New website home page

[Mask]

What text do people think should be contained there? Is the text there now 'good' or could it be improved? In my mind, the goal of the main home page is mostly to get the attention of potential new players and encourage them to try us out. We _could_ make it a kind of a portal for current players as well, but I don't know what it could contain that would be more useful than the 'see new posts' link - it could link to the 10 most recent forum posts?

[Anguin]

I would like to see a first person appeal to the viewer. Something like this:

A tall, dark-skinned male human stands here. He turns to you, a dark brooding look an his face.
"My name is Selveem, a Swordmaster, and Steel Fang of Tempus. And I worry, because the people of the Realms have become soft and weak. Only with the help of new heroes... Heroes like YOU... will they survive the coming storm...

Then Selveem, or whoever, could explain some basic premises in character.

[Tavik]

I'll stand by my suggestion of creating a list of some of our most drawing features. Things like an immersive atmosphere, active player base, player influenced world, extensive crafting system, 200+ spells (I pulled that number out my backside, I'll have to doublecheck it later), and other mechanics we might be proud of. People are going to be looking for what they will be getting out of the game and telling them up front what we have to offer is very likely going keep their interest.

[Rictinta]

Yeah I agree Tavik... when u look at mud advertising sites... it's the physical game that actually interests most people... everyone knows what RPing is... and I don't really think that having someone talk ic is going to bring about much attention. Most D&Ders know Forgotten Realms... it's a common campaign...

[Eltsac]

I understand your point of everyone knowing what rp is, yet I find it friendly and welcoming...

Maybe a short RP intro (just a few lines, in a style such as Anguin proposed?) as a welcome message, then we switch to a list of the appealing features of the game. ?

What other fk features do you think would be the most appealing for new players?

El

[Rictinta]

That sounds good... I think offering information that we are friendly towards newbies with the ask line, and also with our newbie training area which offers coin and armor to get started in the game. That we are 100% rp based, and definintely our size and organized rp events run by imms and such. A lot of other muds just don't offer as much as this one does... we have tons of rooms, but also include that players help mold the world threw the suggestions of our boards, and can run their own little events and such as well. That we are a more personal group. That it's almost like table top with ur friends and such. Cause we all get to know each other, and I think that's what's kept me around over the years, and keeps me coming back.

[Brar]

What should be included alos is our exceptional ressources, we have our own home made site which is updated all the time, our own mud client, ect.
All the OOC tools that makes us better than the others.

[Tavik]

It was pointed out to me that I may have missed a rather important detail in my initial post here. I did not intend to suggest that we replace an IC intro with a simple list of OOC mechanics and features, but rather meant to suggest we add such a list in ADDITION to some aspect of IC or semi-IC info explaining the game. Furthermore, there are non-mechanical aspects of the game we have that we can use to draw in others, primarily of which is our community. Part of what make MMORPG's so successful is that they give people a sense of belonging and community which is certainly something we can offer here (albeit on a smaller, more personal scale). We should be drawing attention to that sort of thing.

To more clearly sum up my thoughts and suggestions: I think we should be shotgunning with our marketing. A list of mechanics and features will draw some people. A list of the aspects of our community will draw others. An IC section emphasizing our RP focus will yet draw more. There is a risk of drawing in some people who care nothing for RP, but from my experience, they either weed themselves out, or they keep to their grinding to such an extent that they don't really impact anyone else anyway (and then leave when they have nothing left to GM). So, please, keep an IC portion on the homepage that expresses our RP orientation. BUT, I would recommend adding in a list below it highlighting what the game mechanics and what our player community have to offer as well.

[Rictinta]

Well then if we're looking to do a little IC greeting from our characters... how about a little competition? We can have everyone write up a little thing, from one of their characters, have one goodie greeting, and then an evil greeting, showing the different paths you can take... etc... a little banter between an evil and a goodie would be kinda funny, but everyone can have the chance to come up with something, and then imms can vote on which one they like best. Then maybe a glory reward or something.

[Maybel]

To be an evil, you need to have Kismet, so new players couldn't be evil. If your point was to greet new (to the game) evil characters, they wouldn't be able to make them.

[Bellayana]

Still new players are going to have interaction with evil characters. Part of playing a evil character is making the game fun for new players while still being evil.

[Maybel]

Maybe I was confused, was this little IC greeting meant to learn of the difference between the two? When you said "showing the different paths you could take" I took it to mean the new players could take

[Athon]

I don't think it's meant to explicitly state the paths you have available the moment you start the game. I think the meaning is to show that with time and effort, you have a whole world of options open to you. I agree with the latter; anything on the front page used to 'recruit' should showcase all available options to players over time, not just immediately at creation.

[Maybel]

I like that idea as well. I was just confused

[Atraos]

Is it possible to add a who's on line option?

[Bellayana]

You know what I've always noticed about (who) commands on muds? I've noticed people will log on and notice nobody is on that they know or play with and just log off. I'm not saying everyone does it, but I've noticed people will log on for 1-2 min and then log off. At least this way people won't even bothering to log on if they had that option.

[Tavik]

I don't really like the idea of a who list linked to the website. I understand that it would definitely be nice for those of us that play regularly, but if we're trying to draw in new people an empty list could do a lot more harm than good. If people are looking for a game that other people play and happen to check at a time where very few people are on, then they are likely to just keep looking. If they can't see how many people are logged it becomes a little more likely that they will jump into the game to check. It's still possible they'll log at a slow time, but at least at that point they will have been exposed to the game some and will have seen some of the other things we offer (like the VT).