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Panagrammic
Development Update / zOMG
As you probably know, for the past month or so we've been concentrating on the monetization of zOMG; as a result, we did a number of things in the past month: released a new area (Coliseum), new items (the zOMG Buddies), and also released Head Start tickets to a new area to serve as a hangout space (Boardwalk).
Over the past 3 weeks, we've been looking at zOMG participation and whatnot, and it has become apparent that there is a really dedicated core of zOMG players, but they are a small percentage of the population (about 5%). This makes it much harder to make zOMG self-sustaining, because you're marketing to a much smaller base. However, there is no denying that the hard-core zOMG players are very passionate about the game.
So, what we'd like to do is take a step back and try to broaden the zOMG base before looking at monetization again.
- we'll continue doing the zOMG Buddies, since those were well received. We'd also like to expand on them a bit -- either by experimenting with bundling an animated item or with gameplay properties.
- we'd like to integrate zOMG into the site more. We have a bunch of ideas on this, including storyline, manga, updating the exchange, having interweaving quests, and other things. This is one of the things where we would appreciate your feedback -- we're sure there are ideas that we haven't discussed. The idea is to make zOMG part of the Gaia storyline, and give an incentive for users to at least visit it every so often.
- we are looking at driving more traffic to zOMG by improving the pages that search engines hit when looking for zOMG information and by working with the third party referral sites (i.e., "free flash games").
- we are finishing up on another area (Underworld), but putting that on the back burner until after we've integrated zOMG more.
- for now, swarf and bronstahd are going to learning PHP and becoming familiar with other aspects of the site -- but in return other members of the team will be helping out on integrating zOMG into the rest of the site. [JK] will be doing additional items from zOMG, and also trying to figure out the best ways of integrating zOMG with the rest of the site, with help from the community. Over the next 3 weeks, Mavdoc will be finishing up Underworld so that we have that available after we've grown the zOMG base.
Bottom line: over the next few months, we'll trying to weave zOMG into the entire Gaia experience in the hopes that we can get more users interested in zOMG, and then we'll try exploring monetization again.
