Regarding the Snowflake Winter Beanie and cohesion between the Game and Forums

[arvinarvin]

I think for the future, as an attempt for cohesion between the game and the forums, there should be more communication in game regarding forum-exclusive in-game items. I'm all for exclusive items only obtainable outside of the game that the item will be in. A great example of this is the Hearthsteed mount for World of Warcraft that was only obtainable by playing Hearthstone during a promotional period, I wouldn't have ever tried Hearthstone if it wasn't for the incentive of receiving that mount and it turned out that Hearthstone was pretty fun. Same logic could be applied to the Snowflake Winter Beanie, players of the game that don't participate in the forums or have a forums account could be enticed to check out the forums having the in-game exclusive item as an incentive to do so, those that don't participate in the forums could find that the forums are really useful and would end up using it more. However, those that don't participate in the forums would never know about the forum exclusive item because it was never announced in the newsletter, twitter, tumblr, or in-game (please correct me if I'm wrong about this, although if it ever was, it still didn't catch the attention of many people). Using my Hearthstone/WoW example again, I learned about the Hearthsteed mount and how to obtain it through emails, twitter, and in-game announcements/messages. I think if there was more communication between the forums and the game, there would definitely be a lot more cohesion between the two mediums and the forums/game could run together seamlessly.

 

[Stargirll]

I know of a few people who don't have a forums account (mainly so they don't have to deal with so-called "drama") that might have been interested in joining because of the exclusive item. Once joined there is the possibility of engaging with other threads which could make for a better/nicer environment.

 

[HOST_Duchess]

This is a good idea! This was the first time we did something like this, and it seemed to be received well by the community. That's a really good point in that posting on the game newsletter could bring more traffic to the forums. We'll definitely consider that in the future. Perhaps a tweet like "Be sure to check on the forums contests!" or little blurb on the newsletter would suffice?

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Angie]

I think on the newsletter should be like a Forums area. Similar to when we had Push Trivia there except it would be like "Hey, check out our push trivia of the week on the forums. Click the link here." And under this same area, putting like a check out " __ ___ __ Contests" on the forums along with any current in-game contests going on. I think it would make the game look a lot more active and bring more traffic to the forums as said above and for those who don't even know there is a forums or don't use the forums for information easy to keep up with everything since it's all on the newsletter already.

This is a good idea! This was the first time we did something like this, and it seemed to be received well by the community. That's a really good point in that posting on the game newsletter could bring more traffic to the forums. We'll definitely consider that in the future. Perhaps a tweet like "Be sure to check on the forums contests!" or little blurb on the newsletter would suffice?

Thanks for your feedback!

Exactly! lol

 

[Midien]

I do have a forums account and I had no clue about the prize being an actual in game item. Not saying I would of entered had I known, and I don't think I read the forums newsletter in detail to recall if the prize was mentioned or not. If it was then I'd like to suggest maybe a picture of the item not hidden under any of the "read more" links ( and if it WAS clearly shown lol then I am sorry, I have the worse memory on top of being not that observant lol )

 

[Peasy]

I have missed out on a few events & items because I had no idea they were happening. A pop-up in game when you log on would be fantastic!

 

[Angel]

As @Felicia said, it was our first time doing this, so we hope to improve it in the next few contests that we plan on doing! I promise for our next contest, there will be a tweet sent out about it, at the very least. We would love more people participating and being active on the forums, that's one of the reasons we added the in-game prizes. We hope you all enjoy it, and any feedback is welcomed.

 

[VMK_Stitch]

The whole reason we did an in game prize for our competition is to encourage people to participate on the forums. This prize was way more of a hit than we thought it would be which we are glad it is! We announced it as much as we could on the forums and do remember since it is a "forums exclusive in game prize" we only will announce it on the forums so if you are on the forums to see it, you will benefit greatly! If not, it encourages users to sign up and use the forums in the future so they can also get an awesome prize!

 

[Midien]

No complains from me honest, I wasn't on that much on the forums last month and it's really hit or miss for me if I have enough time to even check out the forums newsletter in detail. It was / is a great idea tho, and hope you do more in the future. It's nice to see a new item introduced, and one with some rarity, I think it brings excitement.

 

[Angie]

The whole reason we did an in game prize for our competition is to encourage people to participate on the forums. This prize was way more of a hit than we thought it would be which we are glad it is! We announced it as much as we could on the forums and do remember since it is a "forums exclusive in game prize" we only will announce it on the forums so if you are on the forums to see it, you will benefit greatly! If not, it encourages users to sign up and use the forums in the future so they can also get an awesome prize!

There would be even more encouragement to sign up for the forums if they knew about it in the first place just by knowing there could be an in-game exclusive item. They'd see it on twitter, or newsletter or anywhere else and be like "OH! That sounds awesome! Let me go participate in that too!" instead of after the fact when they already missed out on it. I think a blurb or area like @Felicia suggested is a great idea! It'll really bring the game and forums together nicely

 

[VMK_Stitch]

There would be even more encouragement to sign up for the forums if they knew about it in the first place just by knowing there could be an in-game exclusive item. They'd see it on twitter, or newsletter or anywhere else and be like "OH! That sounds awesome! Let me go participate in that too!" instead of after the fact when they already missed out on it. I think a blurb or area like @Felicia suggested is a great idea! It'll really bring the game and forums together nicely

Agreed that would be something good to do for next time!

 

[RockStar_PoohBear]

I like that idea

 

[Angie]

No complains from me honest, I wasn't on that much on the forums last month and it's really hit or miss for me if I have enough time to even check out the forums newsletter in detail. It was / is a great idea tho, and hope you do more in the future. It's nice to see a new item introduced, and one with some rarity, I think it brings excitement.

Yes, the beanie is really cute! Not everyone has time to make rooms in the game and find the contests on the forums more fun to participate in so I think the beanie was a good idea and cute as well!

 

[arvinarvin]

This is a good idea! This was the first time we did something like this, and it seemed to be received well by the community. That's a really good point in that posting on the game newsletter could bring more traffic to the forums. We'll definitely consider that in the future. Perhaps a tweet like "Be sure to check on the forums contests!" or little blurb on the newsletter would suffice?

Thanks for your feedback!

As @Felicia said, it was our first time doing this, so we hope to improve it in the next few contests that we plan on doing! I promise for our next contest, there will be a tweet sent out about it, at the very least. We would love more people participating and being active on the forums, that's one of the reasons we added the in-game prizes. We hope you all enjoy it, and any feedback is welcomed.

exactly! any medium aside from the forums so that the word could get spread around more, it's still not guaranteed that everyone will see it, but a tweet or area on the game newsletter for forum news could bring a lot of traffic to the forums.

 

[Midien]

Yes, the beanie is really cute! Not everyone has time to make rooms in the game and find the contests on the forums more fun to participate in so I think the beanie was a good idea and cute as well!

Yes it's a good way to give those that have talents other than building for a chance at something

 

[SkywayStitch]

Just crazy that a 150-200k credit item would be a forums exclusive....

 

[HOST_Duchess]

Just crazy that a 150-200k credit item would be a forums exclusive....

We honestly didn't think it would be that high in demand. We posted on every contest under the "prizes" section that there would be a "forums exclusive in-game prize" and was limited to 1 per person. Given, it was not advertised anywhere but forums, we did have more entries than usual, but it didn't skyrocket. I kinda figured "well, maybe they don't want the prize" and was then surprised that the perceived value is so high. So, in the future, we may try to advertise a little more in game and see how it influences forum traffic.

This turned into a ramble, but I hope this clarifies our thought process a little. It was the first time, and there's always room for improvement. Thanks again for your feedback!

 

[Cowboy_Pirate]

We honestly didn't think it would be that high in demand. We posted on every contest under the "prizes" section that there would be a "forums exclusive in-game prize" and was limited to 1 per person. Given, it was not advertised anywhere but forums, we did have more entries than usual, but it didn't skyrocket. I kinda figured "well, maybe they don't want the prize" and was then surprised that the perceived value is so high. So, in the future, we may try to advertise a little more in game and see how it influences forum traffic.

This turned into a ramble, but I hope this clarifies our thought process a little. It was the first time, and there's always room for improvement. Thanks again for your feedback!

To be honest I completely over looked where it said "exclusive in game item" and I'm sure others did too lol not that it's something you guys can fix. Just stating! Next time I'll read the post more thoroughly!