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Say you were looking for a free online fps and you stumbled upon aao25.com in a search engine result or an advertisement and you click the link.  The first thing the user sees is server stats and news about the website but no text or visual representation about what the game is and no download links.  Most people are 2 dumb and lazy (not really trying to be professional right now haha) to go searching other links, they'll go pressing the back button in 2 seconds and go to the next search result. it's stupid but that's how people are, if everything is not right in front of their face then most of the time they will not look any further.  aao25.com was definitely built towards everyone who already knows about the game and since the game is basically 10 years old now there really isnt any reason to have to explain it, but to get new users its going to have to be done.

ex:
http://www.runescape.com/

their home page basically gives all the info they need to get the user started
pics? check
video? check
little info and making sure i state that its 100% free? check
download link(s)? check
social links? check

i just pulled that off google searching for "online games" not into mmorpg games personally lol

other links can then go off into full in depth detail bout the game, assist, forum, contact, etc
i do think keeping the sever, player number stats on the homepage is a very good idea shows the user that other people are playing and might give them the push to click the download link

one more thing lol this is for the assist program you guys should put share buttons on it next to the support the project button on the bottom

www.addthis.com is a good place to get code for all sharing links under the sun.

alright im done typing.

Cool. This site went through a lot of changes because it started off as a small forum for some of us friends to talk. Then people started coming here for AA support so we had to change it to be user friendly for AA people. We never thought that Assist would get so far that we would need to start getting professional. This site still primarily serves as a Dev forum, so we're still going to need to do some work to make it more into a game site.

This site and the sourceforge site are still going to be the official locations for Assist regardless of other changes that take place. So all your proposed changes we will try to use to change the site. Just always remember, we don't get paid to do this (it costs us money to do this), and we do most of all our work by hand because we have the knowledge and skill to do it.

well i don't know how much help i can be on the website development side but i'm here, I want to see AA2 grow who knows maybe get some real financial support in the future? lol anyway thanks for reading my ideas and feedback guys

I have some news for you guys

First of all, the new Banner on this frontpage is really nice.
We need some space for some sponsors too!

I talked with some german guys from the company Steelseries.
They will sponsor us, if we have more activity in the competive scene.

My brother is by SNOGARD.Dragons.
He have good connections to some leader in Germany from Steelseries.

So, now we must test our competive scene, thats why i asked ZOWIEgear again.
I planed a AAO25.com cup sponsred by ZOWIE.

I need one of you guys to create a New Buttom for example " The first official 2.5 cup"

There must be a clear website, where all the teams can join.
If we have enough teams and each of us have fun in this cup, we can have really good chances that Zowie will sponsor us products.

After this cup with many many teams we can ask Steelseries again, or ZOWIE will stay always by us
Its a great chef, he just want to see that we have much activity.

I know that 2 are big companys, but i have the connections and i want one of them and we will get them. I know it.
If not, i try smaller ones, it will be better for us all if we have one of them 2 for new players and stuf.
like:

WOW the arre spnosered by Steel or Zowie.

So pls website makers do ya thing

thanks ganja, i hope the other guys like it too.

What's the benefit of putting up a steelseries banner?

I can see the benefit, especially if the SteelSeries guys agree to put the AAO2.5 banner somewhere on their site.
Basically, it is free advertisement for us and for them. In this case, more of us than for them.
And even if they don't agree on putting our banner, at least if they put a link/text to the site here, it would be great.
And free advertising is never to be ignored.

I am all for the ideas discussed here, but i don't know how to proceed, All these people and ideas need to come together somehow and i don't know how to make that happen. I think sponsorship deals with other gaming community beyond just AA is very important and should be progressed further.
Also I also think its important to make a new front page for new players to see what this game is all about.

If you guys want to do this right first off start with finding all of the requirements or needs that you want.

If you want to support sponsors i would suggest you look over at IAB, they set the standards for online advertising. Figure out what you want to support/sell. http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/508767/displayguidelines

Also lets start a site map or user flow chart  so that we know all of the pages we are going to make etc.

From there we can work on design/layout but without setting a foundation of requirements before we start building it will only get you so far before you run into the same issues again.

No, I've only ever played for fun

I understand the purpose of advertising. My point is, I take the time to put a banner on this site, what do I get in return? To be bluntly honest, I'm done doing things for AA until I get motivation again. $$ is a good motivator *hint hint*

As usual, Jared's got good points about the site. I created the info page in very little time and it hasn't been changed since. If you guys have suggestions for the kind of info that should be on it, feel free to start writing or making suggestions.

this return you want, no one in the Earth can give to you.