Tips to owning a game

[Haunted Dawg]

1.- Owning a game:

It's not some get rich quick scheme that you can open a website and expect to come back 3 day's later to find $1,000's in your paypal account.

Owning a game take's alot of time, getting a successful game even more.

Before opening a game strategize and mark your point's. Marking your point's so in future you know where to advertise to hit potential & valueable members.

Strategize your business plan, where is your fundamental source coming from? Such thing's play a big role in real life & online business's.

2.- Frequent Updates:

Members (especially value member's) love game update's. No matter what, if it's a small to a big update, they will know you still care about the game, making you more money.

Bugs: Fix all bug's before releasing the game, as bug's push away member's.

3.- Marketing:

Target market point's, think outside the box on this one. As we all know, alot of game owner's have milked the online scene of gaming. So what, There is still more valuable member's out there.

These valuable member's are found all over. A person who has never played a rpg game will enjoy it way more than a frequent rpg game player, those people spread the word more!

Such point's are to go to a local shop and place ad's up, or even in the local newspaper.

4.- Site Ranking:

Now we got a non buggy game (p1), a frequently updated game (p2) & a marketing point (p3).

Now we want to get our ranking up in search engine's. Some of you think 'Woo i have alot of member's it will push it up.' NO!

Ranking in search engine's is mainly based on how many search's are made and if your game is indexed.

Getting your site indexed at alot of search engine's can gain you member's and sometime's alot of member's.

Getting your ranking up by doing such:

    # Post your link on a forum

    # Post your link on known websites

    # Search your own site in search engine's from time to time

What about alexa you ask?

We can't really force every member to download the alexa toolbar, many website's also think because they have member's, it will push it up. Again NO!

Alexa work's off their tool bar, if your player's have the tool bar your alexa goes up.

Having a good alexa is good at selling a game as it gives it a better exposure.

5.- Donations:

DO NOT FORCE MEMBERS TO DONATE!

Let your member's donate by themself's, don't force them to. And do not run a 2x1 every day or week, run it once every 3 month's or even once a year.

Telling a member to donate to get staff status it show's your greedy and needy.

6.- Listening to players:

Listening to player's is a strong point to keep your member's. Listening to them is a must.

Alot of valuable members give nice idea's, it's good to implement some from time to time.

PS: Do excuse my spelling, half a sleep :), more shall be added in near future.

[danger boy]

Re: Tips to owning a game

I couldn't have put it any better kyle. Every point that needs ot be known has bin added. I never new about the p1 p2 and p3 I will look into that for my new game. Thanks for the information must of took you quite some time and thought to write all that down. I for one thank you.

[Haunted Dawg]

Re: Tips to owning a game

It was actualy quick to write down as i know every point to owning a successful game off the top of my head. :), i will be adding more that some might not even know of yet.

[danger boy]

Re: Tips to owning a game

Great! looking forward to your updates thank you once again.

[Haunted Dawg]

Re: Tips to owning a game

7.- Game economy:

Now this is one of the most important thing's while owning a game. Having a stable economy is good as member's like it.

Some member's like the easy money, but those member's arn't so valueable than the one's that like strong economy's.

Having a strong economy will keep the cash flow in the game low. If the economy become's over bloated, it is best to try and remove

as much money from the game as possible, if by all mean's rising the prices on item's, house's, gang's, crystal's, crystal temple,

etc. There are plenty of way's to remove economy money. Such as a strong lottery system. Member's like a strong economy because they have

something to look forward to.

8.- Game Levels:

Keeping low level player's in a game is alway's nice, but to just find that perfect formula to not level quickly can be a problem.

Keeping low level's because when some one sign's up, they see the number low and not high and they know, ok it will be easy to get there.

Those member's will play and find it nice that it is kind of hard to get there, then they have something to look forward to.

9.- Admins:

Admin's can play the game, but as we all know, admin's have advantage to almost everything in the panel. Do no let your admin's be the first in:

# Stats

# Level

# Gangs

# Items hold

# Money

# House

When a normal player see's that, they will think the admin's cheat and not play the game.

10.- Organizing:

Organizing a game can be very hard, but in the long run very worthy.

Having a organized system is good why?

Because by having an organized game, member's know where they stand, and you know where you stand.

Another advantage of organizing a game is that you'll notice how your site hit's rise, as member's know where to go first thing when they login.

Not by thinking once logged in 'Ok where do i go and what do i do'.

11.- Newly bread guide:

Giving new player's a guide is a must. For example, if i am new to rpg gaming, i'll sign up and be like, uhh ok what now?

Having a simple code at the top such as:

if($ir['daysold'] <= 3)	{
echo 'It seem\'s you are new here, why not try out our [url="newguide.php"]Newly bread guide[/url]! It will help you to find out more about our game';
}

You will then write out a good detailed description in newguide.php.

This is a must because?

Because member's can allocate themself's to find thing's more easier. If they know what to do, and where to go, they will stay.

If they don't know what to do and don't know where to go, they will go.

12.- Lagging Websites:

No member or owner like's a slow loading website. Check your host's server load when ever possible, if noticing high server load, you will from time to time notice some lag.

Not all host's have lag if high server load. Marking your host is good, don't change host every time you open a new game,

stick to your host as it will be good.

Finding a good host is hard but worthy, getting your own server is better and easier.

[wolfe]

Re: Tips to owning a game

I have to disagree a bit with number 9. Admins imo should not "play". They should be there to manage the game and have access to almost everything. Anyone with any kind of game changing access should not be considered a player. There are ways to remove admins from stat rankings/hofs, etc.

You can always set up player mods or regular game mods that can play but have no access to game changing features. In my opinion you want to not only avoid issues, but avoid the appearance of there ever being an issue with staff "cheating".

[shedh]

Re: Tips to owning a game

I say that the admin area should be offsite, admins should not be able to edit stats. Admins should only be able to change stats if the game has been exploited or changes are being made. Why would anyone stats be need to be changed whilst the game is running.

Only one or two people should be able to edit such things and those are the Game Owners!

other staff members are only needed to look after users and moderate the game.

*would write a bit more buh need to go

Shedh

[Miniman]

Re: Tips to owning a game

Admins should be able to have logs and the power to stop some actions being made in the game. Such as, someone has gained access to staff and is now causing trouble. They can stop this, and all staff should have this ability.

ALL staff actions should be monitored. What pages they've viewed, what has been changed whilst they were there, a reason for important thing's on why they were there. Like the staff_gangs, you should add reasons to edit users and stuff like that.

The owner should be smart thinking to be able to catch out bad staff.....For example if one of your admins viewed the inventory of a player named 'xxxx' then the stats of 'xxxx' were viewed and then the admin attacks 'xxxx' you should be able to see something is wrong.

Being admin should be a hard job, but they should still be able to play. Just re-assure your users that admins can't edit themselfs.

[Haunted Dawg]

Re: Tips to owning a game

From my experiance in gaming (6 year's) and experiance in game owning (4 year's), i've learn't that alot of player's like the admin to interact in thing's. Such as gang's and attacking and such. But the opportunity for an admin to change stat's should be off limit's.

Another tip for game owner's is to never give member's admin. Give them secretary or assistanting. Why?

What if your admin get's cross and quit's, but want's revenge? He has access to almost anything on your game.

Should be careful also to who you choose for staff.

[Miniman]

Re: Tips to owning a game

 

From my experiance in gaming (6 year's) and experiance in game owning (4 year's), i've learn't that alot of player's like the admin to interact in thing's. Such as gang's and attacking and such. But the opportunity for an admin to change stat's should be off limit's.

Another tip for game owner's is to never give member's admin. Give them secretary or assistanting. Why?

What if your admin get's cross and quit's, but want's revenge? He has access to almost anything on your game.

Should be careful also to who you choose for staff.

I wouldn't let Admins have access to anything important like that tbh, I'd give them logs and the ability to change some thing's, but nothing Major. I'd find one other trustworthy person to handle almost the same stuff as ID:1 but that's about it.

So if they did get angry they wouldn't be able to Mass Credit or Edit Items/Houses.

Another idea for staff: you could Keep admins, but each one is assigned to something, like the current staff system but, Admin 1 is a content writer so he/she has access to that sort of stuff but nothing else, Admin 2 is a game monitor so he/she only has access to logs etc......

[wolfe]

Re: Tips to owning a game

I guess i should have clarified how i have mine set up.

Admins are owner or creator only. Never EVER put anyone you dont trust as an admin. Admin shouldnt play because they are admin and should be involved in daily running, monitoring, adding to the game. Tbh i would think there would be no real need for more admin than just who owns/run the game. Everyone else can fall into the moderator/assistant (or secretary) categories.

Game staff after admin is a bit different and set up with different levels of access, with none of them involving player editing. A couple would have the ability to give items (we have things for birthdays/etc) and these are all logged. You do not have some random person just become staff. To me you should only have a staff of people you trust.

Game mods/assistants play the game. They usually (and ideally) enjoy the game and like interacting with players. But they represent the game and should always remember that when dealing with players.

The best games i have played have had staff completely seperate than players. As a player and an owner i have seen how just the appearance of favoritism and staff "cheating" can change a game. Making it known that admins are not players at all clears up the fact that they will not sit at the top of any of the game categories. That being said, HD is right about players wanting staff to be interactive with them. There are multiple ways to do that.

[Rainbow]

Re: Tips to owning a game

 

There are plenty of way's to remove economy money. Such as a strong lottery system.

Uhhm how does that work? :|

As for the other issue, noone that has powers to read logs - mail, cash transfers, the power to ban people should play the game. It is simply unfair, and most staff of small games will hold a grudge plus when playing if they read mail logs, which is their duty it will affect their own game play, so its simply unfair. Sorry for the rubbish paragraph but I typed it really quickly as I am really busy right now, just my two cents. :lol:

[Haunted Dawg]

Re: Tips to owning a game

 

There are plenty of way's to remove economy money. Such as a strong lottery system.

Uhhm how does that work? :|

Let's take my lottery system i made for example. Every game played, The price's go up automaticly. You only win a 75% of actual cash put in. That can be altered to 50% even.

[Mafia-Club]

Re: Tips to owning a game

good job killah :) very nice guide

[shedh]

Re: Tips to owning a game

This topic can now be read at:

http://www.cegamerspace.com/?L=blogs.blog&article=9

If you have any tips for other game owners or even gamers, just blog about it at CE GamerSpace

~shedh

[Jerry]

Re: Tips to owning a game

Nice guide.

However, I must agree with those saying that admins should not play the game. No matter how fair you play it, it will always lead to players thinking the admins don't play fair.

[UltimaRatio]

Re: Tips to owning a game

I think that admins should play the game! It is clearly understood that the administrator will have the advantage over EVERYTHING in the game! Admins must interact with their players, it is crucial for project's success. However, they should not get an advantage if the game has rating/rank system. But, if it's an RPG, then they can have any advantage they want, as long as they don't actively participate in PvPs.

[Zero-Affect]

i agree Administration should not play they are there to help a simple solution is alternative accounts one for playing the other a admin account or staff account. I on another hand normally never play but do need specific advantages due to testing everything for errors or bugs.

[Nicholas]

interesting post man! also do you think that advertising a game on a shop window would get players?

[Zero-Affect]

interesting post man! also do you think that advertising a game on a shop window would get players?

Depends on the shop if it's a news agents then highly possible with a simple flyer (Add graphics) which attracts the yout, you may ask yourself why but shops sell sweets kids buy sweets, kids play games. simple

I once thought maybe giving out bumper stickers or something would be good advertising also, stick it on your car people will read it, get a nice slogan and your set. always make it something they will remember like mcdonalds is M i'm loving it.

[Haunted Dawg]

interesting post man! also do you think that advertising a game on a shop window would get players?

Get some advertising flyer's, post them up in variouse sweet shop's. Your sure to get some member's out of it. :)

[Zero-Affect]

interesting post man! also do you think that advertising a game on a shop window would get players?

Get some advertising flyer's, post them up in variouse sweet shop's. Your sure to get some member's out of it. :)

so what i said then... best to add a promo code on the fliers to simply see how many members you got from the fliers...

also another tip never give me your cpanel password lol <~joke

local newspaper advertisements isn't a bad idea either, college papers stuff like that

[Storm]

I have to say you are completely wrong about the Alexa ranking

What alexa does is calculates how popular a website it and where your visitors come from

and then they rank your website you do not have to and never had to download the alexa toolbar

or your users have to download it for your website ranking to go up it is all automatic and people

if popular and successful websites should know that.

[a_bertrand]

Storm: completely wrong. Alexa rank is PURELY based on statistics from users using their tool bar. Everyone else (which is the large majority) is not counted. You don't believe us? Then read carefully this: http://www.alexa.com/company

Also, how "automatic" could it be? As the only ways to rank a website is really to monitor users, so either each website must have some sort of hidden counter like Google analytics or something which checks what the users do like a tool bar installed on the browser.

[Storm]

http://www.alexa.com/company/technology

Their toolbar is a new feature they have it helps to rank

a website but is not required.

They crawl the internet and gain statistics ect...

that's why they are not always correct.