Allods Online Forum

This looks pretty nice.

I see you CM_Official looking at this thread so since you are looking, I am going to ask you a question.
Is there anything, that will happen in the near future, regarding Allods and advertising?
We would love to see advertising for this game so that the population can grow.
Without advertising, this game will not get the recognition it deserves.

Thanks,


P.S. lower CS prices please.

Quoted from "IAmGroot"

This looks pretty nice.

I see you CM_Official looking at this thread so since you are looking, I am going to ask you a question.
Is there anything, that will happen in the near future, regarding Allods and advertising?
We would love to see advertising for this game so that the population can grow.
Without advertising, this game will not get the recognition it deserves.

Thanks,


P.S. lower CS prices please.

would like to know about this as well.

Ok, ok, you get me, so I will answer.

Advertisement for any medium project, such as ours, is a very tricky thing. You need to be certain that each cent paid will benefit the project. Unfortunately, the internet is currently overloaded with advertisements – which cost a lot whilst the return profit is pretty low. Most players reactions to advertisement are – “Ohhh, another MMO… I don't care about it”. It is a very big problem for all projects - not just Allods.

First year of operation was quite crazy due to lots of issues with transfers. It was a choice between spending 1ECent for transferring players or spending 1ECent to get this player from advertisement. From an economical perspective, spending money on transfer was much more efficient. You could remind lots of transfer-haters on our forum previously that we were really working hard on helping them.

At the end of the winter we managed to break this trend and free our very limited resources in order to put them towards payment options, site updates and improving our overall services - followed by GC,which has recently been updated. In short, there are several improvements in progress across the board. I can't say what they will be, but it will happen - and you will see with your own eyes. When all this is implemented, tested and goes live, we will be ready to launch advs - but please note that you will not see Allods Online on a milk bottle, as such adverts are useless for us. We would have to spend crazy amounts of money to launch it, which would press monetization in a crazy way that would definitely kill the project.

Our advs will be aimed at the sources of players who like games such as Allods and, therefore, the value which we will need to spend for each user will be reasonable enough to match current profit/costs balance.

To summarize: Advs is only one of many ways in which we can promote the project. Improving service quality and overall player satisfaction could bring much more on the first stage. It was our focus during the first year and, because of some threads about returning players and their stats I could assume that this goal was reached during first year of operations. So yes, we are planning to launch advs after all current preparations will be finished.

Awesome!
Thank you for taking the time to respond to that. It was actually refreshing to hear that AT SOME POINT there will be advertising.
I hope it works.

Please explain why we are not here

Hi there!

I must, at first hand, congratulate you for the new Game Center interface. Any change, for the good of the game, is always welcome.

Second, my post goes to CM_Official in order to write what i thought after reading his.

Quoted from "CM_official"

Advertisement for any medium project, such as ours, is a very tricky thing. You need to be certain that each cent paid will benefit the project. Unfortunately, the internet is currently overloaded with advertisements – which cost a lot whilst the return profit is pretty low. Most players reactions to advertisement are – “Ohhh, another MMO… I don't care about it”. It is a very big problem for all projects - not just Allods.

I do understand that, in every company, games, cars, or what it is, there a budgets and dream goals. Each dream goal must be a step and the budget makes its size. But, in online games, the goal is measured in how far will we go in the internet market to make our product good. It's the very own Internet that is showcase of our product. "The eyes eat too!". So if the plan is to grow, advertisement is required if it is only to maintain, no advertisement is needed...
There are many companies that wouldn't be that big without the additional effort on advertisement after that, the product makes is own advertisement. There are many, many, online games but what makes the difference it's their content, how they sell it, and how they maintain it. Here, i see in Allods, a good product, don't see advertisement, and the support clearly needs a bit improvement about how equal is Allods to other My.Com games.

Quoted from "CM_official"

First year of operation was quite crazy due to lots of issues with transfers. It was a choice between spending 1ECent for transferring players or spending 1ECent to get this player from advertisement. From an economical perspective, spending money on transfer was much more efficient. You could remind lots of transfer-haters on our forum previously that we were really working hard on helping them.

I couldn't disagree more here. It shouldn't, never, be a choice to keep players or get new ones. The outcome if you had chosen new players instead of maintaining those that already play for years and spent dozens of euros/dollars would be, for sure, the death of Allods Online because after that, you would be really publicized but, for worst reasons ever.

Quoted from "CM_official"

At the end of the winter we managed to break this trend and free our very limited resources in order to put them towards payment options, site updates and improving our overall services - followed by GC,which has recently been updated. In short, there are several improvements in progress across the board. I can't say what they will be, but it will happen - and you will see with your own eyes. When all this is implemented, tested and goes live, we will be ready to launch advs - but please note that you will not see Allods Online on a milk bottle, as such adverts are useless for us. We would have to spend crazy amounts of money to launch it, which would press monetization in a crazy way that would definitely kill the project.

I am, truly, happy to see that improvements are on the table and sooner or later we will get them. I never thought to be drinking milk looking to a bottle and see a fat Orc or a trio of Gibbs and think "Where did this milk came from!?!?". Joking of course...
When i, and i thing everyone, speaks about advertisement, say that you should have MMORP.com or MMOHUNT and MMOBOMB, having recent reviews/publicity of the game there. Or to be on online games sites and see Allods as a background image like in many websites. There many, many games doing it and i don't believe, even for a second, that they can be better than Allods.
Whenever i want to see the new trends of MMORPG world, i see advertisement in so many ways about every game and never, about Allods.
Allods is game that deserves the initial effort to be advertised and then, even the game and your work will do the rest. I've spoken to new players claming they never eared about Allods and, for accident, came to the game.
For many years, the small population that met this game, spoke about a P2W game which made players go away. It's time for you to fight that idea.
Don't underestimate Allods Online. This game is great and have everything to be on top 10 of online games. And i am talking about thousands players and not the 1000 or 1.500 actual players only because no one see this game anywhere.

Quoted from "CM_official"

To summarize: Advs is only one of many ways in which we can promote the project. Improving service quality and overall player satisfaction could bring much more on the first stage. It was our focus during the first year and, because of some threads about returning players and their stats I could assume that this goal was reached during first year of operations. So yes, we are planning to launch advs after all current preparations will be finished.

Again, glad to read. Yes, you made improvements. Yes, you had a lot of work this past moths with transfers and merges. Only a mad person would thing this a CTRL+C and CTRL+V work.
You still have a lot of work ahead but trust me, slowly, with work and advertisement, you can make this rough diamond into something you could, today, not imagine.
In the online games business, it's a war everyday to present new contents, new styles, good support and selling the best image of the product.
I do understand, because of my work, that risks are to be measured and market have to be study in order to invest but, one investment sentence that should be always on your walls is this:

"In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable." - Robert Arnott


Have a nice day.

O_O *rubs eyes*

the part with internet-ads is really true, "everyone" blocks ads on the internet for a good reason
money spent on internt-ads is lost & wasted money if its not your goal to do tracking, phishing or install trojans on computers of ppl who have little technical knowledge
people HATE internet-ads and this will eventually be negative publicity for allods
so the only way advertsing could happen in a proper way would be to make reports about allods on gaming -sites or make "letsplay videos" or something, so ppl who seek this info will find it but those who dont care wont get molested

the youtube videos from allods-team are great and i like how the girls present new content etc, its very pleasent to watch this!!

i also share the opinion that having a high QoS is more important than luring masses of new players that stay for a few days only
allods is one of the very few interntgames that IMPROVE their product in general instead of making it worse every patch - this makes me happy

as for main topic: pretty please make a "remember password" option for the normal launcher.exe

Quoted

allods is one of the very few interntgames that IMPROVE their product in general instead of making it worse every patch

Dropping the free-merc flights in favour of having Wellebell wasn't an improvement.

Quoted from "steveread999"

Dropping the free-merc flights in favour of having Wellebell wasn't an improvement.

Free mercs are back with 6.0.1

Quoted from "GuessItsAmber"

Please explain why we are not here

This decision was taken during transfer. In a nutshell, global portal have very strict rules for projects. A year ago it was obvious that we couldn't meet them in near future. To be honest, nobody was sure that project team would manage to keep the project alive during all these crazy transfers and other "adventures of the first year".

Before the transfer we've read tons of negative feedback from users about idea of transfer. In these circumstances, placing project on main page and using name allods.my.com was frobidden. I hope it is obvious why this was the case.

Project team have to prove that the project had real potential after transfers. We've managed to do so, and we are on our way to meet all other criteria of main site. I can't predict the exact day we'll be there, but we will do our best to meet all criteria.

Quoted from "CM_official"

Quoted from "GuessItsAmber"

Please explain why we are not here

This decision was taken during transfer. In a nutshell, global portal have very strict rules for projects. A year ago it was obvious that we couldn't meet them in near future. To be honest, nobody was sure that project team would manage to keep the project alive during all these crazy transfers and other "adventures of the first year".

Before the transfer we've read tons of negative feedback from users about idea of transfer. In these circumstances, placing project on main page and using name allods.my.com was frobidden. I hope it is obvious why this was the case.

Project team have to prove that the project had real potential after transfers. We've managed to do so, and we are on our way to meet all other criteria of main site. I can't predict the exact day we'll be there, but we will do our best to meet all criteria.

This is SO GOOD to read, logical explanations backed with facts <3 <3
Exactly as I suspected. Great to have it officially confirmed.

When the project finally meets requirements and you put it there we can expect a surge of new players.

Quoted from "abobora"

I must, at first hand, congratulate you for the new Game Center interface. Any change, for the good of the game, is always welcome.

Thanks

Quoted from "abobora"

So if the plan is to grow, advertisement is required if it is only to maintain, no advertisement is needed...
There are many companies that wouldn't be that big without the additional effort on advertisement after that, the product makes is own advertisement. There are many, many, online games but what makes the difference it's their content, how they sell it, and how they maintain it. Here, i see in Allods, a good product, don't see advertisement, and the support clearly needs a bit improvement about how equal is Allods to other My.Com games.

Lot's of good words - but the reality is much tougher and simpler. You have retention rates on each step of user involvment. You have to multply all of them to count how many users should see advertisement in order to add one more user to the game. After that, you get prices for adverts and the average price of +1 user. At times, this price can be so big that there is no way to get this money back. The first step SHOULD be decreasing conversion rates. Otherwise, adverts/advertising will kill the project finance balance.

Quoted

When i, and i thing
everyone, speaks about advertisement, say that you should have MMORP.com
or MMOHUNT and MMOBOMB, having recent reviews/publicity of the game
there. Or to be on online games sites and see Allods as a background
image like in many websites. There many, many games doing it and i don't
believe, even for a second, that they can be better than Allods.

We are trying to move in this direction, but most sites do not perform reviews for free. Once again, it boils down to conversion rates between 'site readers' to 'potential allods gamer'. "Money, money, money"

Quoted from "abobora"

Don't underestimate Allods Online. This game is great and have everything to be on top 10 of online games. And i am talking about thousands players and not the 1000 or 1.500 actual players only because no one see this game anywhere.

The project team really believes in the project - otherwise, we would not agree to all these transfers and risking our carriers with attempts that do not have examples in games operation history (as far as I know). It was much easier to close the project a year ago without ANY risks to my.com brand. Saving the project was an act of belief. After that, you have to convert your will to real business process that will keep the project alive and let it flourish.

Quoted

I
do understand, because of my work, that risks are to be measured and
market have to be study in order to invest but, one investment sentence
that should be always on your walls is this:
"In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable." - Robert Arnott

100% agree - but please note that all our money comes from you, so we can't use venture strategy. Yes, risks should be taken - and operation takover was such a risk - but it should be limited by "cold mind calculated" conversions and other KPI values which allow you to take reasonable risks. Because we are somehow working with money which you have invested into our project, because of your attitude to it.

P.S.

And back to advertisement. Current internet advs games market is mortal combat. Players are able to move between projects without any problems, exept when downloading a new client. You can't compare it to a car or any other real life market where you have to pay to quit. Market is very full and there is only one way to get profit. You have to get not just any player base - but create a loyal one. In current MMO's, only loyal players will buy something and invest in projects with such a move. That is why you can't use simple adv strategies. It should be calculated very precisely.

Quoted from "CM_official"

Quoted from "abobora"

I must, at first hand, congratulate you for the new Game Center interface. Any change, for the good of the game, is always welcome.

Thanks

Quoted from "abobora"

So if the plan is to grow, advertisement is required if it is only to maintain, no advertisement is needed...
There are many companies that wouldn't be that big without the additional effort on advertisement after that, the product makes is own advertisement. There are many, many, online games but what makes the difference it's their content, how they sell it, and how they maintain it. Here, i see in Allods, a good product, don't see advertisement, and the support clearly needs a bit improvement about how equal is Allods to other My.Com games.

Lot's of good words - but the reality is much tougher and simpler. You have retention rates on each step of user involvment. You have to multply all of them to count how many users should see advertisement in order to add one more user to the game. After that, you get prices for adverts and the average price of +1 user. At times, this price can be so big that there is no way to get this money back. The first step SHOULD be decreasing conversion rates. Otherwise, adverts/advertising will kill the project finance balance.

Quoted

When i, and i thing
everyone, speaks about advertisement, say that you should have MMORP.com
or MMOHUNT and MMOBOMB, having recent reviews/publicity of the game
there. Or to be on online games sites and see Allods as a background
image like in many websites. There many, many games doing it and i don't
believe, even for a second, that they can be better than Allods.

We are trying to move in this direction, but most sites do not perform reviews for free. Once again, it boils down to conversion rates between 'site readers' to 'potential allods gamer'. "Money, money, money"

Quoted from "abobora"

Don't underestimate Allods Online. This game is great and have everything to be on top 10 of online games. And i am talking about thousands players and not the 1000 or 1.500 actual players only because no one see this game anywhere.

The project team really believes in the project - otherwise, we would not agree to all these transfers and risking our carriers with attempts that do not have examples in games operation history (as far as I know). It was much easier to close the project a year ago without ANY risks to my.com brand. Saving the project was an act of belief. After that, you have to convert your will to real business process that will keep the project alive and let it flourish.

Quoted

I
do understand, because of my work, that risks are to be measured and
market have to be study in order to invest but, one investment sentence
that should be always on your walls is this:
"In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable." - Robert Arnott

100% agree - but please note that all our money comes from you, so we can't use venture strategy. Yes, risks should be taken - and operation takover was such a risk - but it should be limited by "cold mind calculated" conversions and other KPI values which allow you to take reasonable risks. Because we are somehow working with money which you have invested into our project, because of your attitude to it.

P.S.

And back to advertisement. Current internet advs games market is mortal combat. Players are able to move between projects without any problems, exept when downloading a new client. You can't compare it to a car or any other real life market where you have to pay to quit. Market is very full and there is only one way to get profit. You have to get not just any player base - but create a loyal one. In current MMO's, only loyal players will buy something and invest in projects with such a move. That is why you can't use simple adv strategies. It should be calculated very precisely.

I can say I am actually very pleased that you guys are now starting to answer our questions it seemed in the 1st year you guys seemed to never answer us and were total ghosts to the players. You answering all these questions really does bring light to Allods keeping alive. I hope when everything is said and done and you are able to complete everything and advertising goes through you guys will start paying more attention to the in game such things as appearing infront of the actual player base and holding events that engages the community as a whole and not just things on facebook or the forums. Ty again for answering the questions a lot of people have been wondering for over a year now.

Quoted

Free mercs are back with 6.0.1

Is that out on our servers yet?

no
but im happy that they do it in the future; its better to admit a failure and fix it than keep it up that way for all the time
they way we have it sow is crappy, either have key trade-in-able for loot or free mercs, at least one of these things should be possible everytime