How to tell people about my game world without annoying the fire out of them

spool32

So, I want to... well, promote our NWN Persistent World for people who might be interested in playing there, but I don't want to spam the forums or bug the hell out of everyone. Assuming there is a correct forum where I can try to drum up some interest, which one is it?

bowen

G&T, you may want to consider emailing Tycho and Gabe and giving them a free copy of the game. Attaching it to your sig is also a good idea.

OnTheLastCastle

I click links in sigs, so yeah, link it there. I'm not clear on if it's a server or a new game you've created. The 2nd class would be worth sending to gaming blogs, the first wouldn't.

spool32

Working on my profile here right now... I can't really give a free copy of our game, because the game is Neverwinter Nights 1 + oodles of community developed modifications, plus back-end persistence. We're EULA restricted from ever charging anyone for it, so if you own NWN 1, you can play for free forever. The closest thing I could quickly liken it to would be playing an MMO except with a live DM. Or playing pen & paper D&D, except with a PC game handling all the mechanics in real time.

Really it's both. We're very proud of what we've created, and I just want to tell folks about it without alienating everyone for spamming!

spool32

Aaaaand sig.

OnTheLastCastle

That is a server. In that case, find the appropriate forums and post about it.

Sarcastro

For NWN specifically, there are a number of sites that rank gameworlds just like yours. I would start there, as NWN is getting a bit long in the tooth. Sitewhoring isn't really a good way to go anywhere on PA, and there are a number of services that cater to the market specifically.

(also thumbs up for running a persistant server for NWN, played it, loved it, good times- helluva lot of work but some of the best RP stuff out there.)

ceres

Basically, sig links, and then participate in the forum community as a normal human being. Or, you know, whatever it is we get here.

But pro tip: If your sig looks like spam (hint: it does) and you make any post in your first two hundred or so that could kind of sound like spam with any imagination while you have said sig, somebody somewhere is going to say "oh look, spambot", ban you as spam, and your IP will go on a list.

The moral of the story is that if you make your sig interesting to look at and then post people will follow a link, but as it is that sig still sets off my "spam" alert.

spool32

Sarcastro wrote: »

For NWN specifically, there are a number of sites that rank gameworlds just like yours. I would start there, as NWN is getting a bit long in the tooth. Sitewhoring isn't really a good way to go anywhere on PA, and there are a number of services that cater to the market specifically.

(also thumbs up for running a persistant server for NWN, played it, loved it, good times- helluva lot of work but some of the best RP stuff out there.)

We've got Hall of Fame on the NWVault since forever, and I hang out at the Bioware forums pretty regularly... but most of the rest of the sites that keep track of these things have vanished. NWConnections is anemic at best, and the rest of them are pretty much gone. Also, I want to get some new folks in the scene, and maybe find some oldschool players who'd rather RP than grind and raid and PvP while they chat about the superbowl.

I knew just appearing here and trying to pimp the server wouldn't fly, but I'm searching high and low for places where D&D meets PC gaming to see if we can breathe some new life into things. Right now we've got 300 or so regular players, but the entire community of NWN1 worlds is probably less than 5000 active people now. That's not many, and poaching from other servers is super bad form.

But pro tip: If your sig looks like spam (hint: it does) and you make any post in your first two hundred or so that could kind of sound like spam with any imagination while you have said sig, somebody somewhere is going to say "oh look, spambot", ban you as spam, and your IP will go on a list.

The moral of the story is that if you make your sig interesting to look at and then post people will follow a link, but as it is that sig still sets off my "spam" alert.

Any better? Last thing I want to do is get booted for being spam.

ceres

That's probably okay. Now the important part: forum participation.