Holiday break time, which likely means no blog posting for a few days (unless someone calls DF crap, because then I’ll have to throw up a post showing how I’m genetically superior to them and that their opinion is completely wrong, fear not!), so what better time than now to make a post about the Community Publishing program from Aventurine and my experience with it so far.
As of today (December 23rd, 2009), a total of X copies of DarkFall have been purchased through my link, 95% for the NA server and 5% for the EU server. The first 30% of sales have already been deposited into my PayPal account; the rest will be deposited in the next pay cycle. Of all sales, 20% have been for the current special promotion of DarkFall plus a 6 month subscription for $83 (I get 20% of that $83), the remaining purchases have been for just the $50 ‘boxed’ copy and the one free month.
The busiest day has seen a grand total of two sales, and the longest time between sales has been five days. A quick comparison between site traffic and sales shows no correlation, nor was there a significant spike right after the release of Conquer the Seas. Out of all the sales, I believe I’ve been contacted either on the blog or through email by almost everyone who made a purchase, and I would say about half of those I’ve personally responded with starter tips or answered their specific DF-related questions.
In terms of clicks to sales, the link (according to WordPress, which I’m going to assume is accurate) has been clicked just over 400 times. I don’t know enough about internet advertising to say whether that’s a good sales rate, but it seems decently high to me. On any given day that I don’t link to something in a current post, the Community Publisher link is near the top in terms of clicks, which I attribute to its prime location on the site, and the fact that it’s a graphic. On a related note, I wonder how many people intended to buy DF through the link, but then because of a technical issue (perhaps reloading the page, or coming back in a way that does not link me) ended up doing it in a way that does NOT credit me. As with all things, I doubt the system is 100% accurate.
Overall I think the Community Publishing program is a huge success, both for DarkFall and as a source of content/entertainment for this blog. While the amount of money is nothing to start planning a career around (or miss a day of work actually), having a connection to new players joining a game I’ve recommended has been overall enjoyable, and getting ‘new user’ feedback has been very interesting. Even after all these years in the MMO genre, it still surprises me just how differently everyone approaches something like DarkFall, or what aspects of the game stick out to them as either great or annoying.
Aventurine has hinted at sharing some of their own info about the program as well, and I’m very interested to hear their thoughts and experiences with it. If the NEW clan on the NA1 server is any indication, a lot of people are checking out DarkFall, and I’d be curious to know what percentage of those players are coming in via the Community Publisher program, or how a CP-led player is faring compared to a totally random purchaser without that CP-connection.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to spend my blogging millions on another Ferrari.
Edit: Actual numbers were a last-minute subtraction based on advice from my father, who has more level 80 WoW characters than you do. Sorry.
(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)
Hardcore Casual 
Disappointed you chickened out of putting the actual numbers you promised on here, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t show up when it came to the crunch.
Pretty worthless post without any numbers tbh.
Well, lets assume 20 copies as 5% leads us to this figure. So we are looking at $68. Not bad compensation for doing something you were already doing.
Could you elaborate your math? For me 20 copies at an average of $11,32/copy sold adds up to $226,40…
Right bait, wrong animal.
as I alluded below I hoped Syn would jump on my figures and spill the beans inadvertently. Such a flagrant error to me was not to him, apparently. In retrospect I should have said something about how AION pays out teh lootz or something… I’ll chew on it for now.
“Pretty worthless post without any numbers tbh.”
I couldn’t agree less. The post definitely provides a general idea of the response Syn has received. Definitely enough of an idea to get a rough estimate as Draglem attempts to construe.
There isn’t a single reason I can think of that should compel Syn to release actual numbers on something like this unless he just really wants to.
You’re pretty worthless for ignoring my emails and not buying DF yet. You are ruining my engagement you bastard!
hrm, not the trappings I would hope for. I personally I blame MTV. So from the extrema we are looking at a sampling size between 7 and 70. I do not think you have sufficient population to really make a sandwich from your aggravated data.
So how does forty two candles on your cake sound… maybe more…. maybe less..?
Talk to Allerion. I’m pretty much sold, but he, apparently, is not.
Plug in any number between 9 and 66, and that’s how many accounts have been sold. Now convert all the percentages to real number, and bam, same analysis but now with fewer confusing percentages.
Oh, and you forgot “slap in the face” and “I’m quitting and taking my 1000 man guild with me”. Those must be included in any such complaint about broken promises or someone being too afraid to show you the real info.
Indian Giver
Syn, just wanted to drop a line to say that I picked up a copy of DF through your site yesterday and stayed up far too late into the night chasing down those god-forsaken goblins. I’ve spent most of ’09 resisting the urge (I’m a theme parker, historically), but now that I’ll have some holiday downtime I’m going to take a spin around your sandbox. Keep up the good work and maybe I’ll see you around Agon. Just hopefully not with you standing over my corpse. :)
Very nice, enjoy the game and feel free to ask any questions you have either here or through email.
Please support Syncaine by buying your copy of Darkfall today!
::Paid for by the Syncaine for Blogosphere President Campaign of 2010::
I, too, purchased through your link yesterday. So far so good. I’m a casual PVP’r by nature (read: I die a lot to the un-casuals). Also, I enjoy your writing, keep it up.