before I go diving into photoshop myself, I'm betting that others have made website banners and such promoting MOUL. Linkies, please?

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Officially bonked R.E.B.E.L.
Falling Man Group Secretary
Storyteller & Creatrix
MOULAgain Houligan KI#00001498

I made this several months ago.



[EDIT] You are welcome to use or modify the one above. If you do, just credit me as the creator in some manner. (I'll thank you later.)

I like it very much. Then there's this one I found.

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TOC#60089 DI#132103 MOULa is

Last edited by Trekluver on Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:04 pm; edited 2 times in total

What about the one in your sig

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My Cartoons

James 1:19
"... Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,"

Here's one I made.

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Ethan the Bahro Boy - MO:ULagain KI# 4988
---Blessed are those who laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused---

I had some old ones I made a while back but can't currently find them.

So I'm throwing together a bunch of new ones, in the common banner formats 728x90 and 468x60.

These are the first batch:






Any thoughts on what text would be effective?

It needs to be concise - only a few words - but needs to get the point across...

I can do better than this, BTW. This is just a quick first pass at it. I can also create a few animated GIF banners and Flash banners if that would be useful to anyone.

Last edited by matthornb on Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:00 am; edited 1 time in total

tankoo guys!

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Officially bonked R.E.B.E.L.
Falling Man Group Secretary
Storyteller & Creatrix
MOULAgain Houligan KI#00001498

If we can get some Uru banners - mine or some of the others posted earlier - out there, it'd be useful...

You can post them as signatures in any other non-Myst forums you frequent.

Particularly useful if the forums are relevant in some tangential way.

In other words, we're looking for places with people who aren't Myst fans but could potentially be interested in Myst/Uru if they knew about it.

Good examples include puzzle-related or adventure-gaming forums... travel/exploration forums, gaming forums, a variety of art-related forums, fantasy-genre forums, etc...

Don't spam, but, if you are already actively a member of some other forum, consider using a Myst/Uru banner as your sig.

Also, if you have a blog, you could post something about Uru - with the emphasis being, it's a well-made multiplayer game with beautiful art direction, sound design, etc, (but) has a small audience (and) needs more players to survive and grow.

Alternately... try posting a third-person screenshot of you and some of your in-game friends doing something in Uru, on your social-networking page where you post photos. (MySpace, Facebook, Google+)... with a caption, "This is me chatting with some of my friends in Uru" or something like that.

BTW... I'll post some more banners soon.

So you'll have some more banners to choose from.

Here are some more variations:






I don't know if any of this will help at all but we've got to try something.

Last edited by matthornb on Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:02 am; edited 1 time in total

matthornb wrote:

Here are some more variations:






I don't know if any of this will help at all but we've got to try something.

I like these alot!

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TOC#60089 DI#132103 MOULa is

Thanks.

It occurred to me that given the wideness of the banner format, two Uru screenshots per banner wasn't a bad idea.

So I quickly made a set of six similar still banners with two screenshots each...








...and then combined the six .jpgs into a basic animated GIF:



That's all for today.

Last edited by matthornb on Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:02 am; edited 1 time in total

Hey, you guys are amazing. For a non-techie like me, this is fantastic.

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Mac - MOULagain KI#00004826
In the interests of the environment, this post has been constructed entirely from recycled electrons.

Good point.

I am not sure where to go with that.

Yes, the free-to-play option is one of Uru's big draws - but if everybody plays and nobody pays, then Uru will die.

I understand that.

At the same time, I don't feel that "please donate" needs to be said on the banner... and I think it's a terribly ineffective message to start new potential players off with as the very first thing they see.

Aside from that, with all the changes Chogon is currently making to MystOnline.com and the MO:ULa login screen, it'll be nearly impossible for players not to be informed of the fact that the game is struggling and is dependent on player donations. So I think the banner doesn't need to tell people to donate... one way or another they'll get that message in the course of installing and running the game.

But still, you're right, the banner maybe shouldn't emphasize the "free" aspect either. So let's rethink the text.

Forget the 'free' and forget the 'donate'.

Myst Online
______________

What would be a good tagline to fill that blank with?

Something that is about the experience of playing Uru, the exploration of worlds, something... something that defines what is great about Uru in four words or less.

But right now I don't know what that phrase should be. I'm drawing a blank. (Literally and figuratively)

Any ideas?

I love all of your banner ideas and contributions, matthornb, Ethan and Trekluver ...

And I like your phrase, matthornb, ... "but if everybody plays and nobody pays, then Uru will die" ...
This sounds somehow humorous or witty and reasonable and persuasive at the same time and
thus not too intrusive ...

Besides that, there could be a variety of banners, some with a donation consideration
and some without ...

So, additionally to the 'MOUL for free' banners there could be one saying:

(Al)though it's free - if everybody plays and nobody pays, then Uru will die -
Donations are welcomed at mystonline.com/play

and/or sth. even more simple just like that

Myst Online
Play now for free!
Donations (are) welcomed/appreciated at mystonline.com/play

--> resp. mystonline.com/donation in the near future --> this is very important to change as for
Non-Americans you're getting the resp. translated 'Play' page which doesn't contain the donation
option and the button ... so, you have, if you get the idea, to switch back to 'English' to actually
be able to make your contribution ...
(it's mentioned that the translated version isn't up to date, but that doesn't necessarily cause
somebody to follow the resp. link and it doesn't say that there's a donation option) ...

Ok, my two cents for now ...

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janaba MOULa KI #154268, Minkata KI #4525 , Gehn KI # 16392, TOC KI # 86963
MO:ULa is

Appreciate your input, janaba, and the fact that you liked the way I put the situation, but I think we need something a bit shorter.

That aside, I also think it's a mistake to overemphasize the donation-supported aspect of MO:ULa to new players who have no experience of what the game is, are hearing about Uru for the first time, and thus have no motivation to keep it going.

My sense is that only players who have already spent some amount of time playing Uru will care enough to support it.

So I think, the goal has to be to get people to play the game first, and then - if they end up liking it - then they'll donate, a few days or weeks or months later.

We shouldn't be using banner ads to get people to donate... but rather to strengthen the number of players in the game.

The banner ads, then... the promotional effort, are to build the long-term health of the game and prevent us from dipping back into CAVCON 2 territory in the future. They are not intended to solve the immediate short-term crisis. I think the existing players who already care about Uru, will have to do that.