Yesterday, Verizon was offering a free ringtone as a new year advertisement, presumably as a way to show off their new deluxe system and get people started on that sort of thing. This plan worked brilliantly, except that the system was unavailable, busy, crashed, etc. every time I tried to use it over the day. Twice, it even let me get so far as entering the code I would need to get the free song before reseting everything. So what did we learn from this advertisement? That Verizon has no idea how to make a stable network or serve its customers. I am surprised that they advertised this.
I was immediately reminded of when City of Heroes gave a free trial weekend immediately after releasing Issue 7. Apparently “Our system is so bugged as to be unusable! Would you like a sample?” is a very popular way to seek new and returning customers. Hey, why not invite massive server load before getting the bugs out of the system?
: Zubon
heh.
Or… you could go the other route and invite people back at the same time you’re hyping up Issue 8. Sure, the game’s more stable, but now people are coming back expecting to see the Veteran Rewards or the new Faultline in action. They’re left disappointed or waiting in anticipation… which only makes the delayed release dates all the more of a PR nightmare.
Helpful hint to marketing: Only promote one thing at a time. Don’t overlap prerelease hype with free trials. Don’t roll the dice by mixing a potentially buggy update with inexperienced players that will have a tough enough time learning the ropes during their trial. For that matter, don’t mix releases with free trials- many people will be coming back as paying customers just to see what they’re missing… keep them paying.
Wait a few weeks or so after the release- just long enough for the release hype to die down and the bugpatches to come out. Let them come and experience with veteran players that can answer some of their newb questions and show them the ropes.