Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert Strutin on February 6, 2009 at 7:07pm

How to Promote your Video Game


Tons of research!
Think of all the phases you can type into Google to find the answers you need and compile those key phases
Buy great Domain Names, Target your Key words for each, and link them all together

Sign up for Twitter, follow 1000's of relative people, stream Twitter into all your Domains (text) to create fresh content about what you are doing for them
Use Social Networks, we have MySpace pages for our Developers and for our Characters, stream Twitter into all your social networks
Carefully research, test, and pay for targeted traffic into your network to drive users.

Have Contests with the major websites like: http://www.1up.com/ http://www.mmorpg.com where people who enter can opt into your newsletters
Hold Events! Have a reason for people to come, train, compete, and attract real sponsors to reward people who win!
Create great footage, and use YouTube.com to not only promote your game, but also your top Players, what they won from which Sponsor

Those are a few of the ideas we are building upon, I hope this can help you and others out.

They are cost effective, taking time, focus and creative thought.

We have more Proprietary ideas that I cannot share in a public format.

If you are looking for professional input and planning, having a marketing budget, please feel free to contact me.

Robert Strutin
Marketing Director
www.iPlayMore.com

Oh! Another huge issue is the term “Football”. In Canada & the US we call it “Soccer”. I think you should have a Soccer version title and domain. My 8 year old daughter plays it here and if you said “Football” to her she would think it was a different game. Soccer is the biggest sport in the world; you just need to capitalize upon it. Are you promoting the fact that a Washington diplomat reported on CNN that when he flew over Iraq when the war started that he just saw 2 or 3 Soccer games in the country below he flew over. Now there are hundreds of Soccer games taking place when he flies in! What a wonderful success -- the Iraqis are Playing! Someone get some footage of that! Can you see how that will change their future?

You have that spark in United Football now set it aflame!

Permalink Reply by Paul Klajbor on February 12, 2009 at 2:41am

Martyn,

I assume you are using the simplest and cheapest way. Do you have an easy in-game (or somewhere on your website that's easy to find) an email that allows people to invite their friends to join?

Permalink Reply by Alan Scott on February 25, 2009 at 12:26pm

Those are all great suggestions regarding making the most of Google, Twitter and Youtube. I would also like to add www.digg.com where members can literally digg your news post. The more people who digg, the more chance the post has of reaching the front page.

Myspace, as mentioned, is a great resource for getting a web presence without actually having an official website, though I'd recommend setting one up if you don't currently have one. Facebook is also a large networking site, which has both group and fan pages.

The most important and cheapest marketing is word of mouth. People are far more likely to join up to games if people they know recommend it and invite them. You don't necessarily need an invite option since friends can simply share the link, though some online game websites offer a referral system that rewards them with something they can use in the game. A friend's list would also be handy for people to keep track of their friends and to communicate with one another ingame.

Aside from your standard networking sites, there are tons of gamer forums and groups on the internet.

I'll have a search for your website and give you some more feedback on how to attract players and keep them coming back.

Permalink Reply by Alan Scott on February 25, 2009 at 12:43pm

Ok, I just had a quick through your site and it looks like a fun game. You have videos on there demonstrating gameplay - do you have these uploaded on Youtube so that people can stumble upon them when looking up football vids?

I noticed you already have a buddy list and chat system, which is great. And the ability to set up teams and earn cash.

I also agree with Robert's suggestion of holding events. From adminning a server, I will say that events are what attract players the most when they start to lose interest, but it also helps build a community, which is the key thing with online games. If you build up your international player base, you could organise national leagues and have England's best gamers chosen for the squad, for example.

From the looks of it, you already have league and tournament tables setup. I'm not sure how accurately structured they are or whether it's feasible with the amount of players you have, but if you split leagues into divisions you will add a new element to the competition. For example, a new team starts off in the lowest division and has to work its way up the ladder to eventually enter Division 1 to play against the top teams. Online Quake actually used this same structure for clan matches and it worked very well.

For future development, you might want to include a stat system so that players can upgrade their footballers by earning points or cash, or even just through training (that's limited per day). This kind of system is what keeps players coming back and continuously playing and adds another layer to the game other than just sport. All gamers love stats. Even if you just start off by recording the number of goals, assists, successful passes etc.

You could also provide awards for reaching a certain number of these stats.

In terms of both creating a community and getting exposure, an option for players to save replays / highlights or even record matches would be an excellent addition as they can upload them to youtube and do the work for you. You can currently do this with most PC games by using software like Fraps, but an ingame one would naturally be a better option.

I agree that the Football reference should include Soccer somewhere on your site, otherwise you risk only targetting non-US & Candian players.

Finally, your website name is for your company Staggan, which might make it harder to find than having a unitedfootball.com address or something similar.

I will share your link on the gamer forums I'm on and my friends as I know a lot of football fans.

All the best.

Permalink Reply by mehmet ekinci on July 2, 2011 at 3:45pm

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