This is a discussion about advertising, not gameplay changes. If you think changes will help with retention then feel free to use any of the existing threads or create your own.
One of the things that is pretty obvious is that EVE has always drawn a large number of potential customers who were NEVER going stay with EVE no matter how many changes are made. They either do not like complex strategy games or prefer “personal best” games over “competitive” games.
I’ve seen EVE advertisements in the forums for games my wife plays, those players will NEVER enjoy EVE.
So if you had a budget for advertising EVE, what would you do with it?
Id advertise it near tough pvp games, open world games and financial sims, as well as near Hearts of Iron and other management sims.
Id not waste time with out of game CG intros, Id go with “I bet…” Then a series of carefully chosen taglines that are all variations of “I bet EvE’s too hard for you”.
Each would also play up teamwork, but also not neglect the concept of the smart careful solo.
Id also make sure the single shard nature was totally unobscured.
They should advertise it to a late 20s, mid-30s and 40s demographic. People who played vanilla Ultima Online are used to tough games. In fact, they probably miss playing a tough game, as there’s nothing else quite like EvE and vanilla UO out there these days.
Imho, this game is too complex - and slow - for young audiences. Make it obvious that this game is hard and unforgiving in the ads; mention all forms of PvP: combat, the market, industry.
EvE ads on Youtube are usually wasted on pubescent players who are more interested in Battle Royale type of games.
This is a positive thread. Yah, I’d agree here that EVE should be honest and bold about itself when advertising. Tell it how it is that there is no safe place, but at the same time play up that the rewards match the danger. Don’t just focus on the big battles, focus on all game areas as has been mentioned, even high sec.
And I’d also agree that don’t waste ad money on the reflex or Battle Royale type crowds or mobile ads. Maybe throw some ads towards the single player strategy crowd if leftover money available, players eventually get bored with those and start looking for challenges.
Have you considered the older crowd who now have more time to play games, and who may have just been to busy to even contemplate playing UO when it came out?
I think the best place to advertise EVE would be any mainstream sci-fi. EVE really could use current and relevant scifi media for the younger generation.
I don’t know what you mean by this. I’m not retired yet, but I’m definitely older, and I play just about any genre of game. In fact, when I do retire, I plan on doing some catch up, cause responsibilities… Definitely plan on dusting off the old consoles and schooling the grand kids in Street Fighter and such. Just don’t tell the parents…
Part of my answer was in response to the other poster who seemed to imply only those under 50 would be interested, and I should have made it clear that I agree that those interested in BR might not like EVE.
I’ve mentioned this multiple times on the old forums; Eve should take 5 years of their budget get a small team of writers and make an animated TV show using in game graphics and better character animations then they have now. Tie in the Story with current ingame events and rewards for active participation in the story line content. Possibly look in to Motion Capture Tech so they could tie that in later to their VR stuff(all this can be used with upcoming Nova aswell).
Make the show somewhere between Heavy Metal/Clone Wars so its targeted for the 20 something plus crowd. Explore some of the classic Racial arch types, some new twists on old ones, Explore the big arcs and the small ones, and really flesh out the world so more people are just “Thinking of Eve”. Just get Eve in the heads of people and some will come and check it out.Explain ingame mechanics, old patch changes etc with a bit of dark humour but don’t go so dark that no normal person wants to watch it. A lot of problems with the novels was they ended too Dark imo. People like a good satisfying Ending and if you keep denying them… they will look elsewhere.
If they played their cards right they could get government money for grants etc and use their budget to procure more funding; get a slice and scripts then go shopping to Netflix, Hulu, Adult Cartoon Network etc for final funding.
This TV commercial got me interested in Eve. It aired 5/30/2008 on SciFi Channel during Battlestar Galactica when the Cylons were attacking the colonies.
What was cool is that it was actually the first commercial shown during a commercial break so at first it looked like it was actually part of the series, until the closing credits showed Eve Online and then I remembered where I heard that name.
I first heard about Eve Online about a year before that commercial in chat of another MMO and didn’t even give it a second thought due to negative descriptions. However, after I saw the TV commercial I did a goggle search and spent a couple of weeks viewing various videos and info guides about Eve Online. About 2 weeks later I subbed to the game and have been with Eve ever since.
