How Would You Encourage Someone to Play?

Adalie

So, while we were drinking in DC, my boyfriend made a bet with me, @Cinya, @Sohl, and @Akia that involves him (finally!) making a character on Achaea. I've been spending time since talking about all the fun our little text world has to offer. I feel like you guys probably have some god points too.

If you had a friend who was totally unfamiliar with this sort of gaming, what sorts of things would you tell them to pique their interest?

Personally, I've been focusing a lot on the diverse ways to play. We don't know yet if he might eventually be drawn to combat or politics or exploring the high seas, so I've just been telling him about how there are many ways to succeed and many different focuses to persue, which seems to be working, because I can see his eyes growing wide at all the imagined future opportunities, haha.

Edit:I don't know why my paragraph breaks weren't being included.

Akia

This has been my general stance in life, and it's worked out pretty well so far.

Adalie

Well we failed at that pretty hard basically the entire time we were together. Haha.

Akia

I can neither confirm nor deny.

Beya

The conversation usually comes up as 'So how did you meet your girlfriend?'

The story goes like this.

I tell them she was my receptionist in a game which has no pictures, where I play a jester who travels around the world performing plays and getting involved in political scrapes. Her job was to take down notes that I called to her on whim. "Take this down; this fellow is a jerk!" "Buy more health elixir" "Don't die". Her job was mostly aesthetic.

After seven (real-life) months of doing this in-character, we eventually spoke out-of-character on Skype. I then take a moment to explain IC/OOC.

Judging on their reaction to the story, I'll either change the subject to television or tell them about the giant worms from another planet which killed all the Gods.

TL;DR If the person you're trying to convince is already outside of their house, you're preaching to the wrong audience.

Trilliana

Here's my story. I'd tried Achaea first as a freshman in HS, so I -kinda- knew what it was. I met and started dating @Corinth when I moved back to California in... 06? He said that he liked to play it and I'd wanted to try again. He sat on his laptop next to me while I was on my desktop and helped me through a lot of it. 

My husband and I knew we lived near each other, so when Corinth and I broke up, we decided to meet up (I met my husband on one of his alts that happened to be in the Wardens) 

When talking about how he and I met, we just say we met online. Makes things simple. If people want to know more, I explain it and then they give the weird look. 

Adalie

I hung out with the guy behind @Marcalo for years IRL, and he always tried to show me the game and I wasn't the least bit interested. Then I dated the guy behind @Pantalaimon IRL and fiiiinally he convinced me to make a character, but I can't remember for the life of me what changed my mind. Maybe it was just the idea of seeing what it was that kept him on the computer so long, but whatever it was, the hook was set and now I've been playing for six years. I doubt my boyfriend will have that same enthusiasm (but hey, you never know!), but the first step is getting him to log on, which is a step we're still working on. Haha.

Aerek

I usually start with stories of the big events that show how much the world changes and how much power we have over it compared to other MMOs. Telling about the "Great Excommunication" of Hashan, Ashtan, and Eleusis, or the "War for the Underworld" when the Magisterion tried their coup against Ugrach, or the "Eternal Night" saga are all pretty epic when you step back and think about it, and even the events that cause lots of complaints and headaches among us players at the time sound pretty cool to the outsider. Hearing that these sort of open-ended, world-changing events happen fairly regularly can make a pretty strong impression on the gamers used to instanced dungeons, endless grinding, or confined plotlines of off-line RPGs.

If they start asking questions, I'll talk a little about the different cities and houses, maybe some history if I can remember some interesting bits, but mostly to illustrate that the "player clans" of Achaea are established, relevant organizations that shape the world and each one is guided by different ideologies, rather than "Woo, Friday night raid night!" (I then explain that every night is raid night in Ashtan and Mhaldor.)

What feels like it works the best, though, is talking about combat in simplistic, cinematic terms. Not the "Well, because I DSL at 2.1 seconds, I can beat herb balance and use a kelp stack while prepping his legs..." but something like, "I was fighting this Monk who gets different attacks with his legs and both arms, and so he tripped me with his feet, broke both my legs with his fists so I couldn't get up, and then snapped my spine in half when he regained his balance." or "They were entrenched at the town square, so we set up our archers south of them, calling targets and firing volleys of poisoned arrows at the same guy. They'd try to put up shields to stop it, but we'd break them with these enchanted meteor arrows, and just took them apart one by one."

In my experience, it's all about selling the "movie" of the game, and then explaining the details as they ask for them and show interest.

Jiraishin

The most effective thing for me seems to be letting people watch me play over my shoulder, showing them a few cool things specifically while I do so, and then answering questions about what I'm doing in detail.

How to encourage people to keep playing I'm still working on.

Rajan

@Jiraishin, just don't let them watch you in the middle of a raid. My brother took one look at the spam and said 'F- that.'

Achilles

alcohol, get em drunk, achaea will look better in the dark.

Mannimar

So the conversation starts like so:

You: "You want to know something that will make me happy?"

[if response is some derivative of "no" break up with him. You deserve better.]

Him: "Um... of course?"

You: "All you have to do is go here <insert reflink here>, and make a character..."

Him "..."

You: "Now, you don't have to play forever! I just want you to see a part of what makes me happy. Even if you only play for week, it'll mean something."

[If he still says no then just be glad he isn't watching as you profusely confess which ever Lord/Lady you follow, and wondering "wtf is she doing cheating on me in a textgame"]

Otherwise, you have now created a potential to profit from their playing!

19.21 Referring a Friend

Iron Realms is instituting a referral system to reward players who refer our games to friends and colleagues.

Let's start with the good stuff - REWARDS!:

- If you refer a new player who registers and plays for 5 hours or more, you gain 1 credit (up to 10 credits per week).

- If any player you have referred purchases credits on -ANY- IRE game, you get 10% of the purchased amount as a reward, forever!

How it works:

- Type in REFLINK, which will show you your referral URL. Use this wherever you want: email it to friends, put it in a forum signature, on social networking 

sites, fan sites - anywhere!

You also get to enjoy your time with them >.>

Jiraishin

It's a little sad that I've gotten multiple people to play but never seen any of these credits because I never used a referral URL.

Sultani

It's a difficult subject - Every time someone's seen a MUD over my shoulder they ask if I'm programming or working on some kind of school project. When visiting my mother she even said "the looks boring" when staring at my laptop after a brief explanation of what I was playing. One effective thing I remember when I was younger was being so immersed that you start ignoring your friends to the point they feel compelled to log in and find out what's comsuming so much of  your social life. That's assuming they care enough to find out what you're doing as opposed to just forgetting about you completely.

Sarapis

Adalie said:

So, while we were drinking in DC, my boyfriend made a bet with me, @Cinya, @Sohl, and @Akia that involves him (finally!) making a character on Achaea. I've been spending time since talking about all the fun our little text world has to offer. I feel like you guys probably have some god points too.

If you had a friend who was totally unfamiliar with this sort of gaming, what sorts of things would you tell them to pique their interest?

Drop hints that you're flirting with some guy in Achaea. That'll prompt his interest I bet. 

Cinya

Dear @Adalie's boyfriend,

So there's this @Cooper fellow...

Mizik

Sarapis said:

Adalie said:

So, while we were drinking in DC, my boyfriend made a bet with me, @Cinya, @Sohl, and @Akia that involves him (finally!) making a character on Achaea. I've been spending time since talking about all the fun our little text world has to offer. I feel like you guys probably have some god points too.

If you had a friend who was totally unfamiliar with this sort of gaming, what sorts of things would you tell them to pique their interest?

Drop hints that you're flirting with some guy in Achaea. That'll prompt his interest I bet. 

:-c

Jacen

Cinya said:

Dear @Adalie's boyfriend, So there's this @Cooper fellow...

Make sure you send him Cooper's pic

Aerek

Mannimar said:

19.21 Referring a Friend

Iron Realms is instituting a referral system to reward players who refer our games to friends and colleagues.

Let's start with the good stuff - REWARDS!:

- If you refer a new player who registers and plays for 5 hours or more, you gain 1 credit (up to 10 credits per week).

- If any player you have referred purchases credits on -ANY- IRE game, you get 10% of the purchased amount as a reward, forever!

How it works:

- Type in REFLINK, which will show you your referral URL. Use this wherever you want: email it to friends, put it in a forum signature, on social networking 

sites, fan sites - anywhere!

Holy carp, this is a thing? When did this show up?

Tahquil

I've taken your family. You will play Achaea for two hours each day. For each day you miss playing Achaea I will send you a pound of their flesh. You will play properly. Your family will be returned after you achieve rank five in the house of your choice. I will be watching.

Mannimar

Aerek said:

Mannimar said:

19.21 Referring a Friend

Iron Realms is instituting a referral system to reward players who refer our games to friends and colleagues.

Let's start with the good stuff - REWARDS!:

- If you refer a new player who registers and plays for 5 hours or more, you gain 1 credit (up to 10 credits per week).

- If any player you have referred purchases credits on -ANY- IRE game, you get 10% of the purchased amount as a reward, forever!

How it works:

- Type in REFLINK, which will show you your referral URL. Use this wherever you want: email it to friends, put it in a forum signature, on social networking 

sites, fan sites - anywhere!

Holy carp, this is a thing? When did this show up?

Before I started playing seriously. So likely well over a year ago. @Tecton could likely give specifics. I'm just the awesome guy who does HELP <everything>... everything.

ETA: broken quotes are broken

Sena

Aerek said:

Holy carp, this is a thing? When did this show up?

1/27/2010.

Skye

Once, I randomly received a notice that someone had used my reflink to make a character and I got a credit or something. But I had no idea who or what had done it
:-/

Cooper

Cinya said:

Dear @Adalie's boyfriend, So there's this @Cooper fellow...

Dear god, don't joke. I have/get to meet him at Ironcon and trust me, he is WAY WAY WAY more buff than me. I would prefer not to show up and instantly get my ass beat by some pissed off ex-Marine in front of everyone.

Cooper

Jacen said:

Cinya said:

Dear @Adalie's boyfriend, So there's this @Cooper fellow...

Make sure you send him Cooper's pic

He knows who I am, we were FB friends and talked on there

Wysteria

Rajan said:

@Jiraishin, just don't let them watch you in the middle of a raid. My brother took one look at the spam and said 'F- that.'

Couldn't agree more with this. I had a few WoW-freak friends (we're talking the types that play 2 days straight on the weekend) look over my shoulder during a raid and most of them had to take a shot of whiskey once they saw all the spam and me being able to understand and react to all of it. Worse still, they all now call me the nerd once they saw my scripting for just basic reflexes like my inking and refilling stuff.

One comment I got was that they wanted to play a game, not a program. Even with all the roleplaying they thought it was too much effort to have to "think" as a character instead of killing things. The only person who really liked it was the one who does theatre as a profession, which is understandable.

I need more cerebral friends.

Daslin

stab them in the throat. Tell them to play, or you do not fix.

Tvistor

"Cerebral? You mean like head-butting someone?" Khelgar asked.

Wysteria

Tvistor said:

"Cerebral? You mean like head-butting someone?" Khelgar asked.

I was in a face-punchy mood that day too

Katzchen

I wish I could convince my partner to return to playing. I miss interacting with his character, they're so different, it was really amusing to see that side of him. Even if it meant sharing him with his textbf. :P 

Ellodin

i convinced a lot of people to play by getting one person to play and talking about achaea with him after school with other people around.  we had plenty of stories of various things that happened in achaea, which makes it a pretty easy game to sell to people who like fantasy books.  also seemingly deeper skill system than hitting 1 2 3 4 5 (until you set up aliases) which is fun to explain.

i also got some people to play by making newbie characters while people would occasionally look on and ask what i was doing, then talking them through what i was doing and cackling as i was biting people in minia with curare or eurypteria or darkshade.  level 11 lower limit on attacking other players removes this recruitment method now.