Discussion: Introducing Tweet Code Thursdays!

And just to make sure we get involved at the right time, that will be a starting time of 6 pm (18.00 hours) UK time. Rest of Europe will be +1 hour to that.

You haven't been paying attention to what we've been told. Some of it we were told years ago, long before the current OCR team got here, but we attributed it to just this forum.

The industry average for players that sign up for the forums for that game is around 10%. The ones that frequently and actively participate on the forums is around 5%.

That's a measurable statistic and hasn't changed much over the years. They do what they can to try to drive people to the forums, but some just will not go for one reason or another.

So how do they reach that other 90% as well as potential customers? By using sites that those people may already be using such as Twitter, Facebook, G+, Twitch.TV, etc.

They have measurable statistics from those sites about the traffic they get on those sites. It's much higher than the measurable statistics for the traffic on the forums.

They also have ways of tracking who visits the account sign up page from clicking the links on the Facebook site and seeing what country that traffic is coming from, such as Brazil. They are seeing positive results from using those sites so of course they will continue to do so.

They often have links on their Facebook page and Twitter feed to either a forum article or a news article on the main CoH website. They can track where those hits are originating from and possibly what website they came through.

Not enough evidence to convince you? Okay, I'll give some personal examples.

I've been told we have one of the friendliest forum communities but I regularly see comments from people that think our community isn't that friendly. From what I've seen of other games' forums I'd have to agree that ours is relatively friendly. Some of the vitriol shown in this thread alone lets me see where some might not see our community as being so friendly.

In the early days of the game, I wasn't as active in posting as I am now. But I did read the forums pretty much daily. Some of the people I worked with also played CoH. Some of them would occasionally come to the forums to read something, but it was generally after I had already told them about it. Or they heard me laughing loudly about something and knew it was something on the forums that triggered it and wanted to see what it was but couldn't come look over my shoulder at the time. Very rarely would they post anything. Even rarer was it that they would visit the forums without me pushing them to read something specific. I've moved since then and so have a few of the people I worked with. I've talked to them and one admits to looking at the forums about once a month or less just to see what is going on, mostly just the Dev Digest, Community Digest and Announcements. But they see things on Twitter or Facebook and read it and will even click the links if it takes them to the forums or main website.

I've met a few people where I'm living now that play the game. Some of them are unwilling to come to the forums at all for various reasons. They'll occaisionally look at the main site, but not the forums.

Two of the girls I know are scared to death of the forums. It's not a discussion format they are comfortable with. But they are on Twitter and Facebook constantly, so they keep up with information that way. They are being engaged in a way that they wouldn't be on the forums.

Of course, knowing that I'm active on the forums and actually make trips to California to interact with the Devs they will often come to me if they have questions about something they've read. But no matter how much I try, I can't get them to come to the forums even just to read posts without logging in.

I've got another friend that won't come to the forums due to his experiences on other gaming forums. But his phone and iPad have Twitter and Facebook apps built in so he gets engaged through those sites. He'll follow a link to the main site for a news article, but won't follow a link to the forums. He'll ask me questions but won't come to the forums at all. He'll glance at the forums over my shoulder if he's around when I'm on them, but won't come here himself. But he can be engaged through sites he already goes to like Twitter and Facebook.

Another friend will sometimes read the forums but it is very rare that he'll ever post here. I think he has less than 50 posts here. But again, he's got Twitter and Facebook on his phone and iPad, so he keeps up with things there more than the forums. Most of what he looks at on the forums is due to something I told him.

Those are just a few of my personal experiences with people that they don't reach through the forums but do reach through social media sites that those people are already interacting with.

The world view on marketing is having to change to incorporate these social media sites and Paragon Studios is just trying to utilize all of the outlets that they have available to reach people. If you don't adapt to the changing marketplace and the outlets available to you to reach people, you wind up losing a chance to engage those that wouldn't be engaged otherwise.

MUCH better and fair than just a few codes going out and everyone scrambling to get it. I approve

And yet, still with a 10 minute window, when people are mostly at work. More fair than it was, but still kinda Pancake.

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

They did say they'd be doing this until at least 4PM Pacific and possibly later, so there is still a possiblity.

There are some people that still will miss out, but it's a decent compromise.

Someone will always miss out due to work, sleep, internet being down, whatever.

Did the tweet that said 'not eligable' start with @Positron_CoH? If so, its not for you. Positron tried to claim one of the codes and they were replying to him.

Originally Posted by EarthWyrm But I do understand that there is an internet rule that any bad idea must be presented by someone at least twice a year to remind everyone who hasn't already read every previous thread on the topic precisely why the idea is bad.

AH ok, thank you for the clarification. Looking forward to the code... soon... I hope.

Same here -- though I seem to recall that if you're following someone, they should be able to see if you RT something with their Twitter handle in the RT.

It's the direct-message thing that has me scratching my head, because I've actually tried DMing people and been informed by Twitter that I can't DM someone who isn't following me -- and CoH isn't following me...yet.

--
Pauper

Same here, but suspect they've quite a list of folks to go through.

1) Yes, or click where its says, "x new tweats click to show". or make sure you are following them then stay on your hom page which should show each new tweat as it comes in from people you follow.

2) That's what I did and got a code.

Because the accounts and billing are differentiated as to EU and NA accounts.

I imagine that it would take a bit of work to figure out how to combine the different types of accounts without screwing something up and the billing problems would likely be a headache to configure as well.

If they'd set them up originally to not be separate types of accounts or separate billing systems it would likely be pretty easy to merge them.

Hi Guys, complete twitter newbie here that only got up and running today with the kind and generous help of Thirty-Seven

So actually got the start message and the one 10 mins later saying the codes were coming soon. After nearly an hour with no sign of a DM (remembering I am clueless about Twitter) I was idly clicking on the various icons and opened up my profile page. There in the lists and bolded was a new DM notification. It was my code.

If you have not yet checked that location do so now as it might be waiting for you as well. Fingers crossed.

Now to go input it into my account.

Cheers

Well, from the looks of things, only 12 players actually retweeted the announcement in the allotted time. Some people just replied, some people just chatted with the tags (one or both @CityOfHeroes and #cityofheroes).

https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23cityofheroes

To Zwillinger, Hit Streak, and the rest of Paragon Studios:
I will say this. I got a code and applied it to my primary account. If it ever goes on sale on the Paragon Market, I will buy this for my alt account(s). If I don't have enough points on the account(s), I will buy points to do so. Like I said, I'll put my money where I stand on this.

I will continue to develop that time-limited coupon distribution site. There is likely a need for not only Paragon Studios, but other companies as well. I'll let the community team know when it is done to see if you want to evaluate it for future contest use. I know that I don't need months to get approval to build it personally. If you have feature requests, feel free to PM me with them and I'll see what I can do.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

If you are following them and hit Retweet, you shouldn't have to add anything.

Remember however that there was a 10 minute window listed to have to Retweet it within. That's a pretty short time frame but understandable since they have to track all of the retweets and then manually send codes to each person that did the retweet.