This is just an idea, take it or leave it.
Daily events no longer exist in the form they once did. This thread concerns attendance of future plot-related events and the evaluation of what succeeded and failed in the attendance of past live events.
On the importance of advertising events if one would wish to reach a larger customer base:
Advertising matters. If one were unable or unwilling to advertise a product, one should accept a lower minimum rate of return on the product's success.
A few suggestions of some straightforward advertising concepts are included below after justification of why the advertising of daily-events would be a concern for a manager of an MMO.
Hypothesis: Event attendance would be boosted with advertising and announced time/date advanced warning of events.
This theory can be seen to correspond with the standard techniques from the field of Marketing and might be evidenced by the large turnout for the all-operative party and the 11.3 organizational meetings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing#Advertising
One astute cause of concern that was pointed out in another recent thread in the development roundtable (among many other places) consists in the sincere observation that the same (roughly) dozen players attended past live events.
If an arbitrary product successfully develops a returning client base and establishes a goal to expand that number, Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) exists as only a fraction of possible forms of advertising that would accomplish this goal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_mouth
In the example of MxO daily events, the returning clientele can be represented by the number, a dozen; Word of Mouth Marketing would be represented by the players telling their faction about an event. An example of impairment to WOMM would be classifying the passing of advanced warning of a daily event as a potentially ban-able offense or the consequence of client being asked to leave LESIG.
An MMO where daily events act as a differentiating feature from the competition and a strong selling point to potential customers should invest thought into the advertising of the daily event.
Suggested ways that an MMO with daily events could advertise those daily events:
Out of game:
Headline on the homepage front-page.
A row of text on the top one-third of the MxO homepage, Data Node One, advertises the subject of the event of the day, the time, and the meeting location of the event. This is analogous to a headline in a daily paper or periodical.
A client or a potential client that checks the front-page of the homepage would see immediately what was going on that day and observe that the MMO was a vibrant and dynamic place worthy of subscription. On the other hand, an MMO with a static front-page would immediately suggest the opposite to a potential client.
RSS feed.
In an age where Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices are common, expansion of the simple row of text on the front-page to include an RSS feed would allow instant communication and advertising directed towards clients and potential clients with RSS running on their phones and computers.
Text-messages and real world e-mails.
Any product can benefit from a good mailing list. Clients or potential clients would have the ability to sign-up for a real-world mailing list or text-messages. Signing up for a list or being removed from the lists should be a tolerable process for the consumer to avoid negative blowback.
Forums.
Analogous to the Live Events forum, posts by moderators would announce an events time and location. The post would have a link to it on the front-page headline, RSS feed, text-message, or real world e-mail. This was successful in the recent 11.3 meetings and the all-operative party
In-game:
Message of the Day: Evidence that this would increase event attendance exists in the successful implementation during the 11.3 meetings and the all-operative party.
Billboards in-game. With some creativity, billboards that would be obvious to a redpill character, but veiled to a bluepill could advertise from the schedule of live events.
System e-mails to the players of a given organization and with necessary rep.
System chat used consistently throughout the day. System messages shouldn't just be introduced moments before an event, but in the hours leading up to an event.
Advertising matters. Advertising shows people that a manufacturer is confident in his product and shows people that the manufacturer is willing to take the steps to introduce people to the product. Advertising can convey information regarding improvements to and the merits of a product. Often, advertising of a quality product can be as important as the quality product itself.
Building a bigger client base through successful advertising takes effort and persistence, but with the right steps and a well-made product, one can be confident that such work would be rewarded.
Thank you for your time and patience.
