Questions to the Admins...

[Meanwhile]

Is there anything new that Decklin or the admins can tell us??

[Growler]

I hate to express this, but it sure seems like we're getting strung along here.. we get--what?--a brief post or two from 1 or 2 devs every 3 months or so...seems like we're into it (keeping the forum alive) more than They are! Grrr....

Can understand they've got limited resources & time or whatever--but why the heck not At Least post here periodically? It would take maybe an average of 5 mins a day--for Origen's sake!

I think they created a really cool game, but then to practically abandon their own forum?!

At least offer some reason (if any) why in tarnation they can't friggin' pop in here & answer questions or just offer tips or do polls or create challenges, etc??

One thing they could explain is Why not release the source code? I'm willing to accept there may be a good rationed ale.. but for all our posts about it----nothing but....crickets.

The opposite o' cool. (& know--knot hot!)

[jykler]

Hey guys, I think they wanted me to keep up with the forums but I have absolutely no answers for any of this. I can keep the forums from crashing, that's my role. I have another full time job that tends to eat away at my free time so I forget to stop in here every day...
PM Me if you need to get my attention.
--Jeanne / Jykler

[Growler]

Thanks for responding & keeping the forums up.

Did you help develop DW?

[jykler]

No, I was an Alpha/Beta tester but didn't ever get into the dev of it. They wanted me to learn the stuff, so I could help, but ... then work got really busy and you know how RL goes, it takes away from GL!! Now I rarely get to play any games
I did buy some stock in the company though....
Jeanne

[Growler]

Methinks Dommy wuz a Beta-blocker tester back in the day..

So has SSDW stock split & doubled several times?? (hopefully not a reversi split!)

And did it ever git listed on the NY Stock Xchange?

Seriously, if they had played their marketing cards better/longer, I think they could've slap-batted 1 outta the park.. or at least gotten a double.

[jykler]

not that I am aware of... I don't know if they are worth anything anymore, I haven't really been inquisitive about it ... I usually deal with Jon Starnes and now Decklin since the last forum crash.
I did help re-build this forum the first time it crashed ....
I guess I'm a little involved eh? LOL

[Growler]

in fur a penny,
in fur a pounding!

[skaven510]

Hi everyone,

First off I'm really glad to see recent posts here, I was afraid DW went the way of the Dodo and became extinct.

I'm unaware of any problems that were hinted at earlier about creating info on pages like myspace and whatnot so please bear in mind of that fact if my suggestions were already mentioned earlier.

Ok on to the suggestions. I'm an MBA student and marketing is my subject right now. As far as marketing goes this is an extreme niche market and as such DW should concentrate on places that deal with these types of products. Growler made some great suggestions about P&P roleplaying stores and the fairs. This next suggestion may or maynot be feasable. Try to do some reports for indie market like the owner of Spiderweb does. His product is also Niche but makes a decent living from it (even though he goes on in great detail about how difficult it is and anyone attempting to enter the scene is insane) There is a market for these types of games espcially for those who grew up playing Bards Tale, Ultima, POR etc... The biggest problem DW has is that it hasn't been in the news on any RPG news pages for quite awhile. Like rpgdot and later rpgwatch were where I found out about DW in the first place and bought it when it was released.

If you don't release the source code (I have no idea about what was said about this because I haven't been here since DW made me buy another copy of DW with that whole subscription thing) If you don't do that then your best bet would be to release new content and make Da*n sure that credible RPG websites know it because they WILL post the new content and get the word out about the product. rpgwatch, codex, ect... maybe even IGN, gamespy and others but those sites won't be targeting your audience as much as watch would be (IGN is mostly for lame console products but that is a whole other subject in itself).

My last suggestion would be to stay consistant. From what I read in this first post here there are some major changes going on behind the scenes and the product looks like it is up in the wind whether it will be continued or discountinued. Bethesda plays this game also with not releasing any info on their product and just from a personal point of view it drives the public nuts. Not one word about what Fallout 3 will be like. Not a smart move to make your consumers angry with lack of info in my opinion.

Bottom line is get new content out there and let the news RPG pages know about it. Oh and update the homepage of DW it looks like its a dead project because there hasn't been any new postings in quite awhile. I assumed this before I even checked out the forums.

Ok last last suggestion, this one isn't so much to do with marketing but to do with my experience. The biggest problem with DW and the reason I stopped coming was with the whole yearly subscription thing. It really made me mad when I had to 'renew' my ability to download this product. Back when I bought this game I didn't have a cd-burner and didn't care to have one and when I finally did get one, I found out I had to renew my subscription to buy this game again. It's not a MMO and on principal I will not play a MMO just for the simple fact that they make me keep buying a product that I already paid for. This is just a personal observation and it might of worked out positively for DW to go this route, I have no idea.

Well that's my 2 cents worth for today Keep in mind that all of the above is just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions and as*h**es. Everybody has got one and they all stink and there is my bad joke of the day 8)


By the way Growler dude you have been here forever. I'm glad to see that your still here. You and the other guy (I don't remember his name) were the funniest two guys here. See ya all later. I'm off to BUY this game again because I have an itch to play a good RPG that can't be scratched by the nonsense that is released by the main stream. I'm SOOOO tired of kill everything no story types of RPGs, but that is a subject for another time.


Skaven

[skaven510]

okay just renewed the game subscription and have got to say I was really surprised that the beta patch wasn't updated yet. This would go perfectly into what I just said about updating DW and letting the RPG websites know. Just finish the patch let the websites know and bam your target audience is aware of your product again. Anyways just an observation.


Skaven

[Growler]

Skaven, great to see ya postin' here!

Hope you'll continue to.. we knead fresh blood to knit-pick upon..

You made whole herds o' terrific marketing suggestions--just hope some devil..devies? are listening.

I feel like I've been whistling in the wind for the past couple years trying to get 'em to do some basic marketing, but apparently there's some humperholdup..?

Fully agree re: the yearly subscriptioning costs.. it wouldn't be nearly so bad if they were actually offering new/improved tools, content, patches & such & they made the cost nominal.

For now, I refuse to renew--at least until there's new goodies.

Thanks for da humorous kudos, but to be more than faire if less than kind, old man Origen wuz sharpening his talons (& talents) prior to moi's arrival. So he's one of the true elders & has the grey (in both ear & taintly places ) to prove it!

Meanwhile, don't let the Gruesome Dommer or Origenal Sen(rat) scare ya off.

And if ye be seeking groovy new content to play--check out the mods by Origen, Rickstavern, & now Dragonbait!

[skaven510]

That was his name Ogrin I saw that whole story about the orgins of ogrin. Man that was a long read but I never did get the clue book for bards tale so it was an interesting read.

Don't worry about leaving I'm a big fan of underdogs in general and I'm training to be a souless minion of the marketing god 8) so I'll try to add some relevant content from time to time and other times I'll just count my gold coins like good old ebenezer scrooge

From what I've read in the forums a few things could be going on behind the scenes.

A) a power struggle (unlikely)
B) The cost of making the game is outweighing the profits (possible but unsure due to no research)
C) Pure boredom, you may have seen many examples of this awhile ago when everyone and their mother was making a mod for ultima, however only a few managed to stick to it when the going got tough. (possible but since they did finish the product I don't think so)
D) They want to emulate Bethesda (highly unlikely but just wanted to through that in because I never pass up a chance to stick it to good old Beth)
or E) Extreme technical difficulties (once again highly unlikely due to the amount of time the last patch was released, any difficulties should of been squashed with that amount of time.

Ok that's all I got for now. It's good to see ya all and hope something develops with the devs. They did make a good game that is superior to many main stream games IMO. Unfortunatly the click fest main stream is in the majority and it's difficult for RPGs and espcially old school RPGs to get a foot hold in that market.

Growler nobody scares off a marketer, we're like the undead. Kill us and we keep coming back again and again and again. My professor could be the most evil man I know. He's so evil that he has his copy of the necronomicon and is searching for a way to summon Cthulhu.

Anyways see ya later and does Ogrin still come around?

Skaven

[Meanwhile]

Meanwhile, don't let the Gruesome Dommer or Origenal Sen(rat) scare ya off.

Huh? Nothin' scare's ol' Meanwhile!

+Welcome back skaven! Seems like we're getting more and more people coming back to these forums, which is really great!

Oh yeah and on the "Real Origen" thread, I had tried to put the whole thing on that post but got cut off. There was actually more to it than was posted!

[origen]

I don't know about Ogrin, but I still stop around. It used to be much busier here, especially awaiting the game, and once it was released. I may not be the longest current member, but it will probably be close. Before the forums went down the first time, I was the highest poster (although unlike our good friend Growler, most of my posts actually had some purpose).

When the toolkit was first released, there was a few of us who were working on some mods. We even had one of the developers frequent the forums, FyL, who provided a lot of scripting help.

It would be nice if a toolkit upgrade would happen, to fix some of the problems.

[Growler]

like our Good friend Growler..

*so sweetly poignant*