Time for something a little different...

As most of you will be aware, our world goes through periods of peaks and troughs. Our userbase surges and drops in a cyclical manner. The admin team, bless their cotton socks, work tirelessly on ways to up the number of incoming members and upping the retention of these new players (e.g. the introduction of the referal system or the current work being done on the "Ellis Island" project, an interactive training feature for each new account).

As a long time member of the community, I have in the past tried (with not a whole lot of success to be perfectly honest) to come up with ideas to assist in this effort. While it's not a direct requirement on us as users to help the game grow, helping it to you helps the game we love playing grow and helps it become more fun for us as the users to play. Not one to be defeated by my own lack of talents, I said I'd open this one up to the masses.

I am personally looking to fund a competition looking for new ideas to assist in the goal of growing the userbase.

The prize on offer is a minimum $10m cash, with the potential for a far higher reward (I'll happily go up a further $20m if something blows my socks off) if I am suitably impressed with any of the ideas submitted.

There is no guarantee that any of the ideas, including the winning one (which will be judged subjectively by myself), will be put into use. However, if the standard of entries is good enough, it is possible that many/all of them could end up being used.

The ideas submitted are restricted only by your own imagination. It can be in the form of a new introduction by the admin team, a new 'community rule' by the powers that be, a new roleplay technique by families to train/teach/guide new members... anything that might/would lead to new players joining or more new players staying with MafiaReturns.

All entries should clearly explain the idea in as much detail as possible. If an idea isn't clearly laid out and fully explained, it might end up in me not fully grasping it and miss out on some of the potential of the idea. All entries should be laid out in a "Back Alley" thread, with the link to the thread mailed to myself. Should entrants wish, they may also post links to their BA threads here, but as this may lead to plagirism, I'd suggest keeping it to mobmails being the preferred method of entry.

I will propose Saturday 12th Dec at 23:59 as the closing date for this competition.

Should you have any queries on the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Deimne.

We should have our own TV Channel!

MRTV!

I'll be more than happy to present it, I'll also wear a thong for those viewers watching after 9:00pm

Thank you pleash.

Instead of spending money on advertising every month online maybe try something on TV. I know a few local networks that aren't super expensive. Also it's not even something to be super flashy.

I know facebook or myspace would be a good option if the owners could afford it.

First I would like to ask the referal system be modified to allow for a referal to make the referer the full $1m regardless if he gets whacked or not.  My effort in recruiting a new player should not be stifled due to them getting whacked.  Some players may need that extra push to restart in the game - and the current system doe not motivate me to be that pushing mechanism.

A bracketed referal system to offer bonus cash for mass referals. 
Such as...  If I have 5 referals stay in the game long enough to fulfill the $1m bonus to me, the next 5 I can make $1.5m from, and so on.

A startup guide.
This could be a simple page that would walk a player, click by click, through how to do a petty and how to do a drug deal.  People who are not used to RPG style games can be taken aback a bit with how the game comes at them at the start.

Have a 'recruitment' area visible only by those who are yet unsponsored. 
This area should list all cities and their respective families sponsorers.  Allow each godfather to edit their particular cities 'pitch' to new players.  This would allow players an easy access area to come to the family they want, rather than waiting for someone to in game mail them (remember, these are brand new players who know nothing of the game and do not know where this and that are).

Well this might not be very detailed, but there are tons and tons of video sites find a good animator and some people to make a great video and post it on Youtube, Veoh, etc like that quote make the begining of the video an animated version of it like a mobster saying the quotes and then a title then some screenplay/shots with someones voice over. This can also be set up better by blogging at every possible chance as well as seting up myspace and facebook pages advertising this.

and having sites advertise here will bring in more players as well as createing money to improve the game that couldn't be done before. sites like Google.com or even other game sites even if it is small player submitted games will bring in the most I have an account on several sites that i could use to advertise this game if so wished.

Actually my buddy owns his own video game store/website that is pretty popular around Columbus, Ohio. It's kind of mainstream but I maybe able to swing something for him to put up advertising pretty cheap. As long as advertising is done for him, that is.

Home Page:

This is going to be short and sweet. People need a visual stimulate when they first see the home page. What I was thinking is putting up a family tree of all the cities on the home page. The godfather/godmothers of course would be at the top and work your way down the tree to made man. Im sure you know what Im talking about. Then just update it weekly or daily.

Cities:

This really simple, just add more cities. Two or three more cities like New Jersey, Kansas City and Miami. Or even Atlanta. More cities means more leaders. More leaders would lead users to believe they have a better chance to reach the top. That can lead to more users to comming back and staying on. Also maybe some users would feel more at home in a city closer to where they actually live.

We now have 11 Helpdesks and a handful of Assistants that gladly help. So put them to work.

Force players who are just starting to interact with the world to talk to a helpdesk so they can figure out, "Oh Bold means they run a crew, that means I talk to them to live." Along with pointing out the obvious help section that I think alot of people overlook.

Now not to say people who are too lazy to read Kendra's 48 hour survival guide should be given anything. But just a Help(desk)ing hand.

When .org was in FHM's top 100 online games on their website, we used to get bundles of new users (it's how I found the site).  I still think that the best way to grow the user base is to either get mentioned somehow or advertise on a few proper mainstream sites or start 'word of mouth' on something like Facebook or Twitter.

FHM Top 100!lol thats how i found this game as well. God brings back memories of college days and thinking

"WTF is this game about?" good times

So just to clarify Godfather Deimne (friend of the cow), there is potentially $30m on offer for the best idea ever?

Honestly, one of the biggest things is the wait time between petties.

I feel that the 3 minute wait time between petties bores some people and then they decide the game is not fun enough.

My suggestion would be changing the petty times for the first couple ranks. (ie. 1 minute for civi and petty theif, 2 minutes for Thug, 3 minutes for gangster)

This would also go with the RP perspective of them being new. A newer criminal is more likely to run around snatching purses randomly without thinking it out and planning. Therefore, the first few "introductory" ranks, should have a smaller petty time.

This would cause them to be less bored with waiting forever to petty.

To expand on Bloedsuier's (good) idea... set timers based upon skill level of crime..

ie - purse snatch has 1min wait, con shlub is 1.5, extort shop is 2, and KO PO is 3...

Granted you could do 3 purse snatches to 1 KO, but the money you make is still less than half of what 1 KO would be..

oh, also assign someone to actually read/reply in help forums...  I had to ask a help desker to find the answer to the referals question, and now there's debate about the contracts...  Be nice if a game mod would answer things straight away.  If a new player posted in help area rather than straight messaging the help desk (since a lot of new players would go straight to forums for that sort of thing) and got no answer (or a wrong answer from a player) that wouldn't look good on the game itself.

A quick reply stating they're gonna find out, if they don't know the answer, would be nice to see also so people know the answer IS coming...

I propose a strictly enforced beef embargo to encourage newer members who may or may not be vegetarians.

I know that we already have lots of people at help desk, but maybe if the way that you get into the family, would have to be through being sponsored by a Made Man+, i have found that if they do have a sponsor, then the associate then feels a lot more open to actually asking question, i have had a associate, he was completely new to the game, and now he know exactly what to do, and how to do it well... so i feel that this would help new players to get into the game.

Well you've gotta look at the kind of people who are going to stay here.

Like the ones who stay are probably those already prepositioned (is
that a word?) to join some kind of site (mafia role playing) like this
right? I mean, im new, but id been playing another mafia based game for
the last 5 years before i came here. How did i find it? A friend gave
it to me. Perhaps the key could be in MORE advertising? I mean, sure it
looks like we're advertising on them voting sites, but really, who
takes notice of what any of them ads say? I mean your there to vote on
the game your already on, not to find a new one, so unless you make
something really flashy or something, your not gonna click on anything.

Another quick thing, if people did look at the MAFIA RETURNS thing,
there gonna read the description. Perhaps you should change the
description of the game a little bit. It says something about pissing
yourself and being killed. Like the tutorial (or something) says,
people dont like when you take their role for them, as in you tell them
what they're doing, so perhaps change the description to a challenging
question or something (ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH TO SURVIVE A WEEK ON MAFIA
RETURNS?, lol you know, something to intrigue their interest- wow, i
could become a godfather of a city? im there!). TV ads certainly wont
work. What are you gonna show, some guy sitting there clicking shit on
his screen? Thats not gonna get users, lol.

Mayhap a bilboard sign somewhere? Though I still doubt thatd work.
Na, what i reckon is more advertising, perhaps on RPG games (Maybe a
mutual agreement with them or something) so that people who are already
into the scene decide to come check it out, or maybe even paying google
a bit so that this site will popup (with an exciting new description) whenever people look up mafia, or crime, or anything related like that crap.

Just fuckin somehow hit the back button, all my great suggestions gone, perhaps fix that?

Anyways, the only people who are gonna stay are people who are already playing games. So therefore we all as a userbase need to start recruiting friends from other games. Sure, even if only 1 of 20 people you invite end up playing thats still something, right?

Also, hows about a 30 day trial for new accounts of the timers feature? I mean people arent gonna be willing to be all like sit around and count time and shit before their next petty, etc, so give it to em for the first month (or do you, i duno) and by then if they're still here, if they can afford it, its most likely theyll be wanting to support the game by buying more (maybe start telling them at day 20 its gonna happen).

Also, like, maybe we should remove the whole "join a family or die in 48 hours".

Maybe you could make a "training family" which is voluntarily (by each city gf or gm) exempt from attack, unless the boss decides to become corrupt and start screwing the newbies. Like it could teach em the basics, until wiseguy, then like a boss could message training family boss and say like "im looking for this this and this in a person" then the boss is like x has these characteristics, he can join you (you ask him, he accepts) and we're all good. Ofcourse, its not demanded that they join this family, its voluntary (to take pressure off em) its not admin enforced , but maybe admins could help by like making it when they do x or reach x or make x that the boss is notified and has x days to find that guy a family before hes auto kicked and is free game to poachers.

I duno, ill post now before i fuck up and delete it all again.

Someone has to give the head honcho of FHM a massage with a happy ending. When mafia.org was listed in the top 100 games there was a constant flow of new users. I was one of those fantastic people. Before any mongoloids chime in with an uninformed comment, I understand that FHM is defunct as a magazine in the USA. The website remains in existence however.

I'm going to give away what I do for a living here, but what the hell. I'll take your money Sat. I'll put a dictionary at the end to explain what each 'term' means.

Retention Ratio = How long the user stays in the game.
Conversion Ratio = What your ratio is from the individual that clicks the ad, to the user that signs up. Example: 10 people click, 1 signs up. 10% conversion ratio
Conversion = Signing up to the Game
CVR = Clicks to Conversions
CTR = Click through ratio per thousand impressions shown.
eCPM = Cost per thousand banner impressions.
Impression = Every time a user VIEWS the advertisement. Even if they don't click, it counts.
CPA = Cost per action, how much does it cost for the user to signup?
ROI = Return on Investment. Spend 1$, how much do you get back in a set time frame that is acceptable?
Creative = Banner Ads with the games logo
Landing Page = When an individual clicks on the banner they are then placed on the landing page.


Marketing, Marketing, Marketing. It's the only way.

The game is currently built for X ROI. The owners know what the ROI is, the difference between MR and the other games out there, is this one wasn't built for profit. It's never going to see a userbase of 20,000 users logging in daily. However, getting the userbase to 2,500/day? Isn't that hard. Now how do we do it?

Firstly, before even getting them in the door, we increase the CVR. How do we do this? I'll explain later on, but this has to be number one. (how many users click on the ad, but don't actually signup?)

The second thing is retention, text based games fail miserably at this, I've seen games with a 2.5% retention ratio succeed ONLY because there ROI is strong enough to justify the spending.

How do we increase retention ratio? Get the user ENGAGED right away. What steps have been taken to increase retention ratio already?

1) Associates is a good idea, get them a lot of mob mail from various people.
2) I believe the game owners are working on a 'newbie' island, where users KILL. I don't know about you guys, but the thing that caught my attention when first signing up, was killing. Give them the ACTION, the LUST for that kill.
3) Well written Tutorials. Excellent we have a base to work on.
4) Active staff to speak with anyone that needs help. Excellent, they can answer newbie questions.

What can be added that in my experience has led to increased retention ratios?

1) RP'd mail from a Help Desk employee THAT IS ONLINE, at the same time they login. The user see's them online in the 60 second list, knows that its not a 'spam' mail, or the first mail that most games send. Plenty of staff, why not do it? Put em to work for you! Get that player INTERACTING with said Help Desk employee.

2) Interactive Tutorials, go here, click this, BAM reward is this. Don't tell the user what the reward is ahead of time, just give it to them like an achievement. Show the user around the site slowly, make it an overlay, make it look classy. Thats next in line.

3) MR has done achievements PERFECTLY, new players don't know how many achievements there are. The only one that shows is the one your working on. Excellent, now lets give them a reward, and not TELL them what the reward is ahead of time. Give them a mere 10k, or something small, but make it like it was a huge deal that they just did that petty crime, shot that gangster, or broke someone out of jail. etc. Everything is a BIG DEAL! Make sure to allow users to turn off the tutorial, a small percentage of players enjoy a challenge.

4) New look. This I'll dive into a little deeper later on. For now, know that the reason I started playing this game, is I couldn't figure out why 500 players would play daily, on a grey background. We all love it, true. However, most new players don't, we have to be competitive with the other mob games that are out there today. Like I said, I will expand later.

5) Show a new player, that they can do whatever they want. I honestly, don't know how to do it in this game, but I PROMISE you, MR's retention ratio will go through the roof, if we can just get players to see what endless possibilities there are here.

6) The current toolbar, that we all pay 5 credits a month for, starts out blank. Start it out with REDS all the way across the board, or at least for jails and Petties. Ensure that there are a few 0's sitting in jail ONLY for that new player to see, and MAKE SURE THEY BREAK THEM. 100% success rate on the first 2-3, then BAM give them an achievement. Make sure they succeed in there first few petties!

7) Ask your new users after they've played for say an HOUR of actual game time what can be changed about the game to make it better, force them to complete it and give them a bit of change for doing so. Get there OPINION, most players don't mind telling you something rocks, or something sucks. Plenty of Help Desk employee's to sift through the crap, have everything that is even a well thought out sentence sent up to the head admin, who then filters it to the programmers.

Market the Game to the masses

So we've discussed retention. There are a few basic steps to a successful game marketing campaign and I'm going to outline them below in my personal experience. Most don't know this, but I actually market games like MR for a living.

First things first. Creative, or banners need to be appealing and gain a high CTR which then raises the eCPM. All networks judge how much traffic a particular advertiser receives based on the eCPM they generate for there publishers. The current one's are pretty good, however MR does need a matching landing page with that creative set. Whatever happens, the CREATIVE and the LANDING PAGE must match, it increases CVR by almost 5%.

Secondly, once your new landing page is done, place the same graphics in game. The problem with doing this is you have to do it so as to not piss off the current population. Honestly, the only way to DO that, takes time and energy I know is, allowing users to swap between the two graphical layouts. The current grey scale one, and the new one that needs to be created. Can even make it cost a credit a month to swap back to the grey one, so the cost of maintaining it is paid for. I for one would chip a credit a month up, I know others like Sat would as well.

Thirdly, where do you market a game to start with? Well it depends entirely on what your budget restrictions are. However, Adwords needs to be at the top of your list to start with.

How do we start an Adwords Campaign? That is for another discussion, however I don't mind assisting. Basically, a search and then a content network campaign has to be done. For search a bit of SEO has to be done to each specific landing page, for content, it doesn't matter. Another cheap way to do it, is specific site targeting. Target other mob games that run ads, target 'mob wars' on facebook/myspace for instance.

Fourthly, TEST, TEST, TEST. Try different variations of the first page the player see's when they login. Make three separate pages that they see, three separate parts of the interactive tutorial you dump them into. Set a goal amount of say 250 conversions for each of them before taking your lowest performer out, and placing another. Continue testing until you think you have the highest retention possible from THAT standpoint alone. Retention is a step by step process that is never perfect. It has to be continually played with, like a quick woman.

Lastly, how do we KEEP the players in game that are currently here? How do we engage them? CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT. MR has this advantage over every other game, the users generate SOOO MUCH content, with the various RP'ing going on its unreal. Use that Role playing to your advantage. When content goes old, the MR 'official' newspaper for instance, take that shit down, or hold a contest for another user to manage it, and PAY THEM a bit of MR cash. (Hell make it interactive where it costs 500$ or something small to read, a subscription type method that is delivered. When a new issue is released, your DL flashes saying a new issue is out.) Let different people apply for it, and make them work for it pubically, the user base voting a winner.

The more interactive you make the changes in the game the better. Perfect example? What billy did with the MIA feature, he talked to hundreds of us about it, and heard our opinions. TALK TO YOUR USERBASE ABOUT EVERYTHING! EVERY idea, but the exception of changing wacking %'s or something 'hidden'.


There are tons of ways, but here is a brief on what the basics are. In the end, it takes time and it takes a decent amount of money. So people, if you want to see the game grow, pipe up and throw the game some dough.

Meant to say dictionary at the beginning. I was going to place it at the end, but then figured to place it above so people knew wtf I was talking about.