Destiny Strings collaborative app-this-plz ad

[all_wound_up]

Well, it's getting close to that time of the month again - app-this-plz goes up on Saturday August 31st. We seem to have hit a pretty serious recruitment slump, as we've had far less apps into the game than usual and a number of drops lately. I love this game and want to see it grow and flourish, but it's not going to do either of those things if we don't start getting more proactive in getting the word out there.

To this end, I think in addition to the normal app-this-plz game ad we typically put up, it would be good if we could also get one or two people to volunteer to go through the Character Ads page this time and advertise personally to people who are looking to play in a game like ours. A lot of people who are seriously considering playing a specific character tend to post only there rather than looking at the Game Ads post, so we're really missing out on a good chance if we don't try to pimp the game around over there.

This game has a lot going for it in terms of what it can offer to potential players, but none of them will know about any of it unless we get out there and tell them. I love Destiny Strings to pieces and it is absolutely my RP home right now, and I would gladly do this myself if I weren't going home for Labor Day to the Land Without Internet (AKA my parents' house). But I was hoping maybe by getting this up three nights in advance, we could spur some discussion and maybe get a second game ad drafted up for the purpose of advertising directly to players.

Here's a list of things I think are extremely attractive features that this game has:

• allows you to keep powers with very minimal nerfing
• no memory loss
• slow to medium pace
• very easy activity checks
• fairly simple application with many players willing to help make Personas
• ability to pull in locations from your character's home canon
• dedicated and friendly mod team who are very receptive to player concerns
• long-term game plot that can be affected by player actions
• extremely friendly to player plots
• characters can learn skills and powers from other characters' canons

Some of these things are things that no other games out there do, or at least very few. We have a really unique and wonderful setting here with a lot of potential, and I really do think it's just a matter of letting people know how great it is to play here. I realize our biggest obstacle is we're viewed as niche because of the strong Persona connections, but if I have to walk every new player through Persona creation step by step to get more people into this game, I am happy to do so, and by all means feel free to attach my Plurk fullofbees to the resulting game ad.

So, that's pretty much my spiel.  If someone more skilled than I at writing up a game ad wants to take a crack at it with what I listed above, I think it will help us out immensely.  And like I said before, we probably only need one or two people to go through the Character Ads page and post it to anyone whose specifications for a game match what we've got.  Let's not be That Game and spam it out to everybody, but there's definitely no harm in letting people who might be a good match know that we're out here.

Thanks for listening and playing.  I wouldn't love this game half as much as I do without such great fellow players.

Comments

[phantom_envoy]

"fairly simple application with many players willing to help make Personas"

The number one reason I see people not want to app into Strings is that Persona making is so daunting. I think what we really need to do is emphasize that we have a Persona creator since a lot of people don't notice it, and we have a ton of people who'd be willing to walk applicants through the process step by step until it becomes more intuitive.

Unfortunately, I will also be busy this weekend and will be unable to help out, but I think this is a great idea!

[all_wound_up]

Yeah, I think a lot of people don't even know that the creator exists at all. That thing needs to be in HUGE BOLD FLASHING TEXT. Or alternatively, linked in whatever game ad we come up with in the first place so that people know it's there. I know Walker was trying to draft up a step by step of how to use it, with helpful screenies and the whole nine yards too, so I can see how that's going also.

[deathboss]

I can't wait to see it too! The last step by step thing I made was for the old method of apping with just the lists so it was completely confusing.

Edit: THIS TUTORIAL IS AWESOME.

[all_wound_up]

Here is a link to the tutorial in question. It's still in draft form, but yeah.

[deathboss]

This did make me realize that my wording on those forms can be really confusing for people. If you guys think there should be some words changed on the forms or ways of making it more user friendly, I am all ears.

[all_wound_up]

This thing is confusing as heck:

"Click here if you are using this Persona to apply for usage in the Velvet Room (don't if you're not, or creating this for public use, or using it for a webpage! This is strictly when you are submitting to use a persona, as this requires your name and current lvl)"

Because what it seems to be saying is that you're only supposed to click the box if you're creating the Persona for general Velvet Room purposes, which actually isn't true. It could be a lot shorter, honestly, because all it boils down to is:

"Click here if you are creating a Soul Persona for your character's personal use. Fill in your character's name and DW journal name in the first two boxes. Your character's Persona is lv 1 unless they had one before coming to the game, in which case it is lv 2."

Or something of the sort.

[pretty_pink_ribbon]

Yes. All of this. I still get confused reading that part.

[deathboss]

I shall be changing that then! This is what you get with a frenchwoman making forms.

[phantom_envoy]

This is super duper spiffy.

[unbroken_chain]

Why thank you!

[tyrantball]

Yeah, once this on an official page and not just my personal journal I think we should throw in a link in all future ATP ads.

[stringmods]

Could I have the html code for it please?

[tyrantball]

Okay, sent the whole thing in two chunks via PM.