Spreading The Word

[Sixx]

Hey guys, quite new to the game and the site as a whole. I've recently discovered TDM after months of trying to get T3 to work. So I've been lurking here for about a week now, digesting all kinds of information.

 

I'm concerned about the popularity of TDM. I'm really surprised as how a mod of this caliber is so unknown to many, even most of the Thief Fanatics. I want to brainstorm on how we can spread the mod, because really.. I think a mod THIS good deserves more than the attention it gets.

 

I was thinking of contacting some sites that might be willing to review this, and spreading through social sites like Twitter and Facebook. I know that TDM does have a FB Page but in my sincerest opinion, a hundred likes doesn't do justice for a game this good.

 

I'd like to hear your opinions on how we can spread this game to Thief Fans and newcomers alike. Nowadays where everything is just a rehash with better graphics whose gameplay gets old over the years is a time where I think TDM could shine, because coming from a gamer - a game (and surprisingly a mod) this unique and impressive would interest a lot of gamers if we just reach out to them.

 

Also, more userbase on the forums would delight me - and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's always fun to have a chat with other players.

 

To the Team: Thanks for the masterpiece! I'd like to hear some statistical estimation in regards to the active players, downloads, and the like if you may share. =]

 

Sorry for grammatical errors and the like, English isn't my first language and I'm Asian! xD

Edited December 9, 2011 by Sixx

[Bikerdude]

Welcome to the forum mista.

[lost_soul]

I don't have access to statistics, but I would say TDM is doing pretty well. We're seeing more new faces around here (and new mappers!) than we did back in the TDM 1.02 days. Not to be insulting, but I have always thought that TDM 1.02 may have put some folks off due to some of the bugs and the long time before 1.03 came out.

 

The mod is a polished product now with lots of entertainment thanks to the large amount of missions and the TDM team which kept working on it all this time. Moreover, we (finally!) have the Doom 3 source code.

Edited December 9, 2011 by lost_soul

[nbohr1more]

Welcome to the board Sixx.

 

As the Moddb page maintainer, I am the main promotions personel. I've been trying to stir up interest at various forums but it seems that after the initial few compliments the threads often go ignored. Taleworlds (the makers of Mount and Blade) forum seems to be the most enthusiastic about the project.

 

It hadn't occurred to me to lobby game sites to review the mod as I presumed such a venture would be futile in the face of some editor's inbox filled with similar requests. This update does address one of the big criticisms from the first batch of reviews when the mod launched so perhaps that would be enough to get a foot in the door... It wouldn't hurt to try... If you have any connections to the gaming press, I'd be glad for you to spread the word to them.

 

On a related note... Other than our allies over at Rock Paper Shotgun and the Radiator blog, are there any smaller but up-and-coming gaming sites or blogs that we could approach? If we could go from forum threads to blog articles that'd be a nice level-up. ( I suppose I will probably have to answer this question myself lol )

[Sixx]

I think that if TDM could somehow have multiplayer support then it could boost the interest up the roof, since it'd spread more because players would invite other players to play with them.

 

I don't have many connections in regards to gaming sadly. I'm only connected to the Philippine & International DotA (A Mod For Warcraft III) Community.

 

I do think that having banners, userbars and signatures may help in advertising the game.

 

We could also try in creating our own Gaming Site managed by the same people who manage this forum, since that WOULD attract more attention and when this Gaming Community gets a little attention then we could do a review of TDM but that's pretty hard to pull off.

[jaxa]

1. Standalone version

2. Multiplayer support

 

FYI, these ate two things that so many people seem to want but are also the least likely to happen soon. Ideally, assets can be replaced and efforts by others to create fully standalone Doom 3 can be borrowed. With the code out it's more possible for a coder to develop multiplayer support, but its not considered a priority by the team, and existing missions themselves may be ill suited to support multiplay. Mappers designing for multiplayer from the start would yield better results, like a team bank heist or something, but these would likely take a long time to make.

Edited December 9, 2011 by jaxa

[Springheel]

I'd like to hear your opinions on how we can spread this game to Thief Fans and newcomers alike.

 

I've put out a request for written reviews and updated TDM video teasers before. The number of Thief fans who haven't ever heard of TDM is probably not large, but getting them interested enough to try it requires some marketing content.

[Shadowhide]

I'd like to hear your opinions on how we can spread this game to Thief Fans and newcomers alike.

more high quality fan missions and official Dark Mod campaign

[Tels]

I know that TDM does have a FB Page but in my sincerest opinion, a hundred likes doesn't do justice for a game this good.

 

TDM posts news on a major update (which took us months of work on top of the 5-6 years we spent building it until v1.06), and after 48h there are 4 thumbs up.

 

Some (probably fake) "social organisation" posts they want you to post your birthday, full name and haircolor so you can maybe win an ipad - and 24h later they have 48512 likes.

 

Draw your conclusions from that

[Briareos H]

I agree with Shadowhide.

[Springheel]

The second round of voting has begun at ModDB...please vote again for TDM if you haven't already.

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod



http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

[SiyahParsomen]

Currently rank is 3 of 15,666. However, this is too early to rejoice.

[demagogue]

How can you see the current rank?

[Sixx]

Isn't it 80 of 15,670? Says in the Statistics..

 

I gave the Moddb Link to 359 people on my list and asked them to check it out and try it, and if they like it vote for it.

 

Also gonna get my GF who's a Gamemaster for an Online FPS Game to advertise the page, she has 4952 Friends and 26,486 likes (On her page) on Facebook!

Edited December 13, 2011 by Sixx

[SiyahParsomen]

I gave the Moddb Link to 359 people on my list and asked them to check it out and try it, and if they like it vote for it.

 

Also gonna get my GF who's a Gamemaster for an Online FPS Game to advertise the page, she has 4952 Friends and 26,486 likes (On her page) on Facebook!

 

That sounds crazy.

[brethren]

I think some of the lack of attention for the mod is just the state of gaming today - most of the gamers who play Gears of Wars/Call of Duty/Halo etc and/or any kind of multiplayer/deathmatch just aren't going to be interested in the low key gameplay and single playerness of TDM.

[demagogue]

More practically, Doom3 is already a dated game without a big mod scene (unlike HL2), so it doesn't get on people's radar that weren't already looking for something like it.

I'm pretty happy we're as recognized as we are and in the top 100.

[Sixx]

That sounds crazy.

Why do you think so?

[SiyahParsomen]

Why do you think so?

 

This will take some traffic for sure, but the question is: Will this really take their attention to download the game and play it? Let's wait and see.

[Sixx]

This will take some traffic for sure, but the question is: Will this really take their attention to download the game and play it? Let's wait and see.

 

She wasn't able to post it on the page, but she was allowed to do it on her Profile.

 

Edit: Just went up 3 ranks right now! Also had 112 visit in an hour.

 

Edit 2: Another hour just passed by and it went up 3 ranks again! 30 to 27! and a hundred visits in an hour too!

 

Edit 3: Now it's from 27 to 26! Got 85 more views!

Edited December 14, 2011 by Sixx

[jaxa]

Sixx's girlfriend did more for TDM than NB ever did lul j/k

[Professor Paul1290]

I think something that The Dark Mod really needs is more easily visible gameplay videos. I still get the sense that a lot of people know that The Dark Mod exists and it has something to do with Thief, but have no idea what it's about. They sometimes think it's something like Thievery or something like that. I tend find that showing people a good gameplay video of The Dark Mod is more effective than anything else at getting them to try it.

 

There are some videos already out there of The Dark Mod being played, but searching "The Dark Mod" on youtube mostly brings up videos demonstrating specific mechanics or gameplay videos that outdated by now. It gives the impression of a mod that is not playable yet.

 

On the other hand, it might not have to necessary to record one specifically for the purpose, as there are already some pretty good ones out there even if they don't show up immediately through youtube search. Having a collection of links to some nice TDM gameplay videos somewhere on the site would be nice. If not on the front page then perhaps in the "media" section of the site as that doesn't have much more than some screenshots and concept art right now.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Professor Paul1290

[Melan]

This may be a sensible idea. Does TDM have an official post-release trailer? Maybe it should have one?

 

(Yeah, lots of extra work. )

[Professor Paul1290]

For the most part I'm just thinking that a quality gameplay video that we can show whenever someone asks how The Dark Mod plays would already be a significant improvement over what there is now. Just get someone who can play well and can record a playthrough without any noticeable framerate drop to record some gameplay that demonstrates some of the nice features along the way.

There are already gameplay videos out there, but as I said they don't show up immediately when searching on youtube and a lot of them are outdated.

I think there are already a few missions that would be nice to record, The Knighton Manor and A Score to Settle come to mind.

 

Something along the lines of a trailer would be nice, but that would take quite a bit of extra work and I think something easier to do that would do something to fill the gap would be nice in the short term.

 

I get some stuttering when recording to the point where I don't think it would be that presentable, so I'd probably have to wait until after an upgrade in a few months to take a stab at it.

[Springheel]

Yes, I've been suggesting more videos for a while. As you say, a lot of the ones out there are older feature demonstrations (AI can sit, etc) or complete play-throughs of a mission (which start with the slowest and least interesting part of play...the briefing and loading screen) that aren't well tailored to casual viewers. There is a great playthrough with commentary of Knighton's Manor, but it has a ridiculous AAS bug and all the AI are walking in circles--terrible advertising. Some kind of montage of interesting, representative footage would be great. Even someone who couldn't record footage themselves could download the good ones on Youtube and cut and paste the best bits into something quick and interesting.

 

Putting some on the main website is a good idea too. I meant to do that when we made the new site, but haven't quite gotten around to it yet. Frankly I don't know how to embed video into the site in a way that looks appealing.