Life In 19x19

This is the ad me and Crystal devised. Any opinions?

This is great. I would only change one thing. Drop the "intricate'. We know it is true - but you do not want to intimidate a new person - emphasize FUN! not HARD! .

In your websites to consider, I recommend adding the Interactive Way to Go, listed as a 'Go Tutorial'. Or the GoGameGuru http://gogameguru.com/learn-go-easy-way-go-game-1/ tutorial. Either way, I think one or the other, at least, should be on the 'go here first' list.

Horibe wrote:This is great. I would only change one thing. Drop the "intricate'. We know it is true - but you do not want to intimidate a new person - emphasize FUN! not HARD! .

Good flyer! A few comments/suggestions though:

1) +1 to Horibe's comments. Maybe include/add something like "The world's oldest game" or "the world's most challenging game". I know they are both debatable, but the point here is to get attention, not defend a thesis.

2) Where were you planning to post these? The "let's decide on a meeting place when we have people interested" sounds a little self-referential instead of staking out a spot and inviting people to come by.

But even if you left it as is, you should hopefully get some attention with this.

Good luck!

Bruce "Art Dept." Young

I second Bruce's point about meeting times. Either pick a time and place, which has the downside that you might just be stuck there replaying games, or say "contact hailthorn for meeting times and places". People react much better to something concrete--if they're by the library one afternoon, they might just show up even though they wouldn't send an email to set up times.

Assoication is a typo.

hyperpape wrote:I second Bruce's point about meeting times. Either pick a time and place, which has the downside that you might just be stuck there replaying games, or say "contact hailthorn for meeting times and places". People react much better to something concrete--if they're by the library one afternoon, they might just show up even though they wouldn't send an email to set up times.

Assoication is a typo.

Thanks for pointing that out. I have a habit of missing small errors like that! lol

Anyway, thanks for the advice everyone. It is greatly appreciated. I suppose I can make some changes to the flier, as recommended, and see if I can't come up with something a little better.

And at the bottom there is a way to contact me via email and via my cell phone.

Concrete times would probably be a plus, but I'll have to sit down and figure that one out. What do y'all think of the Club name? I thought "Eyes 2 Life" was a pretty cool idea.

@horibe- I suppose dropping the word "intricate" might be a good idea, but my thoughts behind putting that in would be that it might attract people who like the idea of using their minds in complex games, etc. But if you have a better word, feel free to share! Delightful, engaging, and abstract come to my mind as possible replacements. I personally don't like them as much as intricate but you might have something that clicks better.

@chew terr- Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the AGA website had a lot of links that would point beginners in the right direction. Maybe it was a bad idea to assume people would look through the website, but I thought that posting the AGA website would have two benefits: 1. The links, as I mentioned. 2. It would give the site more views, and thus more exposure. Perhaps if I add that the AGA website has links for beginners that it would be the best of both worlds?

hailthorn011 wrote:@chew terr- Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the AGA website had a lot of links that would point beginners in the right direction. Maybe it was a bad idea to assume people would look through the website, but I thought that posting the AGA website would have two benefits: 1. The links, as I mentioned. 2. It would give the site more views, and thus more exposure. Perhaps if I add that the AGA website has links for beginners that it would be the best of both worlds?

Eh, I just figured the priority was the absolute best chance of retaining interested potential players. I figure, the more clicking one has to do to find out how to play, the more likely they are to give up. Just a thought.

Chew Terr wrote:

hailthorn011 wrote:@chew terr- Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the AGA website had a lot of links that would point beginners in the right direction. Maybe it was a bad idea to assume people would look through the website, but I thought that posting the AGA website would have two benefits: 1. The links, as I mentioned. 2. It would give the site more views, and thus more exposure. Perhaps if I add that the AGA website has links for beginners that it would be the best of both worlds?

Eh, I just figured the priority was the absolute best chance of retaining interested potential players. I figure, the more clicking one has to do to find out how to play, the more likely they are to give up. Just a thought.

You may be on to something there. When I first discovered usgo.org, though, I was immensely interested in each page and went through them all just to learn as much as possible. Perhaps a new player will do that. But perhaps I should follow your advice. I suppose having another link on there won't make too much of a difference! Thank you, as always, for the assistance!

rtf is strange format for a poster/flyer. It opens as 2 pages on my computer. Better to use presentation software such as powerpoint or open office equivalent, then you can control the layout better. You can convert to pdf or html before distributing.

Will you print this? That goban picture may look quite bad on paper, due to the dark green background and too many stones. A finished game is also the wrong message imo, when inviting new comers.

- I agree with Horibe about dropping "intricate." But I have the opposite reaction.
Emphasize "Extremely Difficult". I want to attract people who like a big challenge,
very difficult stuff. This is not Monopoly or other party games.

- Drop the 4,000 years. When complete strangers ask me about Go
and its origin, I mention its antiquity. But I never saw the value/attraction of
highlighting "the oldest game" on a flyer or business card.
To me that's a trivia, not a feature or selling point.
Rocks and the universe are also ancient --
and interesting to geologists and astro-physicists.

My 2 cents & GOOD LUCK!

EdLee wrote:- I agree with Horibe about dropping "intricate." But I have the opposite reaction.
Emphasize "Extremely Difficult". I want to attract people who like a big challenge,
very difficult stuff. This is not Monopoly or other party games.

I also think there should be a hint to the complexity of go. After all, that is something that makes go special compared to most other board games. But perhaps something like "a minute to learn a life time to master" would be a compromise. If "intricate" is to be replaced by another word, I think "challenging" might be a good one.

EdLee wrote: - Drop the 4,000 years. When complete strangers ask me about Go
and its origin, I mention its antiquity. But I never saw the value/attraction of
highlighting "the oldest game" on a flyer or business card.
To me that's a trivia, not a feature or selling point.
Rocks and the universe are also ancient --
and interesting to geologists and astro-physicists.

The age of the game is what makes go special compared to complex computer games. Maybe many don't care, but I definately think it cannot harm to pull that card. I, for one, would care.

Anyway, I think it is important that the advertisement gives a hint at what makes go special instead of just saying "Come and play a fun game at my place" as might be the result of combining some of the advice given in this thread.

Aeneas wrote:Anyway, I think it is important that the advertisement gives a hint at what makes go special instead of just saying "Come and play a fun game at my place" as might be the result of combining some of the advice given in this thread.

Hmmm, this just gives me a mental picture of the Alice in Wonderland tea party scene, with go boards photoshopped in, and the caption "See how deep the rabbit hole goes..."

Thanks for this thread, hailthorn011. You've kind of inspired me to make a flyer about go, myself.

kivi wrote:rtf is strange format for a poster/flyer. It opens as 2 pages on my computer. Better to use presentation software such as powerpoint or open office equivalent, then you can control the layout better. You can convert to pdf or html before distributing.

Will you print this? That goban picture may look quite bad on paper, due to the dark green background and too many stones. A finished game is also the wrong message imo, when inviting new comers.

Yes, I plan to print it. And you're right, a better picture might come in handy. Maybe I should look for one that's already black and white?

As for the format, I personally prefer wordpad. Call me crazy.

hailthorn011 wrote:I personally prefer wordpad.

Notepad! vi!