Advertising Feral-Heart.

[BlackSheWolf]

I guess I'll speak how I feel about this, no code means there might be no crowd. We seem to have hit a breaking point where people just aren't interested in what the game offers. Only talking and role-play with no action/mini-game type stuff to entertain those who are too lazy to entertain themselves means people will be easily bored, especially if they don't manage to make friends, role-play or just talk to others playing the game. I've seen lots of moments where there would be as few as 8 floofs in The Grounds and almost all of them would be afk.

Of course I agree that the game needs to be advertised and would love to see more people play! It just seems to me like it'd be hard to get/keep peoples attention.

Official FH Trailers would be a great idea though! c:

Oh yes, I thinked about this all the time. FeralHeart would be so nice if you add some quest or something like that. I think in this times it would be so possible, and I would love to help as me and my boyfriend are studying that.

[AlphaEclipse]

It is important to understand what attracts us to this game—we stay here with Feralheart despite there being no available source code, yet we enjoy it and are willing to devote time to it. Why wouldn't others as well? One could definitely argue that FH has passed its prime, but the game is still offers opportunity for those looking for it. Physically, Feralheart has not changed much throughout the years, and maybe with more frequent map patches, a new crowd could be interested. Similarly, certain changes could take place to attract FH's old player base. Several people attribute FH's decline to the most recent patch update, so why not elaborate on those complaints? Community involvement will draw people in, both new and old.

As for why Feralheart has not been officially advertised in the past, I am not sure. Feralheart has relatively stayed to what it is familiar to, usually Tumblr and DeviantART. I personally think that FH could draw a good crowd through Instagram and Twitter through collaborations with FH users on those platforms (maybe follower contests, etc.?). Youtube is another great way to advertise FH, but in all honesty, a lot of sharing would have to be done to each outside of Youtube's already-existing Feralheart fandom. An official FH trailer professionally done also would not hurt.

[Calvary]

Popping in here, because this topic specifically has always interested me.

It's been discussed before, because we don't really 'own' the game persay. It is KovuLKD's game, and advertising is an iffy topic when it comes to that. However, I have actually in the past, on a discord server of mine, hosted an advertising campaign that didn't really do too well, mainly because not many were interested in advertising the game through the discord server.

I believe holding possible contests, or events, throughout dA, the forums, and other means, can surely help boost advertising to other people unbeknownst to Feral Heart. Contests such as FH Trailers, where creators from the community can make trailers for the game. Feral Heart has a dA group, which can be used to easily host contests to advertise the game in order to bring in more players.

Advertising is difficult, 100%. Advertising has a direct flow, it's catered to people who are interested in the target topic. Feral Heart, being that the game is very outdated, and lacks the same sustenance as other games may have, will not please or satisfy many potential players. However, I'm sure there could be something in place that could help advertise the game.

Perhaps with more updates and patches, during the same interval there can be trailers put out as a contest in the same span that a new patch is put out, in order to showcase the new updates as they come. This would surely be helpful to new players coming in, and people who may be interested in the game, but are iffy on climbing aboard.

[VortexAlive]

It is important to understand what attracts us to this game—we stay here with Feralheart despite there being no available source code, yet we enjoy it and are willing to devote time to it.

Indeed, I see it as more than just a game to play, it is like a second home and a nice place to chill, make friends, role-play and support others.

Several people attribute FH's decline to the most recent patch update, so why not elaborate on those complaints?

I believe this to be a good idea. I've often wondered why this is and seen many say that they prefer the old maps, missing Bonfire Island, Flourite Plains, Sky's Rim and the Temple of Dreams. There were even a few awesome floofs who made downloadable maps of the old maps. I've also seen a few say that they'd like it if the maps at least existed somewhere in the official maps. I wonder if this has been or is being looked into?

more frequent map patches

From my observation, the map changes are a cause of the low morale of those that say the new patches are bad, the first change because they had to figure out new maps entirely and didn't like that their friends quit because they too didn't like the changes, the later changes because things they were hoping for didn't happen. They loved the old maps and many didn't seem to be able to utilize the new maps like they did the old ones.

Similarly, certain changes could take place to attract FH's old player base.

Aye, though some may have moved on due to life matters. I heard there was an old Badge system for the forum, perhaps something could be done with that? The forum is part of the experience as well as the game for many of us and both old and new might enjoy it or something like it. c:

we don't really 'own' the game persay. It is KovuLKD's game, and advertising is an iffy topic when it comes to that.

Yes, but that alone shouldn't stop from sharing the games existence with other people? It is like talking to a friend about a new game you just got, or one you've been playing for a long time or just generally spreading the word through videos, talking, screenshots, mentioning of contests and such. Of course I can see how Official Ads on a site might be a difficult thing to do, yeah, I get that.

As for an Official Trailer...? An idea might be to include scenes of role-playing, dance-lines, things from a few events and such. o.o wait...

I think that could be done with a little event where you could see people dancing and then having scenes that show all official maps and stuff That would be pretty cool to see, It just needs to be well made (take notes from Brokami’s FH HD trailer )

Yis, like that. Just looked it up and got "This video is unavailable." though, so I have no idea what their video was like.

have we ever considered removing the requirements on having registration only open 30 minutes a day or having to log in on the site and keep the page open while you play?

If I recall right, the registration is also like it is to help prevent the server from being too stressed, causing maps to go offline? Not entirely sure though. Also the login page is for security reasons, I don't find it to be troublesome to use but it might just be me. xD

But yes, this stuff has been playing it's part in keeping others from being able to join, at least not right away anyway as well as causing a few to wonder how to log into the game when they do join.


I seem to be off the main topic quite a bit in my post here, but this stuff may have an impact on advertising as well as general interest in the game. Ah well, just wanting to speak my mind. xD

[Kuri]

Youtube viral videos.   Inadvertent advertising.  People see the game & ask "What is that?"

Viral videos would do this.  Just, short, funny videos that tap into what people find popular or funny at the time (right now it'd be sonic movie remake, next month it'll be something else) and people will as "What ...was that made with?"

I know this because i like hilarious emotes in this game.  More expressive than a real life person, without being weird looking.
Might capture some peoples attention as it catches mine.

[Valar.Morghulis]

@VortexAlive
Yeah, the second trailer isn’t working but here’s another one:

Trailer by Brokami (FH HD)

I love the transitions and the music style, they added some very cool shots, of course this was to promote the fh hd so we can’t really take such close-ups of the grass, but generally speaking it looks really good!


I found another one made by BlueMuzzleFlash which is also pretty neat (only a bit short), they added some features that you have (like creating maps, etc)!

Trailer by Blue (Unofficial FH trailer)

[A.P.S.]

So I found out registration seems to be open 24/7 now? I also found another post somewhere that made one of my suggestions not really needed. I apologize for removing basically an entire post of multiple paragraphs. >.<

In short, I'd like to see some form of advertising, maybe hosted by a large amount of people doing some kind of event? Either way, birb approved for ads.