There is this advert for a toothpaste on British TV at the moment. This extremely annoying woman can't stop praising this toothpaste and at one point she says "It is like, where is this product going wrong?". She answers the question herself by saying "Nowhere". (The problem is that she is going wrong everywhere, but that is somewhat besides the point...)


Where is TFW going wrong? Understood just in terms of the game it is, I am almost prepared to say 'Nowhere'. The game, the meta-game, the implementation of the two and the content… Well, it is just brilliant! Still, when I talk to my friends in-game, we always come back to the same thing: The rather small player base.

I think TFW deserves much more than the 7-10 players that I see in the morning, UK time. And I am absolutely sure that many of the 20-30 regulars are more than willing to help out if they can (and if they are asked!). But the question I would like to ask is:

Where is TFW going now?

There are many reasons why a company might not wish transparency when it comes to its plans for future content and marketing strategies and stuff like that (especially if it is for sale). I just hope that this is not the case with TFW. What I am hoping for is a sustained response from the developers about what we can expect from them and the game in the near future in terms of expanding the player base. Should this not be possible, it would at least be nice to see an answer as to why such a response is not possible.

Cheers!

All the more reason for ppl to join the FB group (or your preferred social media) and encourage friends who enjoy similar games to try this one!

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1179

Im not sure Im prepared to surrender anonymity while working for jed as a freelance advertiser, all in return for ten percent of future gold sales. Its a good business advertising model... but there's something missing.

TFW is indeed a fantastic game! I boldly proclaim this based on my experience with MtG, MageKnight, D&D, MMORPGs, RTS games, a plethora of board games etc... Frankly, for such an internet/technology savvy generation, I am surprised that more people have not seen the brilliance of this format. I have and will continue to put my money where my mouth is by supporting this enterprise. (Maybe the last hamburger Jed or Altren ate was because of my modest investment).

"Where is TFW going now?" I certainly don't know, but I do think it has a purdy darn near good shot at makin it to the big farm in the sky when all the virtual smoke clears!*! Praying for the best.

Symbolically,

DarkJello

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Ad astra per alia porci!$!

Yes the biggest problem with the game is not enough players.
Coinciding with the release of Borderlands we will do a bunch more advertising but any extra help we can get from the community would be great. Advertising doesn't work anywhere near as well as word of mouth.
We feel there is a critical mass of players that the game needs to reach to be much more fun and retain players. The problem is getting to that number of players. If we can't get there with Borderlands we will look for a publisher to handle marketing and advertising since this is obviously not what we are good at.

I agree entirely with this and I think most people here do. It is good to have it stated by you though, jed, as it (i) confirms that you are aware of the problem and (ii) sets some kind of direction for change. (I've played games where the developers had no clue about their strengths and weaknessess, which makes any kind of communication very difficult...)



It would be interesting to know what kind of advertising you are thinking of here. Any information you can disclose? As for the help from the community, I think it needs to be a reciprocal relationship between the devs and the players in the sense that the devs set some kind of direction for how, when and where help is needed and the players try their best to supply that help as well as suggesting what is needed. (And there has to be some kind of reward in it, I think, but I am not sure how that would work.)



I agree. But what kind of figures are we talking about here? Would be nice to know roughly what you think that critical mass is. (I have some vague idea that it is to be measured in terms of how long it takes for a player to get a 'similar', an 'anyone' etc. rather than in terms of the numbers of players (although, of course, there is a connection between the two.)



This is good to hear in the sense that there is some kind of contingency plan for the future. I suppose it is rather costly to hire a publisher/publishing company. I would love to know how much it actually costs But why not try out your ideas here on the forum first? After all, TFW seem to have a rather mature player base and I am sure that there are people who are very good at marketing and advertising and all of that.

So I will end with a general suggestion. How about starting a couple of threads here on the forum where people can express their views of TWF's marketing and advertising? To fascilitate the discussion, perhaps it would be good to indicate just what kind of resources are available in terms of money and manpower. (These figures can, of course, be purely hypothetical but then it is hard to see whether one's suggestions are in any way realistic.) Also, as many parameters as possible should be set by the devs, I think, so as to not make the discussion go wildly off target. (Just to take one example of a parameter: The age group(s) of the targeted audience.) Besides, when those parameters are out in the open they are also up for critical discussion.

I believe that forum discussions of this type can lead to a lot of positive feedback!

Cheers again.

(This was written in a haste and I realize that it is not as clear as I would have wanted it...)

I love the game..
But the small player base is a real problem, I will continue to play - I hope - for a while with an ever growing player base. I personally have no clue about advertising something like this but I do try and pull in friends from other games and such I have played previously.


With what Voices has just said (We were typing at the same time it seems)
I agree with perhaps showing the current players what kind of advertising you are possibly thinking of could benefit, however like I said, I wouldn't be able to tell a rats arse from good advertising so dont ask me

Can i again humbly suggest a suggestion board? One that covers ALL suggestions, including card ones. They can be broken up into 3 sub boards:

Board index » Suggestions » [Game] / [Card Ideas] , [Site]

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Now, IF im correct, some of the apps on facebook doesn't reside on facebook. FB is just a portal to the website, who then launches it within the facebook site, linked to your acc and all dat stuff.

Link this site's game with FB.

No really, most of the games on FB are
A) casual games
B) game formulas that are "stolen" from popular sites (I think mafia is one)
C) retarded games

The strength of this is your player base will explode if your game is MILDLY good. I kid you not. You will reach a potential customer base who likes to waste time online, and are usually exposed to a lesser amount of (good?) games, as compared to advertising in a gaming forum/site where lots of gamers have the "seen it all" feel and won't be intrested in some indie no-name card game.
Consider it, do some research on your own(best way to confirm it), sleep on it.

Small player base is one thing which is overcomeable. (I believe in natural selection theory for games) I worry atcually about the game's economy. How is it sustainable in terms of income? As more and more players come, more and more gold will be generated freely, and the leaving players or strong players will sell their gold and cards for less than what TFW is selling. Somehow, the profit in such a system doesn't seem all that great, to me atleast.

Hmm....it wouldn't be that hard to make it a facebook app, actually. You already have a flash client. Just import that into the facebook game app stuff. Should be quite easily doable in less than a week I'd say.

The beauty of that is that people could still play this way, or play via the facebook game app OR play via the downloaded client. They would all use the same database and server.

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Altren wrote:

I agree with Keyser, and that's what I'm planning to implement actually.

|| The Rise of the DCC | Plasmatium Netherious | Tastes Like Chicken | The Astridian Conspiracy ||

Guild -> | Platypus Rising|

Greetings all,

Just a quick synopsis before the Borderland's push for new players starts.

a) Best part about this game is that its a great product. Bad part a bout that is that you can't force people to use a great product. But, back to the first part, nobody can say that this is a poorly put together game. It has everything you could want in a game, cool community, strategy, graphics, and new additions.

b) Not to sound like a drug dealer, but we have to get new player hooked into playing. If I start playing a game and on level one I get my ass handed to me, I usually don't play it for long. Most first time players that run across this game are just surfing around looking for something to pass the time, not looking for something that takes on a life of its own and a long time play option. So we should want to hook them into the whole experience of long time play. New player have to feel that they are competative in order to keep them, so allowing them to play vetern players will only frustrate them.

c) Give new players more control, I'm stealing someone elses idea here but thought it was a great one. Instead of gaining phantom cards, give new players some one time only phantom gold that they can buy phantom cards for short term use. Sure they might put together some strong decks and compete for the ladder, but who cares it will get them into the game long term, they will only have that deck short term, and they will feel like they can compete.

In conclusion, we've all seen a ton of players log on and play this game. I don't think exposure is really the problem, I think players feeling that they can compete keeps them coming back. Who cares, if making newbies a little more powerful in the short term makes them keep coming back. I would think that anybody that has played this game for a while would be able to beat a new player even if they had access to all the cards.

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