Where would you advertise?

[thoreau]

Pay Dell to preinstall EU on every one of their 'gaming' class systems.

This avoids the long download time. Free dvds and similar are ok from respective magazines but they usually get thrown out when given away at events.

Package EU dvds for sale in Best Buy or Amazon.com and sell the DVD for 4.99 and have a big sticker that says, 'Free to play and only 4.99 to buy.' You might also include something on the box that says the game is free to download.

Get the devs blog up to speed, have mirrors on myspace and blogger, and use keywords to catch searches.

Prior to movies here in the U.S. you will see a 10 to 20 minute short news type show about upcoming movies and music. Usually there are commericials in this segment. Utilize this captive audience and target horror, scifi, and fantasy type movies.

As far as banner ads, Blogger, MySpace, Wired, and popular MMORPG blogs.

[Gemdian]

great ideas! Television ads might be good too. You rarely see them, but I did see one for Star Wars Galaxies around the time the new episode 3 was coming out. Why not EU. The ability to run for free can definitely help.

It takes patience to run sometimes, but hey, it's all part of the virtual life

[forgo]

mmorpg.com
stratics.com
ign.com
get alot of gamer traffic, ign imo would be a great one, for alot of games it was the preffered player site.

Then if possible portals:
comcast.com
yahoo.com
aol.com
ect

thats what id look into at least.

[Gemdian]

I've used IGN, and you're right. It's a great place to advertise EU!

[Qweeg]

As Forgo said IGN sounds a good place to try, and also maybe Gamespot. I use those two sites when I want to look up game reviews and previews.

[Sal]

Create an EU Starter pack.

Included in this pack is

Entropia Gold Card & Reader 200 ped ( $20 / )
Entropia Gift Certificate 100 ped ( $10 )
Installation DVD & Movies ( $2-3 to brand and press )
/ Promo Videos from site
Blister Packaging & Printing ( $2 )

these are guessed ! prices ! not resurched

Total $35 - even if retailer was to make this $40 / 45 then this is still good value if you convert this in to £ then its currently less than £25 with no monthley fee.

Retailer could make £5 and its still reasonable price for a PC Game in store.

A Certain mmoprg has had advertising on tv in the uk boasting 7 million members and to go to the store to buy the media they were saying £15 a month and £25 for the origenal purchase

Get Distributors together to sell in countries under license & Release

Now all some one from MA needs to do is Contact GAME in the uk who are one of the major highstreat stores and see if they are willing to stock the product & Distribute

With new launches GAME will dedicate end of rails or window displays and show video's in store , Also seek out people that may want to distribute the packs ( amazon / play / virgin / hmv ) and then do the same for other countries.

[Sal]

Just an interesting thought for everyone there was once a free cd givaway by .net magazine for entertainment online E-ON ( entertainment online ). There was also 4 pages worth of review on this company and there games and there was a fun hoverboard type multiplayer game.

They gave away a client loader and a free months worth of play to try and get people to load it up and give it a go ( this is 6 years ago and the company has ceased trading ) .

Through all of this in the free month I only ever saw 3 more people register & play. Sometimes a lot of giveaway roms just get collected or stuck in draws & never used.

This company had obviosly spent a lot on the cd's to give away and the review and ACTUALLY got 3 new players for all there troubles.

[Erasmus]

Mag inserts are actually very expensive, it's not the cost of making the DVDs, it's everything else involved in the process. And the results are negligible in these days of broadband.

The lead time (2-4 months) is also a problem as the DVD is 2-3 VUs old by the time it gets to the newstand.

Similar cost issue with the retail channel because of the distribution and shipping layers involved.

[Sal]

Ahh yes a very good point there , I forgot about those ;(

[Jeffenburg]

Well I would advertise on onrpg.com and g4tv.com . And putting a comercial on g4 as well would probably go well.