So - there is this webcomic I have been reading for years (somethingpositive.net).  I always meant to send the author some money, but never got around to it.  I was thinking again today how I should send this guy $100 for all the enjoyment he has given me, when I notice he sells advertising on his web page.  It looks for $100 I could get several days of advertising (depending on a couple factors).   I don't actually have anything to advertise, but I love wargear, so I figure I can run an ad for wargear & help out this webcomic & wargear at the same time (win-win!).  Something positive sometimes writes about gaming (although mostly RPG), so I think it could be a decent fit for finding new wargear players.

 Tom said this is ok with him, so now I just need a good image to run. Possibilities sizes are banner @ 458x60 or skyscrapper @ 160x600. I thought some of the rest of you might enjoy working on an image, and I'm a big fan of crowdsourcing (i.e. getting others to do my work for me), so I figured I'd ask if anyone felt like contributing.  Animation is ok, but ads are limited to 100k in size. JPG, GIF, or PNG are all ok.

Tom sent me links to the original artwork for the logos.

• http://www.wargear.net/logos/logo_RGB.png
• http://www.wargear.net/logos/logo_RGB.ai
• http://www.wargear.net/logos/logo_RGB_G_Only.png
• http://www.wargear.net/logos/logo_RGB_G_Only.ai

Ok - I made a proof of concept for what I was thinking for the banner size.  This needs a bit of work, but shows what I am trying to do:

I still need to fix:

• Somehow lost one of the frames.
• Extra pause at the end
• Have sweep go behind 'R'
• Make text two-tone, like logo

Any thoughts?  What do you guys think of the text?  I'm not sure what to do for the skyscrapper size, so maybe I just won't use that one.

Here's what I threw together tonight, a bit light on the context probably, but perhaps could be combined with the text of yours Ozy (although "100s" of boards isn't completely true :P)

Ozyman - I think it's a great idea, and the animation that you've created looks great.

But with all due respect, I have a suggestion or two:

I think that "Feature Rich," albeit a true statement and something that matters greatly to the regulars on this site, it sounds pretty cheesy.
I feel like "Feature Rich" is a phrase that you use to advertise a computer development program, not an online gaming site.
I'm just afraid that it's not really a selling point for a virgin player.

I think emphasizing "Free" is better too.
Maybe change the left side to just say "Online Strategy Gaming"
Right side, change "boards" to "scenarios" to cover Yertle's point
Then change "Feature Rich" into "Free to Play"

Both are very nice.  Can both be used in some sort of alternating fashion?  Returning visitors to that site will get more information if you can.

With Ozy's,  "100s OF SCENARIOS" passes the fact-check, right?  Technically, each "board" has at least one "scenario".

I think Yertle's is very classy, but it would be nice if on the right hand side there could be a non-world map.  Like a close-up of Middle earth, or a US state.  So that people get a little more of an idea of the range of maps.

M57 wrote:

I think Yertle's is very classy, but it would be nice if on the right hand side there could be a non-world map.  Like a close-up of Middle earth, or a US state.  So that people get a little more of an idea of the range of maps.

I thought about Middle Earth, but kind of wanted to stay away from something that could raise the Copyright flag :P and something that depicts that WarGear is Risk-related, so nothing too far from the norm.  Although the U.S. map or something may be better to show the range.

Yertle wrote:

M57 wrote:

I think Yertle's is very classy, but it would be nice if on the right hand side there could be a non-world map.  Like a close-up of Middle earth, or a US state.  So that people get a little more of an idea of the range of maps.

I thought about Middle Earth, but kind of wanted to stay away from something that could raise the Copyright flag :P and something that depicts that WarGear is Risk-related, so nothing too far from the norm.  Although the U.S. map or something may be better to show the range.

Manifest Destiny is pretty classy..

By my count we have 174 live boards. The first definition I found (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hundreds) says:

hundreds The numbers between 100 and 999

Even if you think we need 200 boards, I'm not ready to run the ad yet and the bidding system for ads means it might take a while to show up, so we'll probably have around 200 by the time it runs.  Also, I don't like the idea of using 'scenarios', because I'm afraid a random netizen will be more confused by that than 'boards'.   I could change it to 100+, but it would look weird if I didn't also change the next line to 1000+, which just sounds wimpy compared to 1000s.

Boris - I think I agree with you that feature rich is not ideal wording.  I wish there was a simple way to convey the sheer amount of stuff that Tom provides.  I'll mockup something with your words to see how it looks.

M57 - I'm not sure if I can have them alternate, although I could do that by hand & probably will.

re Yertles banner:  I think the idea of showing more maps to better illustrate the diversity on wargear is a great idea.  Something very recognizable like the USA would be good.  I can also set the advertising audience to US or European or Canadian or Other, so we could use European maps on a banner for the European audience.  

Also what I think would be a really cool idea would be use animation to show several maps.  Maybe something like create say 5 different versions of Yertle's banner, with the same WarGear logo & then different maps in the background for each version.  Then have it animate where it switches between the different maps.  I don't know what you could fit in 100k, but I bet at least 3 different versions.  I have familiarized myself with the photoshop animation feature, so if you want I can do the combining into one animation.  The banner Yertle posted could be the first frame, and then next some more exotic maps, and then one more with even more advanced maps. 

Ok - I took Boris The Frugal's suggestions for wording, and came up with this:

I think it looks better than the original.  Any more suggestions on the wording or layout before I finish it up?  I want to make it perfect before I go through the process of animating it again.

WarGear needs a cool slogan.

Risk everything

The Rope wrote:

Risk everything

I was gonna say something like:
"World domination from your desk chair/couch"

But I think Rope's is phenomenal, so I give him +4

I think there were a bunch of suggestions back when Yertle set up the Zazzle store, but I can't find that thread.

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/1015p5/WarGear_T-shirts

and i think Rope's was more simply elegant than anythign we came up with then.

weathertop wrote:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/1015p5/WarGear_T-shirts

and i think Rope's was more simply elegant than anythign we came up with then.

That link didn't work for me.  It's that weird forum bug where it gets rid of the 'forum' part of the url:

The text shows it correctly:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/1015p5/WarGear_T-shirts

But the actual link was broken for me:

http://www.wargear.net/showthread/1015p5/WarGear_T-shirts

I think you are right.  The Rope's is better than the suggestions then.

Did anyone ever buy a shirt?  Any reports on the quality?

Ozyman wrote:

Did anyone ever buy a shirt?  Any reports on the quality?

I believe only a couple of mugs have been sold, but was told they looked good!

I think the Zazzle store just needs to bide it's time...will ultimately gain in popularity methinks.

no ads, and designing your own boards are big selling points.

good points; as is the active community.