Draw new players and keep them.. (in Contests)

Answer the questions below:

Questions:

1)How can we feasibly draw more new players too the site (currently we have 5 new players in the past 24 hours)?

2)How can we the carnage blender community do a better job of keeping those new players (maybe bring back the mentor program).?

Prizes:

1st: 300k
2nd: 150k
3rd: 75k

btw: maybe if this goes well i'll have an admin host a poll on the best suggestions, and possibly a future contest too put the best suggestions into play :).

As a grass-roots effort, we could seek out any free game download sites and software download sites, put CB on the lists, and have our own current users vote them up with positive reviews.

More advertisements? maybe ads on those top 100 mmorpg or browser based games websites... we can add on like a vote section at the side where people can vote once a day for a prize like 25k per vote? or maybe 200k for voting at all websites or maybe exp rewards instead so it doesnt destroy the economy or like i read somewhere BA rewards for voting..

hmm give new players something to start with? maybe like a lesser tat to start off with... to start growing right away... make it part of the tutorial maybe? and i dont know what this mentor program you talk about... guess wasn't here long enough to know... but im guessing tis like a mentor to someone who jsut finished tutorial... i think we kind of already have that cause people help out in chat anyways but a mentor program wouldn't hurt...

that's all i could think of... :P

we had started a testimonials page in the wiki (http://www.carnageblender.com/wiki/Testimonials) to try to help us show up on web searches by making descriptive entries regarding what we like most about cb.

this was done months ago and only 8 people have made entries. as i stated in the thread regarding this, i am perfectly happy to edit the wiki for people if they cannot do it themselves.

Fix the tutorial.

There are a few games that have badges as rewards for making progress even into the deepest levels of their games.
I find this addicting and fun maybe carnage could have such badges and have small rewards for completing each task.
This could also help keep these new players from leaving so fast.

I'd like to see both very targeted ads (I tried Facebook ads... completely useless) and a viral effort based on existing users talking to friends in other games. I think the key is a revamped tutorial system. We just need to come together as a community and build it ourselves.

I'm currently naming base weapons and putting them in rentals in hopes that new users will see the names (The easy way to start, Click here to start killing...etc) rent them and have a better time of the early game because of the massive bonus to damage.

additionally, when we made the testimonials page, we weren't sure if google would see them. since it has been around a while though we can test it. i did a google search for "addictive text based role playing game" and the testimonial page came up like ninth on the search.

i think that if people take the time to write some good descriptions repeating the things we like best about cb, it could really help our positioning on search results. don't be afraid to the same phrases others use as that could actually help us if i understand how google works correctly.

Free needs to be in there too. :-)

if you cannot edit the wiki and put in your own testimonial, pm it to me and i will add it with your name.

Advertising is the easiest, and most likely quickest, way to recruit new players to the game. I think the idea of advertising on the free "Top 100" sites, as said before, is a win. Every time that I've come back to CB it's been through those sites. Another possibility is a recruiting program where current players can send an e-mail/note to their friends with an incentive, some amount of $CB, for both the recruiter and recruitee. The incentive could also be progressive. Unfortunately, systems like that may encourage the wrong behavior. :(

To keep players I think that a system like the Xbox's achievements could be implemented. Every time a new achievement is unlocked some kind of incentive is given out. The more difficult to unlock, the better the reward, almost like a quest system. Hidden "boss battles" could be strewn throughout the system. Each "boss" would be difficult to defeat, but would drop rare equipment or large sums of $CB/XP.

So OK you want to know what it is that is missing. I will tell you and you wont believe me, and will ignore it and move on. I am a realist and I am OK with it.

Basically what is missing is chat. I know I know there are tons of people in chat, blah blah blah. I was in chat recently. Getting anything like a decent conversation going was like pulling teeth.

What you need is like a group of active interested folk who like each other wanting to chat in CB. That group needs to be verbally strong enough to quash any foolishness that might start up. In my recent foray into chat, one person thought that stillborn babies would be a good chat topic. I started to go into shame mode, when I realized I would have been the only one. Me, not been in chat for gosh years? months to be certain, and I was ready to lay the verbal smack down. I got a little jibe or two in there, but realized you know maybe it is not my place to enforce my version of chat on a place I visit once in a blue moon, and dropped it. I can promise you though, this is the kind of thing someone like Saint or MrsDi would have CRUSHED back in the CB1 days.

It is real hard to get a good strong sense of community in non real time forums. Least I think so. How do you create a good chat. Well thats not easy nor simple, but in my opinion, it would change the retention rate severely!

There you have it, the solution to almost all your retention problems. You can now go ahead with the HAHAHAHA no way wont work already doing that posts, and ignore me.

Oh and P.S. in the old days, chat was integrated into the main CB window. You basically could not avoid it.

"Fix the tutorial". I think ranger is right, this is a huge problem for CB for new people. I don't hardly remember my tutorial, but one of my friends recently started playing and I was helping him out by figuring what he wanted to be and do. We decided he would be a single archer since its pretty easy and can get you a long way into the game. Just as he was starting to enjoy the game it kept making him stop fighting, training all dex, and other random stuff. Then it kept telling him hire new minions and so he did and then fired it. However, a few fights later it was telling him to hire again. In the end, he ended up with 4 minions and it was still telling him to hire so he started firing them and accidentally fired his main one and pretty much gave up on the game there and quite. I personally think it should just be removed since it is pretty pointless when we have tons of friendly people able to teach way better than a broken tutorial and an even better wiki to help more serious players.

^!

Opinions on how to run chat vary from the iron fist approach to the more recent innocent until proven guilty method. I think both have their place. However I believe that it's important to make it very clear that cb chat isn't just another troll squat.

Iron fist as in chat mechanics never work well. Peer pressure works real well. Heck perfectly smart and reasonable kids all over the country are doing the stupidest things right now, because of peer pressure. You walk into chat, say something inane and get five different people on you quick and smart, you are either a) extremely alpha doggish and can take it and need to be kicked or b) like most people will bow to the group dynamic. 90% of the people will go b and the "a" group will either conform or leave and likley be good riddance if they did.

All that is immaterial if you dont have say ten people active in chat who like each other at the least.

Think of it this way, entire business empires have been built on providing real time chat to people who want to talk to each other. There are how many chat clients out there? Why are there so many? Because people want to talk to other people of like minds in real time so much the demand can support AIM, Yahoo Messenger, ad infinitum.

Well when I go to chat I frequently get:

xxx licks Ranger
xxx jumps on Ranger
xxx is bored

and other stupid inane statements that do nothing to forward a conversation.

I tried once to stop this juvenile behavior and was met with the upmost resistance and threats to go to the developers about how I was abusing my op powers.

So I have basically give up on chat except for a peek in every so often.

I know I am not alone in my thinking.

i know nothing of chat and haven't been in it for years. i am not very social though so i am probably not the norm.

i do think the tutorial just needs to be axed, in its place for now just show a tips for new users bar at the top of the screen that shows a new message with each screen refresh. that shouldn't be too hard to swap out with the broken tutorial and i think we have a tips section in the wiki that would be a good basis for the tips. by tips i mean simple bullets such as:

* Melee fighters target your first minion.
* Bows/Crossbows/Slings target your first minion, unless you use mageseeker bow.
* Magic missile targets your last minion.
* Enforcer's crossbow targets your highest str minion. (After all spells take effect.)
* Assassin's crossbow targets your highest Dex minion. (After all spells take effect.)
* If you have a Spell/Weapon/Range Weapon, the spell takes priority if or when it is to be cast. I.E. If you have COC/MH/ELB all on a minion, until the COC is able to be cast (Melee Round 1) you will use any equipped items. The first round you can cast your DD spell, it takes priority.
* If you have a minion with the skill Phantom Link trained, an amount of damage based on PL's effect that would ordinarily be done to another minion is shifted to the minion with Phantom Link trained. This can override the effects of the Assassin's crossbow and the Enforcer's crossbow.

those are all from the wiki in the fighting section. the tips could show up until people reach a certain mpr or be an option we could all toggle on or off. i am sure there would be some volunteers to help create a large list of these tips!

ok im new so i'll tell you exactly what you should do. 1 get people in chat talking. 2 get something else to do besides fight. 3 scrap the tutorial and create a strategy guide focused on the wiki because thats where i got 99% of my info from. 4 make regular tats a start up item, yea i know tough pill but tats are crucial to grow in this game. 5 create a way to balance out high NW and beginners when i started i looked for a clan saw battle royale saw Ranger and thought.... theres no way i could get that much cash esp because when your brand new your rewards are very small. 6 think of another perk for supportership and start us off with the supporter fightlist because the game is close to unplayable without it. 7 new players should not be given the NUB the 1st day because the 1st few days i started i had no idea what i was doing and it kinda sucks to waste your NUB while your figuring stuff out. i'll think of more later

3 new players the last 24 hours, and none of them have spent any BA.

1 other thing our chat window in this game is terrible we need another and an explanation how to PM which in almost 20 days i still don't know how to do

^^ I do believe maybe novice was talking about a new chat client a few months back, i could be wrong though.

Anyhow I've seen some good suggestions keep them coming =)

Ranger, I've got to disagree with you about the "inane" banter. I actually see those comments as ice breakers that lure in some of the lurkers.

If anything, I'd actually like to crank it up by bringing back a version of LumpBot (or whatever the last name was). I recall that bot getting chat rolling after a few good carps.

You could always do what another always free web based game is doing.

And spam ads of ladies with ample bossoms in revealing tops.

Seems to get the players in, but then chat seems to consist mostly of "where are the boobies??"...

Duels is a similar game to CB, it has some limited graphics, and a standard level cap. It's like a browser WoW clone, with items becoming level ups, and getting them randomly.

I tihnk CB needs some mechanics changes to make it the ultimate web based game, and probably a little graphics to entice the new generation. As muhc as we'd hate to suggest grpahics... Not flash, just things like every weapon/armour having thier own picture. Even if it's on an 'Avatar' page, where you get to design and see the look of your minion/team.

But mechanics changes first please! ;)

I would say: fix the tutorial.

If I weren't going on holiday for 2 weeks I'd put a lot of effort in this. Perhaps I'll do this when I get back :)