Ways for us to get New Subscribers?

They should just put fully functional trial codes in cereal boxes.

Why yes Mr. Kellog, if you put this code in your box, we promote our game. On the other hand, thousands of cereal boxes will be bought by RMT Spammers to get the codes, we'll ban them within a day or two, at which point they'll go back and buy some more. I do believe we have a win/win deal right here.

Hate to get off the flaming subject and back on the OP, but I have gotten quite a few people to at least try the game, and most have joined. I have yet to get the refer-a-friend bonus though. I'm not sure what hoop I'm not passing through but even when it says "retail activated" I don't get the extra time on my account.

Not that it matters much. Having another friend to play with is reward enough but... it's a bit disappointing to get promised something and never get it... ya know?

For that, G_A, I'd suggest dropping a line to customer support to make sure the credit got applied. Provide your login name, your friend's login name, his join date, your join date, and if you got any kind of confirmation email when s/he signed up, include that.

It may just be that it got lost in the shuffle.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I think it is pretty likely he hasn't paid for a month above and beyond his free month from the initial game I purchased for him (we got tired of the Trial restrictions). He just keeps buying cheap copies of COH he finds around Dallas and applying those... and now his 2 month Referral has expired.

It's just too bad that it has to be a credit card payment within 2 months to get the credit if that's the reason. Plus I'm lazy and don't care enough to pursue it, but I can believe that would be a real turn-off for someone trying to use the system for the reward.

Good grief!

Shouldn't Marketing be doing this stuff? Shouldn't they be the ones hurting their heads over how to get word of this game out to the masses?

I'm really curious to see how much effort is put into showcasing GR when more info finally comes out about it.

I mean really...do we forum posters need to rack our brains to come up with a way to sell this game? Do we really need new and convoluted ways to advertise?

Every webcomic site and gaming site/forum on the web has EVE Online ads on them. I left that game 2 years ago and I still couldn't forget about it if I wanted to. I go to Bluesnews, it's there. I go to Looking for Group, it's there. I go to Penny Arcade, it's there. I go to Firingsquad, it's there. I can't remember the last time or place I saw a COX banner ad on any website. And if I have to strain my brain to recall something like that, then it's a pretty fair indication of how much effort marketing makes on this game's behalf.

I'm tired of seeing these little posts pop up all the time from people trying to do the job that a multi-million dollar MMO software company doesn't seem to be interested in. If they truly don't want to increase the subscriber base for this game, then I'm in no way going to attempt to do it for them beyond the usual telling my friends and people I know who might like the game.

This is bordering on pathetic.

This is mostly speculation, so take it for what it's worth.

As far as I know, Paragon Studios doesn't do marketing. NCsoft does. All of the marketing goobs are out of corporate, not affiliated or related with the developers or community reps in any way. If you want to send a letter to the people responsible for marketing City of Heroes, you'd be addressing it to Austin, Texas, not Mountain View, California.

Here's the kicker, though. Theory o' Tony is that those people who are responsible for marketing City of Heroes are the very same people responsible for marketing Guild Wars, Lineage, Lineage II, and Aion. The last in that list is the spoiler of the group. It's the big shiny new kid that the company is putting a lot of emphasis on getting out there into people's grubby little hands. City of Heroes? It's over five years old. It's not supposed to be raking in profits. Money spent marketing it is money that could be better spent marketing Aion, right? At least, I think that's what's going through marketing's head.

Of course, my personal problem with that is that you need both. Aion gets a lot of free marketing by virtue of the fact that it's new. Magazines are reviewing it, it's prominently displayed on store shelves, it's showing up in retail advertisements, etc. It really wouldn't hurt them to divert a few bucks here and there from the Aion budget towards the City of Heroes budget.

After all, Aion is also an unproven game. Look at what happened to Auto Assault. Or Tabula Rasa. I'm not suggesting that in a couple of years Aion will be gone, but what we do know for sure is that City of Heroes is a proven winner. Money spent on it is not wasted, as it's a pretty safe bet than in five more years, it will still be around. So go ahead, NCsoft, spend money on marketing Aion. I really do understand wanting to show really big numbers for its launch. But please, don't forget your old reliables. After the flash and new game smell wears off of Aion, you really want City of Heroes to still be there and going strong for you!

I think it would be funny if a (bunny girl avatared) marketing rep showed up on the forums explaining how they can't do more advertising because of the budget they are allowed so we can play more blame shiftaroo.

How to get new subscribers? Make more Bootleg Edition discs...



...and give a bunch of them to us so that we can pass them out. That'll do a lot, I think. Physical media, especially for "free" is a powerful thing. Much more powerful than just a digital code sent out via e-mail.

Westley's post is pure win. I really like the "Bootleg Edition" idea. Especially if it promoted the villain side LOL

And I heartily approve of your signature pic too Westley

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

Shouldn't we be removing the Cryptic logos from those, though?

Or is Cryptic still, in some Satan-inspired way, still affiliated with the product?

/em runs off to check the website

Here's my idea for a new promo vid.

The music is Spybreak! by the Propellerheads. Those of you not familiar with the title will recognize it immediately if you've ever seen the Matrix. It's the music playing when Neo assaults the Federal Building. You can hear it here.

Since the piece starts with "Make him look bad!" I'd start it with a sped-up tour of the costume creator. Design a wicked-looking toon, and then run him through the city at high speed. All through the full four minutes of Spybreak, show this character whooping butt on heroes/villains as you see fit in as many different environments as possible. The idea is to emphasize the speed of both solo and team play.

Spybreak is a fast-moving piece of music, and it *really* suits the pace of combat in this game. I think it would make an awesome promo vid.

But that's just my opinion.

EDIT: I really need to learn how to do this video editing stuff.