What's the Rationale on Not Having a Website?

[Mbando]

I'd like to respectfully ask the Dev Team what the rationale is for not having a website for PFO. I in no way mean to disparage Paizo's hospitality. It just seems strange to me that within this sandbox market, which is getting a little more crowded, GW is doing an excellent job marketing at conferences and in interviews, but doesn't have a visible web presence. You've got FB, the blog, but where is our site: forums, FAQ, media section, etc?

I wouldn't be surprised if you have some awesome plan/reason/rationale, because it looks like most of what you cats do is pretty well thought out. I'd be grateful though if you could unpack this a bit for me--kind of a headscratcher.

[Banesama]

Ryan Dancey wrote:

Upgrading the website is one of my objectives for 2014. :)

[Nihimon]

I'd chalk it up to penny-pinching. Why invest precious resources in a web admin and mods when they can piggyback on Paizo's existing investment.

I wouldn't expect it to be a high priority until they're in Alpha at least, or perhaps when they're ready to open up the Fulfillment system to let new folks start signing up for later months of Early Enrollment.

[Ryan Dancey]

Er, we have a web site ....

[Keovar]

Mbando wrote:

...You've got FB, the blog, but where is our site: forums, FAQ, media section, etc?...

Ryan Dancey wrote:

Er, we have a web site ....

He mentioned the blog.

I suspect he means something a little more like: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/

[Mbando]

Yes Keovar, that's what I meant.

TenTon Hammer just ran aTop Six Sandbox Games of 2014 feature, including PFO as one of those 6. The other 5 all have dedicated websites, with forums, FAQs, media, etc. Only PFO doesn't have a dedicated website.

If the answer is because of finances, cool. I had no idea a website was that big an expense, but then again I don't know beans about website design and hosting :)

[Xeen]

They do... But I will agree that it does need to be one pure condensed website.

I do not however blame them for not pushing that yet. Using Paizo's forums with the GW website is fine... for now, but I agree that does need to change soon to get more people in line.

Also Everquest next pictures look horrible.

[LazarX]

There really isn't a point for a full fledged discussion website for a game that's not out the door yet. It would mean that the devs who are trying to build the ship would have to take time off to address all the strident posts of .

"Is it here yet?"

[Qallz]

Eh, the game is more important than the website. They have limited resources here at GW. They'll get around to it, as Mr. Dancey says.

[Lifedragn]

Having the whole web-presence thing is probably a target best suited towards next summer or fall. 3-6 months before EE is plenty of time, since most of us EE folks are already sold and already have a place to discuss. Web presence is part of marketing, and OE is still pretty far out for worrying about much more than the current goblinworks website.

As for web costs - to have a really snappy professional looking website done, complete with user accounts and a forum can cost a pretty penny. It brings a suite of maintenance costs that really shouldn't be worried about as of yet.

[Imbicatus]

It really makes sense for the forums to stay on Paizo for now. Forums are a huge drain in bandwith and a money sink for server and maintenance costs. Paizo already has a very robust form that is capabale of hosting a large number of users, allowing GW to use the limited funds they have to actually make the game. I'd be all for having forms on GWs site, but not at the cost of resources going to the forums that should be going to the game.

[Mbando]

Clearly it's not a case of "we need to build the game first and then advertise," because Ryan is currently running around, evangelizing and getting the word out. If Ryan hustling to things like GamesBeat 2013 is cost effective advertising, and a website isn't, cool. But since GW is actively marketing the development of the game, it's time to market the development of the game.

[Ryan Dancey]

For now it makes way more sense to keep the forums on Paizo.com. The traffic exposure we get is unbelievably valuable. We'd be spending thousands a month to get the kind of traffic we get just from the curious overflow from the rest of the forum system.

Everything else is just marketing and we aren't selling anything right now. When we get the capability to do our own pledging system, we'll be thinking about investing in static web content to support that. For now, there's little upside to adding much to the goblinworks.com infrastructure.

[Mbando]

Thanks for explaining that Ryan--that makes sense.

[Scarlette]

If you would like an outside site dedicated to PFO, try Pathfinder Online Fan. They have a pretty nice site so far.