What is the point in advertising things which are -hopefully- going to be improved in the near future? It seems logical to advertise once servers are of better quality.

Well actually that's very true, but there's still ways to stop. You just need to gain some self control. ;)

I agree wholeheartedly - especially as regards the website, which is not fit to entertain guests - but why Not get the invitations ready? No, by no means should we send them out, but we can (to follow the metaphor) write them out, seal the envelopes and stamp 'em...
Thus, the ideal banner-ad would have content such as is unlikely to change between points A and B. Or, content which predicts the future environment. Thus, if it were announced (to flog a dead horse) that there would be some manner of Hub World and some manner of Global Quest, it would behoove Graal to have an advertisment ready which mentions such things. Likewise, I doubt the existing worlds will have so total a makeover that the characters/ganis/tileset will become obsolete, thus one could patch together screenshots into an ad...though the plot and content of such an ad leave room for speculation.

I agree with that, it just seemed like everyone was rushing to get things done, that's all.

I can get us onto Newgrounds front page, but I can see what kind of impact this would do, I currently don't think it's worth using that option.

Not yet, but let's hold that thought. When Graal's ready, NewGrounds' front page will be an incredible boon - especially if we can advertise something like that it's a Free Game again (or at least, Shareware on one Read-Only Newbie server, which is as good as Free for the first few hours)

You know, while we're at it, why NOT campaign via advertisements? Why not make banners that advertise the Graal of the Future, the way we want it to be? It may help sell the top admins on the idea if the ad campaign's already ready already.

That's it!
The first 100 hours are free!

I was thinking more along the lines of making a single newbie world wherein Ghosts are given passwords so they don't have to restart every single bloody time they log on - which is certainly hurting the "See how awesome this game is? You should upgrade!" campaign...
It'd be great if Graal could reliably give players x Free Hours to take a full tour, but we all know how that's gonna go...Moostehkrakish signs up 10 accounts, all named Moostehkrakish1-Moostehkrakish10, he plays through each of them until he's at his last 5 minutes, gets a Trainer, then Moostehkrakish1 drops 99,999,999 gralats in whatever equivalent of level14 you like. Then when he gets banned, Moostehkrakish2 does the same thing...better to let them see the world without touching. Believe me, once you've input your password enough times, "Buy the game and never have to remember your password again!" starts looking pretty damn appealing.

We could further discuss Partial Payment Plans and so forth, but that's the sort of thing that belongs in another thread.

If someone makes the banners, my site is ready to host a full banner (468X60), or a tower.

There's systems that make doing that a little harder, such as having to have a new email for each account. Also the account can only make 1 trial account per computer id / ip and such.

*shrugs* There are ways, but I doubt the higher ups would go for it. Nothing beats a kid with an entire school-lab-classroom full of unattended computers and nothing better to do with his time. Thus, for security concerns, Ghosts ought only be able to read from the server, and not interfere with other players. Should they even be visible? Should they be allowed to speak? *shrugs* It's debatable. But that's another thread.

I think this is a good advertisment campeign sign it sums up graalonline http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1262/gserverlv9.gif

something about this makes even me want to upgrade again.
I think it could work.

Thats cyberjouers?!?!

Here you go.

http://magadal.vip.graal.net/graalad.png

I can redo parts of it if you want, just tell me.

's nice...I don't really see a lot I can say to improve it. It's definitely a start on the Kingdoms campaign...just the question of Should it be Kingdoms, or the Community, or All the worlds advertised at once, or...?

I can make more banners if you want :]

why 2 GK ppl D:, suggestion, put a zone person in it, some people might be.attractid by the gunners while some by the medievil stuff;

let's use that same style, make alternates for the other worlds, then we can mix and match. Either market different banners to different audiences, or animate it to try and catch the eye of unknown audiences - bah, another medeval, another gun, WHOA WAS THAT AN ORC? AWESOME! You never know.
Someone's gonna say jazz up the middle...but I think the terrain works. You can say too much in an ad, overload the eyes...like how people don't read anything in malls anymore, especially "out of order, use other door" signs, just expect it'll be another ad. Besides, it leaves room for useful information, like Free trial, Free download, New and improved world editor, etc.

A thought...when we have the variations on this theme, maybe have it animate in waves? Like a left-to-right diagonal wipe, so the Knight's looking at a Ninja, then two Ninjas, a Ninja's looking at a Future Crook, a future cop and a crook, future cop and pirate...then we could put a different catchphrase with each scene-change.

I dunno, advertising ain't my forte. Should at least one character be female? I'm not suggesting go the typical Lara Croft, Adventure Quest, IMVU, SpaceWhatsit, GamersArcade, Lookie-Hotness route-while effective, we'd lose out in the long run from people expecting more hotness and less sword-swinging, but it seems it'd balance better with each gender on the banner.

the characters themselves are ugly, try to use the best (graphically) armor/items, heads, bodies, etc.

Do some for me :]

If I played GK and knew the best graphics I would but I don't. :[

:/

The banner's dont really need to explain much, you just need to make it attract or catch peoples eyes. This is best executed in a flash banner, but normal banners also work.

Im going to design a banner myself as soon as ive finished a tileset ^_^

To me, that doesn't really reflect Graal as a whole, it's pretty though.

Obviously we do it on a daily ****ing basis.

Boo hoo, if you don't want to volunteer then don't volunteer. You're not being inventive by whining that other people want to do something for a game you don't think deserves it.

Here's my attempt. Wrong size, but it draws attention.

LOLLLL I love that one Tyhm... haven't heard that in years "WHERE I FIND YING YANG IN BOX"...

Someone make an awesome one, I need it for a project.

if I had a website I would use the above picture for my graal banner, that's how awesome it is.

just have that only -- no graal thing or whatever... just that. and link it to the old school style of graalonline.com

Glad yas like it.
I was going to make a Roaming Newbie series...properly cropped, with the Newbie wandering across all the servers asking the first NPC he sees "WHERE I FIND YING-YANG IN BOX?!"
Still might.

hazlo. do it


I'm telling you -- stupid stuff like that... just plain screenshots... on some website's banner will get clicks or at the very least interest (because if it doesn't scream "banner"... yakno)

Lol yeah go for it, I love it. Brings back memories.

Here you go, all. This is just a start - a few servers I walked around on as a newbie.
I strongly encourage anyone who supports this ad campaign to follow suit - go on a server, maximize the client (I forgot to, ^^; ) set yourself up to look like a newbie, walk up to the first humanoid you see and press PrintScrn. Edit in the text (so you'll be sure it fits in the banner - Tempus Sans ITC, 14 point's perfect but I shrunk it to fit) and post it here.

Also enclosed: A Graal animated micro-button (transparent, so I hope you got a good background for it).

haha tyhm i'm loving it

LOL gold... memories.

**skips half the posts on here**
I'll catch up on all this later but I just have to say...
I love this idea!
Hmm if we could get Scott back to do some screen printing...wha ha
Or if I looked into it maybe...

I think it's brilliant :)
Maybe part of that is I like the look of 8x zoomed pixel art xD

LOL!

Oh god i love it, its brilliant.

well...? c'mon guys, keep it goin', I didn't even touch Kingdoms OR the bigger bannersizes....

The community banner you created, I guess we could modify several of those?

Graal needs a new atractive name