Aleris

I was just wondering.. have you guys been trying to draw in new players?

I haven't done any modding since Mystra-Amor but I know that if you want to keep a game growing, you need to find ways to get people to look at our game and get involved.. Never hurts to discuss this and methods of attracting more people, I see the boards and chat room are both sustained by the dedication of the old friends and players I've known for years, but I'd love to also rejuvenate the game with some more 'fresh blood'.

So how can we attract new people?

My ideas would be:

• Set up a reward system for players to invite others - if they get a referall, they get exp or something nifty.. Better yet, if they get enough referrals, they get their own subforum or something even more tangible then experience. We need to constantly ask everyone here to point writers towards this game, it's a community and everyone needs to work together! If you have a deviantart, you could post a url back towards this game. If you tweet or use facebook, again discussing this game would be awesome if you're comfortable with letting your normal friends know you do this kinda stuff..
  
• Actively hunting players is another solution. We had to do this in Mystra-Amor days, and it worked. Even though you're stealing people from other communities and those communities will hate you for it, it's important! Go roleplay in different chat rooms, talk to the players, and eventually convince them that further RP with you can be obtained in our community here. Forums work just as well, if not better, then chat rooms.. so don't neglect those either.
  
• Money should become an aspect of the game. The moderators should ask for active donations, and use the money for contests based on writing. This means that people would be inspired to write more - to win a reward - which means more content and therefor potentially more interest, inspiring more donations and creating a delicious feedback loop. I doubt we need the money right now for anything aside from enriching the community, anyways. I know I personally would be inspired to write more if I knew a new awesome ergonomic keyboard might be my reward!

Just tossing this out there I wanted people to discuss this and maybe get inspired to do some of my suggestions, or supply their own!

Thanks for all the suggestions. Honestly, I never thought of giving people "real life" prizes (such as keyboards, etc), but it seems like it could work and would give people some inscentives to post. I guess I am kind of torn though - I want people to write because the enjoy it, and not because they feel like they are being bribed. I still think it's a neat idea though.

We do have some things coming up soon we're planning though - such as writing challenges/contests, player spotlights, more rewards, etcs. I've just been trying to hold off on adding too much to the site as it's being redesigned very soon.

And once it gets redesigned, I will be trying to advertise better also!