In the history of role-playing games, there’s only a few Big Names. Dungeons and Dragons, of course, made the top of the pen and paper list long ago — and despite a number of high-quality (some would say, higher-quality) successors, remains the most well-known name in the RPG genre.
When it comes to online role-playing games (or Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games, MMORPG, MMO, MUD, whatever you like to call them), the one name that took the crown at the turn of the century was EverQuest.
EverQuest’s following inspired numerous attempts to market themed products via online stores.
One successful venture was aimed towards EverQuest players who enjoyed playing while soaking in hot tubs ny locals. Although this online pool and spa site did not actually sell anything directly from their site, they did offer a special promo commemorating the anniversary of the March 16, 1999 release of EverQuest. Any EverQuest player who could answer correctly the 5 questions posed in the promo would receive a $200.00 discount towards an above ground pool, any of their spas, or a 25% off discount towards specific pool and spa accessory. We heard that Royal Pools & Spas had a lot of customers that were part of a thriving EverQuest community. The store did very well with their EverQuest promo.
A second surprisingly successful venture was aimed towards EverQuest players with kids, specifically younger children who enjoyed role playing and dress up with princess dresses. The particular e commerce site that they partnered with sold stunning princess outfits with all the necessary accessories such as princess gloves, capes, magic wands, glittery tiaras, crowns, and cone shaped hats, shoes, and pettiskirts. The philosophy of the site was that princess dresses do more than make little girls ooh and ahh. They also naturally encourage creative imaginary play which we all know is part of role-playing games such as EverQuest although on an adult level.
A third successful venture used novelty gifts aimed directly at the former EverQuest players. The gifts included shirts, mugs, pens, dog and cat tags etc. with images from the games printed on them. In addition the marketing team figured that the sales force should be rewarded, so they decided to motivate with corporate gifts in the form of special gift baskets. These corporate gift baskets were filled with savory treats like cheeses and fancy crackers, along with lots of fancy cookies and name brand chocolates like Godiva. The ribbons that decorated each gift basket had EverQuest printed on them. The sales guys and gals highly appreciated those gift baskets from the corporation. They were such a hit with the sales teams that the higher ups started sending gift baskets as a motivating factor to the creative teams as well. A lot of the folks who had dogs (and some cats) used the dog / cat tags on their animals. It became a fad for a while to spot those dogs that had EverQuest dog tags and take a picture of the animal with tag. We had a bulletin board filled with snapshots. One friend even had an EverQuest image put on his pet’s collar that activated the two dog doors in his home. I though that was clever so I did a little research online and found a store that sold all different types of dog doors and bought an electronic one. I liked the fact that the motorized and electro-magnetic pet doors offer maximum security with two-way access control.