How to advertise TripleA and A&A.org more and/or better?

The thing is, not many games of v4 and v2 get played on the TripleA lobby so idk if there is a direct competition with GTO anymore.  I think most of the expert players at GTO are aware of TripleA and understand why it is better software but they are used to GTO and don’t have sufficient motivation to change up.  Some of these players eventually get bored with Revised/spring42 and will want to try bigger maps.

GTOers like GTO because they like the GTO community, how easy it is to download GTO and start hosting games, how easy it is for both novices and experts to find suitable opponents, and they like the brightly colored lobby and maps.  I think TripleA would be more attractive to GTOers with improvements relating to 1) ease of hosting 2) colorful lobby and lobby features (friends, rankings, “kudos”…that kind of thing) 3) make it easier to find/host novice games.

IMO, the play-by-forum style will eventually attract lots of people to the TripleA software (GTO charges for play-by-email games)…  Also, the word is out on how awesome v3 and ww2global are compared to previous editions of the game.

Before advertising outside aaa.org I think one key factor is to convince more players of this community to use TripleA instead of ABattlemap.
There are still so many games being played with ABattlemap. Why do so many players hesitate to give TripleA a try?

No one likes change… even if it’s for the better.

Perhaps an extertaining -preview- video/advertisement, that makes it AAA appear totally AWESOME, and is funny, would get people pscyhed about tripleA?

Then we just spam the video link everywhere…

Who has video skills who could do such I thing?  even a 60 second spot on Youtube…

A free trial of Camtasia could be used to just record some play then maybe add a voice over

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

Perhaps an extertaining -preview- video/advertisement, that makes it AAA appear totally AWESOME

Great idea.

A ‘turn-key’ how-to video with linked resources would be a great way to grow the pie.

I came to the AA world from a games club in school whose members belonged to a game club hosted by a game store.  Throwing these resources at a targeted audiences like these should help to grow the pie.

Perhaps a user inspired list of targets to advertise to?

Make up some banners and I’ll post them around the site.

@P@nther:

Before advertising outside aaa.org I think one key factor is to convince more players of this community to use TripleA instead of ABattlemap.
There are still so many games being played with ABattlemap. Why do so many players hesitate to give TripleA a try?

I use both ABattlemap and TripleA and will play on either depending on what my opponent uses.

I can’t speak for other players but here are some things I’ve noticed about the differences and why I still don’t mind Battlemap.

I’ll start with some issues about TripleA.
First the map.  It’s great, but I can’t fit the entire map on my screen and I have to scroll around, whereas with ABattlemap I can pull up the map and see the whole world.  It just makes planning turns easier and I find I don’t forget to move some units as often in Battlemap as I might with TripleA.
I also still get confused by some of the ships, particularly cruisers and battleships.  Since each country has its own looks and can be hard for me to tell whether a Sz has a CA or a BB unless then are both present along with a DD.
Crowded territories, can sometimes confuse me as well.  Not much you can do, but with big stacks the sometimes overrun and its hard to tell which is on what.  So you have to go to the territory tab to make sure, but that is an extra mouse scroll. lol!
Finally its the updates.  I don’t mind updating the program, but I wish the updates would be automatic.  It is annoying to start a (PBF) game and realize a turn or two in that the versions aren’t compatible and now one player has to download the newer version, but then manually update the map.  Older versions should be compatible to newer, unless you are doing drastic map/rule changes, but that really shouldn’t occur at this point.  But I’d think if you are just making minor tweaks to TripleA there has to be some way to keep older maps compatible.  I’m a lazy gamer, and really dislike having to download multiple times (unless it is an automatic update where I don’t have to do anything) so I play with what works until I get someone says, “you know you’re playing with Version 2, you need to get 5”.  Then I have to manually get it, etc.  It’s a nuisance to me.
If there was an auto update feature built in, that would help.  At least you could click a button that checks for newer versions for you then updates it for you (keeping older maps intact or warns you if they may be unplayable before proceeding).

As for Battlemap, the appeal can be that it is as close to playing a board game online as you can get.  You move the pieces, you roll the dice, etc.  All you do is email/post the map.  It might be a fine line, but it is a different feel then say the old A&A CD version or TripleA which feel more like playing a computer game with a friend.

All this said I like TripleA a lot and will continue to use it, but just wanted to throw my two cents in to say Battlemap still has an appeal for me as well.

Note:  This is all in regards to AA50.  I have no idea about G40 or its rules/maps etc.

The big problem with BattleMap is that it does not work on Mac and Linux computers.

You can zoom out in TripleA but the problem that I find is that it is like an image zoom out instead of a vector, you start to lose the details of things like territory borders, which essentially make the zoom useless.

Battlemap doesn’t fit on a single screen either, and no one is complaining?

Global is just HUGE in general…

If people want clarity, perhaps UGLY/SIMPLE tiles can be made that are standard per country and appear as identical (but different color) blocks on the screen. that stack well.

Maybe TripleA is too good… by allowing you to choose the resolution you desire, is it possible to instead have a selection of 3 predetermined resolutions that work to the most effect?

None of this adresses Veqryn’s comments though. Dealing with GTO.

The only way to combat it, is to infect GTO.  Get in there, play games yourself, and spam the alternative until people leave - and do so because they want to.

It’s easier to MOVE a community as a whole… than it is to create a -new- one.

Its crazy that I can make improvements faster than GTO, with their actual programming budget, can.

That’s because you’re actually passionate about this game, and this community.

We are forever greatful…

By Veqryn For Veqryns. :P

I’ll have played with the zoom and try it out.

@Gargantua:

Battlemap doesn’t fit on a single screen either, and no one is complaining?

Global is just HUGE in general…

Yeah, forgot how big 40 is.  I don’t play it, so my comments are more from an AA50 gamer.

Yeah Veqryn, you’ve done some great work and TripleA is great and I’ll continue to use it, but just wanted to kinda answer P@ther that battlemap still has its appeal in some instances.

–—

We can probably do more TripleA only tourneys since they should move faster.

If someone wants to post an invitation for players on the axisandalliesunderground.com feel free. Its OK with me. It s not much but it will get exposure out to around 300 unique IP’s and gamers per day.

Ober

The zoom works great!!

Wow. I cant believe somebody would be called a noob.