Community ad campaign
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Actually does someone consider Ads as serious help browsing through the net an gather valuable information. Me not. Is useless spam that wastes valuable space
Thats also one of the reasosn i stay logged in here in order to avoid getting the ads displayed inbetween the header and forumlist^^Freelancer is not profit driven as most of the work that is done - is done in the sparetime of the individual modding and dev team members. There is no company behind it anylonger…
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If you were a space sim enthusiast would you click on an ad like this:
I think no matter our budget that ad would reach it’s click through limit easily. The tough part is how do we get them the game?
Also, about the sites who’d kick us out for soliciting, we secure the owners permission with the promise that the ad landing page would contain a link to their server/site.
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See, I would not click an ad such as that. I don’t click ads. Most people don’t. The only way we’re gonna generate interest is through searches and a presence on other major sim gaming sites, in fact -
They’re pretty much the major hub for space sims at the moment. If you want to do something useful, go try and get attention there. But spending money on ads is pointless. They’d show up (if you’re using google) when you make contextual searches… in which case they’d find what they’re looking for anyways in LINKS not ads. Gotta generate search meta, not ads. Ads suck.
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Sizer I believe you when you say you wouldn’t click on an ad like that. But I haven’t seen any data backing up your claim that “most people don’t.” To the contrary, I have run Google Adwords campaigns for more than a few years now for various sites and can give first hand testimony that people do in fact click on them. I have even run Google ads for an old FL server (EvolvedOnes) and know for a fact that my measely monthly budget was not enough to keep the ads running for the entire month. In fact, my biggest problem then was the controversy on Eagles admin forum about whether my ads were leeching players from other servers that were displaying Google ads.
Basically what I’m saying is that people click ads. I don’t agree that spending money on ads is pointless. If that were so, there would be no ad market.
I do agree, however, that we should try to generate interest in as many ways as possible including Spacesimcentral, ModDB, etc. Running ads is only one more way to attract attention.
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Why the hell would someone spend money on advertising when there’s no product or service to sell, no cash return. They’d have to be be nuts.
Doesn’t really matter what people can do to freelancer, they’re never going to be able to compete with games of the present day, of which there are new ones all of the time. Most people want to try something new, not buy something old.
Like most of us that still have anything to do with this game, it’s probably because you have an 8 year old disk that still works and still love the game. For others it’s because they haven’t bought a new pc in 8 years so are still playing old games.
There’s no magic wand, no saving fl, it’s old and everything that has a beginning has an end. Just make the most of what it has left in the tank like the FW:TOW team. They’re work is awesome, but even that won’t be able to compete with modern games due to the limits of the 8 year old game they’re working with. It’s never going to be an MMORPG with an ever evolving world, which the way people expect everything other than a COD death match to be.
I’d say personally that the FW:TOW team are nuts for the amount of hard work and lengths they’ve gone to make their mod, it’s insane. But I know they love the guts out of modding the game so they’d do it anyway and that’s cool. When all is said and done they’ll be able to look at their work and think, hell yeah, we made that! Whether it gets the attention it deserves or not will not undo their achievement.
If you’re gonna mod FL, do it for fun, then it doesn’t matter whether you save the game or not.
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Timmy51m wrote:
I’d say personally that the FW:TOW team are nuts for the amount of hard work and lengths they’ve gone to make their mod, it’s insane. But I know they love the guts out of modding the game so they’d do it anyway and that’s cool. When all is said and done they’ll be able to look at their work and think, hell yeah, we made that! Whether it gets the attention it deserves or not will not undo their achievement.If you’re gonna mod FL, do it for fun, then it doesn’t matter whether you save the game or not.
Couldn’t have said it better than you, Timmy. This is exactly the reason why we’re doing this, for fun.
As for attention, well, I think we’ll get a few people back playing FL, at any rate. We almost have 1000 watchers at MODDB, 1100 fans on FB, 220 on Youtube and around 100 on twitter. Granted these fanbases are not mutually exclusive, I wouldn’t say that’s too shabby for an 8 yr old game. Even if we get 10% of these people playing FL again, that’s 100 more people than we have now.
I suspect once we release all the code to the TSP community, we’ll be able to draw back some people to this game we love.
As for advertising it, I agree with what the general tone has been; most likely will be a waste of time and money. Sorry, just being realistic about the situation.
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Sizer wrote:
FW:TOW’s news is not just restricted to TSP and the FL community, beleive you me. We’ve got plenty of coverage elsewhere.not in my country (France)
i f i could have acces to some “advertise” about the mod, tin french or in english (that i can translate" to post to the french community gamers (not specialy spacesim fan, but lots of people will be interested ) -
I agree about visuals. Not that I am playing games only because of it, but I think this might be a mayor reason for a mag reporting about our mod. Note, it might be unlikely that any mag will ever include TOW since there might be issues with the copyright.
So if you are really going to push FL you might want to consider to create a graphics imba mod like Plasmafire and make it public aviable for everyone and for any use.
Oh, and about player collection, you mgiht want to use moddb’s and strategyinformer’s forums as well. You mgiht also get ppl there who don’t watch the main site.
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Back in… 2004 I think, Gamestar.de did a special edition about game mods. They put Evo, along with FLMM and a few other mods, on their cover disc for their “mods” edition of their magazine (there were 4 disks, and 5 mods from Freelancer on one of the disks).
That’s the sort of place you want to “advertise”. Not via paying money (excellent point by Timmy) but by finding out which magazines have previously featured Freelancer mods and are therefore “FL friendly”. Then get into contact with them…
Gamestar were awesome, they contacted me - but the guy was an FL fan and even sent me a copy of the magazine along with a personal note. I think his name was Christian Schmidt, but can’t be sure as the note is at my parents (along with the magazine!).
So, bit of research, drop a few lines - it may pay off. I’ve heard many mods got magazine coverage back in the day (dunno about now), so there used to be interest. Given the scope of changes forthcoming, they may be interested in featuring it simply as a “blimey, look at the effort”.
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Sites like RPS have happily covered mods in the past. It’s no stretch to see them cover a FL mod, especially if you give them incentive in the form of a pre-release copy of some sort.
Also, we have new avenues we did not before thanks to YouTube. There are people making a living off playing and commenting on games through videos. They’ll play indie games and mods and say what their feelings are, it’s a great avenue for advertising; free and far, far more powerful than Google Ads.
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So I guess the idea’s a bust then. If not a single person on this site will support it (except for M1C, thanks homes
), I can’t imagine the trouble we’d run into trying to get support on server sites.I still think the idea has merit, though. Maybe I’ll try it on FP2 and report my findings back here. If it works maybe we can expand it to a community project. If not, I only lost $30 or so for a months ads.
My only hurdle will be how to get the game to new players……
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You can still buy the game, less than a fiver on play.com, still on amazon but more expensive from some of the stores.
I’m wondering if you could just wrap the whole contents of freelancer into a mod and use a custom installer therefore negating the need to buy the game in the first place. Obviously not legal, but who’s looking these days. Nothing generates interest like free stuff!
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I’m afraid we couldn’t condone any of this stuff, Timmy. We simply can’t jeopardize the entire site on the basis that nobody’s looking.
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I’m not a supporter of Sledge’s idea, but i think it’s a good try for our Freelancer.
But…. Freelancer is not free… so it’s just like:
What? Free Space Sim game? Click
“Welcome to the Free Space Sim Game Page,
But… If you want to play this Free game, you have to buy one CD”
Move mouse to the top-right red X bottom ClickCough, Now i’m feel well to be a Chinese in China, because we can: “Come Guys, Have a try the old but GLOWING game, A amazing game by DA&Microsoft – the FREELANCER!!! Download this game HERE, and remember to use our MOD, Download HERE, and Install tutorial HERE, Our server is XXXXXX, see you there and enjoy it.”
But however, we can’t to do here.
I have a idea, we create a page on TSP, a Mod list, and Adwords it using keywords: Freelancer, Freelancer mod, space game, space sim, starwar, discovery, juni etc. This may good that Free Space Sim.
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FriendlyFire wrote:
I’m afraid we couldn’t condone any of this stuff, Timmy. We simply can’t jeopardize the entire site on the basis that nobody’s looking.That’s why you’re in charge and I’m not!
Good job too!How many times is that you’ve told me I’m in the wrong now? I’m sure I should have had a hissy fit, abused you, and after failing to get banned stormed out on my own accord by now lol. Obviously I’m not right in the head.
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No, your idea has been considered many times by many people. It’s really tempting for a host of reasons. We have even pondered on the subject, but… As I said, there’s too much to lose for too little benefit, and I don’t think such an idea would gain traction without a site of at least modest size backing it. It’d just be another torrent floating on the net.
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Especially considering just how easy it is to get FL if you really want to… going through all that trouble just for that is more that it is worth, and believe you me, the moment someone tries something like that is the moment M$ starts caring about FL again.
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Sushi wrote:
As for attention, well, I think we’ll get a few people back playing FL, at any rate. We almost have 1000 watchers at MODDB, 1100 fans on FB, 220 on Youtube and around 100 on twitter. Granted these fanbases are not mutually exclusive, I wouldn’t say that’s too shabby for an 8 yr old game. Even if we get 10% of these people playing FL again, that’s 100 more people than we have now.
I suspect once we release all the code to the TSP community, we’ll be able to draw back some people to this game we love.
I don’t think I’ve ever had the heart to say this on Starport yet, but for some time now I’ve been saying one thing about FW:TOW:
Freeworlds: Tides of War will be Freelancer’s last stand.
I know I sound a bit overly dramatic, but the future of Freelancer really is riding on the FW:TOW crew. Overhauls on the scale of what they’re doing are the types of things that get noticed on gaming websites and magazines. What also really helps is that you can tell everyone that the graphics have been far improved from the original. It’s really mindblowing the scale of the project, and the mod being based in a universe with a huge built in fanbase will be an enormous factor in its success.
However, if Freeworld’s doesn’t generate the kind of interest that we’re hoping for, then Freelancer’s current downward spiral is a certainty. Freelancer is on its way out, maintained only by a handful of insane people who should probably be doing something more constructive with their time. All of my hats are off to you guys, without people like w0dk4 and Sushi Freelancer would’ve died years ago.
I’ve spent a mildly disturbing amount of my life playing with Freelancer and its community. Even though I’m “retired” from playing/modding Freelancer, I will definitely be coming back for a few rounds once Freeworlds comes out. I’m going to try my best to get anyone I know who is even mildly interested to try out the game. Freelancer isn’t going to go down without a fight.
w0dk4 wrote:
It might be easy to get FL in the US, but in any other country it is rather difficult.On this subject, while I wouldn’t ever mention it on a public channel, I have no qualms in providing hints on how to “acquire” the game. Freelancer is too small for me, or anyone interested to care for chasing down a physical copy. This is the only way you’re going to be able to really tap into that pool of casual Star Wars fans who really want to try it out.
I know this one is pushing it, but if an “unauthorized” torrent of Freeworlds including a Freelancer iso or some kind of working install were to show up on popular sites, that would be an enormous asset in getting people to try.
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FriendlyFire wrote:
No, your idea has been considered many times by many people. It’s really tempting for a host of reasons. We have even pondered on the subject, but… As I said, there’s too much to lose for too little benefit, and I don’t think such an idea would gain traction without a site of at least modest size backing it. It’d just be another torrent floating on the net.Hum…. I’m working for a advertising company so i basicly known how ads works…
To be serious, you saying the truth. The Conversion Rate of any online ads is low (as i know, 1/1000 or less?), so it will be the bad idea if you want to get a lot of player in a short time by using Adwords or other ads system.
w0dk4 wrote:
It might be easy to get FL in the US, but in any other country it is rather difficult.Yes, you get the point. And many seller in US don’t want to shipping their CD to some country.
