Review of Shroud of the Avatar

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Lyndoman, Mar 20, 2018.

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  1. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    I have played Shroud of the Avatar.

    I have found it to be a very fine game.

    If you like such games, you should buy it. If you are unsure, then you should try out a free trial and then buy it.

    Thus ends this games review.

    Note:
    This is a series of posts I am making to help out with the ranking in search engines for specific, valued keyword phrases. As most of the Shroud website is not "top notch" when it comes to SEO.
    More about this here.

    Normal service will now be resumed.
     
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  2. Nikko

    Nikko Avatar

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    I love that we have fans like this here. Awesome. Good work, sir.
     
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  3. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Thanks @Lyndoman!!
     
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  4. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    This page now ranks 7 for the keyword term, "review of shroud of the avatar"

    A few things on how Google ranks things, your location, whether you are logged in to your Google account, what you have clicked before and time will affect the results. So you may get a different result. There are about 400 variables which come into play when ranking a webpage on Google, but let's not make this a tutorial on ranking web pages.
    We are here to have some fun ;)

    So here is the screenshot of the latest ranking, taken 30 mins ago

    [​IMG]

    As you can see, Steam outranks us. This irks, as the reviews on Steam are for a totally different game. The updates have radically changed the gameplay here.

    So what we need to do is move the ranking up a tad. You with me?
    There are a few things I can do to beat the Steam rankings, I wont tell you exactly as they are trade secrets, SEO is Jedi mind S**** so I just need to do a little voodoo.

    I think I can get this page to number 3 for this search term.
    Check back in to see how it goes.

    What we really need to be doing is deploy a long tail methodology and ramp up the number of occurrences, but that takes time and I am spending most of my free time collecting maple wood for a crafted greenhouse :)

    Hope you are enjoying these little looks into the world on an SEO
     
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  5. Bow Vale

    Bow Vale Avatar

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    As far as stem reviews goes, i have been holding back as even though i enjoy the game immensely, i was never sure how it would turn out and a review earlier in its life before everything was known would have been unfair on players and the game. But now i know and am quite happy saying what i love( a lot) and what i don't like ( not a lot), just have to get around sometime this week to doing it and take a break from playing the damn thing :)
     
  6. Deadly Habit

    Deadly Habit Avatar

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    Personally been holding off for release as well so arguments like above of it being "a different game" or "still beta" etc can't be used like a hand wave for any criticisms I may have. I'm also not got to toss up a review right on the 25th as like with every major release I'm sure there will be bug fixes and minor patches.
     
  7. Jens_T

    Jens_T Avatar

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    I am sorry - but I don't think this type of SEO "review" helps the game. Even if it pushes the official site up in the search result, I - as a new user - would not appreciate to find "reviews" as this. It's as bad as clickbaits.
    Real, trustworthy reviews from trustworthy sites are what matter. Not fan reviews on the official site with the aim to push it in Google.
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2018
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  8. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    @Jens_T I think most people would realise that the review was created with tongue firmly in cheek. Of course there will be some who wouldn't appreciate it, but you can't please all people all the time.

    This is mostly a demonstration that Portalarium needs to implement an SEO strategy to help it control the messaging. Communication and marketing at all levels is vital if this game is going to thrive. I make no apologies for trying a few things out and poking the bear with a sharpened stick, whittled from an elderberry bush.
     
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  9. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    Oh and also it's not really clickbait, I don't think that hard-core, scrape-your-eyes out with a dull spoon, type content would work with gamers. It's not that it has a bad rep but the nuance is very difficult to get right with the gamer crowd.
    However, there are some interesting narrative structures which work very toasty with the gamer crowd. We all after all own a "primal brain", and it's just a case of pinging it right to get the correct response.
    And no I have never worked for "Cambridge Analytica", lol. Although they prolly listened to one of my conf talks on psychographic profiling ;)
     
  10. evillego6

    evillego6 Avatar

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    Logged in or not, your post here does not show as a result on any of the first 3 search results pages. I didn't bother to look further. In fact, the result for the forums didn't have your post listed in the top 5.

    It is far more likely that the result was based on your recent visit.
     
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  11. Deadly Habit

    Deadly Habit Avatar

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    I think a lot of that would be to target larger sites with not just press release stuff but interviews with their writers. Say like PC Gamer or engage with Rock Paper Shotgun who was critical of their press release in how they covered it.

    Even things like having Lum stop over on the unofficial SotA reddit partaking is great and shows engagement with criticism and concerns to show they're willing to engage their critics outside of the bubble of these forums.
     
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  12. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    Well that's interesting, but not unusual. The SERPS tend to bounce around it a lot, it could even have been there for a short period of time. It's common for results to show for a day and never been seen again. I don't think it was due to my visit, as a fresh IP was used wtih no login or cookie.

    It may disappear it may not. Although I think it is more likely it will stick around. We shall see.

    Also the page you cited is 9 months old and Google loves to add the time metric to its algo.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2018
  13. 2112Starman

    2112Starman Avatar

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    In the modern age, is there truly any true "trustworthy" web site that is not slanted in some way for their own purpose? There really isnt. Today, most people think "trustworthy" is a site that slants in the direction they agree with and they stick to that bubble. I personally dont trust any media any more. Saying that, there is still some media I think is a better pick to listen to with less slant but thats rare. Even in politics where this is the worst, site that I read that slant my way, I am still contingent that they are still slanting the story. This is the age of social engineering and this game has suffered some of the most extreme social engineering attacks that I have ever seen.
     
  14. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    These days "trustworthy" seems to mean it echoes your own prejudice.
    Has it ever been any other way?
     
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  15. Deadly Habit

    Deadly Habit Avatar

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    It's a niche game and it's far from social engineering attacks especially when the population playing is in the thousands. Looking in the public Kickstarter comments alone show a disconnect with a lot of backers. The problem is there are people on the everything is great side and people on the everything is horrid side engaging in back and forth in the comment sections of most articles, and usually it's the same people for either side.
    At some point you just go ok this guy is a fervent fanboy or critic, where are some new opinions aside from the same names I haven't seen 100 times? That is what new players and potential buyers will be looking for.

    I have no problem saying I'm rather critical and unflattering on the 2 unofficial subreddits, but don't go beyond those to every article or Steam forum post. I vent my frustrations in a way not allowed here on the official boards. I don't want this game to fail like some other critics, far from it. I want to see it get a bunch of new players, retain them and change from being a smaller niche game to one that doesn't need reliance on outside funding options besides the sale of the game itself and add on shop.
     
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  16. evillego6

    evillego6 Avatar

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    I messed around a bit more and eliminating the private results (those based on my viewing) the forums do come up 7th, but not this specific post. The lazy peon review related forum post is first, with 5 other results listed just underneath so like a 7a, 7b, 7c, etc. Yours is second there.

    So this post didn't really impact the overall search results. It just shifted the results within the forum specific results around.
     
  17. 2112Starman

    2112Starman Avatar

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    Its wasn't until I hit probably 30 that the wisdom in my world kicked in from seeing things over a period of time. I saw this running my own car business early on when the internet first started. The site was large enough that I could ask any modification company (in this case for Hondas) for their product to review and they would send one to me for free. I quickly realized that all the web sites and magazines I was reading back then would review things in a positive way if the company either strait up paid them advertising dollars or handed them free stuff to review. then it goes deeper, you learn that a magazine is actually partially owned by one of the companies and its real purpose is to sell that product first. Web sites took it to an extreme. Any company can put a web site saying like "top 10 best mattress" and of course list theirs first acting as if they were completely 3rd party (and easily create any domain name for it like "top 10 hot mattress's.com"). Its all rigged people, even game reviews.

    seriously, google "top 10 best mattress's" and I would bet you 90% of the sites that come up are fake sites.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2018
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  18. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    Thanks for your input @evillego6
    Of course, each post in this thread will increase the internal links pointed to this page and help increase its Google equity, so appreciate the discussion ;)
     
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  19. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    Next you will be saying elections are rigged and Presidents can get elected by clever data mining, lol.
    It would be more funnier if not true.

    The reality @2112Starman is even worse than that, I have known people to spend a Million dollars to get on to the New York Book list so they can make a Million dollars doing conference talks.

    I work a lot with content marketing and getting placed in "quality" news is not that difficult. The media is a very hungry machine and needs feeding all the time.
     
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  20. 2112Starman

    2112Starman Avatar

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    ya, even worse then that, 35% of the population have never even heard the story about "clever data mining" or "collusion" because their sources hide it and dont even report it because us humans clearly like to live in our bubbles.
     
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