unforum

[Vecheeso]

 If you want to send packages as trailhead...

[Nighthawk]

It's hard to do as a trailhead because nobody knows who the hell you are; you can't simply ask for an address.

In LGL I got addresses as part of the Beta Tester registration on the site, and that was well after the trailhead. With that I had about 70 people sign up as Beta Testers, but only about 20 people put in their physical addresses. Of those, only about 15 were in the US. I ended up sending 10 cubes.

When my next project came about, everybody knew me, so not only was I able to logistically put up a page as a pre-signup, people now knew who I was, knew that I'd put addresses to good use, and weren't worried about putting an address in. Of the 250+ signups I have about 90-100 addresses at this point.

But the day after people received the cube in LGL, I got like twenty more signups, address and all. People knew that if they put their address in, there's the hope of getting something in the mail. And since the current game's mailings, almost every signup includes a valid address. People want stuff, and know they have a good chance of getting it at this point.

So, my suggestion:

- Send the first physical trailhead to UF, ARGNet or whatever. I sent a cheapo trailhead to UF (the newsletter), but it wasn't really necessary by then; the game had already started.

- Within your game, find a reason to have a signup. Also note that the signup address CANNOT be required.

Even that way you'll be lucky to get more than a couple. But once you do use it and set the precedent, people will be much more willing.

[Vecheeso]

yeah thats what i figured. i wanted to make sure there wasnt something i was missing as to the place people get addreses lol.
but i am still wondering, if you dont put in an IG place for people to submit addresses, and you get someones addy (i.e. they submitted it on an OOG site) do you have to explain how the people in the ARG got the person's addy?

[rowan]

[notgordian]

Generally, as I understand it addresses are gotten from doing whois lookups on the websites players list -- sure, it's not always accurate, but it's SUPPOSED to be accurate (they ask you to change that information when you move, from what I recall).

If you're targeting non-UF groups, the same strategy would work, but you need to be careful about the message you're saying (for instance, some Holomove recipients thought only somewhat jokingly about :anthrax: when they got open packages of what once contained powder, and there was another game that had a similar reaction a few months earlier).

Basically, figure out who might be interested in your game, and then try to find publicly available information (Facebook, website, or Yellow Pages) for those people.