What is the story with those dominion ads??

[S.R. Krol]

vfb said:
According to the Shrapnel Blog, it was (is?) very effective, at least in terms of click-through rates. Sorry, lost the link to Scott's blog post.

Here it is.

[lch]

S.R. Krol said:

Here it is.

I *did* mention that I've been clicking on the ads 25 times whenever I saw them, and I usually never click on them at all. When I was still under the impression that it was supposed to be some kinda april's fools joke, that is.

P.S.: Plus, those new ads are the only thing that I see. This sweet Firefox extension named AdBlock+ filters out all the other stuff by default, and that extension is extremely popular, if not mandatory. So other people might just not see any of the other ads, too, and thus no clickey.

P.P.S.: Oh and regarding this piece from the blog: "Reaction to the ads have been extremely positive [...] there’s a nice forum thread currently at five pages [...] You even have one community member who changed his avatar to the ad for a while and is now using it as his sig, currently slightly modified." - the word you are looking for is "sarcasm".

[S.R. Krol]

lch said:
P.P.S.: Oh and regarding this piece from the blog: "Reaction to the ads have been extremely positive [...] there’s a nice forum thread currently at five pages [...] You even have one community member who changed his avatar to the ad for a while and is now using it as his sig, currently slightly modified." - the word you are looking for is "sarcasm".

That's the thing though Ich, ultimately it doesn't matter what the reason is/was--love it, hate it, feel it's clever, feel it's the dumbest thing you've ever seen--when the final result is that it's sparking a reaction. I mean Hell, we've already had one thread go on for seven pages and now we're in a second thread at three pages on the ads. So hey, it works.

***

A general comment to some other posts (not by you Ich, just want to make a catch-all posting here) concerning whether we advertise elsewhere. We do. Obviously on our site we're going to be pimping our products, hence nothing but Shrap banner ads, but we hit a number of sites with varying types of ads so there are plenty of "normal" Dom 3 ads out there. In fact, we have had some "normal" Dom 3 ads rotating on BoardGameGeek.

[DonCorazon]

How are those BGG ads doing? I tried to refer some people to Dom 3 on a thread over there dedicated to the upcoming Conan fantasy war board game but got jumped on by a some serious geeks who only wanted to discuss Conan even though there is little to discuss since the game has yet to be released.

[S.R. Krol]

Things may have picked up recently DonCorazon but at least initially it's been very disappointing. ::shrug:: Unfortunately it's always a gamble. Places you think should provide a great response provide nary a peep, while some backwater IP address suddenly doubles your exposure. I recall we once got a lot of traffic for the game based on some comments someone made on of all things, a political blog.

[DonCorazon]

I may pipe in over there again but this time will pick a general thread and see if I get some traction.

The thing is they are generally pretty uptight over there. A while back, a faction broke off to form the Fortress Ameritrash blog partly out of protest to some of the snooty Eurogaming vibe of the website. It was those guys that gave me the idea that Dom3 should advertise on a boardgaming website because one of them posted a review on a PC game. That might be a useful place to pick up a few more customers.

[S.R. Krol]

Agreed. BGG is an excellent database source, but personally I think it leaves something to be desired as a community. Woe be to you if you make a Geeklist that doesn't pass muster!

Michael Barnes (of F:AT fame, or if you prefer, infamy) actually was (or may still be doing) a board game column for Gameshark. I will admit that I'm not a fan of Barnes although it has nothing to do with all the forum drama that he's been involved in. Here in Atlanta he was part owner of a game store, Atlanta Games Factory, that promised 30% off all their games. They were trying to compete with places like Boulder, Thoughthammer, etc, but as a retail store. Great idea, only problem was in reality it was only a small selection of games that were discounted. It felt a lot like bait-and-switch, and then the store imploded when one of the owners locked the others out and yet more drama, only this time in real life, ensued...

[Ironhawk]

S.R. Krol said:
I mean Hell, we've already had one thread go on for seven pages and now we're in a second thread at three pages on the ads. So hey, it works.

This statement is a total trivialization of the point tho, Krol. You are making the grand assumption that since the ad has provoked debate that it will be insured to also bring higher Dominions/other Shrapnel Game sales. How can you just assume this when at least myself and several others have said we were offended by it and have lost respect for Shrapnel?? You'd think our opinion would actually count for something, given that we have proven we are loyal repeat customers...

[quantum_mechani]

Just to play the devils advocate here... an add featuring a swastika would no doubt generate a lot of threads and and discussion, while not necessarily being a good thing.

[vfb]

In accordance with Godwin's Law, I declare this thread dead!