How about some marketing?

[Dickstar]

Hey now everybody. I love this game and the initiative behind it. I am a big fan of open source projects like these.

Here's the thing though; this project can become way more popular if people would know about it. Most people I know that used to play Transport Tycoon all the time simply don't know about Open TTD. It can be as simple as making a Facebook page and buying some Facebook and Google ads. It wouldn't have to cost more than 200 bucks or so. That will get you a lot of traffic which means ad revenue.

It would also be a good idea to make a simple installer that already includes the alternative music, graphics and AI files. Copying stuff into folders scares away the casual crowd.

I'm almost done with college studying marketing and communication. I can help you guys out with this.

[FooBar]

It would also be a good idea to make a simple installer that already includes the alternative music, graphics and AI files. Copying stuff into folders scares away the casual crowd.

You may want to check out the more recent versions of the game, they already offer to download the graphics if they are not found on startup. And with that you can go into the Online Content to choose from the rest.

[Transportman]

Here's the thing though; this project can become way more popular if people would know about it. Most people I know that used to play Transport Tycoon all the time simply don't know about Open TTD.

But you can tell them, then the do know about it.

It can be as simple as making a Facebook page and buying some Facebook and Google ads. It wouldn't have to cost more than 200 bucks or so. That will get you a lot of traffic which means ad revenue.

With what money? The money from the donations? I rather have that going to the servers and stuff needed to develop this game. Transport Tycoon already gives OpenTTD as first hit in Google, so advertisements don't really have an added value here. Also, to have ad revenue, wouldn't that mean that there should be advertisements somewhere on the OpenTTD webpage? Last time I checked there weren't any, so no add revenue. Or do you count that OVH flash thing as an ad? That is because they sponsor OpenTTD by hosting the site, I don't know the specifics of that, but I guess that they don't give their hosting away for free, so the increased traffic might very well give increased costs (and the money has to come from somewhere).

Short: I don't think advertisement campaign is needed, only in-game to get your station ratings up

[Dickstar]

You may want to check out the more recent versions of the game, they already offer to download the graphics if they are not found on startup. And with that you can go into the Online Content to choose from the rest.

You're right, I forgot about that.

Still, it isn't obvious which one is for most users. The general public doesn't know the difference between source, binary, zip and installer. I feel there should be one big yellow button on the front page that says "Download latest version" with a bunch of nice screenshots around it that links directly to the latest stable.

This is an amazing product and I love it. I just feel you guys are missing out on a lot of audience. The general public isn't as tech-savvy as you guys are and are scared of things they don't understand.

But you can tell them, then the do know about it.

I did, and they love it. But my reach doesn't extend my friends group and colleagues.

With what money? The money from the donations? I rather have that going to the servers and stuff needed to develop this game. Transport Tycoon already gives OpenTTD as first hit in Google, so advertisements don't really have an added value here. Also, to have ad revenue, wouldn't that mean that there should be advertisements somewhere on the OpenTTD webpage? Last time I checked there weren't any, so no add revenue. Or do you count that OVH flash thing as an ad? That is because they sponsor OpenTTD by hosting the site, I don't know the specifics of that, but I guess that they don't give their hosting away for free, so the increased traffic might very well give increased costs (and the money has to come from somewhere).

Short: I don't think advertisement campaign is needed, only in-game to get your station ratings up

Even without the paid ads it would surely help to have a decent Facebook page. That's free. If it brings more people to the website, more people will donate. It's also easy to throw some Google ads on the main page. It works and it doesn't bother people. If you get a ton of visitors that would require expensive hosting, you can make money off them by placing some ads on your page which will pay for hosting.

[Goreiilar]

I agree with this. I showed this game to my friends and they were into it; an achievement considering they're a bunch of COD players. I think the development of 32bpp graphics will help also, as it will make the base game more modern and acceptable to a younger, graphics-hungry, generation.
The gameplay of TT is fun, now we just need to build up the fanbase. When the Yogscast played this game in December, many people were introduced to OTTD (including myself). Even if a prominent youtuber does a spotlight, it's enough to increase reach.
This game needs to be integrated into the general gaming community.

[andythenorth]

Why do we need marketing? What's the goal?

[Yexo]

Even without the paid ads it would surely help to have a decent Facebook page. That's free. If it brings more people to the website, more people will donate. It's also easy to throw some Google ads on the main page. It works and it doesn't bother people. If you get a ton of visitors that would require expensive hosting, you can make money off them by placing some ads on your page which will pay for hosting.

Everyone can make a decent Facebook page. As for google ads one the main page: why should we do that? The donations are enough to cover the hosting costs, and currently there is not much else the money is going to. Making money isn't a goal of OpenTTD.

[Dickstar]

Even without the paid ads it would surely help to have a decent Facebook page. That's free. If it brings more people to the website, more people will donate. It's also easy to throw some Google ads on the main page. It works and it doesn't bother people. If you get a ton of visitors that would require expensive hosting, you can make money off them by placing some ads on your page which will pay for hosting.

Everyone can make a decent Facebook page. As for google ads one the main page: why should we do that? The donations are enough to cover the hosting costs, and currently there is not much else the money is going to. Making money isn't a goal of OpenTTD.

Alright, easy, just trying to help here. I'm just pointing out here there are great ways to get more people to know about OpenTTD. I understand that making money isn't the goal, but it never hurts. You guys could save it up and use it to maybe pay someone to work full-time on the project. I'm just thinking out loud here but money is always useful in almost every situation, be real.

And for the record, not everyone can make a decent Facebook page and utilize all the potential that's in there.

[andythenorth]

I've nothing against marketing - marketing pays my mortgage in more ways than one; I just like to see a clear goal for it

If more players is the goal, is it a good goal? What are the downsides of having more players? What are the upsides?

(I'm serious with these questions, not trolling you)

[Yexo]

And for the record, not everyone can make a decent Facebook page and utilize all the potential that's in there.

I'm sorry, I wasn't very clear. I completely agree that not everybody can do that (as in, can make an attractive page), but there is nothing to stop anybody from trying to make such a page. There is no rule like "only a dev can make the facebook page" or something like that.

[IdleHans]

Why do we need marketing? What's the goal?

Marketing is the science of arresting the human intellect long enough to get money from it.

[Expresso]

OpenTTD has already got a very good "marketing campaign". It has had reviews by several computer magazines, a youtube channel, it's available in quite a lot of linux distribution package manager repositories, has been reviewed on many sites and has an extremely active community.

The "marketing" is arranging itself. On top of that, anybody specializing in "marketing" is specializing in distraction, which can (in some cases) be considered a form of harassment... You don't happen to have that as a day job, do you?

[andythenorth]

anybody specializing in "marketing" is specializing in distraction, which can (in some cases) be considered a form of harassment

meh.

Not comprehensively true. You buy stuff in shops right? Shops are marketing. You download ottd? The download site is marketing.

Marketing makes the money that means I have time to spend working on this game. I like marketing.

[Dickstar]

Marketing is the science of arresting the human intellect long enough to get money from it.

Spoken like a true elitist douche. Thanks for your great contribution to the discussion.

OpenTTD has already got a very good "marketing campaign". It has had reviews by several computer magazines, a youtube channel, it's available in quite a lot of linux distribution package manager repositories, has been reviewed on many sites and has an extremely active community.

The "marketing" is arranging itself. On top of that, anybody specializing in "marketing" is specializing in distraction, which can (in some cases) be considered a form of harassment... You don't happen to have that as a day job, do you?

That's cool, but computer magazines aren't read by everybody. A Youtube channel is a good idea, but I don't see any links to it anywhere. It's not a case of or/or, it can be and/and. This is an easy thing to do, and it's free. Pure win situation.

And I honestly don't understand the negative attitude towards this idea and how marketing is evil.

I've nothing against marketing - marketing pays my mortgage in more ways than one; I just like to see a clear goal for it

If more players is the goal, is it a good goal? What are the downsides of having more players? What are the upsides?

(I'm serious with these questions, not trolling you)

I see what you're saying, and you make a good point.

The only thing I said when starting this thread is that I see a great game here that not a lot of people know about. To me, more players=more fun. I can't think of any downsides, really. This is not the kind of game that attracts assholes that ruin the fun for others like some popular shooters. You need to put time into this game to get the hang of it.

[Dickstar]

By the way, some fan created a page of his own. You guys should at least claim it: https://www.facebook.com/pages/OpenTTD/13607694555

That's the beauty of social media, the community wants this, so they make it themselves.

[kamnet]

What is the goal of the marketing? Do we want more people to download the game? Do we want more developers? Do we want more NewGRF/NewObject coders and artists? Do we want to increase donations?

What kind of marketing do we want to do? Do we want to advertise on websites? Do we want to increase our social media presence? Do we want more videos to share? Do we want new reviews, more reviews? Do we want more presence among video game players? Do we want more presence in the open source community? Do we target train enthusiasts?

[FooBar]

You're asking the right questions. Do we want all this? My answer to that is: probably not, because if we did we probably would have done so already. Or we may actually want it, but surely can't be bothered to put in the effort.

But anyone is free to set up some sort of marketing for OpenTTD and donate the profits to the project. And I'm sure that if you seek approval, the devs are willing to look into your idea and comment on it. Just don't expect them to be actively involved in it. They have (in my view) better things to do. Like making this great game even more awesome!

[Yexo]

But anyone is free to set up some sort of marketing for OpenTTD and donate the profits to the project. And I'm sure that if you seek approval, the devs are willing to look into your idea and comment on it. Just don't expect them to be actively involved in it. They have (in my view) better things to do. Like making this great game even more awesome!

Very well said!

Here's the thing though; this project can become way more popular if people would know about it. Most people I know that used to play Transport Tycoon all the time simply don't know about Open TTD. It can be as simple as making a Facebook page and buying some Facebook and Google ads. It wouldn't have to cost more than 200 bucks or so. That will get you a lot of traffic which means ad revenue.

As I've said before: feel free to make such a Facebook page.

I'm almost done with college studying marketing and communication. I can help you guys out with this.

If you have more ideas: just go ahead and do some marketing. Write an article for your university paper about OpenTTD, tell some more friends about it, organize an OpenTTD lan-party or whatever. Nobody is going to stop if you want to market OpenTTD.

The only limit in this case is that it'd have to be free (or you'd have to pay yourself). The money that is donated is meant to improve the game, I think it's bad to spend that money on advertising.

By the way, some fan created a page of his own. You guys should at least claim it: https://www.facebook.com/pages/OpenTTD/13607694555

That's the beauty of social media, the community wants this, so they make it themselves.

And if you start to help with marketing, the community suddenly includes you! How/why should we claim that page btw?

[Dickstar]

And if you start to help with marketing, the community suddenly includes you! How/why should we claim that page btw?

You guys should claim admin rights so you can post updates on it and integrate a link on your site. That way you can spread the word about this project faster. As an admin you'll also have access to facebook analytics. You can see a pretty detailed demographic profile of your fans. It's awesome. Facebook is such a great marketing tool.

[Hyronymus]

And if you start to help with marketing, the community suddenly includes you! How/why should we claim that page btw?

You guys should claim admin rights so you can post updates on it and integrate a link on your site. That way you can spread the word about this project faster. As an admin you'll also have access to facebook analytics. You can see a pretty detailed demographic profile of your fans. It's awesome. Facebook is such a great marketing tool.

Yes, and it comes with privacy issues that aren't really that great. I don't know if for a non-commercial game marketing is that important also. Do you have proof i.e. that we greatly missed something?