why no newbies?

[Plain-ol-Ed]

I'm delighted to meet you folks but I'm concerned for the health of this site when I look through the games and see the same few names over and over again. Since the community is over a 1,000 now, there seems to be a huge disporpotion of active players. We need to figure out why new people are not engaging. If it is because they feel like they are getting beat up by more experienced players we could seed the game roster with games that limit participation to the first few ranks.

But what is really needed is dialog. Ask them why they don't play. One thing is almost alway certain, the answers they will give will not be what are expected.

Then share that insight here and see if the community can formuate strategies that encourages and grows their participation.

 

[zspBANNED]

(http://www.majorcommand.com/blog/)

Well to answer your question straight up, there aren't many newbies b/c we're in private beta, and newbies can't get in unless invited by an active player. But I know what you mean though, I see the same names in all of my games, I'm not seeing anywhere near the 1000+ that are here.

But that could be a result of a number of reasons: Newbies are turned off b/c there are still a few bugs flying around that need squashed (still in beta, so yeah, there will be some problems); newbies at CC usually came and forgot about the site, but then came back and some stuck with it; our welcomer isn't doing a very good job... jk ghost!! seriously. you're doing a fine job! Not many other sites have someone willing to welcome hundreds of people on a daily basis (before we were in private beta) and doing it as warmly, and swiftly as you (took a lot for me to write that...enjoy that ghost, not sure how much more of those I have in me)

There are various other reasons as well, but I guess the key here is patience. Until a legitimate product is available to the public masses, we won't see much of the noob race around these parts.

Ask them why they don't play.

Well, if they're not playing, I doubt they'd care to give their time to help the very site grow that they chose to abandon...

 

[ghost]

zsp you make a lot of points, in your own smart ass way.
thanks for the compliment, i know,
i gave you one earlier and had that sour taste of vomit in my mouth for hours afterward.

but it's true, we're still in Beta.. i expect, according to Bado, that our active players list will decrease a lot here soon...it's likely, actually, to fluctuate a lot until we leave Beta and are a smooth moving well oiled machine of risk-dom.

 

[Badorties]

Very good points PoE.

My vision of MajCom is that of a very social site, and I am paying very close attention to each stage of the user lifecycle, from the Unaware to the Passionate User. You are right though, that the return visit is the current hurdle that is most in need of a good overview.

I have talked to many inactive players, and have gotten lots of good feedback. One of the major issues is expectations and real time games. Most players who are unfamiliar with the world of online Risk expect a real time game. Casual games are a foreign concept. Also many players are familiar with Risk online, mainly at Pogo which is the official version, and is real time, in that its vs the computer. Expectations aside, it's just difficult to get a Rt game going. so players are joining Casual, expecting RT, and AWOLing. That is what I think is happening.

To this end we have made some changes to the games page which will alleviate both of these issues. They are implemented on DevCom and should be over here shortly.

I think that will signifigantly raise engagement. But there are other issues as well, like constant losing, and we have changes for that as well.

 

[Plain-ol-Ed]

and just because sometimes it is important to state the obvious, I think this is a GREAT site! You all have really put together a very slick experience.

 

[Badorties]

and just because sometimes it is important to state the obvious, I think this is a GREAT site! You all have really put together a very slick experience.

Thanks. I can't wait for some of the upcoming changes.

 

[Borgified]

Let me start off my suggestions with a positive: I believe this site eventually will take off big time because the founders are smart and are using the best parts of Conquer Club and are avoiding the many mistakes that Conquer Club has/is making.

As a former active player here that has left for now, I'd like to throw in my 2 cents. I think Badorties has it exactly right, that most of us noobs want and expcect real time games. In fact when you guys have enough people online and ready to join real time games, I'll be back and be an active member again.

I believe that the main thing hurting this site from taking off is that "hump" of getting enough members to join and be active to have the critical mass of players needed to be able to run real time games. Once you have reached that point, you'll be golden as it will be like dominos how this site will continue to grow without much effort.

I can think of only 4 risk sites that made it past that critical and difficult "hump" of having the critical mass of players:
1) CC (but that site sucks and is dying because the owners don't update/upgrade their ancient software, plus they ban people without good reasons for it.)
2) ATTACK! by Zynga (but that site has shut down)
3) LandGrab (which is where I'm still active, we have an average of 40 people online and ready to play real time games most times of the day.)
4) Pogo Risk (Only tried it once, was not impressed because Pogo does not specialize with Risk so I don't think they'll ever have what feels like an active risk community of friends. Sites that try to have lots of games, have difficulty being specialized for any one game.

I hope this site does take off because I enjoy playing on more than one risk site and want to again if you guys make it. Plus, I appreciate websites that look good, and this site is by far, the most graphically beautiful Risk site online.

Suggestions:
1) I suggest that it's time to drop the "Beta" thing and remove the 1,000 people cap. Now that you've been around for several months, I think it's time to come out of "Betta". For other sites, restricting the size to 1,000 until the kinks are out make sense. But for a risk site, it's like shooting yourself in the foot as without as many members as you can get, you won't have enough people to make it fun and you'll soon lose many of those first 1,000 members because the site will be boring. I'm not trying to be mean, I call it as I see it and speak my mind.

2) One of the Founders here claimed to be an expert at Viral internet marketing and that, "When the time comes, he will unleash the gates and bring in lots of people." If that guy really is what he claims to be, it's time for him to act sooner than later and start that viral internet marketing campaign.

4) Contests, and events to encourage recruiting and to get the word out about the site.

5) Consider buying a current Risk Site that has been around for years that may not be very active but that has a ton of registered email address. Then Forward that domain to MajorCommand.com, and send several emails out to the registered users explaing that the site is all new and asking them to come back for a look. Run a few contests at the same time.
An example of a site to buy is: www.RiskAttack.com, as it has 158,581 registered players, and been around for more than 5 years, but is mostly dead. I say mostly dead because I joniend it to check it out and started a real time and was actually able to get one started with 4 people within 10 minutes, but the graphics and software suck. The last time the owner tried to sell it he accepted a $3000. offer for it on Flippa.com, but from what I remember, the buyer backed out. I may be wrong but that's what I recall and here's the last for sale post for it: http://flippa.com/auctions/85809/500--Month-Hands-free-and-passive-income Please note that Hasbro had contacted that owner and told them they can never charge memberships at that site because they use the word "Risk" in the domain. You could simply forward that domain to yours to avoid that problem.

 

[ORBOTRON]

Some good points there, but the thing is, the "Beta" here is actually what a Beta test is supposed to be, it's not the fake beta like farmville or similar. These guys are taking a methodical approach, and do not want to introduce an inferior product to the general public. I can't speak directly for them, but I think it's a much easier thing to attract new users to a polished, functional site, than it is to get people to come back who have already formed opinions based on bugs and lack of features. I personally think it would be very wise to keep it in Beta until many more of the RT game features are implemented. I honestly don't think it will be a problem bringing in the veteran players no matter when the time comes, Borgified you said yourself you'll be back. The issue is what will be presented to the true noobs of the game.

 

[Badorties]

Great feedback there Borgafied. It's very much appreciated.

Let me address them.

1. There is still too much to implement to drop the beta tag. Still have to make tournaments public and push out clans as well. So we are truly in beta, its not just name. Customer acquisition is not something I am worried about. When we were public we gained 100-150 new users today. We certainly will get over this hump you speak of, and have fixes in place to reduce the size of the hump, meaning, making it easy for people to get into RT games.

2. Thats me! the expert at viral marketing. lol. Yes this will roll out once we are 1.0. I hate inefficientcy and to start the fire burning before we could provide the best possible experience would be a waste.

4. Oh yeah, we have an event plan that will blow the socks off the Risk playing and strategy gaming community. This will be announced once we are 1.0.

5. Very interesting. I often wondered what was up with that Risk Attack dude and his scam site. Indeed his list would be valuable, though his site not so much. But if we are ever in need of rapidly acquaiing customers, that is something I will consider. Thanks for the great link there, how did you find it?

THanks again Borgi

 

[Borgified]

Great feedback there Borgafied. It's very much appreciated.
5. Very interesting. I often wondered what was up with that Risk Attack dude and his scam site. Indeed his list would be valuable, though his site not so much. But if we are ever in need of rapidly acquaiing customers, that is something I will consider. Thanks for the great link there, how did you find it?

THanks again Borgi

You're welcome Badorties, I really hope for the best for MajorCommand. It has great potential.

I wish I could help you contact the owner of RiskAttack.com but the email address he was replying to last year, [email protected], is no longer a valid email adress. I was negotiating with him in December of last year to buy his site but I couldn't get him below $5000, and then I saw he accepted that bid in March of this year for $3000 (I must not have been a very good negotiater).

That site runs on a modified version of a free online risk script. He had payed a programmer to fix the many many bugs in the script, but you can see that it still doesn't work well. There is no way that it generates the adsense income that he claims $500/month, or he wouldn't be selling it. At least he was honest with me about the cease and desist letter from Hasbro as he had been charging for premium accounts, if you can believe that. With just one map and a buggy UI, Its hard to understand why anyone would sign up for the site. But last year I registered and was able to get a real time game going. My guess is that domain/site has been able to rank high enough in the search engines that its actually pulling in enough traffic to keep getting new members.

Try doing a "whois" lookup for "RiskAttack.com" and try sending an email to that email adress. Also try going to his Flippa ad and sending a message on Flippa to both the seller and the high bidder just in case that sale was consumated. If the sale did go through, maybe the new owner will want to sell since the site hasn't changed since March and no improvements have been made that I can see.

 

[lh34]

"""2) One of the Founders here claimed to be an expert at Viral internet marketing and that, "When the time comes, he will unleash the gates and bring in lots of people." If that guy really is what he claims to be, it's time for him to act sooner than later and start that viral internet marketing campaign."""



Well, you guys already got some free advertising here. http://www.playriskonline.net/ It's where I found out about this majorcommand, and I'm guessing that this is where some of the newbies found out about this too.

 

[Badorties]

Indeed, we get a considerable amount of traffic from that site.

 

[ORBOTRON]

I actually found out about MC chatting with Atlas-Shrugged over on LandGrab. Like I said, the word will get around to all the actively involved players, there's no need to rush.

 

[Chilly]

I'm here because I subscribe to wallstats.com in my RSS reader and Bado made this post:

If you don't already track how people got here, that could be an interesting and useful poll for you guys.

 

[Borgified]

Well, you guys already got some free advertising here. http://www.playriskonline.net/ It's where I found out about this majorcommand, and I'm guessing that this is where some of the newbies found out about this too.

You know I like and support Major Command, but Badorties, please be honest about this. Is PlayRiskOnline.net owned by you or one of your friends?

Woodruff from ConquerClub raises a good point about it:

That appears to me to be one big old commercial for MajorCommand.Com. I mean, seriously...7 maps gets a 77 rating while our tremendous number of maps gets an 81?
In truth, I strongly suspect that the individual that created the playriskonline site is the same one that developed MajorCommand.Com..

http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=127671&hilit=majorcommand

I do agree with him that it looks very suspicious that Major Command, as good as it is, is ranked higher than any other site. It's still in Beta, it is capped at 1,000 people, it is hard to start a real time game, it has several uncompleted sections, etc.

 

[Badorties]

I have had a few dialogs and email exchanges with that site owner and have been a strong advocate for MC. I requested a review many months ago and after he showed me a draft review I asked him to hold off and tried to sell him on how awesome we would be, and our story etc. His revised review went up a month ago. Personally I think he is just excited to see a new entry in the space, but suspect that the MC rating will drop if we can't deliver.

 

[Borgified]

I have had a few dialogs and email exchanges with that site owner and have been a strong advocate for MC. I requested a review many months ago and after he showed me a draft review I asked him to hold off and tried to sell him on how awesome we would be, and our story etc. His revised review went up a month ago. Personally I think he is just excited to see a new entry in the space, but suspect that the MC rating will drop if we can't deliver.

Then I'll take your word for it.

The reason I was suspicious is that:
1) On your site, http://wallstats.com, if you scroll to the bottom, and look under the "About" heading, you have a mini map of the site that lists your websites. But under the heading, "Friends", it lists PlayRiskOnline.net, and InfoGraphics.
Here's the Mini Map:
Home
•Death and Taxes
•389 Years Ago
•Blog
•About
•Friends
•Play Risk Online
•Infographics

2) Both domains are registered at the Tucows (or affiliates that use the Tucows Registery. Tucows and it's affiliates only has 6.6% of the domain registration market, a suprising coincidence.
3) The owner of "PlayRiskOnline.net" uses the "hidden" registration option at Tucows, which means he wants to hide who owns the site, yet in the "about" section of his site he announces, "My name is Dennis Gern". The site doesn't seem like the type where you'd need to keep your identity private and if you did want to, why on earth would you go ahead and announce your name on your site?
3) I was once a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) expert as you are today, and starting "PlayRiskOnline.net" is a great idea if you had planned on creating MajorCommand.com. I would have done the same.
4) There is similarity of the look (graphics) and feel of the two sites.
5) It doesn't make a lot of sense that Major Command would be listed as the #1 Risk site unless their is a friendship or a payment.

 

[Badorties]

Nice sleuthing. I will say that while MC is the top ranked site, the interests of both MC and playriskonline.net are aligned in terms of promotion. I offered a footer link because of this. I used to have a link to AutoInsurance.org there ina different but similar arrangement. On my blog footer I also link to "social marketing" for some more back scratching.

MajorCommand.com and all my other domains are registered through MediaTemple.

 

[Borgified]

Nice sleuthing. I will say that while MC is the top ranked site, the interests of both MC and playriskonline.net are aligned in terms of promotion. I offered a footer link because of this. I used to have a link to AutoInsurance.org there ina different but similar arrangement. On my blog footer I also link to "social marketing" for some more back scratching.

MajorCommand.com and all my other domains are registered through MediaTemple.

I'll say this, I'm very impressed with your internet savy. You'd be the guy I'd hire for SEO work.

I won't push any farther on this topic, but whatever the relationship of the two sites is, PlayRiskOnline.net was a stroke of genius. I would like to think I would have done the same if Major Command was my project. The only thing I would have done different is rank Major Command as #2 instead of #1. That would be enough to throw me and anyone else off, see what I mean?

 

[ghost]

well, i've checked out the playriskonline site quite a few times over the last few months.. and if memory serves me correctly, CC was #1 for like 6 months on that site. i've also tried playing on several of the other sites that have been reviewed and can honestly say, and without bias.. that the majority of them are lacking in some way/shape/or form.. if MajCom was just recently rated and was ranked #1 while still in Beta, i gotta assume the owner/operator of playriskonline has some idea what he/she is talking about.