OpenArena Message Boards

Hello everybody,

I often play OA and I am missing something: Players. If we look at the CTF-servers (not instagib), then we see that always only the same 2 or 3 servers are filled with people: super,ctf and  [Z] Normal CTF server. That's annoying after a time.
And we are always the same persons (ok not all, but a lot) who play OA. Perhaps more or less we did the history of playing at OA. So I think that we need more players, with: Advertisement !
Ok, I know that costs money, but I wanna know what we can make possible.

So what do you think about the idea of doing adds of OA???

Maybe we could create some banners that people could add to their own personal sites/blogs... but I don't know how much they would be effective.

Not bad, we can give it a try. Who creates the banners? :)

Does someone have other ideas? Perhaps an add which will be seen by more people.

I definitely agree with this idea but ads do cost money. I also think that making banners would help. I put it in all my sigs ;) but honestly I cant think of any real way to get more people to join oa. The thing that I play oa for above something like cod or halo is that the game is more gameplay driven then appealing to a mass audience or graphics and such. there are so many techniques to learn and master. I find that you can always get better at oa because there are harder and harder things to learn. for example I am just getting into defrag to improve my movement. Have you tried jumping in halo? you can't straft or even rocket jump! these games take only basic point and click skills to play. They are for casual gamers and this game is for hardcore gamers. And this will be the biggest obstacle in getting more ppl.

Some people already discussed some of these points:

http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3619.0
http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=2670.0

How I see it is:
1) Improve OA
2) Spread the word
3) Don't do more.

Well the people that play this game often have some quake background. Maybe posting on a quake forum about this game would help or some where else where gamers that like a challenge can know about this game and also maybe post a warning that you will get your butt handed to you on your first day lol.

I play Quake 3 everyday, and sometimes I mention that I was just playing Open Arena. Not a lot of people know what it is though.

Where are these banners I am reading about? Are they done? I want one for my signature in the forums I haunt.

NeonKnight has one in his sig, haven't you seen it?

(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/695/openarena1qr4.png)

Hmm, ya I might of noticed that actually, assuming the one your displaying there is it.

I'll have to come back when I'm at home and save that to use for my sigs.

Is that the only one? Looks fine, just wondering if there are a few to choose from.

I'm sneaking OA forums at work you see. :)

Well, here's my attempt...

(http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo191/GraionDilach/OAGDbanner.png)

I know, far from perfect.

I think its good, just fix up the OA symbol to its not as pixelated and it would be good

(http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo191/GraionDilach/OAGDbanner-1.png)

And now?

_{I'm mainly a Paint user...}

The other one that neonknight is using looks much better...sorry :p

Its better than my attempt

LOL  :D

Alena? LOL

I'm similarly gifted in graphics http://openarena.tuxfamily.org/old/ . Banners are good ideas.

cacatoes you are a talented man. the world will mourn your talent waste advertising open alena when your art could be saving baby seals or something.  ;D

could we get bigger banners plz? I like what you got but if it were bigger and people could see "OPEN ALENA" big and bold and if you can some kinda of graphic that kinda shows what OA is they might want to check it out! :D

Thoushaltdie, maybe the main page's logos would be better for your idea. But the usual banner's size is this one.

Logan, never mind, but actually, except these ones, I don't know any OpenArena forum banners. You asked for some variety. And I needed a challenge.

Someone wanted a banner?
I just did this for you!  :)

Do you like it?

(Click it to expand, it's animated)

UPDATE. Image changed to remove reference to Q3A.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT EVER MENTIONING QUAKE GAMES

and I appreciate it. Really. lol :p

Good work, guys.

Another animated banner would be cool. Perhaps one without Quake, but one with "www.openarena.ws" in it, because some are too lazy to search the internet adress for OA. A little picture of OA's map with playing players where you can see gameplay would be also nice.

E.g. something like this: You are searching a free multiplayer FPS game? >>> [logo of OA] Then try Openarena [picture] >>> Free download on www.openarena.ws.

So, that's my idea. Could someone do that work. I can't.

WHAT ABOUT FANCY 88x31 BUTTONS!!!

You know, like the old "GET X Now!" buttons.

Excuse me, why? OpenArena is a free game advisable to who likes Quake III but doesn't want to spend money. It uses (a modified) Quake 3 engine, gameplay is almost identical, it contains its weapons (with different look, but same feel), and is compatible with many Quake III mods. What's wrong with using Quake III name to explain the gameplay? :-/

Anyway, if you don't want, I will no more mention Quake III in other banners. Have I to modify also this one (in this case, please suggest me what to say in the first frame instead of "Did you like Quake III Arena?".... "Do you like tournament-style FPS games?" or something similar?) or it can remain as it is?
Before reading your posts, I already did another animated banner, without references to Quake III. I didn't think to put OA site URL in because I thought that the user would use an hyperlink on the image... anyway I can fix.
I will fix this and then upload them. In the next days, I will do also the one you proposed... I don't know if I have enough time today.

I also did "static" PNG versions.

I found a page on the wiki where we can put the banners and the buttons/icons... (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Artwork
I'd like to put them there, but I have some questions about this, I hope fromhell can answer.
- What about license? Since they include the OA logo, have I to release them under GPLv2?
- Since GPLv2 likes "sources", to do a good thing I should upload also my "sources" (various Photoshop files and an Ulead Gif Animator project for each animated GIF) and a "COPYING" file, but I think the wiki site does not accept upload zip files, only images. Where should I upload them? Here on the forum and then add a link to the post? But in this case, they would be available for registered users only...
Please tell me what should I do...

UPDATE: What do you think about these? Click images to expand (animated).

Quake is a trademark.
You are not allowed to use it in names or advertisements or in a way suggestion that the game is Quake. You can reference it in the documentation or detailed description if you are referencing to the original game.

I believe id changed the engine names to "idTech X" to protect the Quake and Doom trademarks.

in the two banners above, what is PFS? should it be FPS?

Ooops... typing error.... Give me some minutes to fix.... :-)

Lucky i pointed that out  :)

Fixed. :)

Nice  ;)

What program did you use for this

As you could imagine  from my previous post (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3766.msg32765#msg32765), I used Adobe Photoshop and Ulead Gif Animator. With the first, I created all the single frames, then saved them as single-frame GIFs, then added them inside the second program, set duration of each frame and saved as animated GIF.

I don't know if there is a way to create animated gifs directly from Photoshop. My (old, v5) version of Gif Animator can open photoshop files directly, but does not apply its "layer blending options" (that add nice looking), so I had to save them as "standard" images first. Since Ulead has been purchased by Corel, I don't even know if that program still exists.

Gig, no offence, but  I think the text in your banners feature too many different colours.  Also for the last 2 you used the old 0.8.1 logo.

I was thinking that for a static banner, a simple action shot with the logo and the website would look ok (although animated ones may or may not attract more attention). I whipped up an example just now.

Does this look ok?

It's the logo you can find inside the game (intro video and main menu).... I used different logos to make banners look more diffent one from the other.

Anyway, I find your banner very nice.  :)

I'd like we could start uploading them on the wiki site, to the "Artwork" page...
As I aked before... which licence should we use? If we have to include also "source" files, where could we upload them?

The new logo was introduced for 0.8.5. This is why it is on this website. The old logo only remains in the game because textures and assets have not yet been updated to reflect the change.

I don't know too much about appropriate licences. The GPL is more of a software license though and probably doesn't apply to these promotional banners. Somehow, I don't think accompanying graphics such as these require sources to be distributed with them.

We could probably use the Creative Commons License, but I am not sure. Perhaps someone else can shed some light on this for us.

You use GPL textures (the OA logo, but also textures inside the game), so you have to GPL them too.

Chaoticsoldier I love your banner.:D  Do you mind if I start using it in my sig from now-on?

My modest attempts:

(http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner_s.png) (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner.png) (small (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner_s.png)) (big (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner.png)) (svg (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner.svg))

(http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner-long_s.png) (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner-long.png) (small (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner-long_s.png)) (big (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner-long.png)) (svg (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-banner-long.svg))

(http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-square.png) (big (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-square.png)) (svg (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/files/images/banner/openarena-square.svg))


:P

Thanks!

Sure you can use it :). Consider it GPLv2'd.

@ Gig: You can put it on the artwork page of the wiki too if you like. I might create more of these then, when I have some time.

Do you want that I put your image DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Artwork]there (http://([b)? For one, okay, I'm going to do it.... but if you want to do more of them, I suggest you to register in the wiki site (it's free and it will give you an unique login for all Wikia-hosted sites: hundreds of sites!) and upload more images by yourself. This invitation is for everyone. If you need a little help because of you are not experienced with Wikis, I may help you.

Update: OK, I uploaded your image there. I hope all also the other banners here (those from Cacatoes (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3766.msg32819#msg32819), the one from Graion Dilach (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3766.msg32687#msg32687)) will be uploaded there by someone. I will upload mine by myself after some fixes.

ok i got some banner in my sig on another forum like this (but then in Dutch):

---

(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/695/openarena1qr4.png) <-- awesome free online multiplayer shooter

Well, I can't figure out myself how this works, but it's free to distribute. I'm not very sure about the GPL, because I don't know the font's properties.

Also, a bit offtopic: Somebody should change the original Wikipedia article. It contains the old logo.

Okay, I slightly modified my banners...

..and added a new one...

I searched a banner like your third one. Well done.

WOAH don't mind if i'm cruel but...



1998 called, and they want their lighting filter cloud generation back. Also your gif isn't using "Web Safe colors", and banner ads should never be 50kb in size, 8kb maybe but... YOU'RE EVEN USING COMIC SANS MS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! with gradient shading!

lol now i almost feel like cooking up some banner ad by the start of the day.

On the wiki site I will also add a static version of 1 frame, very smaller (I already said that before, if I'm not in error). Anyway, anyone can do its own banner and nobody have to use mine if he doesn't like it. And what do you mean with "web safe colors"? What's wrong with my old friends "comic sans ms" (it's a font like any other one in the world) and gradients? I never said I am "the master of banners" or something similar. I know that my banners are not the top, but anyway they are better than nothing at all. I was simply trying to create a banner with some more info than this one (http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080501014748/openarena/images/7/78/453x80oa.gif)...

PS: Nowadays banners are even done in flash format (bleargh!), having a simple advertisement putting my old Thunderbird 900 Mhz at 100% CPU, almost blocking my computer.... and you worry about a 50k gif? :-/ (PS2: your "cat" avatar is smaller and not animated, and is 30,92 kB....)

Some ads... well the first two aren't really serious.

The third isn't bad (IMHO, I'd preferred not to put nudities in the banner, but for me I wouldn't have inserted similar characters at all)... can you upload also an higher quality version? And the animation doesn't loop (plays only once), is this intentional?

I understand that the second one isn't serious, but maybe adding the description of the game was not a bad idea... the real problem is that the quality is too low and it's difficult to read the text. Maybe less frames (less animation) and better quality could bring to something nice.

I updated DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Artwork]the Artwork page (http://([b).

But it has got only DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Artwork]few incoming links (http://([b). Any ideas of more pages that should link to it?