The UOSA Community Development Council

[HardCore]

like giving me my pirate deed back? yar!

[Capitalist]

Want it?

[Dunder Mifflin Inc]

like giving me my pirate deed back? yar!

Stealing from a pirate IS a good deed. Giving to a pirate is a sin.

[HardCore]

Yar! I'd rather keep it in your player museum like it is, but if you are liquidating then yes.

[inkognito]

I'll pay more Vega.

[The oOo]

Well hell...I took a look around here and it's pretty grim to be honest. Not to be negative or dismissive, just an observation.

Most noticeably the server stats are....well...they're telling to be sure. We're not even broaching 200 at peak hours anymore. The accounts over time is on a slow steady decline.

In spite of all of this, the forums are still active daily, particularly the Trading Post, and not flooded with an abundance of house sales...there are commodities also.

A quick run from the old house sites to town showed that the free-land problem still thrives but I did run into an actual player at the moongate. [no I'm not hinting for a house, I can get mine]

I see there are some current events posted in discussion though I didn't look into them.

A challenge for sure...I'm going to just type out loud here for a moment...

well, its like I said before...the biggest asset they got is the unique community. All the rest of the pieces are still there waiting to be molded around that one rallying point. Everything else can be built from it down the road...given the population increases.

back to that aren't we? nothing else matters without the people. The events, new-player guilds, problems and solutions....its all useless without the people it's meant for. So...back to that damn marketing.

There's a good body of media to use and a lot of strong themes to exploit...the community though, it's got to all come from that one core theme...the community. And the UO:SA history, don't forget that angle too.

So...

#1 Compile a usable media portfolio to work from, gather some notable shard history moments/stories for background.

#2 Check current marketing vehicles available, establish as needed.

#3 Design a marketing campaign tasked with increasing online exposure to potential new players based around the shard history and community strong-points.

So we're talking about a pull-marketing campaign here...we want to "pull" new players to the site and from there on to the shard in increasing numbers.

So what happens once they get there?

Well...we're currently looking at a dwindling populace, indicative of some form of internal pressure causing this steady migration. Something is currently not retaining players, new or old and for a very long time [peak was 700 when I started playing here]

It can not be said this migration is due to a lack of marketing.

So what happens when they get there?

Are there too many pk's?
Not enough people?
'Something' is causing it.

As a community you need to figure this out, come up with a solution and change it. This is what Derrick and every other mod has been saying for years. This is what I was saying in my OP.

If anyone honestly thinks that the 3-step process outlined above is some mystical answer to the low [decreasing] server population, that by implementing it and all goes well and people flock to the shard...that they'll still be around 6 months later, is simply not being realistic about the problems the shard does in fact have.

One hand washes the other here.

We can outline and detail, number & bullet out a marketing campaign that creates a revolving door of itinerant, new players or one based upon a unique and intriguing community that players grow to love and live in like we all did back when UO:SA was released.

Or isn't that what this shard is all about?

*dismounts the pulpit*

[Missy B]

does this mean we will have to pay taxes?

[Jay]

dont think too hard, we just need new players.
and yes i am collecting taxes, please pm to arrange a meet

[The oOo]

dont think too hard, we just need new players.
and yes i am collecting taxes, please pm to arrange a meet

gotchya...right. Fans...just the fans please.

So we'll simplify this proposed marketing campaign down into terms that only serve the current playerbase's goals, as opposed to the people we are in fact marketing to...

How about "UO:Second Age - We Just Need New Players" Don't get me wrong...with the right pizazz it could work!

I am asking a question...what do you guys offer? What are you about? Why should people play here?

If 'events' is the only answer I think we're wasting our time.
If the answer is 'to replicate a specifc game period in UO history" again...tick tock tick tock...

It's not enough and I think you guys see that...

[Jay]

it really is as simple as that. its a bad ass game, and some less cool dorks dont like it.
its a numbers game.. if you can reach 1000 people and 10 come here and 1 stay... thats 1 more player than we had yesterday.

yes I agree the product has to be good.. but it already is pretty damn good.. (if you don't agree maybe you shouldnt be the pitch man)
just tell more people about it.. a lot of the "problems" you think exist will be solved with more people.. more people = more personality types and play styles.

[The oOo]

it really is as simple as that. its a bad ass game, and some less cool dorks dont like it.
its a numbers game.. if you can reach 1000 people and 10 come here and 1 stay... thats 1 more player than we had yesterday.

yes I agree the product has to be good.. but it already is pretty damn good.. (if you don't agree maybe you shouldnt be the pitch man)
just tell more people about it.. a lot of the "problems" you think exist will be solved with more people.. more people = more personality types and play styles.

I don't disagree with anything you said, but it also completely misses the point.

reach 1000...10 come and 1 stays is one more player than yesterday but is he there tomorrow. You obviously think he will be simply because it's a bad-ass game, I'm certainly not going to argue the point here.

Apparently people are just ignorant to UO:SA's existence....that's all.

[WarmApplepie]

I completely understand where you're coming from and I was actually pitching the same things you are in this thread. However the changes from 6 months ago till now is enough to have full faith in where things are going. 120 ish online was the norm. Very little did I see the uosa Facebook being used, there was no bag ball, there wasn't potion wars or monster wars. There wasn't Rose's boom box, N-C duels tourneys (or few and far between), no Ohms feeble minder, no Malaikats kill me if you can event, there wasn't a great invasion story with lots of opportunities for new and vets to score silver, trophies, things to sell for great amounts of gold.

I could go on and on, but looking around right now compared to Oct of last year things are incredible! Lots of old Vets back, some great pvp vets are back and making things interesting! New Orc guild starting back up, HC has PEE guild firing on all cylinders. Again I get it and I agree I'd like to see 700 online again too. Marketing can be done, but it doesn't all happen overnight. Keep bringing friends back and it will happen.

[Jay]

amen ^ wap is right it really is perfect now. and yes.. he/she will stay.. if not.. the next one will. you did

[Eastwood]

oOo or whatever, sorry if I misspelled your name.

I've been thinking about what this server is missing lately, compared to what it used to have. And really 2 or 3 big things stick out.

1. I think a big one is that one of the big GMs, if not the originator has sort of faded from the scene. I remember Derick being the man around here, and for whatever reason he is on haitus, and when that happens it hurts any organization.

2. There is another server that came out a few years ago, I was not active on this server when it came out, but the activity over there, and some PMs from friends who have played here have told me that siphoned a lot of the population. I'm not sure why, this is a great era to play on.

3. This server lost most of its casual population. That's a big problem in my opinion. I'm a casual player and when a large amount of the activity on the forums any more are only about elite PVP, IDOCing, and selling rares for large quantities of castle deeds, it kinda makes me wonder what's the point of what I'm doing on the server. The lack of casual player base has actually been the biggest problem for me.

[Boomland Jenkins]

Currently there is little "true marketing" being done. If I had the time, I would love to do that but I spend what free time I do have handling in-game pages, running events, promoting player events, and attempting to keep up with the community.

I'm the only one currently posting to Facebook and rarely Twitter - I am setting up IFTTT to automate Twitter a bit more (I am normally against this and have used Hootsuite in the past to better customize messages on both platforms, but have fallen out of that loop as of late).

I believe Kaivan has stated that he doesn't believe that "it's our responsibility to market the server" - clearly I disagree with this, as I am a web developer and Internet marketer by profession. I lack much of the necessary access required to properly run an UOSA campaign. I do have access to Analytics and have data being logged in a decent marketing tool for easily viewing this data. I'm still waiting for the new website I built for UOSA to go live. I feel that will motivate me to put in effort on marketing. Right now sending traffic to the current UOSA website is like throwing a pile of uncooked pasta against the wall. Little will stick.

If someone wants to genuinely be involved in a marketing campaign or speak more about it, perhaps we should use a sub-board for people who want to participate. We certainly could use the help in this department.

From my own readings (on various Ultima Online communities), it seems there are 2 consistent factors that have pushed people away from UOSA.

1) The community is the problem.
2) There's nothing "fresh"

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Players know what type of UO they want to play, we lost a good amount of population when other shards offering other types of gameplay styles came about. Take this, along with the sharp decline in UO interest (see Google Trends - try all types of UO searches to really get an idea of what's going on), and you have what we have today.

We're moving in a good direction right now though. When I woke up from my Summer hiatus, population was peaking at 160-190 some evenings. Similar evenings are seeing 200-240, and the general active population is up throughout the day. Don't let an "online count" fool you. Right now UOSA has a larger active:online proportion (on average) than I've observed since coming aboard mid-2013. Players are out and about, I skim the online list at least once a day and find new players roaming the wilderness, hunting in obscure locations, and hanging out in towns. Most naysayers are in a rut where they simply check the same 9 spots every day and then make claims that the shard is dead.