You know with all the banter here and there about new people in the different folders I had a thought.

Being nostalgic for a minute I can remember back in the early 1990's I was a snot nosed kid. I "played" an Anne McCaffery game, completely fan ran, "game". IT was young adults 12-19 (I'm guessing) on people who had read her books about Pern and dragons.

Basically We ran with her concept of the world and just added characters on a forum type board and wrote our own stories, from getting a dragon at hatching to being the head persona's of the wyr. It was all 100% creative writing from the people who loved the stories and wanted to make their own chapter in her wonderful world of dragon's, thread, politics, and excitement.

Very cool, and I still remember spending hours upon hours working out my character and dragon for that very interesting and wonderful world. I did rise to second in command of a dragonhold back then in the early 90's.

It was all done with posts/short stories on a forum board. And you know one of the things I remember most about that "game"?

There was a banner in the corner that said Gemstone.

I clicked on it after "playing"/writing short stories on that forum board after a few months back in the GEnie days. I'll admit that I played GS for about a month or 2 before it opened up to the AOL/Prodigy rush. And I can tell you my parents got pissed at me a few times for the charges cause I played GS as much as I knew i could get away with without seriously getting in trouble. Good thing I did extra chores and had a decent paying job as a kid! Then again I don't know many kids in HS who could paint cars at a shop and do body work. sadly I still don't, todays kids are lazier then the kids I grew up with
I did it out of couriousty one day and have mostly enjoyed my decades in Elanthia since.

Basically I'm just pointing out, cause I don't see much marketing for this game I grew up with and love, that something as small as that has netted you (Simutronics) a loyal customers of 20 years.

I had a basic account for close to a girlfriend to play, she probably will again after the midgets are no longer midgets. And I went to Plat after a break to see what it was about. I've been Plat ever since and have a whole new love for the game.

I guess my post is about the little things, I stumbled upon Elanthia as a 12 year old kid and I find myself still playing and loving the game and world it is now that I'm in my mid thirties. And it was a little thing that drew me in to try it, granted back then it was free to play. But a smidge of advertising here and there or a link on RPG site's I think would go a long way to drawing in new blood that would love the game and play for decades like I have.

Just a thought I had and something I wanted to share with staff as advertising has honestly has been something neglected for a while. I have not seen any GS4 advertising on any site in a 15 years, not saying there hasn't been any at all just that's scarce/unseen at best.

One little add lead to a 20 year customer with several accounts, might be something to think about.


Senglent and his wayward kin.

I think you mentioned that before Sleken, or one of your counterparts. The clickthrough and buyrate of 2 accounts wasn't worth the advertising investment. The discount/freebie incentives on Gemstone IV's facebook always seemed to work. I'm curious where the clickthrough advertisement banners were placed if you could answer that.

The popular George R.R Martin forums at westeros.org would be strong, and/or top MUDs. Dragonrealm is ranked #8 on topmuds today and I've never seen it that high. I'm registered over there. Gemstone is listed as III in the forums. I can see about starting a corrected topic or fixing it. Gemstone III is at #41, which is better than usual. It tends to hover in the 60-90 range.

The playerbase wants to help promote this because we want new people, but I think we'd like to see some encouragement and help from the establishment (Simutronics)

-Jeramy

I did contact topmudes to update the voting/forum topic, but if you'd like to vote for Gemstone IV as a top mud and push it into the top 20 you can vote here:

http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-gemstone.html

>> Dragonrealm is ranked #8 on topmuds today and I've never seen it that high.

They started a big push last week. They added a vote banner to www.elanthipedia.com. It's been super effective. I'm sure Krakkipedia could do the same.

Also, I'm not sure why no one has made a lich plugin to remind people to vote. It could be built in. Reminding people and proving them a link to vote is not against the rules.

Someone setup a GS ad for FB at some time aswell. I don't know if it was a player or Simutronics though.

~James
Player of Septimius