How to get people to play your online rpg?

I have a persistent world game but how do I get people to play it? I only know to get a dedicated server and launch the game, but what about players? What are some techniques to market a persistent world online game?

The game is about party play and grinding. You can play solo but it will be more rewarding to play with a group. I would like a steady 130-150 players...

I also have a plan to release more content every month or so.

 

Make it look sexier than whatever else. Build a hype train. Both require money. I think to get 100 players you probably need a million people to get eyes on it first.

Dont quote my numbers, but the ratio is really high.

Just speculating here as I have no relevant exp, but I'd think you need prerelease hype to have servers filled on day 1. Dead servers is dead game.

 

Funny I was just thinking about all of the MMOs that advertise with scantily clad female warriors only to look nothing at all like that once you've gotten into the game.

 

Pay them $1000 a month.

sorry!

"When Jokes Fall Flat" is my new book out next year.

 

Pretty nasty comment. You don't even know anything about my game.

 

She's clearly joking but you could sponsor a reputable YouTuber to play through your game showing it off to his fans.

 

Super sorry, that did come across mean, didn't it? Apologies, I was making a joke about a current political thing in America. Been working way too hard on this game and my humor muscles are atrophied. I'll skulk off into a corner now. Good luck with your game.

 

Can we see it?

 

How this is even offensive anyhow?

But do you want to?

 

It is extremely difficult to convince people to play multiplayer indie games. The main thing multiplayer games need is lots of simultaneous players, and that is very hard to get for an indie title.

 

Link? Screenshots? Videos?

Does it look and feel like a modern MMO can it compete on look with Blade and Soul, LOTR, WoW, Guild Wars 2, etc?

Is it more of a throwback Runescape Classic or Neverwinter style?

Mobile? Monster collector?

Is it something really new and creative?

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Without knowing anything about the game how can we recommend a strategy for attracting players? I'll go with the default...

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Advertising / Buying Installs

For 150 online players as a baseline you probably need about 10,000 active players which will probably translate to about 500,000 sign-ups. But lets be very generous and say your game is amazing and actually holds 10% of people who try it out, and people play for 8 hours a week, thus you would need ~30,000 people to try it.

Acquiring users is about $2 per install, for an MMO its probably quite a bit higher as its not a casual genre. Lets say $5 per 'real' user.

So assuming your game is really good and easily accessible you need about $150,000.

(Note this isn't taking in to account churn, etc, you would probably need far more to sustain the active player base)

@Ony your joke isn't that far off ...

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EDIT: I wonder if paying the first 100 people to log 100 hours in the game isn't actual a viable strategy for getting a player base. The hype would at least get you a bunch of installs, the cash incentive/story/bragging rights would get you a reasonable player base who actually put in the time. If your game was good it might actually work.

 

I mean if they aren't bombarding us with the game itself I get the impression they aren't super excited about it, which makes me feel all moopy and disinterested. Even if the games ugly and wonky, developer should talk about it like it's their honor role child.

 

I considered tricking my players into believing that they where simultaneously in game with other players when it would actually just be a recording of a players start and end interaction with a level. It was a racing game and would have collisions off but it was a trick I was considering if my game didn't already have a s**t tonne of scope creep. Not sure if it relates to your scenario but if there is no interaction with other players it can work. You would just say if players don't equal 10 or more, grab a recording and play it. Can use to fill numbers up while having both real and fake players.

 

Putting some AI
It was normal of having AI back days in FPS games. For example Unreal Tournament / Quake II etc.

 

You jest. But you aren't wrong.

Player acquisition in the MMO world is largely about spending more money then the other guy. Its competing directly with the likes of Blizzard, Bungie, EA, and a ton of other big names. One doesn't play in that pond unless on has very deep pockets.

This is one of the reasons we typically discourage people from even starting their own MMO. First you have to build the thing, which is an impressive technical challenge on its own. But that's just getting started. You then have to keep up a steady stream of new content to keep players engaged and interested. Then you have to acquire players, which means dragging them away from an existing AAA title. Then you have to walk the tightrope line of monetisation vs cost.

But wait, there's more!

Not only do you have to do all of this. You then have to maintain this level of effort throughout the entire life cycle of the game. You can't simply back catalog an MMO and move onto your next product. You have to constantly keep spending money on it to keep it viable.

 

I'm going to agree whilst also slightly disagreeing. Whenever someone says "this is how things are" I tend to think, "yeah, but there's another way." With that said, I won't be making an MMO anytime soon.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm pretty sure that there is a disruptive way to build an MMO. Some way to cut through all the cost and still produce something that attracts players. And plenty of people punch well above their weight in this industry. But I feel fairly confident in saying that disruption isn't going to come from someone asking how to find players on this forum.

Is the game actually playable right now? At the very least you could link us to an open alpha/beta and let us play it. That will allow people to provide more relevant suggestions.

I'm really hoping one of you "Help me MMO" folk actually pull through in the end. There is nothing quite so satisfying as having long held beliefs shattered.

 

Tldr
One does not simply walk into Mordor.

 

Why not?

Spoiler