[MUD-Dev] Advertising Thread

[Matt Mihaly]

On Fri, 9 Aug 2002, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

> When is the MUD market ever grown then?  You just hope someone
> stumbles on to The Mudconnector by blind chance?

Word of mouth is the most powerful method of advertising for MUDs,
and, indeed, all games. A gazillion people didn't buy the Sims
because of their lame tv commercials. They bought it because their
officemate raved about what a great game it was.

 
> Given that there's a 35:1 difference between expenditure on
> consoles and well-known online games of all types, what kind of
> player numbers would you like to put on "unknown MUDs?"

Rarefied in the sense he used it means "more pure" really. Small !=
rarefied in that sense. There's no question that the text MUD market
is small. I ran down the likely numbers in posts a couple mouths
ago, so won't do so again. I don't see any way to demonstrate
reasonably that there are more than about 450,000 regular text MUD
players, and that number is only arrived at by using the most
generous reasonable estimates.
 
> Looking at the numbers above, it's quite clear that MUDs are a
> teeny, tiny, eensy, weensy part of the "breadth of the field."
> Like 1% of what a game designer could concern himself with.  I'm
> sure you'll understand why so many game designers found something
> else to do, and didn't spend their days studying up on MUDs that
> have never effectively advertized their capabilities.

Sure, I agree that's true as long as you assume that game designers
are all nothing but commercial whores interested in nothing but
generating the maximum amount of revenue. That is, however, not the
case. I don't think you'd stand behind what you said upon
reflection. Tt's equivalent to saying that all bands should aspire
to be N'Sync. (Note that I have no problem at all with seeking
financial success, but to suggest that is all those of us that do it
for a living are interested in is asinine. I do well in games, but
had I continued in my previous career as a stockbroker, I'd be
making far more.)

Now, I do believe all public game houses should concern themselves
solely with generating as much profit as possible with the least
possible risk, but that's a handful of active list members. Most of
us aren't in that situation, and I know for a fact that the
-designers- who work for those public game companies don't concern
themselves solely with maximizing profit.

> If you don't have hard facts on it, then you don't know.  You
> might want to believe it but that doesn't mean it has to be true.
> I'd suggest a thread soliciting this kind of information from
> people who actually do know.

I do know, and he's right.

> I also have a problem with thinking that MMORPG success/failure is
> primarily a function of historical / game design expertise, as
> opposed to marketing, funding, revenue model, artwork, and PC
> technology of the day.

Hmm, possibly the most successful of all graphical MUDs, Lineage, is
pretty crap at at least a couple of those (artwork, PC
Technology). Their design, however, seems to appeal pretty heavily.

--matt












 
> > So how does the concept get marketed to a larger audience?
> > Franchises that have a large target audience moving into the
> > field: Star Wars & Warcraft.
> 
> This doesn't help The Mudconnector get a larger audience.  It
> doesn't make anyone more aware of MUD history.  It makes people more
> aware of Star Wars and Warcraft, whatever they implement in their
> own MMOGs.
> 
> 
> Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
> Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA
> 
> 20% of the world is real.
> 80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> MUD-Dev mailing list
> MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
> https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev
> 



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