Discussion: Introducing Tweet Code Thursdays!

This. A thousand times, this.

Also, why not have another set of codes (for the same item) for loyal forum-goers to encourage players to actually use the fora? Isn't this where we're supposed to be giving feedback to you devs? Wouldn't having more players here help you get more feedback, or at least consolidate it in one place?

FWIW, I agree.

I am faced with two options:

• Do nothing.
• Do something that I don't particularly like but some will find fun and that will increase our audience via another social media platform that has a proven track record of reaching customers.

Like I said. Just as soon as we have NON UNIQUE promotional codes working in the Paragon Market, we'll start utilizing it. We've brainstormed many ideas for fun promotions, we just need the functionality.

Exclusive giveaways are fine, it's just that the method that was chosen for the Dark Matter aura was about the worst way to do it. I don't think anyone complained about the Facepalm emote giveaway because it wasn't a race to see who could input a code within the first 5 seconds of it appearing. That's not the case with this aura. That's the main complaint about this Twitter Thursday thing.

So your research and data indicates that Facebook is an effective tool to reach outside of your regular community, so then you decide to make a promotion only on Twitter?

You've been able to use a code generator app on Facebook in the past, as evidenced with the Facepalm emote giveaway.

So why not use that again? I mean, your research and data clearly shows that people visit/join the CoH community on there. You have a mechanism in place to deliver the codes to nearly anyone would want to use the service (And again, if things have changed and you can no longer use that app, tell us so we can drop the CoH page from our Facebook pages)

To use an extremely crude delivery service of either a picture containing codes or one code just seems dumb.

Give everyone a chance to get the code like the facepalm emote and I'm sure some of us would back down.

This is my position entirely. And I think it is the only reasonable position one can have on this.

Zwill, you seem like an awesome guy... and I guarantee that you have clear goals in mind and a reason for everything you have said... however, I really don't see the passing out of "5-seconds-and-gone" codes for things that everyone clearly wants.

Isn't there a happy medium? Can't something be done like the Facebook promotion for "/e facepalm"? That worked a TON better and pissed off far fewer of the people you want to keep loyal to your brand.

What he said ===^^^

Interesting bit of Community Management science.

No matter how much you promote forum engagement through contests or other carrots, the most amount of players you'll ever see actually registering for your forums is 10%. That's 10% of the entire user base. Ever. Of that 10%, maybe 5% actually actively participates. I've personally seen this across multiple games and shared multiple experiences with my peers that reflects this as being pretty accurate, no matter the game. It's true for CoH (uncannily accurate actually) and I imagine it will remain constant for any other game I work on in the future.

The people who *want* to actively participate in the forums are going to do so, regardless of any carrots we dangle in front of them. Because you care, because you're passionate, you want to be involved with the future of the game.

Like I said previously, we'll have things that are exclusive to the fora, such as the voting for the Retro Sci-Fi costume set as an example. And we're going to definitely use other Social Media platforms to drive people to participate in the forum discussion as much as we can (we regularly link to forum threads on Facebook, Twitter and G+). I want for there to be synergy between all of our Community outlets, which is why we treat them all as equally important.

Like the poster you were replying to, it is just agravating to have to be zombie/automaton like to be able to grab a slot. The /thing/ that you are giving away is even more annoying and frustrating. An Aura, even more, an aura that is based on one of the most famous things about comics art...

Silly costume codes like the Corallax and ect most people wouldnt mind(most, yet people still get annoyed over the exclusivity). The facepalm emote was a great example of something that improved a social media outlet without frustrating as many people as this is. How many codes you give out a day? 10? even if it's 50 it would be spending hours upon hours of refresh to even have a small chance. Heck, even while I was /in game/ with you handing the codes on virtue /right there/, it was only 3 codes with everyone else not being fast enough.

So, I would say a huge part is not the method but the WHAT it is given on this giveaway. I use twitter, facebook, google+(the last two only to follow you and ArenaNet), I understand the value of Social Media... but please, tying an /Epic Aura/ for a handful of people just makes me want to stop watching the twitter feed, not the contrary.

Yes, we're trying to grow another outlet. There's strategery in them thar hills.

The "code generator" wasn't generating anything at all. It was pulling from a static database of codes. It was also programmed by a third party and was a standalone tab on our Facebook page. Something we don't have the option to do on Twitter.

FANTABULOUS IDEA!!!

In fact, it is better than the current method in every way. It makes people actually join Twitter... and then follow you. Which, well, is what you want. Now, people can get around following by just watching the public page.

Is this not an option for some reason?

That's not a bad idea. I could definitely get behind something like this.

Ideally, that's a great idea. I'll look into seeing if that's something we can do that won't require monopolizing my staffs entire day.

We will do what we can with the manpower and resources we have available.

I'd like to know in which way voting for a costume piece is equal to having a piece of exclusive epic aura on my character.*confused/Not sure if serious*

BEST news of the day!! That you are even thinking about it is amazing! I knew my faith in you was well placed.

Perhaps you could make it VERY much like the Facebook giveaway... make it: Send us a tweet now with the word FLARGGLE! and the next 100 people, or 50 or whatever, will get a Code e-mailed? twittered? back to them. That way you don't have like 1,000 people tweet you in like 5 minutes and swamp everyone for hours.

Okay, so I obviously know nothing about community management.

I'm just frustrated that this costume part won't be more accessible to people who aren't into social media and/or aren't lightning-fast code transferers (read; me). I grudgingly followed directions for obtaining the facepalm emote, mostly because it seemed so useful to my in-game characters. I would very much like to get this costume piece, but with the ".5 seconds and gone" version that is Twitter, it's just not worth it.

This is exactly what they are trying to accomplish.

The fail is not on their part, but on ours for assuming that what they want to do is give away costume pieces, when what they want to do is get people to follow them on Twitter, and the costume pieces are just the carrot to get people who wouldn't normally join Twitter or follow a 'corporate' account to do that.

Right now, we sound like the people in the grocery store ******** at the free sample lady that we can't get a whole pizza for free. Please stop.

--
Pauper

I would say that is next to impossible to do. A code has to be applied to be won. Any account being caught petitioning for the code to be removed and sold will likely be flagged with the possibility for the account to be closed.

No, it favors people with fast internet connections and fast typers. It is not in the least a fair "contest". Previous community reps got blasted for doing this type of promotion every single time they did it. Why? It is because for every "winner" there are many more people that did not win.

As to merging the EU and NA codes, did you even think for a minute that because there are less EU players that means you have a wider window to get the codes? Obviously not, given your post.

I actually get why they want traffic going to Twitter. I really do. They don't want to sell to outside players via twitter (though that would be a bonus perk), they want to inform their current players about stuff that is happening in game, like costume contests or building customer relations.

However, that is where players are having the issue. "Contests" like this serve the exact opposite of what they are trying to do. For every player that they establish a positive relation with these codes, they are ticking off far more players. What will happen will be exactly what has happened in the past. Instead of driving people to the social network, the opposite will happen: people will avoid both the contest and twitter.

Way to go heroes.

I suggested a way to do that. See Zwillinger's response (below). Apparently someone hasn't read the manual for the Paragon Market software.

And yet they attempt the same stunt every few years. There are a couple apt quotes for this behavior:
Yep, we've had several community reps get burned by this ploy. And I doubt that the current community team will be the last to suffer from this ploy.
Sadly, they are learning. Just not very fast.

Is someone feeding you a line? I'm sorry, but I'm finding this claim specially hard to believe. All a promocode does is apply a discount to an item in the store or gives a bonus to the customer. The market already applies the same code (it is an account code that has a SKU that is applied to an account). Now I could understand your team not knowing how to use that, but doesn't your market vendor have tech support? Isn't that why Paragon Studios bought an outside market interface for?

I realize that. However I don't think you fully realize what this contest is costing you.

It is costing you followers on twitter.
It is costing you public relations.

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

It's hilarious how inapplicable that example is. But go on thinking that if it makes you happy.

What the majority of us are mad about is that (to keep your analogy) the free sample lady gives ONE taste of pizza to the first person to look at her... and everyone else gets told they can't have any because that guy just ate his. Nevermind the giant pizza behind her.

The Electric-Knight ______ Malfaz _____ Zox'Oculox

@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

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If you want to make it easier for everyone to get these, you could do that with no special resources. Just release a larger number at a time. I don't know how many it would take to make sure there are still codes left 15-30 minutes after the post -- 50? 100? -- but you could experiment.

Releasing codes in ones or small numbers is what makes these so hard to get, and that's not a technical limitation.

Promoting the game and exclusivity are two totally separate things Zwil. The problem I have with this is the latter. I don't even wish for premiums to be treated like this in terms of the vet system, they at least get a stab at it on the market or have a chance to buy the items we get. If anything it should be equal opportunity. Just because you get more attention from one or the other, does not mean you should exempt the bulk of the community, no wait the bulk or the TRUE community who come to the designated site for the game aka the forums to give you real feedback.

EDIT: Why not just move the forums to twitter or FB and be done with it here? /sarcasm

Now with this system you are asking me/us to go to a place some of us don't like to go for personal reasons or otherwise to seize a code that we all should have some chance of purchasing or whatever at a later date (Deja Vu Coralax costume which I am still heated about btw).

AGAIN, not even premium players get treated like this when it comes to things that the vets can sport early on, at least they get a chance to still purchase the things we have... This is pretty silly...

One, that's kind of depressing. I'd like to think my fellow CoH players are brighter than the average internet user. Two, one wonders how these numbers would change if the broken parts of the forums, such as the login, were ever fixed?

As I've said earlier, far too often the price of using social media is your career. You are fortunate, Zwillinger, that Paragon encourages your use of Twitter/Facebook/whatever. Many companies look on such usage as a liability to their business, and a poor reflection on your character.