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VenomousFiligree
January 18th, 2014, 22:35
... the forum name should be changed for ongoing cons.

... the signature graphic should be smaller and 'punchier'. If it's to be used across multiple sites, then some sites will frown on the size of it.

... that all efforts for publicity should be outwards, not inwards. I think that some people believed threads were being spammed on the FG boards by the 'Con Committee', we (the FG community) all know it's happening, so concentrate elsewhere.

... that the 'committee' does an awesome job.

(These are all my personal opinions so feel free to disagree! :) )

damned
January 18th, 2014, 23:09
Hi MurghBpurn,

1. Yep.
2. There will be a few signature made up for those that want to use them.
3. 95% of participants to the last Con came from within the community. The regular users of course did feel spammed but the vast majority of the 25,000+ users of FG still havent even heard of the Virtual Con.
I think there is still opportunity to double the number of existing FG users participating at the Con - however - many/most of those are not going to be achieved from targeting these lists as most users dont participate here... Anyways there *might* be a few posts here about FG-Con but dont worry we will be hitting up lots of other places too - because the big opportunity for FG is obviously if we can draw in some new players.

We are starting earlier this time round - by Friday next week we will have confirmed the date and established contact with the majority of the GMs that are likely to run a session or 3.
We will aim to have about half the games announced by end of Feb which we can then take out to all those external forums and groups and really aim to raise the awareness of what a great platform this is and what a great event it is.

We look like having over 40 GMs and we are aiming for over 70 sessions which would be a great turn out. We also look like having a much better spread of games being run - hopefully we will have just as many Pathfinder games but the other popular games will also get a good showing. D&D is the only one so far not really feeling the love - but the current GM survey has only been open for about 24 hours so lets see.

4. In the words of the immortal Dalton from Roadhouse "Opinions vary".

Damned

PS those new sigs will be available soon!

VenomousFiligree
January 18th, 2014, 23:14
...but the vast majority of the 25,000+ users of FG still havent even heard of FG...

Care to explain!! ;)

damned
January 19th, 2014, 02:17
Doh! I think I need to edit my post!

JohnD
January 20th, 2014, 05:38
Care to explain!! ;)

Wibly wobbly timey wimey.

wbcreighton
January 22nd, 2014, 00:17
... that all efforts for publicity should be outwards, not inwards. I think that some people believed threads were being spammed on the FG boards by the 'Con Committee', we (the FG community) all know it's happening, so concentrate elsewhere.


Agree with damned that we need to promote within the community because that is where we get the biggest pay off. It was noticeable that web site views were way up right after damned promoted the con here. It either works as a reminder or notification that FG Con exists. On that note we do need to be clear on the "branding" of the con. Is it FG-Con or FG Virtual Con or ... ? There was a VirtuaCon ( Roll20 RPGeek event ) within a month of our event that may have confused some people.

The biggest hurdle or objection to this con from outsiders is the need to download the program, and they might eventually have to pay. (Please no discussion about that here ;-( )

How much success have you had recruiting players to your games using G+ or other forums ? I haven't ever tried it but I would guess not as well as promotion on these forums ?

We have a Promotion Team forum that I'm hoping to use to organize our efforts for the event in May. Please subscribe and join the team :-)

Mask_of_winter
January 23rd, 2014, 02:53
Agree with damned that we need to promote within the community because that is where we get the biggest pay off. It was noticeable that web site views were way up right after damned promoted the con here. It either works as a reminder or notification that FG Con exists. On that note we do need to be clear on the "branding" of the con. Is it FG-Con or FG Virtual Con or ... ? There was a VirtuaCon ( Roll20 RPGeek event ) within a month of our event that may have confused some people.

The biggest hurdle or objection to this con from outsiders is the need to download the program, and they might eventually have to pay. (Please no discussion about that here ;-( )

How much success have you had recruiting players to your games using G+ or other forums ? I haven't ever tried it but I would guess not as well as promotion on these forums ?

We have a Promotion Team forum that I'm hoping to use to organize our efforts for the event in May. Please subscribe and join the team :-)

I tend to agree there unfortunately. Of the thousands of people I've invited to try out FG for free on Google+ only three answered the call. It doesn't matter how much you stress out the fact it's free, people don't take the bait. They think there's a catch. Although this doesn't mean the promo team should give up advertising in other communities, the bulk of recruiting for FGCon should be from within.

My $0.02

JohnD
January 23rd, 2014, 03:38
Will there be a bit of a rolecall for who will be DMing and what system that they will demo?

VenomousFiligree
January 23rd, 2014, 06:46
How much success have you had recruiting players to your games using G+ or other forums ? I haven't ever tried it but I would guess not as well as promotion on these forums ?

Another forum I frequent is UK Roleplayers, before G+ I was always mentioning and advertising VT games (mainly FG) and the response was very limited. When G+ came along suddenly a load of the naysayers were trying online gaming.

Now that there is a wider interest in online gaming, if you can advertise a game where players don't have to pay (ie an ultimate license for FG) then you can get quite a few interesed people. G+ is by far the best place to get interested people (imo).

Once the dates have been confirmed, I'll be more than happy to promote on G+. It might even be worth creating a dedicated page / community where the games can be listed, convention discussed, etc.


I tend to agree there unfortunately. Of the thousands of people I've invited to try out FG for free on Google+ only three answered the call. It doesn't matter how much you stress out the fact it's free, people don't take the bait. They think there's a catch. Although this doesn't mean the promo team should give up advertising in other communities, the bulk of recruiting for FGCon should be from within.

My $0.02

I've had different experiences, a lot of players are spread out over different communities. If you want to play Savage Worlds Star Wars for example, then you need to promote in the Savage Worlds communities, the Star Wars communities, the SciFi communities, the Hangout RPG communities etc.

The game where I struggled the most was for my Drake's Plymouth game, however that is probably because it's quite a niche setting.

damned
January 23rd, 2014, 07:54
Weve had a good number of response to the GM survey - still looking for some more but its looking like there are some definite preferences for the weekend and number of days.
Announcements and planning coming real soon now - thanks for all the interest - and we will most definitely look to promote the Con both within and outside of the community.

Trenloe
January 23rd, 2014, 10:27
Will there be a bit of a rolecall for who will be DMing and what system that they will demo?
damned has sent out an email with a survey to anyone who has GM'd at an FG Con before and who has mentioned they will in the future.

I don't know how much use having a role call will be at this point - we've had plenty of people promise to run games in the past and then they didn't.

We'll have the FG Con website ready for GMs to enter their bookings next month and this should be the best role call we have - being able to see what games GMs have agreed to run by looking at the events they have entered on the site.

Doswelk
January 25th, 2014, 08:29
... the forum name should be changed for ongoing cons.
Looking at the Moderator options (I am just a Mod, so I probably do have the rights to do it!) I do not know if the thread name can be changed, more likely a new thread would need to be created...

Trenloe
January 26th, 2014, 17:52
Looking at the Moderator options (I am just a Mod, so I probably do have the rights to do it!) I do not know if the thread name can be changed, more likely a new thread would need to be created...
Thread names can be changed as a mod, but I haven't found out how to change forum names - I don't think standard mods can.

When we start getting everything together for FG Con IV we'll look to change the forum name...

Trenloe
January 26th, 2014, 22:27
FG Con IV dates confirmed: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20357-FG-Con-IV-CONFIRMED-Thursday-8th-Sunday-11th-May

The next few weeks are mostly admin tasks of getting the website ready and updating forums titles, getting advertising organised, assigning roles/responsibilities, etc...