We need to get the word out about Tempus more. I don't remember who said it, if it was said, but it used to be that Tempus spread by word of mouth. When I was 12 years old in 1996 in Virginia, my brother (Ribcrack, evil knight, maxxed out at level 18 mort and quit), told me about this stupid little game. I was immediately addicted, and outleveling him like crazy (probably why he quit). At the time, there were at least 3-4 more people on our block who played as a result. Narcissus still plays. I see Storm's post on the realm boards here.

Point is, we need to get a larger playerbase. My questions for you:

If you are a player, what are you doing to draw more people to Tempus? If you're not doing anything, is it because you feel that the playerbase and environment is fine as it is?

If you are an immortal, coder, admin, or grimp, what are you doing as a team to attract more people to the realm of Tempus? Are you employing pay-per-click advertising, banner ads, or email newsletters (for those who used to play but quit, perhaps for lack of newbie help, etc)?

Email would be great to attract the old players to come see the "New Tempus," or give it a second try. You could tell any one of them to look me up and I'd give them a hand.

I'm interested greatly in the opinions of players and immortals alike. I'd like to know the Official Direction of the WizTeam on Increasing Playerbase.

Respectfully,

Merriam

Historically, Tempus has used 'word of mouth' to advertise and recruit new players. This has been done in an unofficial capacity by players, and through immortal quests/rewards to incite players to tell their friends about Tempus.

Late last year we attempted to bid on a Tempus Icon for zMUD. Those of you who have a newer zMUD probably see several Mud-icons when you start it up. Unfortunately, even though players and immortals alike offered money for the cause, our budget was limited and we bid a bit too early. This year we will attempt it again, and bid at the appropriate time.

Foremost on the player-recruitment front is the currently-being-designed new newbie zone. The design should be done by MUDFEST, and created shortly afterwards. Once this is complete, Tempus will organize a systematic advertising blitz, dealing with many of the advertising avenues you mentioned, and others.

Competing against pay-to-play Muds has always been a marketing challenge, since they create income from their Muds to use in advertising. It is a strong testament that Tempus has gotten better and better over the last decade, without paying for player recruitment. Tempus has always been free, and we like it that way.

Nonetheless, in the last few months of 2005 you can look forward to a focus on marketing after the completion of the new newbie zone, and players will be able to participate in the discussion.

• wish *

I actually used to play afew years ago… and i found it preaty hard to find this place … i had been looking for it for months before i ran up on a Mud listing site and saw it Listed… Didn't the URL used to be Tempus.com All the old players are All grown up now anyway… i mean i'm already 20 i was like 15 or so back then

Hello, I rarely post on here, but I read the boards pretty often. I've played tempus off and on since it's early years, and have noticed that the player base seems to go through slumps. Now I don't know what causes these, if its because old players come back and play for awhile then leave again, or what it is. I've also seemed to notice that I enjoy the game much more when we have more people playing, be it old or new characters. With that in mind, I have decided that I am all for doing whatever I can to help bring in more players, Tempus has given me many many hours of enjoyable free gameplay, so I have no problem making a good donation for getting more players to come. Any suggestions or ideas on what else could be done to attract/keep new players, please let me know and I'll do my best to try and make it happen. I really hope we do try again for some form of advertising this year. When you think about the time you've spent on tempus for free, don't ya think a good sized donation would be reasonable. Granted last year I didn't offer any money up, but I had just started back and didn't know if I was gonna be around. But now I'm addicted again, so count me in.

Ash/Kain

hey Dez, ur age changed the same amount as ur level. lol

about the advertising… i would say go on other muds and do some spamming for a couple of days, make new accounts if possible. then have a few ppl go on and advertising tempus and saying it's spam free, and the really good newbie environment. maybe it will work, but it's a little mean so if anyone who don't care for their reputation on other muds…sniker

I'm all for getting new players and advertising, however, I am NOT for spamming other MUDs. If anything, I think you'd probably discourage people from joining Tempus.

Word of mouth is a pretty neat way to get people on board. Back in High School, my friends and I were all on here, and it was a lot of fun. We grouped together, explored zones together, and popped equipment for each other. If you have friends, and they like to play video games/tabletop RPGs, try to recruit them! It makes the game more fun for everyone.

I'm in high school, and my friends wants to play graphical games like Ragnarock Online, DOTA, CS, and stuff, they are not really into mudding. so i can't see any other way of getting ppl to play. if anyone is studying marketing or advertising in collage… we need some advice

Find some friends who prefer command-line to GUI. :P

-Gneissic/Spellcaster

By the way, same problem here in college, Cast. First of all, people in college tend to have limited amounts of free time (or they should if they're going to be somewhat successful… unless you're a genius… blah blah exceptions). Then, people prefer graphics.

Solutions? I don't have any. You can make Tempus more fun than the average game with graphics, but it seems like Tempus is like that already.

Although, a bit more advertising by each individual player can be done. I myself just put a link on my buddy info on AIM, but no one reads those. I'll probably have to follow up on livejournal, facebook, etc.

-Gneissic/Spellcaster

Our biggest problem for attracting new players is all the young kids out there have had a gameboy for like 10 years and now they want either an X-Box 360 or WoW. Now I've personally never played Wow but I know it is highly addictive and extrememly time consuming. I don't think that as a text based game we have a chance of competing with WoW and similar large playerbase games, we need to get those people who are sick of that kind of game and get them back here to us! Go TEXT! :)

amen!

Absolutely! We totally need more players. To all IMMS: If there is anything i can do to help let me know….allentillbrook@yahoo.com. I posted a new topic similar to this discussion…"wtf is goin on" basically the same complaint