Panagrammic
(in process)
I've tried to place extra / ancillary information in parentheses. Partially, this FAQ is eplanatory and exploratory, to try and describe the situation as we see it. The issue that we've seen with other subcommunities in Gaia is that we'll say, "Such and such is the current situation" and people will take it as meaning such-and-such future intent, but it's easy to drive yourself crazy with that. I'll try to explicitly call out the actual implications.
Current
Q. How popular is zOMG in Gaia?
zOMG is currently the second most popular Gaia-themed flash game on Gaia, just behind Towns but ahead of Rallies -- about 5% of the Gaia population. A significantly higher percentage of users have tried zOMG. International users make up a higher percentage of the zOMG user base than the site as a whole.
(Confounding these numbers: a) unknown number of players that are just bored with zOMG and will pick it up again if we have new content, b) a significantly higher percentage of mules in the daily numbers, mostly to bypass the gold curve, and c) a percentage of users that play zOMG mostly for the gold.)
Q. Why aren't there sponsors for zOMG?
At a high level, sponsors come to us and say they'd like to do a campaign, and we lay out a number of different options for them. The two things working against a zOMG sponsorship here are: sponsorships would like the cheapest campaign possible, and they would like the widest audience possible.
(Mind you, if a sponsor wanted a zOMG tie-in, we'd love to do it, but from the sponsor's point of view there would have to be some specific attribute of the zOMG audience that would make it worth the extra development costs over, say, a custom profile page or flash space.)
Q. Why don't you advertise zOMG more?
The marketing budget for Gaia Online is really limited. Games are problematic at the moment because there is so much competition -- right now the cost to bring a new user into an MMO game is about $7 / user.
Q. Why not more ties to Alchemy?
Yeah, we're in the process of balancing out alchemy, and would like to have more ties to all the features on the site. So far our experiments in that direction (i.e., Golden Giftbox) didn't seem to increase zOMG usage; after GGB was released we did not see an uptick in the amount of zOMG play.
Q. Why not more ties to the rest of the site (i.e., achievements)?
We're planning on more achievements for zOMG. Our sense, though, is that achievements are useful for driving limited engagement into new features (i.e., someone might wander into a forum to grab an achievement as a one-time event) but don't necessarily drive long-term use.
Monetization
Q. Why all this talk recently of "monetization"?
Q. What is considered zOMG money, and where does it go?
Power ups, summons, gold potions, Bloodstone amulets, advertising in the zOMG frame (when we do it), and I'm probably forgetting other things but that is the main bulk.
Q. Why not make more zOMG themed items?
Q. Why not put more advertisements in zOMG?
We tried advertisements but they don't work really well, for a few reasons: a) zOMG has a lot of international users, and advertising outside the US pays less well, b) showing an advertisement on the loading screen doesn't drive that many impressions (since once you load the game you'll be in there for a long time), c) any of the advertisements that showed DURING the game (i.e., a flash banner under the game proper) would slow down the game every 30 seconds.
Q. How well did the Bloodstone amulet do?
Q. Why does it always seem like we have to buy more stuff to keep zOMG alive?
Futures
Q. Why not take developers off Moga and put them onto zOMG?
Q. Why not make it PVP?
Q. Why are you doing DMS?
Q. What would it take to get incremental updates every two weeks + major updates every six?
I've tried to place extra / ancillary information in parentheses. Partially, this FAQ is eplanatory and exploratory, to try and describe the situation as we see it. The issue that we've seen with other subcommunities in Gaia is that we'll say, "Such and such is the current situation" and people will take it as meaning such-and-such future intent, but it's easy to drive yourself crazy with that. I'll try to explicitly call out the actual implications.
Current
Q. How popular is zOMG in Gaia?
zOMG is currently the second most popular Gaia-themed flash game on Gaia, just behind Towns but ahead of Rallies -- about 5% of the Gaia population. A significantly higher percentage of users have tried zOMG. International users make up a higher percentage of the zOMG user base than the site as a whole.
(Confounding these numbers: a) unknown number of players that are just bored with zOMG and will pick it up again if we have new content, b) a significantly higher percentage of mules in the daily numbers, mostly to bypass the gold curve, and c) a percentage of users that play zOMG mostly for the gold.)
Q. Why aren't there sponsors for zOMG?
At a high level, sponsors come to us and say they'd like to do a campaign, and we lay out a number of different options for them. The two things working against a zOMG sponsorship here are: sponsorships would like the cheapest campaign possible, and they would like the widest audience possible.
(Mind you, if a sponsor wanted a zOMG tie-in, we'd love to do it, but from the sponsor's point of view there would have to be some specific attribute of the zOMG audience that would make it worth the extra development costs over, say, a custom profile page or flash space.)
Q. Why don't you advertise zOMG more?
The marketing budget for Gaia Online is really limited. Games are problematic at the moment because there is so much competition -- right now the cost to bring a new user into an MMO game is about $7 / user.
Q. Why not more ties to Alchemy?
Yeah, we're in the process of balancing out alchemy, and would like to have more ties to all the features on the site. So far our experiments in that direction (i.e., Golden Giftbox) didn't seem to increase zOMG usage; after GGB was released we did not see an uptick in the amount of zOMG play.
Q. Why not more ties to the rest of the site (i.e., achievements)?
We're planning on more achievements for zOMG. Our sense, though, is that achievements are useful for driving limited engagement into new features (i.e., someone might wander into a forum to grab an achievement as a one-time event) but don't necessarily drive long-term use.
Monetization
Q. Why all this talk recently of "monetization"?
Q. What is considered zOMG money, and where does it go?
Power ups, summons, gold potions, Bloodstone amulets, advertising in the zOMG frame (when we do it), and I'm probably forgetting other things but that is the main bulk.
Q. Why not make more zOMG themed items?
Q. Why not put more advertisements in zOMG?
We tried advertisements but they don't work really well, for a few reasons: a) zOMG has a lot of international users, and advertising outside the US pays less well, b) showing an advertisement on the loading screen doesn't drive that many impressions (since once you load the game you'll be in there for a long time), c) any of the advertisements that showed DURING the game (i.e., a flash banner under the game proper) would slow down the game every 30 seconds.
Q. How well did the Bloodstone amulet do?
Q. Why does it always seem like we have to buy more stuff to keep zOMG alive?
Futures
Q. Why not take developers off Moga and put them onto zOMG?
Q. Why not make it PVP?
Q. Why are you doing DMS?
Q. What would it take to get incremental updates every two weeks + major updates every six?
I'll fill in more answers as he does, but in the hopes of his opening the thread to some feedback once it's trough, I wanted to encourage some discussion about it already.
I'll not clutter the first post with my own responses, though... sweatdrop
