i'll try to clarify my position better:
fan activity is the key to evaluating how successfully you're running your business. think of it like an NFL football team, let's go with the Detriot Lions (no offense lions fans, but they work for the example). last season they had the second worst average attendance out of all 32 teams. why was nobody going to the games? because the product (the football team) was terrible. fans responded by not going to the games, i.e. inactivity. they weren't happy with the way they were being treated by the organization because the organization couldn't provide a quality product. now i'm not trying to equate TW products to a crappy american football team, but trying to show that fan activity level is a telling sign for measuring success. right now all of the site's forums are pretty inactive and RO/DH and KF active player numbers have gone way down over the past half year. as a business, if my fans' activity levels had dropped that much, i'd be a bit concerned and look for ways to boost that activity level back up.
of course there will ultimately there be huge news updates and eventually KF will get its update and HOS will be released, and yes there is bound to be an influx in activity and costumers flocking to the site etc.... TW knows that and we all know that and you'd have to be pretty ignorant to not believe that will happen. but there's no reason why there can't be a little more effort put into keeping this community as happy and active as possible until all of that happens. that shows your current fanbase that you care about them, that you want to give them the best product and experience possible and that you will be just as loyal to them as they are to you. the point i was trying to make with my suggestions was that there are some pretty simple yet effective ways that TW could keep the
current community more engaged and essentially happier.
oh and with regards to this whole train analogy....let's think of it as an airplane instead. the airline company told us a plane would "soon" depart for a certain destination. so a lot of people buy tickets and get to the terminal. we sit in the terminal for 2 hours as our plane is delayed. people are getting annoyed, onlookers are saying, man that doesn't look fun. finally, a glimmer of hope, we're actually boarding! some progress!
now we're on the plane, but again a delay. we've been sitting on the tarmac for another 60 minutes, people are getting tired and the kiddies are getting ancy. people in the airport are looking at the delayed plane and the logo on the side saying "man, i'm never gonna fly US Airways now!". many people on the plane are saying, "i'm never gonna fly US Airways again". sure some longtime frequent fliers will still fly US Airways, but the majority of passengers are casual fliers and casual fliers account for the majority of ticket sales.
but once the plane gets going, the passengers are happy there's finally a real sign that they're on the way to their destination. now the plane could stay at a nice steady speed and never have to pick up any speed because the pilot gives us an estimation as to how long it will take to reach our destination. everyone relaxes and enjoys the ride. oh, what's that, the stewardess is coming around with snacks? extra goodies, awesome! hmmm, this in-flight magazine has some interesting articles to read. an in-flight movie you say? oh nice that will help pass the time. what's that, the pilot just said prepare for landing? oh look out the window, i can see the destination, this is awesome i'm getting pumped up to finally arrive! airplane lands, passengers are thrilled to reach the destination and now are ready to enjoy everything it has to offer! and perhaps, just perhaps, most people forget about their poor start to the trip because the snacks were good, the movie was enjoyable, and OH they have a great vacation.
now compare that to our situation. the initial game announcement was our flight announcement. we bought our tickets, went to the terminal and sat for a little bit. the shakey cam and two news updates were our boarding call. right now, we're on the plane sitting on the tarmac waiting to get going. we just need that plane to start takeoff, the captain to announce "we're at 50,000ft and estimated time of arrival is etc..." once we know, we sit back and enjoy the inflight services. instead of snacks, a movie and a magazine, we can get screenshots, some demo videos, and some exclusive articles from the Devs themselves. as we move closer to the destination, the "landing announcement" could be the big marketing campaign that get's us all hyped up as we wait to pull into the terminal and finally reach our destination. oh and that estimated time of arrival, do they say the exact minute the plane will arrive? no, but at least you'll know the day and maybe hour at least. TW doesn't even have to give the exact day to keep people happy. at this point, people will be happy to at least have the year, and thrilled to have the quarter....heck a month would have people crying with happiness.
anyway enough with all that.......back to marketing suggestions: what i've suggested a couple posts ago, and what zets suggested as well have a lot of positive things in them. of course, only our observations and suggestions and based on the assumptions that TW has not already thought about or planned to implement those ideas. oh and chicken, yes please tell alan i say hai and please direct him to this thread if you could, although i'm confident he will most likely find it on his own as there are so few "new posts" in the forums these days and the highlighted thread title should immediately grab his attention
again, all this is out of love. i've actually got some more marketing suggestions but i'll wait a little to post em since i've got a long enough post going already muahauahah
