Age of Magic Online

[Jackolantern]

For idie games, WOTM (Word of the mouth) is alot more effective as it is personal, close, and trusted. Ads are normally mass targeted, distant, and suspicious. Relying on the community instead to spread word of it is better, but after the game has a player base, do not offer incentives for referrals. (Again psychology)

Also, advertisements have a maximum of 2% click rate. Only about .03% play long term.

While all this is true, word of mouth travels much more slowly than true advertising. Ads are all a numbers game, and they will work for some games better than others. While it is kind of a dodgy campaign, a large ad campaign has won Evony (a mediocre game at best) a truly massive population. Word of mouth is far more trusted with magnitudes better conversion rate, but it spreads slowly and shallow.

And as far as Facebook, Twitter, etc., it kind of sounds like your own personal views of social networking sites are fueling your decision as to whether they are good for bringing in players. They are good for that, and nothing else comes close to comparing. I don't think anyone can argue it, and basically every AAA game uses it now with at least some success. I don't like social networking sites myself, but for such a low amount of effort, there is no other way in the world to have such a large potential pool of people to expose your game to. Saying they bring in people who are "socially retarded" is silly. Something like half the English-speaking world is on Facebook, from toddlers to astrophysicists.

[hallsofvallhalla]

it also depends on your friends. If your friends are these "retards" you speak of, then its time for new friends

Many of my friends however are gamers and their friends are too so it would help me. I frankly don't mind "retards" in my game for what world is complete without them? More players the better!!

[Torniquet]

i think trying to keep these socially retarded people off your game is impossable lol.

you only need one person to hear about it and then do somthing about getting their mates online playing with them.

facebook groups get made all the time. before you know it. you have 3-4 groups popping up on fb or someone posting on twitter saying 'im off to play xyz game talk soon'

then the viral infection takes place.

social networking sites play a major part in 90% of peoples lives now days, there is no way to avoid it. only way you can is by inviting your closest of friends to play and tell them not to tell anyone about it... even then its not garenteed.

i agree wotm gives it that extra personal touch. but from experience being a GM and having developed a legend of mir server, i know that A. word does not always spread, and B. people then tend to think they are your best mate and try to squeeze things out of you, clearly you would refuse... but there are some poepl out there who think they are entitled to extras just because they have spoken to you

thats the reality of gamers. no way to avoid it

[PaxBritannia]

All are very valid opinions.

The "Persons are smart" is actually correct grammar - I know Latin.

Also, being an internet marketer, I know the power of social networking. However, I was referring purely to ads on them.I'm sorry I generalised the social networking sites as containing social retards. But they do.

Concerning my previous statement along the lines of: active people on FB have no lives, I was specifically referring topeople who tell others that they

had eggs on toast at 7.24 in the morning

.

It is perfectly normal, and beneficial to connect with others on FB, what I despise are the mindless people who post on FB every minute of the day, and are easily swayed by social norms.

Pax.

[Torniquet]

All are very valid opinions.

The "Persons are smart" is actually correct grammar - I know Latin.

Also, being an internet marketer, I know the power of social networking. However, I was referring purely to ads on them.I'm sorry I generalised the social networking sites as containing social retards. But they do.

Concerning my previous statement along the lines of: active people on FB have no lives, I was specifically referring topeople who tell others that they

had eggs on toast at 7.24 in the morning

.

It is perfectly normal, and beneficial to connect with others on FB, what I despise are the mindless people who post on FB every minute of the day, and are easily swayed by social norms.

Pax.

i know what you mean. i agree it is beyond sad what poeple post on these sites.

[greed460]

HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY! I will be sticking with Unity 3D...

That's really not that much... Private engines that are pre-built can range from $800,000 to over $1,000,000... Sadly these engines you see only take about 3 years with about 5 guys working on them... Lol.

[PaxBritannia]

To get funds you could try crowd sourcing.

Recently, 4 people in their teens/young twenties secured over $200,000 USD on Kiskstarter by just posting a short video and talking about their project. Without even writing a line of code.

The thing is, they haven't done much. That is, apart from spending most of it on appletinis.

ita Stet.

[Jackolantern]

To get funds you could try crowd sourcing.

Recently, 4 people in their teens/young twenties secured over $200,000 USD on Kiskstarter by just posting a short video and talking about their project. Without even writing a line of code.

The thing is, they haven't done much. That is, apart from spending most of it on appletinis.

ita Stet.

Sadly I think that there are a lot of people abusing services like that and it won't be very long until anyone who would have given money realize that nothing much is coming out of these projects. Particularly if the project is headed by young people, I think confidence is just sliding down fast. The updates on a lot of these projects actually seem to stop when they get funding. Presumably because they are drinking margaritas in Cancun.