The Christmas Donations Request...

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The Christmas Donations Request...

Post by korexus » Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:36 am

... Will not be happening this year, as I have paid our server bills to December 2008 and we still have over a year in hand beyond that, thanks to generous donations from members over the last year.

However, I would like to take this opportunity to raise once more the question of what we should be doing with the money. It is nice that our player base is dedicated enough to keep us solvent two years into the future, but to an extent that is wasted money. Someone on these boards must have knowledge of advertising and/or promoting small businesses, let's have suggestions for how to let WoK grow and become more successful!

Once again, a big thanks to all the contributers to Kaomaris over the last year, whether it be financially, by providing skills or through sheer enthusiasm!


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Post by Dragonette » Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:04 pm

Well, you could promote it in your classes, you never know peoples tastes, and someone in your classes could be interested in it. They could even get other family members and friends to join in.

Other people could spread the news around their place of work, if on computers, let someone [ not in higher authority ] see it, and then they will ask whats that and they may be interested.

Then some people can spread news in the pub, restraunt, bus station or even while taking a taxi.

I have got a friend on this site, that just talks to me through PM until she gets aquainted with the way the game works, and thats good for the site making it more helpful for the site in the long run.

D

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Post by Hannibal » Sun Dec 30, 2007 6:20 pm

And a big thank you back to Kor, from all of us I'm sure, for keeping the engine running and much more. :2thumbs:
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Post by Hryllantre » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:38 pm

Ditto... Well done korexus and Happy New Year to you all...

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Post by SmashFace » Tue Jan 01, 2008 11:10 pm

Merry Christmas Kor! and i will be asking around, seeing as my college is a business college and my roomates are business majors, but to what extent they have for advertising i don't beleive they are all that knowlegable, but perhaps they have some ideas.
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Post by Tinker » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:46 am

One thing I know about business (from my wife, who is working on her MBa) is that it's really important to know what your goals are before you start spending money. Is the goal to expand the player base of WOK? Is it to make it commercially viable, somehow earning money for itself? Defining that goal goes a long way towards determining what you think is worth spending money on.
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Post by TBert » Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:36 am

I can answer that question Tinker. Even if any of us wanted to make money from this game, it's never been set up that way and never will. Since players attract more players, the goal will probably be... more players. The question then is, where would we want to advertise to best bring in more players?
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Post by Tinker » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:36 pm

How about boardgamegeek.com? They have ads, and that's where you'll find a good glut of strategy gamers.
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Post by korexus » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:41 pm

TBert wrote:Even if any of us wanted to make money from this game, it's never been set up that way and never will.
True, but not complete, TBert. WoK will always be free to play. Anyone who suggested charging players to join the community or games would risk the ghost of Jacob Gassner coming through the wall and rattling chains at them. (Although Al did suggest that once. Hmm...)

However WoK does have certain costs. The main one being the server bills, up to now (and for the forseeable future) we're ok on those, but it would be nice to know that they'll continue to be paid. WoK used to get some income from advertising, this was gradually scaled back to reduce annoyance, but the banner ads were only removed when I discovered it was them that broke the forums. I wouldn't be averse to a small revenue from discrete sources such as banners or a google search box, but won't put them in unless members agree.

Back to Tinkers' question. My aim at this point would be to increase the player base. We've come back from the brink of destruction, but are still a little bit too close for comfort. Within the last fortnight two of our oldest players have had to disappear again for an unspecified amount of time, I'd prefer a larger player base to keep WoK solid.

I'm sure we all do word of mouth advertising to people who we think will be interested, which is great as it tends to bring in motivated players who have someone to guide them through the first few turns. But it also restricts the networks we draw from. Tinker plays in a gaming group with Ultyguy which brought him in and is good, but most of the people Ultyguy knows who like games probably play in the same group.

My thought process was to sign up for Google ad-sense and ad-words. If people used an on site search engine then they'd be supporting Kaomaris as Google would pay us a small amount of money everytime someone followed a sponsored link. We could then put any revenue from this along with some of our capital into having our own sponsored links appearing on Google. Another option is to put pay-per-impression banners back at the top as these slowly accumulate some cash without interfering in users' browsing experience.

We should also get re-reviewed by the Wargamer and maybe some others, but best to wait till Avanced WoK is live before doing that...


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Post by Dragonette » Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:27 pm

I have tried many a time to get people interested in school, but it does not work. Which is a bit of a shame,as if work wishes to continue through more generations then we need to attract people of all ages.

Maybe someone should do a information page, with pictures, colour and words to go on google and/or wikipedia. Something to attract people of all ages.

I understand that you don't want loads of young people taking over, but maybe a few would help.

d

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Re: The Christmas Donations Request...

Post by Hannibal » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:28 pm

korexus wrote: Someone on these boards must have knowledge of advertising and/or promoting small businesses, let's have suggestions for how to let WoK grow and become more successful!

Chris.
I've left it a week or two for others to suggest, but I guess I should really step up to the plate.

Having been vice chairman of the HQ of the then-world's-biggest ad agency (Saatchis) ... this was before I decided that, after 20 years at it, relaxing and gaming and writing etc. might be a softer lifestyle ...

So, I know a bit about advertising. But for small businesses? Hmm. I'm more used to advising British Airways, Procter&Gamble, British Rail, Lloyds Bank, Campbell Soups, PowerGen, HSBC, Chae Manhattan, Schweppes, Anchor, Flymo, BBC, Norwich Union etc. on how to spend a few £million ... But, hey, the principles ought to be the same!

Maybe they're not, so I might be wrong.

I see a huge and award-winning global TV advertising campaign ... no, maybe not this time. Must think differently ...

The issue is about the right target groups that we can reach cost-effectively.

I'm in danger of drifting off into an MBA tutorial. I'll postpone that (phew!).

Best hit you with some ACTION first. I've listed us on pbm.com, and got a relationship going with Greg Lindahl who runs it. More explanation when I have time.

Weeks ago, I asked LM to post on Board Game Geek. But LM is busy. So I'm transferring the task to Ultyguy.

But this is just doing the obvious (now that we are almost ready to optimise the experience of triallists).

They are things we MUST do, as defaults, but not the best we can do. See later, or this would be too long.

Meanwhile, why is this hidden in "Chit chat"? Few of us might notice it? How about promoting it to Announcements or General?

Han.
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Post by Hannibal » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:37 pm

Tinker wrote:One thing I know about business (from my wife, who is working on her MBa) is that it's really important to know what your goals are before you start spending money. Is the goal to expand the player base of WOK? Is it to make it commercially viable, somehow earning money for itself? Defining that goal goes a long way towards determining what you think is worth spending money on.
Good question. Objectives before strategy before action.

We have been too close to collapsing, and are too sensitive to 2 or 3 regulars taking a year off. We need a bigger player base to move us up from living on the edge of failing.

BUT, that does NOT mean that are our objective is to MAXIMISE the number of players. No commercial imperative to do that! And it would risk losing the community-feel where you know (of) most of the players. And would increase the ratio of uncommitted to committed...

So, I suggest our objective, first, now, is to get to about 100 current players, of the right sort, and less likely to go M-3 and disappear. This is different from maximising trial, or maximising number of players to thousands. It is about optimising trial and triallists ... And ending up with a community we enjoy.

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Post by Dragonette » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:11 pm

i know ..... people give me some tips on what they want and i will aim some things at young adults [teenagers]. We wont have to use them if we don't like the finished result but maybe we should give it a go.

d

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Post by Mullog » Fri Jan 04, 2008 8:08 pm

hA<b>n</b>n<b><i>i</i></b>Ba<i><b>L</b></i> wrote: BUT, that does NOT mean that are our objective is to MAXIMISE the number of players. No commercial imperative to do that! And it would risk losing the community-feel where you know (of) most of the players. And would increase the ratio of uncommitted to committed...

So, I suggest our objective, first, now, is to get to about 100 current players, of the right sort, and less likely to go M-3 and disappear. This is different from maximising trial, or maximising number of players to thousands. It is about optimising trial and triallists ... And ending up with a community we enjoy.
I agree! Getting thousands of players would be madness and would probably make the game less enjoyable for most players. The good thing about Kaomaris (in my opinion) is the small size of the community. We may not know every player we meet, but we know of their reputation and we have some idea about who they are, and that makes a huge difference when playing. It means that playing WOK is more like playing a board game with friends than playing an online game with a bunch of strangers.
But, the problem is as Han mentioned that we need enough players to have a living community. Excactly how many players that is is open for discussion, but it should be enough players that there is always a game running. On the other hand we don't want so many players that it gets difficult to join a game (due to them filling up too quickly) and we do not want a bunch of players just playing a turn or two.

I like the recruit-a-friend strategy since it has a built-in screening process (they have at least some idea about what the game is) and since it keeps growth at a slow but steady pace. If we had run Han's highly successful TV advertising campaign we would get 10000 new players in a week and the entire site would crash due to the overload it would cause. And any players joining a game would end up confused with no experienced player to guide them through their first game(s).
Maybe we could have a recruit-a-friend competition where the player that brought in the most new players would get a big price in the WOK Store? "The Platinum Award of Excellent Bringing In". 8)

Don't get me wrong - I don't oppose the idea of advertising the game, but I think we should be careful with what we wish for.

Getting the game reviewed in some board game magazines/websites sounds like a good idea. Maybe we could get some game-bloggers to write about us? Maybe even get a few commercial game sites to try the game? Some of them write about independent games as well as the blockbusters so they might be interested.

One last thought... Should we consider changing web hosts? If we have some spare money we could consider an upgrade to the web server. If we ever grow to many hundred active players we will have to do this anyway so we might be interested in doing an upgrade now. (I can hear Chris screaming - NOOOOOOOOOOO - as I type this. hehe...)


Hey! This is the longest post I've ever written! Maybe I am turning into the next Han... :P
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Post by korexus » Fri Jan 04, 2008 8:32 pm

Mullog wrote: One last thought... Should we consider changing web hosts? If we have some spare money we could consider an upgrade to the web server. If we ever grow to many hundred active players we will have to do this anyway so we might be interested in doing an upgrade now. (I can hear Chris screaming - NOOOOOOOOOOO - as I type this. hehe...)
I agree with everything Rune says, in fact I agree that we should consider changing hosts. I have actually considered it already, but the payoff didn't seem to be worth the hassle.

We could get unlimited space and bandwidth for a similar price to what we pay now if we shopped around, and the customer service could well be better. On the downside we'd have much more restrictions with regards to databases.

Obviously this is the wrong time to change hosts as we have just paid for a year's hosting, but we should keep the option open. (The other, easier choice would be to upgrade our package with the current host.)

At the WoK meetup in London, Rune suggested a site re-design. That would probably coincide nicely with moving the site to better servers, we could have old version and new running concurrently for a while as we made sure everything worked.


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Post by Hannibal » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:03 am

Personal-friend recruitment is great, of course. And it's got us to where we are today .....

We need something else as well. IMHO.

First, obvious, port-of-call is to be visible to people searching the net LOOKING for a strategic conquest game to play. Natch.

Only problem is:
When I google "play by email", I get 46 MILLION results, and see the first 20.
And when I google "Games on internet", I get 134 MILLION results ... I start with the first 20 ...

OK, we need to infiltrate and try to post on many of those sites ... Kor, you take the first million, I'll take the second million, Duke never works at work, so can take the next THREE million. Volunteers for the remaining 41 million?!

Obviously we'd prefer sites that are portals, rather than end-sites. But that could still mean someone SIFTING through the first million to see WHICH are useful, in order to post ONLY on them ...

I exaggerate. But there really ARE 46 million "results" when a prospect first googles "Play by email", and 134 million if he or she googles "Games on internet". Spoilt for choice or what? How do we get noticed, rather than fall into the last million that they never quite get round to looking through ... ?

Well, first we find the right portal-sites, ie. we don't expect that getting our key-words right, on Google, will lift us into the first million that they come across.

No wonder only a few ever stumble across us!

The two sites most appropriate are possibly pbm.com and boardgamegeek.com, as somebody said.

Anybody want to throw in other sites we could very usefully be on?

Han
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Post by Hannibal » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:35 am

From there, it gets tougher.

pbm.com is a portal for play-by-email games (and apparently still play-by-mail games!), and seems to be still thriving. And we ARE on there.

Only problem is, so are hundreds of others.

Once you are in the pbm site, you can search by (mainly)
Abstract
Economic
Free
Role-playing
Sports
Wargame

If you click on "Wargame", you get 306 sites to check out. Take a look:

Games in this category:
1870 (Free, historical, economic, diplomacy, wargame )
1914-alt (Alternate history wargame)
1939 World Wide Battle Plan (Wargame)
ACW Western Theater (wargame)
Adventurer Kings (Fantasy War Game)
Aevum Obscurum (strategy, historical, empires in 1300 Europe, risk like)
Age of Discovery (strategic, economic/military, 19th century setting)
Age of Rifles (pc wargame, XIXth century)
Age of Wonders (fantasy wargame)
Agenda:004 (modern nation simulation)
Air Force / Dauntless (WWII tactical air wargame)
Alamaze (Global conquest - Fantasy)
America's Second Civil War (Post Apocalyptic, Modern Warfare)
Ancient Battles (wargame)
Ancient Empires (Fantasy wargame)
Andromeda (space email gui elegant)
Andromeda Online (space wargame)
Anni Bui (wargame, historical, medieval, economic)
Another BlackNova Trader Game (Sci-Fi, Role Playing, Turn Based)
Arcadia (fantasy build - up / wargame; Atlantis 5.0 spin-off)
Arcane Journeys (Web-based Fantasy&Sci-fi single player games)
Archipel (corsair wargame)
Aremas (fantasy wargame)
Arno's Atlantis (v5) (open-ended, fantasy, strategy, wargame)
Ashes of Empire, the (strategic space game)
Atlangame (free, open-ended, email, computer, fantasy, opensource)
Atlantis (strategic economic/military, fantasy setting)
Austerlitz (historical (Napoleonic) wargame)
Austerlitz - Der Aufstieg des Adlers (historical wargame)
Austerlitz - The Rise of the Eagle (Historical Simulation)
Axis & Allies (another) (WWII war game)
Axis and Allies (WWII wargame)
Axis&Allies/ WaW/ Europe/ Pacific (New free Axis&Allies PBEM platform available)
Babylon 5, le jeu par email (space opera, wargame, role playing)
Barbarians at the Gate (Historical Wargame)
Baroque Historical RPG (Historical Roleplaying Game)
Battle Corp (Turn by turn online wargame)
Battle Plan (Wargame - conquer Europe)
Battletech (Futuristic Space PBEM set in the Battletech Universe.)
Battletech - Hellstorm Hussars (Future Mecha Wargame)
BattleTech - Restless Souls (Future Mecha Wargame)
Beyond the Stellar Empire (US) (Space Opera)
Birth of Arda (Fantasy ,strategic, role-play, wargame, Tolkien)
Birthright The Second War of the Shadow (AD&D RPG Fantasy Wargame Story)
Britannia (Historical boardgame)
C++ Robots (Dueling programs written in C/C++)
Cactus Air Force (PBEM WWII Air War in the Pacific)
Capitol Hill v. 3.0 (US government political simulation)
Cartagena, Blue Max and King Me! (Board Game)
Celestial Empire (strategic economic/military space-opera)
Centre-Earth (Strategic fantasy wargame)
Century22pbem (free strategy wargame politic )
Children of the Dragon (MASSIVE saga and back history, well established, loosly Dragonball/Animie based)
CinePbeM (World of Hollywood)
Civil War OnLine (U.S. Civil War Wargame)
Civil War RPG (economic, wargame, roleplay by mail)
Civil War The Game (Historical wargame)
Clans (Fantasy Empire Wargame)
Clansman - The Rebirth (Open ended Tribal game.)
Cold War: Control Destiny (Diplomacy based wargame)
Cold Wars 2 (Modern, historical)
Comancheria (Skirmish Western)
Commander - Europe at War (Strategic WW2 turn based strategy in the vein of Panzer General. )
Conquest of Elysium II (fantasy wargame)
Crack Of Doom I (Fantasty Power game)
Crack Of Doom II (Fantasy)
Crown of the Emperor (Sci-fi Strategy/RPG)
CTF2187 (Tactical Sci-Fi)
Dark Age (Historical Wargame)
Darkness of Silverfall (Space Conquest)
Dead Men Tell No Tales (fantasy, pirates, Royal Navy, Caribbean)
Destroy & Conquer (Open Ended, Historical-fiction, Wargame)
Diamond Lake (Dungeons and Dragons 3.5)
Dino Wars (Prehistoric Conquest)
Diplomacy Ludomaniac (strategy diplomacy)
Distant Galaxy (Sci-Fi,PBEM,Exploration,wargame)
Domination (strategy)
Dominions (fantasy wargame)
Dominions 3 (fantasy wargame)
Dragonlords! Fantasy Wargame (Fantasy Wargame)
Dubhar Tiliath, the Shadow Realm (Fantasy Role Play/Wargame)
Dune PBeM (Fantasy/Sci-Fi Wargame)
Démange - LE jeu (Massive fantasy wargame)
e-Warbirds (Air combat simulation)
Empire Deluxe (wargame)
Empire Diplomacy (fantasy wargame, diplomacy)
Empire Forge (free fantasy wargame)
Empire Forge II (fantasy pbem wargame)
Empire of Ashes (co-operative writing, rpg)
Empire Stellaire II (diplomatic sf wargame)
Empires (Historical Wargame)
Empires of 1901 (Abstract, historical, nation sim)
Empires of the Middle Sea (ancient war game, pbem, strategy, diplomacy, empire building)
Engle Matrix Games (mystery, horror, spy, wargame)
Eressea (strategic economic/military, fantasy setting)
EuroDip1910AD (Strategy, Diplomacy and Wargame set in the Pre-WW1 era )
Eve Total War (Turn Based Play by Email Strategy)
Exodus War (space combat)
fantasy football commissioner (fantasy )
Fantasya - Welt des Traumes (fantasy, atlantis clone, mostly german players)
Far Horizons (space opera, strategy)
Feudal Lords (Medieval strategy)
Feudal Lords (other) (Medieval turn-based PBM game)
Feudal Lords: Right Of Kings (Medieval Wargame)
Forgotten Realms -- War of the Avatars (fantasy wargame)
Galactic Conflict (space wargame)
Galactic Conqueror (strategic, economic/military, space opera setting)
Galaxy (strategic, economic/military, space opera setting)
Galaxy PLUS (diplomatic sf wargame, free, strategy, most popular PBeM game in Russia)
Galaxy3D (turn-based space strategy)
GalaxyNG (GalaxyNG)
Global Combat (Strategic wargame)
Global Diplomacy (strategic, economic/military, 19th century setting)
Global Dominance (Geo-political sim)
Gloire et Pouvoir (fantasy wargame)
Gondor, Battle of the Lost Realms (Fantasy wargame)
Great Houses of the Landsraad (Sci-fi strategy)
Great Houses of Westeros (Fantasy Wargame)
Great War PBEM yahoogroups (strategy PBEM)
Hexem II (Very simple wargame)
High Middle Ages (Roleplaying during the Crusades)
Hoplite Encounter (Wargame set in Classical Greece)
http://rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=18665&gn=World+Diplomacy (Diplomacy)
Hyborian War (fantasy wargame)
Hyperdrive II (Space exploration and conquest)
IconWar (wargame)
IMP300 (Space opera wargame)
Imperial Ace Chronicles (sci-fi RPG wargame)
Imperial Expansion (Space explore and conquest)
Imperium (medieval war mmorpg)
Imperium (canadian) (strategic, economic/military, 19th century setting)
Incubation (Squad-level tactical combat)
Infamous Days (WWII strategic wargame)
Internations (Geopolitical wargame/diplomacy)
Iridear: Land of the 5 temples (war diplomacy strategy fantasy)
It's A Crime (Gangland Warfare)
Kalevala (open-ended fantasy wargame with roleplay)
King of Kings: Albion II (Arthurian Britain scenario wargame)
Kingdoms of Arcania (fantasy wargame)
Kingdoms PBEM (fantasy wargame, graphical client)
Kingmaker (diplomacy and military strategy 1400s England)
Kollaa Will Hold (WWII tactical wargame)
Kosmor - Forces of the Galaxies (space trade diplomacy and warfare)
Laser Squad Nemesis (two player, squad level, email strategy game)
LeBR3 - Birthright (Fantasy RPG/wargame)
Legend of the Green Dragon (other) (online text rpg)
Legends II (Strategic Fantasy)
Legends II Swords of Pelarn Module (Fantasy mixed Role Playing and Empire)
Legion Of Countries (Nation Simulation/Strategy)
Legion Of Nations (diplomacy, country builder)
Lizards! (Fantasy wargame)
Lords of Gyrne (Fantasy Strategy Wargame)
Lords of the Earth - Campaign 13, A Twilight of Empires (Historical Wargame)
Lords of Theeurth (Large scale fantasy wargame)
Magicka et Machina v 2.0 (Fantasy Dip/Eco/Wargame)
Medieval Warlords (War Game of the Middle Ages)
Medioevo (Wargame)
Men and Dragons, MAD (Combat-based MMORPG)
Merchant of Doom (economic, space, war game, strategy)
Middle Earth Play by Mail (Fantasy Wargame)
Middle Earth: Legacies of Melkor (epic fantasy)
Midgard (Fantasy, medieval wargame)
Militarizm (wargame, Russian language only)
Miller Systems WW2 Campaign (Global Strategy)
Mobius I (Science Fiction / Conquer the Galaxy)
Morne Plaine (Napoleonian wargame)
Murania - fantasy PBeM game (fantasy wargame)
Mysticora (Epic Fantasy)
Mythicor (Strategic Fantasy)
NapleonicBlood (Wargame)
Napoleonic Battles (wargame)
Napoleonic Empires (Historical Wargame)
Nation of Odrium (Fantasy Political Wargame)
Nebula (Space conquest)
New Cold War (Diplomatic, military role playing game)
New Worlds Project (Original science-fiction, play-by-post)
Night's Master (1st Ed AD&D)
Nuclear Destruction (wargame)
Ogame (Space strategy)
Olympia (epic fantasy)
Olympia: The Age of Gods (epic fantasy)
Online football management game (free manager game)
Online Strategy Game Fall of Rome (12-Player Online Multiplayer Strategy Wargame)
Online Turnbased Wargame (OTWG) (Online wargame, multi settings, fully customisable)
Open Conflict Star Trek Meets Star Wars The Lines Are Drawn (Strategic/Roleplaying Space)
Panzer General 2 (War game, WW2 simulation, PBEM club, )
PBeM-Spiele - die Welt der E-Mail-Spiele (Web-Portal)
Pelagoria (strategy, political, exploration, wargame,)
Phoenix Command (Modern Counter-terrorism)
Phoenix Command Scenario #3 (WW2 squad-level wargame)
Political Intrigue (Geo-political)
Political Supremacy (Alternate History starting in 1980 in the mist of conflict. This is a turn based political strategy game where you run a appointed nation. )
Power of Nations (World Simulator)
PROMETHEUS (Civilisation Clone)
Qpawn- World Leader Simulator (World leader and politics and war)
Raider (War at Sea)
Rainbow's End (Empire building wargame)
RAINING FIRE (USCM - ALIENS RPG)
Reach for an Empire (grand strategy)
Realms of Chaos (Fantasy, Roleplay, Wargame, Deity Devlopment)
ReLite (Fantasy role playing and wargame)
Riftlords (Interstellar commodity trading (basic game))
RipSpace (Space wargame)
Rise and Fall (Strategic Roman Empire v. Barbarians)
Rise of the New Order (Modern Diplomacy/War game)
RPG Forums Online (Free form fantasy and message board based RPGs)
Ruins of Rome (Role Playing Fantasy Wargame)
Schwertreiter (fantasy wargame)
Sengoku (Strategic Warfare in Feudal Japan)
Serim Ral (Fantasy Wargame)
Serim Ral 2nd Edition (fantasy wargames)
Shogunate: Warlords of the Rising Sun (Strategic Wargame)
Space Conquest (Strategi, Wargame)
Space Wing: Void Patrol (space fighters dogfights)
Space: 2360 (Wargame, Strategy, Diplomatic.)
Spaceplan (Space Opera)
Spiral Arm (Space Strategy)
SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanus (Roman Republic simulation)
Star Child Ascendant (Sci-fi economic and war game)
Star Trek Strategy PBeM (space strategy wargame)
StarCluster (space strategy)
Stars! (space opera)
Starship Aeon (Star Trek...Rebellion...)
Starweb (Science Fiction Simulation)
Steel Panthers I CD (WW2 tactical)
Stellar Conflict (space wargame)
Stronghold (Civilization)
Struggle of Humanity (Historical Nation Building/Wargame)
Supernova: Rise of the Empire (Epic strategic-scale space power game)
Supremacy On-Line (modern,wargame,)
SWORD (Modern Counter-Terrorism Unit)
Tales of Tamar (fantasy wargame)
Tarmellion (Fantasy roleplaying wargame)
Tartarus (Internet robot war game)
the Art of War (risk-like, web-based, contemporary moves wargame)
The Campaign For All time (Fantasy)
The Glory of Kings (La Gloire du Roi) (18th century historical power wargame)
The Great Civil War of Samaca (Open-ended wargame/diplomacy)
The Honor Guard (Political Roleplaying)
The Lords of Terre the Sword of Destiny (Fantasy wargame)
The Stellar Empires (space strategy )
The Weapon (war and strategy in space)
Third Millenium (web-based space exploration and conquest)
Throne of cofain (fantasy wargame)
Time of Conflict (modern Geo-Political)
Total Warfare (Fantasy Land Conquest)
Tribe Net (Strategy - "diplomatic wargame" - historical)
Tribe Net - Islandia (Build and Wargame strategy simulation)
Tribes Of Crane (Tribal/Fantasy)
TribeVibes (Strategy - "diplomatic wargame" - historical)
Tryn-Trava ( (fantasy funny wargame)
TV Biz (Tv Business simulation game)
Ultimate Diplomacy (Diplomacy Variant set in the Middle Ages)
Unified Command (wargame)
United Earth Federation (space rpg)
USI Survivors (science fiction star-trek like game)
USS Avalon (Star Trek PBeM (SMS) set in the year 2386)
USS Phantasm (Simm)
Utopia (medieval )
Valhalla (Fantasy Sci-Fi Wargame)
VGA Planets 3.0
Voyager, there and back again (interactive written role-play)
War & Peace (historical wargame)
War & Peace III (historical, wargame, strategy, turn-based)
War across the Pacific 1941-1945 (historical wargame)
War for Sienna Minor (Fantasy Wargame)
War of Ages (Sci-fi/War)
War of the Clans: In the Beginning (Battle Tech, Future, Space, Sci Fi)
WAR OF THE CLANS: IN THE BEGINNING (WARGAME)
War of the Clans: Rebirth (Wargame)
War of the Dark God (fantasy wargame)
WAR OF WIZARDS (fantasy empire building game of magic)
Warlord (Wargame)
Weewar (Turnbased strategy Web game (modern cenario))
World at War (Canada) (Wargame (WWII style))
World at War (Team Game) (wargame (wwii style))
World Conquest (wargame)
World in Crisis Series (Political/Military simulation)
World Leaders: The World Is Yours (Modern, Political, War, Role Play, Alternate History)
World Nations (Nation Building)
World of Kaomaris 4 (WOK IV) (Wargame / Strategy)
World of Kaomaris 5 (WOK5) (Free Strategy Wargame.)
World War II RPG: Our War (World War II. RPG, Free, Openended)
World War II Simulation (realistic WWII wargame)
World Wide Battle Plan (wargame)
WWII Naval (PBeM, open-ended, historical, free )
X-Men: Awakenings (X-Men, moviebased)
Xyhora (fantasy strategy)
Yankee Station (Vietnam Air War Game)




Yep, Kaomaris IS in there (under "World of ..." if you missed it), but how many will have read that far down?

There ARE other search criteria ... but "Free" gives you a list of 1,230, and "closed-ended" (versus open-ended adventuring) still gives you 257 games to scan down ... and the W's come towards the end!

If they DO get there, they get Al's description from 2001:

Description
WOK IV is an easy-to-learn-still-hard-to-master wargame of pure strategy. You control 1 of 60 provinces. 10 Players per group can play. You have population,workers,armies,bombs and spies. You just need to fill out an Order Form once in a week and can play right away. All armies have a level of combat and the turns are executed in 6 Phases following a randomly Order of Play for each turn. All elements of play have a strong interaction and while playing a turn can be done very quickly the game will grow in complexity with the development of its players. A strong diplomatic aspect and trustful relations to some other players are needed to be successful. The WOK Turn Generator will emit and document all actions taken. WOK IV is a game of strategic combat and offers a great new play for all wargames fans.


Hmm. Fine when there were maybe few games on pbem, and you expected your description to be explanatory. But probably not enough sell or standout.

So I've updated the description (mail me for it if you want to post similar elsewhere), and am trying to get us out of being only 292nd out of 306 listings, by getting Greg there to list us on a higher page, Announcements, as well.

BGG (Board Game Geek) is a slightly different scenario, and I'm working on it.

Must be a record, with that long list. But just SAYING the list was long wouldn't have made the point half as well!

Han
There are two ways to write: Short-hand, and Long-Han'ed. ~ Han

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs"......... it's probably just that you're the last person to appreciate the enormity of the catastrophe about to

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korexus
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Post by korexus » Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:20 am

So, maybe we should change the name to aaaWorld of aaaKaomaris? That should get us to the top of the list. :wink:

You mentioned it without realising, but another very good way of promoting a site like this is StumbleUpon. (http://www.stumbleupon.com/) Basically it's a toolbar for your browser, you tell it your likes and dislikes and can then click a button to go to a random site that it thinks you will like. You then say whether you like or dislike that site and it refines your tastes.

Not only is this an excellent way of wasting time at work, but it allows us to promote the kaomaris site to like mined people who we've never met. Simply go to the Kaomaris home page and click the "I like it" button. This will then increase the chances of people with similar likes to you being directed to our page.

Note that users (or stumblers) are used to seeing a website for about 10 seconds before they make a desicion, so it's best if they get directed to the home page, instead of a random forum or game page. It would also help if we kept the home page looking interesting.


korexus.
With Great Power comes Great Irritability

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Post by Hryllantre » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:36 am

If a prospective player has been patient enough to scroll down to the W's and actually clicked on kaomaris world 4. What do they see, what do they want to see, what stands kaomaris apart from the other games they've spent 10 secs looking at - nothing...

Our front page 'http://www.kaomaris.com/phpNuke/' although very informative as an initial startup page is bland. Random visitors are not grabbed by it and probably can't be bothered to read it (afterall 10 secs isn't long).

Could we design an actual cover page which stands 'World of Kaomaris' apart from the other sites just visited. With click here at the bottom it would take us straight to 'http://www.kaomaris.com/phpNuke/' but at least then those potential players would remember it...

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korexus
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Post by korexus » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:43 am

Hryllantre wrote:Could we design an actual cover page which stands 'World of Kaomaris' apart from the other sites just visited. With click here at the bottom it would take us straight to 'http://www.kaomaris.com/phpNuke/' but at least then those potential players would remember it...
*We* can, *I* can't. My artistic ability is about as close to zero as a non-quantifiable entity can get. :wink:

However, if someone wants to design the page, I can put it on the internet and make it work. Are you volunteering?


Chris.
With Great Power comes Great Irritability

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