Will Arkadia attract new players?

I believe MindArk idea is (or at least what they told us) that every planet will attract new players for their planets and not just get some Calypsians hunting or mining there for few months.
Sometimes I wonder if this is true or they just introduce more things to do to the SAME OLD players with just little additional travel cost - 40 PED.
So my question is probably for the Arkadia team. How you gonna attract new players? Where will they come from? I guess people that like playing such games are already here in Entropia Universe. You must get players from other games, or wait for small kids to become 12 (or whatever was the starting age for Entropia Universe) and get them into Arkadia. Are we gonna see some great advertising campign or you gonna wait for people to find out for Arkadia by their friend or Google? That will most probably lead them to Calypso.
I'm gona make a poll here which may be 1 month early, but anyway it's free.

 

Advertising is my guess.
So far most of the gamers out there have never heard of Entropia, so I guess there is still a pretty big market out there.
I also thing that some countries are still in the beginning of online gaming (India, China, the Middle East) and I'm pretty sure a lot of them will be targeted as well.

But even some article in a gaming magazine or website will get a lot of attention from new players as we saw with all the world records we had in the past. The trick is to keep them playing.

 

Whatever place I go to in Europe noone ever heard a word of that thing called "Entropia Universe" and I mostly tend to be in touch with ppl who have some interest in games. So there are plenty of ppl to be lured into the Universe by advertising. Also making it a better place to play in will be good because atm I would recommend the game to only very few ppl I know but with Arkadia that will hopefully be different. So to sum things up I am from Calypso as just about anyone who will vote on your poll but I know quite a few ppl I will invite to Arkadia when it launches because I think they can have a fun time there but not on the current state of EU (Calypso).

 

Once it's up and running smoothly I really hope they do some serious mainstream advertising.

Even short TV ads in regional markets could be great for little cost. I know that there are good deals in the US in medium sized markets on some great cable channels. The company I'm with sometimes gets rates as low as $6-$8 per slot and sometimes that's even in Prime-Time. Granted, some of the cheapest slots are late night, but that's perfect for Arkadia.

TV ads can be reasonable as long as you aren't buying air-time for the Super Bowl or such things.

 

Hi AxeMurderer,

We're certainly aware of the importance of attracting new players to Planet Arkadia.
Arkadia will launch with a very big marketing campaign, the Alienware promotion is just a small part of it. We'll be making an announcement pertaining to this issue before launch.

 

So much for finding a nice and quiet place to craft then

 

Don`t rush it! Make a campaign only when you feel you are ready and to make the newcomers stay.

 

Once again, from all that the Arkadia team has told us all along, this planet will be very different from all the rest so far, and will be doing things as they were intended to be done all along, ie marketing for a new player base for that planet. I have no fears this time that the team here will repeat bad history by going out and doing a blitz of marketing and publicity for an unfinished game and a place that is not ready for new players as well as old to get on with it. Don't remember where or exact details now, but I understood from info given before that Arkadia has it's specific target audience in mind and will mostly be addressing that, more of an Asian market I think it was but really can't remember. I appreciate that us old players are welcome and appreciated, but we were never intended to be the lifeblood of any new planet, and I'm good with that. Fingers very firmly crossed that MA can really pull out all the stops this time to help make Arkadia the success it is meant to be, and will be on the dev end anyway

 

If we want new planet to grow with new player base then shud be done something we dont like for sure.
Planet shud be forbiden for old players.
Players from Calypso are too strong for new planet, For them planet need biger mobs. Ubers will loot anything dropable and unlimited.
We know that top items drop in small rates like 1 item on few tousand players.
To newcomers will remain to deal with world full of too strong mobs (wich are there because of other planet uber hunters).
To newcomers will remain knoweldge that they will newer get uber top gear because that looted ppl from Calypso already ( except if player base grow extreme high) Same chance as newcomer on Calypso to loot mod fap - ie newer.

 

I Disagree with you Dan, real ubers are maybe 30-50 people in this game. I've been playing for 5 years and it will take a newcomer maybe 6 months to catch up to my skills thanks to the faster skill gains, SIB equipment and missions (assuming the new player is an addict with no real life). The difference between new players and old players isn't that big as you might think (except for the 30-50 mentioned earlier). Besided you need the older players to buy stuff for markup

 

Abso-friggin-lutely NOT.

 

it took weeks for some in my soc. It all depends on how much they're willing to spend.

The only difference is that the they'll gain offense skills but their defensive skills are usually poor in comparison but if they can kill mobs in a few shots defense is pointless. Skill gains in EU went from a slow burn, get there in the end to a blow torch when L sib was introduced.

But then all it means is they get to the hard slog part even sooner and end up having to pay over the top just to buy equipment that everyone else wants as well.

 

Btw can we not tell new Arkadian players that Calypso exist.
And see their faces when the first space ship arives with veterans with uber armor and start shooting them.
Like the aliens that come and build the piramyds. Or the gods.

 

I hope you are right, mine is only asumption of worse case based on another planet.
Next Island - ppl from Calypso did time travel cristal not newcomers.
How much time need to an newcomer to lvl up and be able to kill sharks and drakes - to obtain materials for time travel cristal?
Newcomer on new planet with armor and weapon from trade terminal.
Newcomer without any crafting skills. Newcomer wich dont know that cristal need to be crafted on condition to obtain 5 ped item from 3 ped resources.
If there were no ppl from Calypso to discower it fast and ruin fun for newcomers they cud grow slow for about year or two.
Yea money...
It seem we all look at new planets as Calypso expansion game but how we get new player base then?

 

While you do have a valid point, Next Island is terrible. If you only had newcomers there you would have a lot of people without armor running around with opalo's. (ok i am ignoring crafter armor and weapons here, i admit). And the ingredients for time-travel are just rediculous. But i have faith that with a well managed planet it can go a lot better.

 

Agree with Harmony. True there are some older players who will probably rush to every single new planet to get all the 'goodies' like discoveries and potential 'uber' loots, but these are in the minority I think. It shouldn't spoil it for newcomers completely if the designers actually think about the new player more than the old calypso residents, and then actually manage the planet. I know for myself that there will be planets in the future that I will never bother going to, simply because the content holds no interest to me, and I don't see any of them as being expansion of Calypso, but will take each one on it's on merit (or lack of). Must admit though it would be cool if those things could be coded so that only actual noobs could do them, at least in the first year or so, but guess that would just encourage the multiple account jerks sadly.

 

You seem to forget that running a planet is a business not charity, so owner want to make money out of it. If he would close his planet to new players only, he would get much less revenue than from old players. Therefore I highly doubt there will be ever any newcomers-only planet.

 

Well, I strongly believe that Arkadia is going to be a whole lot better than any other planet in EU, time will tell...

 

Do all new subscribers enter through the Entropia Genesis?

 

I'm curious about this too, I stopped playing several years ago and will make a new account to enter Arkadia.

Is there a way I can register now as an Arkadian and get the game downloaded and make sure it runs before Arkadia launches - and still start Day 1 in Arkadia's newcomer zone?

I agree with Dan Petrov on one point - there will be mobs which drop certain items that no new player can kill for a long time - maybe some midvets could get together and get some teaming going in the first weeks - teach the newbies about the 12 man Opalo hunt and such.