How to actually acquire new customers

[krynnotaur]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2...ragons_Online/

Your lack of new customers has nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with completely failing to produce even basic store front, let alone any hype train. The above link is how many years old in front of one of the largest player bases looking for games to play that exists in the world? Twenty two million people, checking right now at peak hour concurrency. And this is what they see: a company that does not care about its product or its presentation to them.

MYTHIC fail. It was six years ago. I don't care to hear excuses about not being able to market your product. Some people at hasbro/dbg/wotc (edit: add Enad Global 7 also) marketing needs to get let go so their salaries can be spent doing something productive instead.

Here is another, in game example of the same GLARING hole in awareness:

Clicking on an epic destiny trainer before level 20 says what? Does it explain the epic levels? does it show the tree and let lowbie noobs see the entire path to true power this game has? NO. IT DOESNT SHOW ANYTHING. Literally BLANK and RUDE: GET LOST KID.

UTTERLY FAILING to advertise your own product in-line with in-game assets at such a natural point of opportunity to do so thus generating an in-game accessible awareness and hype about why a player might invest in this game over their many many many other choices is just an astonishing whiff. you could even make a link to the story for the ED tools and such at the bottom or on its own tab.

You want new customers?

Do something about these horrible misrepresentations of our favorite complex deep and wide MMO. !!

[arkonas]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2...ragons_Online/

Your lack of new customers has nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with completely failing to produce even basic store front, let alone any hype train. The above link is how many years old in front of one of the largest player bases looking for games to play that exists in the world? Twenty two million people, checking right now at peak hour concurrency. And this is what they see: a company that does not care about its product or its presentation to them.

MYTHIC fail. It was six years ago. I don't care to hear excuses about not being able to market your product. Some people at hasbro/dbg/wotc marketing needs to get let go so their salaries can be spent doing something productive instead.

Here is another, in game example of the same GLARING hole in awareness:

Clicking on an epic destiny trainer before level 20 says what? Does it explain the epic levels? does it show the tree and let lowbie noobs see the entire path to true power this game has? NO. IT DOESNT SHOW ANYTHING. Literally BLANK and RUDE: GET LOST KID.

UTTERLY FAILING to advertise your own product in-line with in-game assets at such a natural point of opportunity to do so thus generating an in-game accessible awareness and hype about why a player might invest in this game over their many many many other choices is just an astonishing whiff. you could even make a link to the story for the ED tools and such at the bottom or on its own tab.

You want new customers?

Do something about these horrible misrepresentations of our favorite complex deep and wide MMO. !!

i agree that them not giving Steam a chance is bad. it opens up to a new market. they haven't talked there since temple of elemental evil. i would just love to see more presence there. if people actually saw updates and devs talking. it would bring more attention to the game.

[grudgebear]

Hopefully it will get some exposure when DDO moves to 4game platform and get some new traffic from it.

[krynnotaur]

i agree that them not giving Steam a chance is bad. it opens up to a new market. they haven't talked there since temple of elemental evil. i would just love to see more presence there. if people actually saw updates and devs talking. it would bring more attention to the game.

It's 22 million people EVERY NIGHT. MILLION WITH AN M, lol. Facebook, twitter aren't getting it done and twitch community [no matter how awesome] are not paid so their time and energy cannot be relied on, like they could if they could count on a real marketing budget driving people to their content from enormous potential customer pools like steam. That's how you build a marketing cycle. Location, location, location.

LE sigh. Is the server back yet? Kobold is antsy.

[Gniewomir]

Firstly you need to know how to edit your own steam page and (now i'm not being sarcastic) i'm not sure if they do.

[calisk]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2...ragons_Online/

Your lack of new customers has nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with completely failing to produce even basic store front, let alone any hype train. The above link is how many years old in front of one of the largest player bases looking for games to play that exists in the world? Twenty two million people, checking right now at peak hour concurrency. And this is what they see: a company that does not care about its product or its presentation to them.

MYTHIC fail. It was six years ago. I don't care to hear excuses about not being able to market your product. Some people at hasbro/dbg/wotc marketing needs to get let go so their salaries can be spent doing something productive instead.

Here is another, in game example of the same GLARING hole in awareness:

Clicking on an epic destiny trainer before level 20 says what? Does it explain the epic levels? does it show the tree and let lowbie noobs see the entire path to true power this game has? NO. IT DOESNT SHOW ANYTHING. Literally BLANK and RUDE: GET LOST KID.

UTTERLY FAILING to advertise your own product in-line with in-game assets at such a natural point of opportunity to do so thus generating an in-game accessible awareness and hype about why a player might invest in this game over their many many many other choices is just an astonishing whiff. you could even make a link to the story for the ED tools and such at the bottom or on its own tab.

You want new customers?

Do something about these horrible misrepresentations of our favorite complex deep and wide MMO. !!

hmmmm....I mean there are a lot of reasons this game won't grow and it's a number of conflicting game design aspects due to the change of development principles over a long period of time and yes one of them is what you said, old style graphics and old style designs that are both the first thing players see when looking into the product and the first thing they see when playing since the f2p quests are also the smallest and oldest.

the saying is lead with your best foot forward but this game doesn't show new players anything to get attracted to instead they show them **** that would seem old in 2010 rather than show them some of the better designs we see in the more recent expansions.

beyond that the game's strongest feature which is the reincarnation system that keeps all content relevant is also one of the reasons new players never last in the game, it's a game that used to be focused around parties and doing quests together but with most players just tearing through heroic content solo on there 40th tr they can't find parties easily and if they do they just get carried and can't really experience the good designs of the dungeons, and if they are solo and a f2p they need to run every quest 3 times which is annoying if they want the favor they need to get more content....

beyond that the level range for parties are far to narrow, having a 3 level gap when the game's player base spreads across 30 levels and most of the players don't party for the low level content makes it tough to retain new players.

finally is the complexity which is something I love but there are as many system to this game as there are classes and races combined. The game could really use an in game compendium of features that explains quickly how to create/finish/upgrade items in the various ways outside of going to the ddo wiki.

there are likely more reasons the game will have trouble retaining players but to me these are the most obvious. I love ddo I quit frequently and return more to this game than any mmo i have ever played in my life, so I believe ddo has a charm and a strength to it that other mmo's don't have so I hope it can figure out the new player experience and get it right.

[Bacon_Burger]

Look at last update on that steam page, it's 2017!!!

I understand the RoI for DDO since SSG was formed hasn't materialized and there is no money for advertising, however the flip side to that is no way of reaching out to prospective players.

Relying on "word of mouth" advertising when the entire world was on lock down for 1.5 years is borderline ignorant. Sales of other video games skyrocketed in certain demographic groups, while our player base shrunk.



"You can't catch any fish if you don't throw a line in the water"

[ShifterThePirate]

Receiving Menace of the Underdark as a gift from a friend while it was on Steam Sale actually got me starting to play this game. It included Druid so I could join them and start the game with my PnP DND character.

[Enderoc]

What DDO needs is D&D style online core rule books filled with art and references to Forums and DDO wiki.
Like Players Handbook
Guildmasters Handbook
Tome of Epic Destinies

Modules for Adventure Chains etc.

DDO wiki does a good job but it does not capture the feel of Dungeons and Dragons the way it could presented with a nostalgia of tabletop games

[Mandelia]

It might help if, oh I dunno, WOTC actually mentioned new content for ddo in their product update emails. Instead of, you know, ignoring them completely for years.

[myliftkk_v2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2...ragons_Online/

Your lack of new customers has nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with completely failing to produce even basic store front, let alone any hype train. The above link is how many years old in front of one of the largest player bases looking for games to play that exists in the world? Twenty two million people, checking right now at peak hour concurrency. And this is what they see: a company that does not care about its product or its presentation to them.

MYTHIC fail. It was six years ago. I don't care to hear excuses about not being able to market your product. Some people at hasbro/dbg/wotc (edit: add Enad Global 7 also) marketing needs to get let go so their salaries can be spent doing something productive instead.

Here is another, in game example of the same GLARING hole in awareness:

Clicking on an epic destiny trainer before level 20 says what? Does it explain the epic levels? does it show the tree and let lowbie noobs see the entire path to true power this game has? NO. IT DOESNT SHOW ANYTHING. Literally BLANK and RUDE: GET LOST KID.

UTTERLY FAILING to advertise your own product in-line with in-game assets at such a natural point of opportunity to do so thus generating an in-game accessible awareness and hype about why a player might invest in this game over their many many many other choices is just an astonishing whiff. you could even make a link to the story for the ED tools and such at the bottom or on its own tab.

You want new customers?

Do something about these horrible misrepresentations of our favorite complex deep and wide MMO. !!

You're asking people who literally sued Atari for marketing failures to market something when they have no marketing skill and the something they are marketing is a glue-patched horse.

Short of $GME firing and replacement of nearly all of day-to-day mgmt, it will be same old, same old from here on out. Squeeze the users for $$$ and write those paychecks.

[myliftkk_v2]

It might help if, oh I dunno, WOTC actually mentioned new content for ddo in their product update emails. Instead of, you know, ignoring them completely for years.

Totally standard licensor behavior.

WoTC gets their guarantee/royalties, so what do they care? If it's a guarantee they don't care at all whether DDO lives/dies.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

How to acquire new customers ?

Depends on which sort of new customers is chosen to be acquired ...

There are several player types. One or two of them are overly overrated here, meanwhile others basically are not represented at all here.

[anangel22]

How to acquire new customers ?

Depends on which sort of new customers is chosen to be acquired ...

There are several player types. One or two of them are overly overrated here, meanwhile others basically are not represented at all here.

you really have the ability to turn any topic into your personal BS, don't you?

[slarden]

I think the best way to grow the customer base is to attract back players that used to play the game but stopped for one reason or another. I am sure some of those would never play again, but some might like the recent changes.

Some promotion for returning players could work and current players can reach out to their friends to let them know. Some players returned last year using the free quest coupon code.

[Oxarhamar]

Totally standard licensor behavior.

WoTC gets their guarantee/royalties, so what do they care? If it's a guarantee they don't care at all whether DDO lives/dies.

I dunno I see WoTC mentioning Neverwinter by name and doing crossovers with packs where DDO I have seen mentioned in general as “other online games”

We did get the prequests for Tyranny of Dragons storyline I do think there should be some semblance of DDO being a part of D&D more that the simple listing on the site under online games

Would not there be more royalties for WoTC if they had better guided players here



I will add
steam support for do I hear is broken and wonky lots of bad reviews there what’s the point of having it on stream if it’s only going to push away those who find it there

I don’t like steam I’m old school I guess I like to download game direct from the publisher website not have another app to do that but I realize that how newer games do things so that should be supported and working for new players to keep coming to the game not drive them off

[Oxarhamar]

What DDO needs is D&D style online core rule books filled with art and references to Forums and DDO wiki.
Like Players Handbook
Guildmasters Handbook
Tome of Epic Destinies

Modules for Adventure Chains etc.

DDO wiki does a good job but it does not capture the feel of Dungeons and Dragons the way it could presented with a nostalgia of tabletop games

+1

[Fallout47]

hmmmm....I mean there are a lot of reasons this game won't grow and it's a number of conflicting game design aspects due to the change of development principles over a long period of time and yes one of them is what you said, old style graphics and old style designs that are both the first thing players see when looking into the product and the first thing they see when playing since the f2p quests are also the smallest and oldest.

the saying is lead with your best foot forward but this game doesn't show new players anything to get attracted to instead they show them **** that would seem old in 2010 rather than show them some of the better designs we see in the more recent expansions.

beyond that the game's strongest feature which is the reincarnation system that keeps all content relevant is also one of the reasons new players never last in the game, it's a game that used to be focused around parties and doing quests together but with most players just tearing through heroic content solo on there 40th tr they can't find parties easily and if they do they just get carried and can't really experience the good designs of the dungeons, and if they are solo and a f2p they need to run every quest 3 times which is annoying if they want the favor they need to get more content....

beyond that the level range for parties are far to narrow, having a 3 level gap when the game's player base spreads across 30 levels and most of the players don't party for the low level content makes it tough to retain new players.

finally is the complexity which is something I love but there are as many system to this game as there are classes and races combined. The game could really use an in game compendium of features that explains quickly how to create/finish/upgrade items in the various ways outside of going to the ddo wiki.

there are likely more reasons the game will have trouble retaining players but to me these are the most obvious. I love ddo I quit frequently and return more to this game than any mmo i have ever played in my life, so I believe ddo has a charm and a strength to it that other mmo's don't have so I hope it can figure out the new player experience and get it right.

This is the second "guest" I have seen. Explain please what this designation is, and further, why this is showing up now? This designation has no posting history, no rep, is this an SSG sock?

[calisk]

i'm not I came back to the game last month, but i've played off and on for years. I played the original release of the game years and years ago, though I lost that account and made my current one.

[calisk]

also since I can't seem to edit my message I got no idea why i'm a guest. I came to the forum to see if there was any info on the next sale coming, logged in and mad a post I got no idea how the guest thing works