!

[ImpousVileTerror]

I was actually planning to do a poster/flier campaign around my local schools . . . but then pandemic lockdown kicked all the kids out of the schools in my area.

Curses!  I should have mobilized last year!

[DoctorDitko]

I believe the accepted wisdom is to organize into "cells" of three people, only one of whom knows the higher-up contact. That way, no one can betray the entire organization. CoH runs fine from a USB stick, so cloning parties ("samizdat") are one way to spread the word.

 

Of course, if you are compromised, the Devs will disavow all knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim!

(This message will self-destruct in five seconds.)

Edited July 18, 2020 by DoctorDitko

[GM Brax]

17 minutes ago, DoctorDitko said:

I believe the accepted wisdom is to organize into "cells" of three people, only one of whom knows the higher-up contact. That way, no one can betray the entire organization. CoH runs fine from a USB stick, so cloning parties ("samizdat") are one way to spread the word.

 

Of course, if you are compromised, the Devs will disavow all knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim!

(This message will self-destruct in five seconds.)

Ummm...the self-destruct failed.  😵😃

[Vulpoid]

Be careful what you wish for.
The coolest small restaurant gets ruined when the girlfriend of the uncle of your friend brings her drunk Ex and all his buddies. Nightly.
Your favorite hike through the woods quickly gets full of  sun faded beer cans after you tell your coworker who has a babysitter whose brother runs an ATV club.
Shhhhhhhh.....
Let's keep this among us.

[Techwright]

I believe we need to tap new "markets".  

 

Open a server in India.  Every time you call customer service or receive a telemarketing call that begins "Hello, my name is Bob", and it clearly sounds like Bob is likely talking to you from a certain sub-continent, let "Bob" know about the game and invite him and his friends to check out the India-based server.  Rinse and repeat when "Steve" calls about aluminum siding 10 minutes later.  Then with "Candy" when she calls 20 minutes later offering a 1 week contract tech job in northern Nunavut.  Then "Lou" when he calls seeking donations to save the golden long-proboscis mosquito population in the Congo.  Etc., etc.

 

That's nearly 1.4 billion new recruits, right there. 

[GM Brax]

6 minutes ago, Vulpoid said:

Be careful what you wish for.
The coolest small restaurant gets ruined when the girlfriend of the uncle of your friend brings her drunk Ex and all his buddies. Nightly.
Your favorite hike through the woods quickly gets full of  sun faded beer cans after you tell your coworker who has a babysitter whose brother runs an ATV club.
Shhhhhhhh.....
Let's keep this among us.

Some of those types have already come, and gone in the past year.  We hope everyone who signs up to play, does so because they either already love the game, or heard great things about it from someone who does, and genuinely wants to give it a try.  Occasionally, there are those who just want to disrupt, troll, and attempt to take the fun out of it for as many as they can.  For those situations, your GM staff is on the job!  Our intent is to keep your gaming experience here as free of that kind of distraction as possible.   

 

So, in the event of any large influx of new players at some point in the future, we will do our best to make it a good thing for everyone.

 

[Oubliette_Red]

8 hours ago, Patti said:

What's the best way to get more players?   How can we advertise without getting in to any kind of trouble?     How should we say things to make other people give bus a tryout?  Any other ideas suggestions?

Same way as during Legacy. word of mouth.

 

In other games I play, I usually hit up their Discord and when conversations turn to "What else do you play?" I talk about CoH. I've come across a few folks that didn't realize that it was back.

[Myrmidon]

10 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

Most of my friends are sick and tired of hearing me preach the gospel of CoH. 

 

"It's FREE!"  "It's awesome!"  "You can make any look you like!"  "Builds are diverse and flexible!"  "It's casual-friendly!"  "It's only 4GB on your SSD!"

 

I still can't pull them away from World of Chorecraft.  🤮

 

Don’t forget: “The Homecoming team FINALLY FIXED THE INVENTION SYSTEM!!!!!”.

[Myrmidon]

5 hours ago, GM Brax said:

Some of those types have already come, and gone in the past year.  We hope everyone who signs up to play, does so because they either already love the game, or heard great things about it from someone who does, and genuinely wants to give it a try.  Occasionally, there are those who just want to disrupt, troll, and attempt to take the fun out of it for as many as they can.  For those situations, your GM staff is on the job!  Our intent is to keep your gaming experience here as free of that kind of distraction as possible.   

 

So, in the event of any large influx of new players at some point in the future, we will do our best to make it a good thing for everyone.

 

 

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

I was pondering trying to poach from Champions Online by going to their steam page and talking about homecoming here.

[Peacemoon]

Once we can stream videos it would also help ☺️

[Vulpoid]

I will admit up front that I might simply be psychologically broken. Perhaps my whole world view is skewed. 
But.... Why would you want to increase the player base? What benefit would it serve?

I have no trouble finding teams, and high traffic areas like Atlas Plaza and the Talos T Station are frequently congested. There is no revenue stream to worry about.  My LFG channel in chat is always barking away. I do not see a benefit to more players.

On the flip side, there is a chance of  "forcing the issue" if we get too loud and visible to the outside gaming world.  If we were a church, or a business... I could understand wanting to increase the population. But we are a Home. Why do you want to fill our home with potentially disruptive strangers? Friends, I understand. Invite your friends. Invite the Curious. Invite the Creative. 
I guess I am just a hermit. I don't want to lose City of Heroes again, and I don't see anything good coming from drawing attention to ourselves.

Plus, this house only has two bathrooms Young Man so hurry up, and one of your friends keeps putting their drink down on your Mother's nice wood table without a coaster. I don't need anymore kids in my den on the good furniture.  Now get outside and mow that lawn!

Edited July 19, 2020 by Vulpoid

[Abraxus]

I simply want anyone who ever did, or ever wants to, to have the opportunity to play.  We have had the privilege of playing again for over a year, because we found out early on about it's return.  Many who loved the game, and would be back in a moment, just stopped looking for CoH related information, because it was shut-down, and historically that is the last word on the subject.  Getting the word out would reach corners of the internet where those folks would more readily see that the game is back, and they'd be here in a hot minute!  Then there are those who never played before, who would be curious to try it.  I want them to have that chance.

 

Why invite more to our little party?  Because I want this to go on for a long time, and the reality is that, folks will come and go over time.  We need a steady influx of players to maintain the current population, and keep this community thriving for the long term.  That ensures the enthusiasm for playing goes on, as well as that of the Dev team to keep innovating, and evolving the game.  Yes, things are fine now, and they would probably be fine for the next few months.  We saw a sizable uptick in player population when the "stay at home" orders went out, and it has slowly trickled down, as things started to open back up.  When the world begins to return to normal, there will be less time available to play games like this, and folks will spend less time, or just leave.  So, the hope is to keep the community thriving through a somewhat steady stream of new players.  They won't overwhelm, and there is plenty of room.  Of the 5 shards, only one of them (Excelsior) is populated anywhere near capacity.  The others still have plenty of bandwidth, and resources.  If every server was equally populated as Excelsior, with an average of 1,200-1,500 players on-line through a given day, nothing would be overwhelmed, the markets would thrive, and the game along with it.  Being overly protective of our little corner of the world, to keep it all to ourselves is not a solution for long term survival.

When the restrictions are off, I hope the word gets out far, and wide. 

[Vulpoid]

13 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

I want this to go on for a long time, and the reality is that, folks will come and go over time.  We need a steady influx of players to maintain the current population, and keep this community thriving for the long term.  That ensures the enthusiasm for playing goes on, as well as that of the Dev team to keep innovating, and evolving the game. 

Very well said... Good points!

[Dazl]

It's sort of a double edge sword. On one hand you want to let the former players know it's back, and get new people to try it. On the other you don't want to draw too much attention to it with the whole NCSoft thing still in limbo.

 

Not sure there is much that can be done. If people do a little bit of checking on the internet, they will find it. Heck even the MMO websites have articles about the game being back, and one website gave it a game of the year award. In the end word of mouth might still be the best way at this time.

[SwitchFade]

21 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

Most of my friends are sick and tired of hearing me preach the gospel of CoH. 

 

"It's FREE!"  "It's awesome!"  "You can make any look you like!"  "Builds are diverse and flexible!"  "It's casual-friendly!"  "It's only 4GB on your SSD!"

 

I still can't pull them away from World of Chorecraft.  🤮

 

Those are not true friends. Break up with them. All the cool kids CoH. Only waistoids WoW.

[roleki]

5 hours ago, Vulpoid said:

[...] Why would you want to increase the player base? What benefit would it serve?[.]

I didn't find out about HC until middle of July 2019, and when I did I literally quit my job the next morning; I was going to quit anyway, but finding out about HC was a big, blinking sign that the time was more than right to move on.

 

I don't care much what a larger playerbase means to ME, but I think anyone who would deserves the chance to get goosebumps at the login screen and spend hours touring the old haunts; don't we ALL need to be vomited upon by an Abomination?

[Rathulfr]

18 hours ago, DoctorDitko said:

I believe the accepted wisdom is to organize into "cells" of three people, only one of whom knows the higher-up contact. That way, no one can betray the entire organization. CoH runs fine from a USB stick, so cloning parties ("samizdat") are one way to spread the word.

 

Of course, if you are compromised, the Devs will disavow all knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim!

(This message will self-destruct in five seconds.)

The moon is indeed a harsh mistress.

[Abraxus]

3 hours ago, Crimsonpyre said:

It's sort of a double edge sword. On one hand you want to let the former players know it's back, and get new people to try it. On the other you don't want to draw too much attention to it with the whole NCSoft thing still in limbo.

 

Not sure there is much that can be done. If people do a little bit of checking on the internet, they will find it. Heck even the MMO websites have articles about the game being back, and one website gave it a game of the year award. In the end word of mouth might still be the best way at this time.

Yeah.  Our methods are rather limited until/unless the negotiations are successful.  On that day, by the power of the internet, ALL shall know and go forth! 😎

Edited July 19, 2020 by Abraxus

[Techwright]

2 hours ago, roleki said:

...don't we ALL need to be vomited upon by an Abomination?

Um...yeeaah...but I really need a proper coin-op laundry and a 1-hour martinizing dry cleaner to open somewhere in the city.  Surge is killing me with his elite cleaning fees.

[ImpousVileTerror]

Just burn your cloths and slip in to some paper bags instead.  It's cheaper that way.