Stat Tracking, App, etc.
dobs
Join Date: 2011-08-04 Member: 114164Members
Join Date: 2011-08-04 Member: 114164Members
in NS2 E-Team
<div class="IPBDescription">Community Service/Show Off/Cheap Marketing ^^</div>First off: I've always been quite the Natural Selection Fanboy. If you are from Austria or live near the Austrian/German border and you have been to Lanparties back in the days when they were still common here you might know me. I was the guy running around every day/night asking everyone to install and play natural selection.
Now for the "almost free marketing"... I am one of those people who get excited about new games, then tell everyone of my friends "this or that game is so awesome you have to buy it" and after days of having to listen to my blabbering they give in and buy it (sry guys). Alone in the last couple of month i was able to "sell" around 4 copies of Monday night combat, 3 copies of Magicka, Sc2, MTG 2012, etc.. (of course i also got one of my friends into buying NS2. He is now a huge fan of the game and also around the forums alot, yes dragon-guard i'm talking about you! :D ).
Let me finally get to my ideas (sry for making you read all this...):
Now what i would think would really help me showing off the game to friends of mine would be a few simple to not so simple things.
1) An Android/Iphone app. Everyone has one of those nifty little devices, so why not take advantage of that and make a free ns2 app? What would it contain? Sections for Artwork, Videos, Screenshots, Weapons, Aliens, stats, etc..
Why would that help? Let's suppose im somewhere at my University talking to friends about this awesome game im playing and i have this nice app that features all this stuff. I just take my mobilephone out of my pocket and start showing them the nice looks + for the more hardcore gamers weapons and buildings. You could take the idea further and make it possible to log in and fetch stats about how much you have played, your win/loss ratio, clan,... or even a community portal.
Of course you can surf to the homepage with your phones browser but thats just not the same.... and after all, making Android apps isnt that hard after all. (hmm i could write a model importer for cool 3d models of the units... i guess that would be cool to show around).
2) Something alot of MMos have noways are APIs for stat-tracking. Would be awesome to have something like that for NS2. Just let the community do the work! One thing could be generating Signature-Pictures from Stats that you fetch off a server to post on a forum or compare his stats to other players and so on. Players sure like that kind of stuff ;). Tbh i don't know how much stat tracking you are planning to do when the release draws near, but i would really appreciate it.
3) Give out friend codes. For every referred Friend you get some kind of badge on your armor. In return your friend gets a 10% discount on the game. (Just make sure you can also gain other badges some way or ppl will get mad about not beeing able to get badges). Some persistant prestige is something hardcore gamers usually really love. And newer players have someone to look up to. ("He has badges! He must be an awesome player!")
4) make people in the e-sports community mention it. Maybe fund a little tournament. As i saw recently Day9 likes NS2 on Facebook. Im sure he would tell people about it in his daylies (with his outgoing personality and playful obsession with cool stuff/games).
5) Promotional Mini game. A flash-game would bring attention to the game for alot of players who do not yet know about the game. Maybe a cool little turret defence or something like that ;)
more or less offtopic:
Sell shirts and plushies. People like plushies. They are relatively cheap to make and are great accessories for the real fans. Imagine a little skulk/onos/gorge plushie! I would buy one for sure ;). They are also good to show around.
Maybe you like some of the ideas... please comment on my probably stupid ideas :)
Best, Dobs
Now for the "almost free marketing"... I am one of those people who get excited about new games, then tell everyone of my friends "this or that game is so awesome you have to buy it" and after days of having to listen to my blabbering they give in and buy it (sry guys). Alone in the last couple of month i was able to "sell" around 4 copies of Monday night combat, 3 copies of Magicka, Sc2, MTG 2012, etc.. (of course i also got one of my friends into buying NS2. He is now a huge fan of the game and also around the forums alot, yes dragon-guard i'm talking about you! :D ).
Let me finally get to my ideas (sry for making you read all this...):
Now what i would think would really help me showing off the game to friends of mine would be a few simple to not so simple things.
1) An Android/Iphone app. Everyone has one of those nifty little devices, so why not take advantage of that and make a free ns2 app? What would it contain? Sections for Artwork, Videos, Screenshots, Weapons, Aliens, stats, etc..
Why would that help? Let's suppose im somewhere at my University talking to friends about this awesome game im playing and i have this nice app that features all this stuff. I just take my mobilephone out of my pocket and start showing them the nice looks + for the more hardcore gamers weapons and buildings. You could take the idea further and make it possible to log in and fetch stats about how much you have played, your win/loss ratio, clan,... or even a community portal.
Of course you can surf to the homepage with your phones browser but thats just not the same.... and after all, making Android apps isnt that hard after all. (hmm i could write a model importer for cool 3d models of the units... i guess that would be cool to show around).
2) Something alot of MMos have noways are APIs for stat-tracking. Would be awesome to have something like that for NS2. Just let the community do the work! One thing could be generating Signature-Pictures from Stats that you fetch off a server to post on a forum or compare his stats to other players and so on. Players sure like that kind of stuff ;). Tbh i don't know how much stat tracking you are planning to do when the release draws near, but i would really appreciate it.
3) Give out friend codes. For every referred Friend you get some kind of badge on your armor. In return your friend gets a 10% discount on the game. (Just make sure you can also gain other badges some way or ppl will get mad about not beeing able to get badges). Some persistant prestige is something hardcore gamers usually really love. And newer players have someone to look up to. ("He has badges! He must be an awesome player!")
4) make people in the e-sports community mention it. Maybe fund a little tournament. As i saw recently Day9 likes NS2 on Facebook. Im sure he would tell people about it in his daylies (with his outgoing personality and playful obsession with cool stuff/games).
5) Promotional Mini game. A flash-game would bring attention to the game for alot of players who do not yet know about the game. Maybe a cool little turret defence or something like that ;)
more or less offtopic:
Sell shirts and plushies. People like plushies. They are relatively cheap to make and are great accessories for the real fans. Imagine a little skulk/onos/gorge plushie! I would buy one for sure ;). They are also good to show around.
Maybe you like some of the ideas... please comment on my probably stupid ideas :)
Best, Dobs
Comments
And it needs to be created by the community, controlled by the developers (IMO)
it makes me a k/d ######.
and seeing how aliens get 50/0 as a fade and marines 5/30 in a round...
Would rather have a gametime / rounds played / % of the team u play on / win/lose as each side / fav weapon / ....
Rather then pure K/D stats or accuracy or any of that other nonsense, it just discourages teamwork and encourages kill whoring for stats.
So stats that actually reflect how much of a team player you are would imo be a better plan
And it needs to be created by the community, controlled by the developers (IMO)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
tbh, 4 and 5 were just a few "3 points arent enough" ideas ;) But yeah without the help of the devs (API) we cant do stat tracking. I would love to write a page for that if i had access to a database/api
<!--quoteo(post=1868319:date=Aug 11 2011, 05:11 AM:name=Iacto)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Iacto @ Aug 11 2011, 05:11 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1868319"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If Day9 advertised this game before release, we'd be too swamped. It's hard enough already for the UWE guys to keep on top of all the bugs and ideas that we suggest, with another ~2-10k people, I don't think it would be sustainable. I'm totally up for creating some stat-tracking software though, including adding a mobile app<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hmm, i didnt really think of it that way. Thats something for after release then.
<!--quoteo(post=1868371:date=Aug 11 2011, 10:51 AM:name=Dragon-Guard)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dragon-Guard @ Aug 11 2011, 10:51 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1868371"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i dislike stat tracking D:
it makes me a k/d ######.
and seeing how aliens get 50/0 as a fade and marines 5/30 in a round...
Would rather have a gametime / rounds played / % of the team u play on / win/lose as each side / fav weapon / ....
Rather then pure K/D stats or accuracy or any of that other nonsense, it just discourages teamwork and encourages kill whoring for stats.
So stats that actually reflect how much of a team player you are would imo be a better plan<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well its up to the community what they want to show in stat tracking. I also would love to show if someone goes comm alot (like me :) )
IF there's going to be stat tracking, let it be done by third party shizzle!
IF there's going to be stat tracking, let it be done by third party shizzle!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Or make it non-compulsory. So if the stat tracking fails, just ignore it and let the game continue.