NWN2/BGTSCC Marketing?

[Steve]

Has anyone seen this before, or even use it?

http://yourserverlist.com/index.php?juego=nwn2

[Steve]

anyone interested in pnp will likely be interested in bg

Hidden: show

[Steve]

I'd say someone on Staff—if this is a Staff directed issue, marketing, and the extent that Staff wishes the Player Community to get involved directly—could update BGTSCCs "profile" on the Bioware Forum.

http://forum.bioware.com/forum/154-pers ... ltiplayer/

[Blame The Rogue]

it's good for bg that bg shows up at the top of the list in a google search for nwn2 rp server. good passive advertising. IE, there's info out there, and players looking for a nwn2 rp server can easily find bg

if staff wishes to actively recruit players, reaching out to the pnp groups on reddit and facebook is a good way to go

i've seen that link, but have always preferred nwnlist

[Lambe]

How well is the online component of the game being advertised? Checked GOG and this is all they had about the multiplayer.

Multiplayer notice: In order to access the multiplayer portion of the game, you must first enter your unique cd-key. This CD key can be found in your account page. Please be advised that online master servers are no longer functional. Please use the Direct Connect option to log onto your preferred server via IP address.

Any new player picking up the game will most likely get it for the single-player experience, and with the master servers in the fugue, they most likely won't even know there are active servers still out there. Also, top user reviews there only talk about the campaign and expansions, nothing about persistent worlds.

[Blame The Rogue]

How well is the online component of the game being advertised? Checked GOG and this is all they had about the multiplayer.

Multiplayer notice: In order to access the multiplayer portion of the game, you must first enter your unique cd-key. This CD key can be found in your account page. Please be advised that online master servers are no longer functional. Please use the Direct Connect option to log onto your preferred server via IP address.

Any new player picking up the game will most likely get it for the single-player experience, and with the master servers in the fugue, they most likely won't even know there are active servers still out there. Also, top user reviews there only talk about the campaign and expansions, nothing about persistent worlds.

a good point

those aware of nwn1-2 pws can easily find bg, but others, not so much. even those that have just purchased the game may have no clue about the pw aspect

the reason i feel reaching out to the pnp communities is a good idea, is that, they would understand rp, and if they joined bg, they would enrich the environment. and each addition would be 5 or more players added each time, IE, a standard pnp campaign group...on average anyway

[Uther3867]

i myself play 2nd edition and find BG a bit lacking in certain respects, like xp and diificulty going up as the party size increases.

but i mean that might just be me and this isn't the fourm to discuss things to change the server it's about how to Advertise the server or market it.

[Maecius]

coming from a marketing background the issue is wondering why people quit or leave? it doesn't seem to be a problem getting noticed ((as we have the highest server player count out there)) but seeing if there's a cancer problem or something that can be fixed to keep people around weather it be a survey they could fill out on the fourms or such.

I think the issue is just that it's an aging game that's no longer receiving any real attention outside its own endemic community of loyal fans -- a population that's occasionally bolstered by referrals and the return of prodigal sons and daughters stricken with nostalgia. And maybe the odd NWN1 convert every now and again.

I'm not really too concerned with BG:TSCC's population (though I do sometimes miss the days when we could put 150 butts in chairs). The more populous servers are all doing fairly well at the moment, as the community seems to be about 500-750 people strong, give or take and across time zones. But there are a lot of really good servers out there that don't have player populations, and none of the "top performers" max out as frequently these days as they used to.

There's probably another 8-10 years of life to the game and to the community supporting it, if I'm being liberal with my longevity assessments, but with gradual population loss over time as individual players move on and nobody shows up to replace them.

I'm merely considering ways in which we can improve the community's short-term and long-term prospects, and my biggest question is just the one Lambe asked:

How well is the online component of the game being advertised?

[Young Werther]

Maecius wants to replace us.

[Blame The Rogue]

just wait a couple months, when everyone's saying to themselves, "we've been reinforced"

[Maecius]

Maecius wants to replace us.

Never ever. Just looking for more friends to join the party!

I sit on a round table with admins and admin liaisons from several other NWN2 servers, and it doesn't sound like any of them are doing much marketing either. The exception, perhaps, being Realms of Trinity, who, as one of our players pointed out to me, does encourage their users to advertise the persistent world. But they mostly point them towards existing NWN and NWN2 community groups, which may or may not be as effective as targeting the entirely uninitiated.

I feel like pen-and-paper groups, MMO roleplaying groups, and the like would provide richer pastures. But who knows.

As Steve points out with his Google screenshots, our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords could use some work. But I think Zanniej will likely tackle that soon enough.

A quick search of the existing community tossed up:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nwncp/
https://www.gog.com/forum/neverwinter_n ... 1465923678
http://neverwintervault.org/
http://forum.bioware.com/forum/45-never ... nights-ii/

^ And I see Steve plugged us on the last one. Nice going, Steve!

But it's just not a very wide net if we're hoping to get people who don't already own the game to consider giving it a try. I'd rather not target recruiting against other NWN2 servers or NWN1 servers -- as then we're just reshuffling our shrinking community. Instead, I'd like to share our world with the world at large. I don't even care if they come to BG:TSCC, to be honest. If they join any of the persistent worlds, it's a win for us all in the long run.

[Zanniej]

I'll look into some SEO soon. We should be able to get some more traffic and interest in the game through some nice optimalisation. However, I'll be calling on some of you by then, as it will have to do something with the content of our forums as well.

But more on that when the time comes

[TheLier]

I will poke around on Hungarian forums, we will see

[Maecius]

Great! Thanks to you both!

[Casas]

Hey, new player here.

I found out about this server because I was feeling nostalgic about neverwinter nights. I re-purchased both games on GoG (who knows where i put the physical copies) and wanted to check if anyone still played. Truth be told, I mostly played action servers both on nwn 1 and 2 (Dungeon eternal) but since there were none I came here. At first I was somewhat scared, the whole roleplay concept intimidated me, still does somewhat, not very good at it yet. Figured i'd share how I came to know of the server.

Also, really surprised by how stable the game is nowadays!