PWO Marketing Campaign

[Yukiro~]

It's a simple thread really, PWO and the staff, should put a little more work into marketing the game. There's a fresh audience out there somewhere and this game could thrive as it once did and even beyond that. Why not have someone who knows how to edit videos well, put together something official for the game and put a little more marketing behind the game? The community grows slowly and little by little, but it is clear as day that this game is no longer where it once was in user activity. I'm just curious if the staff do not want to take an approach to marketing the game more? If so why not? What's holding back any decisions like so? Have you given up on the game? Please don't say something generic like "Users are allowed to make videos if they want." the last player made trailer was like 9 years ago, if anyone was keeping track. I have seen that you guys have intentions of releasing content updates throughout the year, so it would only make sense to capitalize off the current and new content being added to the game as a way to attract new players. I believe the game is on its last leg and beyond the point of being able to rely on the community it currently has, to do this for the game. I think ultimately it will fall on the staff to push harder, if they truly haven't given up. In the old days when Pokémon MMOs were fresh on the scene, it was much easier to rely on word of mouth from the small starting community, but that is no longer the case. I just don't see how it could hurt to give it a go, PWO staff.

Does PWO not have an official YouTube channel where things like official trailers, updates and guides could be made and released for the game? Why not? Is it just not worth the work to you guys at this point? Or do you just not know how to approach it? I mean, clearly Pokémon itself grows more and more popular and especially within the past year and this year I'm personally seeing a lot of people get more into Pokémon who may not realize there are playable MMOs already in existence. You guys should really capitalize on that if you're planning to continue making updates to the game rather than waiting for it to wither away slowly, or for the very small current player base now to spread the word somehow. Back in the day, that would have worked just fine, but there needs to be fresh content in general. Why not tackle making a YouTube channel for the game and put out content? Just my opinion.

I assume ultimately the staff have grown bored to some extent, which is understandable too. We're all adults now. Ultimately, it's really up to the devs and admins, however many are still around and active. Make no mistake though, it makes no difference to me in the end because I have had my fair share and enjoyed the game, but I have played the game for a very long time so it's hard sometimes logging in and seeing just how it is these days. Like a lot of players, the game was a big part of my childhood and for that reason and probably that reason alone, many of us veteran players hang on to the game and are so loyal to it, but maybe it's time to let that saga go... either way I'm sorry to say, if the staff don't take action or at-least try, I do not see how this game will continue to grow. Is that what we're all truly waiting on? The game to simply stop having players?

 

[Klay]

Because of Nintendo and their lawyers
Less attention the game has, less chance it has to be spotted and a target of lawsuits for copyright stuff

 

[German-Cano]

Because of Nintendo and their lawyers
Less attention the game has, less chance it has to be spotted and a target of lawsuits for copyright stuff

Okay, but are the other Pokemon games currently much more popular licensed by nintendo? and will it really be that nintendo would be interested in finishing a game with 150-200 online (i am being very optimistic) considering that today when we are 40 it is already a lot

 

[German-Cano]

I totally agree with you yukiro, game marketing does not exist, I met through youtube watching the gameplay of any player.

 

[Klay]

Actually, PWO already received a letter from Nintendo lawyers back in 2011 or 2012, and closed (until staff members of these years decided to still continue despite the warning, and re-localized the server in a more shady country with less laws about internet and copyrights iirc)
Other games are taking the same risks as PWO, but some are much more likely to be taken in court because they have an active advertising campaign (like Uranium and some others) :insert evil smiling emoji right here:
We're playing a game which is in a grey area: using licensed stuff with no authorization from their owners, but with one or two pixels changing from the official sprites
don't get me wrong, I agree PWO deserves more players, but too much attention is dangerous and shouldn't been done lightly
we're also the 25th birthday of Pokémon franchise, Nintendo will probably try to get rid of the biggest fanmade pokémon games this year as they did in 2016 with Uranium

Edit: https://www.pokemon.com/us/legal/
https://www.google.com/search?q=Nintendo+taking+down+pokemon&oq=Nintendo+taking+down+pokemon

 

[Yukiro~]

I was here when that letter was received and saw how everything went down.. even the temporary shut down, and trust me it isn't a big deal right now, so long as PWO isn't doing anything illegal. Fan games are perfectly fine. There are no legal issues with making a YouTube channel based around this project to help market it more, not to mention our player base is absolutely too small as is to be in anyone's line of sight, we need to focus on building the game's player base again. As stated, many other Pokémon MMOs that are more popular than PWO right now do this with no problem, PRO for example. Trust me, Nintendo isn't going to be taking fan projects to court unless they become MASSIVE and I mean huge and are purposely doing things to profit for their own PERSONAL gain and from what we're told, none of the staff here make ANY money, everything donated is spent on server costs, upgrades and further game development. Not even the most successful fan projects have had any issues to that length.

I played this game since 2009 and have seen an era where there were 900 or so players on a day. I'd literally have to wait for hours to get into an open server. Copy right isn't the issue. Many videos on PWO and other fan games have seen upwards of 100k+ in views on Youtube and are still operating perfectly fine. Fan games are perfectly fine with Nintendo so long as they aren't doing anything like directly using the money made to profit from the game to line their own pockets. That's why the donation system works how it does. So long as the use of donation proceeds are transparent, your argument loses relevancy, Klay. With the state the game is currently in, barely reaching 15-30 players online at once average (with the exception of events) it loses even more relevancy.

I have spearheaded Pokémon fan projects in the past with 80+ online active players at a time and never ran into an issue once. It's all about making the MMO the right way. PWO has plenty of space and opportunity to move forward with a campaign like this, as it currently stands. And being someone who has heard about this big scary "copyright" issue for 10 years+ and still seeing these games operate, that excuse simply will not suffice. In the end, Nintendo isn't looking at small games like these as a form of competition, ESPECIALLY if they aren't conducting illegal activity.

 

[Jinji]

We can't know that, and we aren't taking the risk. Besides, the point is that PWO does NOT want to be competition to Nintendo. This is a fan project, which was created out of desire to offer something Nintendo has, to this date, refused to offer - a PC-based MMO. We're not aiming to be huge, or to disrupt the MMO scene - to us, it'd be enough to have a sizeable but comfortable community of passionate Pokémon players coming together to have fun. We don't want people playing PWO who don't also play other, more official Pokémon games and other Nintendo franchises; nor do we want to risk promoting ourselves above such options. Also, over-promoting might attract the wrong sorts of people - the kind who don't care about maintaining a community spirit. These are just some of the reasons why we eschew traditional advertising memes.

 

[Yukiro~]

You're basically saying you don't want an MMO to grow at-least to a healthy state that it once was, in the eyes of many here. How does that even make sense? That goes against the logic of this game being created and respectfully, you can't speak for the logic of the original creators, you have no voice on their original vision. It sounds to me more so like you're conforming to where the game has come. When even the community ITSELF has cried out to PWO many times to save the game from dying. Even in the past years I have seen a cry from many players, now gone and these are people who have dedicated YEARS to this game, you can't deny their loyalty. You can't deny that and you can't deny that your ideals are the very thing that have destroyed this community then. You're basically telling me, it's your own ideals as the staff, holding the game back from growing even slightly larger like many of us players want, and yeah I'm sure some players are content and don't mind and that's okay. But your reply sounds selfish to me.

That's still no excuse to say you don't want to risk it, when this game was doing well still even in 2014 where it was in a much better state than it is now and it was going just smooth. Even in 2013-2014 this game was not at any real risk. It makes no sense at all to associate my post with the risk, where we currently are. It sounds like running away from any further responsibility if you ask me. It's an MMO and talking about attracting the wrong type of player? It's Pokémon how far can any player possibly be from the niche than any other person playing PWO? We're all just fans of Pokémon who found an online game... you're saying you wouldn't want to give players like me even or no, even players like the current ones who you like so much as a staff a chance to find this game? I found it through luck and yet here I am, still a dedicated member to this community and you guys have deemed me as the type of player you speak of in the past, I grew past that. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that response. It's up to you guys overall, still this is just my opinion. You guy's don't have to take it into consideration, but just remember, you're ignoring your current community as well and basically claiming the game for yourselves and your own selfish reasons. I know plenty of players who still want this game to grow. You're giving your response to them as well. I don't speak for everyone though. Like I said earlier, just my opinion.

 

[Yukiro~]

You're aslo saying you don't want risk attracting the right types of players either. This risk in this situation does not outweigh the outcome.

 

[Prof.Rygar]

it'd be enough to have a sizeable but comfortable community

Define "sizeable"

How about at least having near a full server.

 

[Jinji]

I'm not saying that PWO does not WANT to grow. Of course we do - the lack of players has been disheartening to many of us, and reflects poorly on PWO's history. However, we believe strongly in controlled growth. We want to ensure PWO has the manpower and resources to cope with the current size of the community at all times, while still permitting us to continue working on the game at a reasonable pace. On that note, it should be noted that creating official Youtube videos and media is time-consuming and takes resources away from the game's development, which at the moment we don't have spare.

 

[Yukiro~]

Well what if you brought someone on the team who could manage the marketing and promotion and video editing not to take away time from anyone currently holding other responsibilities? If there are any capable candidates. I understand that a little more, the controlled growth aspect, but sometimes it just feels like there's no growth. Why not just expand the team based on any new needs with candidates from the current community who might be interested if staff applications open at the time needed?

 

[DeZoLa]

the last 5 years more or less we have less than 10 players on at the same time and max 50 players around only in events , its sad.

 

[Yukiro~]

the last 5 years more or less we have less than 10 players on at the same time and max 50 players around only in events , its sad.

That's why I think doing this marketing campaign poses no real risk to PWO. The player base is scarce to say the least. Dedicated, but scarce. And how much longer will the current community remain dedicated if they see no growth. Personally, I'm tired of having no one to trade. Or even logging on and seeing not much activity across the chats.

 

[Jinji]

Feel free to promote PWO to your friends, family and followers

 

[Prof.Rygar]

It would be relatively easy for the players to make videos. I myself, lack adequate resources, but others don't.

 

[Yukiro~]

The players don't have to make videos, they're doing so as part of their own personal game experience, and actually no one is making videos at this time. It is not the responsibility of the player base to market and grow this game. It is a privilege when players do so. The point is, I mean official videos for PWO from PWO, I already covered player based videos if you read anything I wrote. Clearly no one in the current playerbase is making videos for the game, I mean well edited professional video content and even if they were still making low quality player based trailers, it doesn't take away from the incompetency of not promoting your own game for said reasons. This game doesn't even have an official trailer associated with it or atleast one that isn't dated as far as I know.