EVE General Discussion

I can agree with this. EVE can be doing so much more in the way of cheap, effective and even fan/player-based advertising.

The key is to not make this be an old game thing. EVE is constantly renewing itself (to the chagrin of the bittervets). It ads content, updates the story continually, provides new opportunities for new styles of play. Every year, EVE becomes a new game. Take a look at how other MMOs are designed and you can see why they're all very similar in game play (Go to X, get missions, run missions, get loot, level up, go to Y, rinse and repeat). This is why they get a lot of players at first but then the numbers dwindle away as the players get attracted to the next game. EVE has lasted as long as it has because it continually changes.

Word of mouth works a little when it comes to promoting a game like EVE. Articles on gamer websites about World War Bee or real dollar-value loss after a big fight can generate some interest. But that's marketing to the gamer community. EVE has other places and people they can market to.

EVE is a SciFi game. But I see little to no marketing aimed at the SciFi community. If EVE were to start making more and stronger ties with established and up and coming SciFi writers and artists, EVE wouldn't just develop a better subscription base, it would develop a better fan base.

How many sales did the EVE novels generate? What was the target demographic and how many books were sold to players as opposed to how many books were sold to people who had never played before? Now, what if you create a "writers bible" and toss a few bucks to Kim Stanley Robinson or Jim Butcher or D.C. Fontana or Greg Bear and make an anthology of short stories set in the EVE universe? Who would buy those books?

Why not EVE at a SciFi convention as opposed to a gamer convention? Two people, a table, a laptop and some swag could generate a lot of interest at even a small, local Con. A bigger presence at the bigger conventions would draw in even more. This is building a fan base 101. And it works amazingly well.

Increase the amount of podcasts and content that tell the story of EVE, not just the game mechanics of EVE and you'll have fans in droves. Never underestimate the financial power of nerds (like me) when it comes to supporting a good story (take a look at Firefly or Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead if you don't believe me). More fans, means more players. More fans and players increases the game content which leads to more new fans and players.

Without the story, we'd all be playing Asteroids.