CODZ.LFG

[GRILL]

Well, you didn't see this coming - did you? 

Searching for randoms can be extremely frustrating, especially after a game has become several years old.  What if there was a way to find the exact crew you want to play with on codz, right away?  With CODZ's new Looking For Game feature, we think the community can truly rally behind something created specifically for them.

CODZ.LFG is our vision for a superior search engine in which you can either use various filters to search for a crew matching your preference, or browse through crews as they are posted in real time.

Ideally it would work similar to the LFG sites created for Destiny.

To make this vision work, we need to raise money for some outside help.  We've been trying to think of incentives, and have a few ideas - but we'd like to hear what the community feels about the LFG function in general, and what would entice you to donate.

The donations would be a minimum of $10.

Because I know this will come up, yes we have discussed a rare one time only usercolor for those who donate.  I know you all are thirsty for new colors, but we are reluctant because we feel there are too many colors.  Anyway, "please don't make this topic about getting a new color" is what I'm trying to say.

When discussing this idea with Craig, and the rest of the staff, I basically said that I want something that I/we would use.  We want an LFG site that makes playing zombies more efficient, a site that makes meeting new players an easy experience.  This LFG site would be a public service to the zombie community (inside and outside of CODZ).

Let us know what you think.

Edited August 21, 2015 by GRILL

[Zelkova]

This sounds like a really good idea. My only question is, if there are donations for such a thing when would the cut off date to get donations in by (if there is one) ?

[Hammer143]

Easily one of the best ideas... Ever. Move over penicillin, because a zombies LFG is in the making.

[DeathBringerZen]

Yep, this is an epic idea for sure. Imagine having seperate catagories for World at War, Black Ops, BlackOps 2 and Black Ops 3. Map specific sections, Easter egg lobbies, casual and high round team finders. We could even cover custom zombies.

 

This is a no brainer and something that will prove to be hugely popular is a very short space of time. I look forward to seeing this come to fruition.
 

[Hells Warrrior]

I'll try and clear up a few points and questions that may arise.

• We'll put up a specific donations box
• All donations are welcome
• We are looking at over $10 being the minimum for any special rewards being issued, any donations under $10 would receive the normal donor status
• I'm authorising the go ahead with the application at the end of the month
• It will cost approximately $550 (may be a little more)
• It will be a custom application built specifically for use on CoDz - no other site or Invision based suite will have this
• I'll be paying upfront £150 which is roughly $250
• The rest needs to be by donations from staff and members and non members if they wish to donate - non members would receive no recognition apart from a thank you included in a post thanking those that donated
• We already own the domain www.callofdutyzombieslfg.com and we are looking at other domain names
• It will not be a seperate site but it will be part of the callofdutyzombies.com site
• It will take approximately 6 to 8 weeks to code and test
• It's a wee bit above my knowledge and understanding so coding it myself is not possible. I would need to learn the IPS framework and system for it to be put together and it will take a fair bit longer than the lead time we have put aside for it.
• We are looking to have this in place for Black Ops III launch (preferably before hand).

Time is of the essence here, we need to raise roughly $300 by the end of October. As I said earlier, I will put up roughly $250 of the cost of the application which covers the costs of the system being coded. A second payment would be due before it is handed over to us, so I would really say that we have approximately 8 weeks to raise the required funds.

[Hells Warrrior]

Donations now being accepted.

[Lenne]

One question I would like to have answered before I donate for this is this one: How is this better than the team mate finder sections/Status updates?

Oh and another one: Why is it sooooo expensive?

[Hells Warrrior]

How it is envisaged to work is similar to how a chat room works, instant updates. So if you for instance post that you are looking for players for Origins and want to do the easter egg in record time, that you are on a XBox 360 for example and playing now.

Someone can reply directly to you, you get a notification of this, which also emails you and if we could we put PM you on Live / PSN / Steam but we can't do that.

No need to check if anyone has replied etc, these LFG sistes have worked superbly well for Destiny and I/we think it will work superbly for CoD and more specifically Zombies.

Why does it cost what it does? Simple, we are paying for someone to code this from scratch, a developers time can vary but to programme this we have been quoted $550 approximately.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Hells Warrrior

[Ragdo11706]

So do we use the normal donation box or is there a specific one (in on mobile btw).

[Hells Warrrior]

The sidebar should be visible on mobile, scrolling down to the bottom should display the sidebar with the donations option.

However, having tested that it doesn't seem to appear so I'm looking into that.

In the interim period if you wish to donate on mobile - scroll down to the very bottom and select theme and then select mobile desktop for the desktop version of the site.

Thanks for the consideration of a donation, appreciate the thought.

[GRILL]

One question I would like to have answered before I donate for this is this one: How is this better than the team mate finder sections/Status updates?

Oh and another one: Why is it sooooo expensive?

It's basically like a real time team mate finder. You'll be able to adjust custom filters towards how you want to play, and instead of waiting for someone to respond - you'll have options ready immediately (ideally).

at first it may be a little slow. I guarantee though this is something the entire zombies community could benefit from.

[AlphaOmega]

While i love the idea, my main concern is that not enough people visit that this feature would be put to good use. Unless i missed something...

 

[DeathBringerZen]

While i love the idea, my main concern is that not enough people visit that this feature would be put to good use. Unless i missed something...

 

Destinys LFG site(s) are hugely popular considering they are a relatively new thing and I am pretty confident that a zombie LFG site would be equally successful.

 

Think about it, how many wasted hours have you and other slayers spent searching public lobbies for a legitimate team? Scouring for people with mics and when you find a group you then try to work out whether you have time for a proper game or people to do an EE with? This will cut out all of that and people will be able to instantly match up with an appropriate group to do whatever they are looking to do. If you want to do an EE desperately you could find a group within minutes rather than trying to arrange it for 2-3 days away.

 

Zombies has grown to the point that Activision are trying to emulate it across other developers Call of Duty titles and I think it is a small cost to try and bring this into fruition. The change it brings to finding games versus going into public lobbies should be enough to warrant people backing the idea alone.

[Hells Warrrior]

While i love the idea, my main concern is that not enough people visit that this feature would be put to good use. Unless i missed something...

I've consider this and we actually attract enough visitors to the site, although we have work to do to mae the SEO and user experience better. Specifically the bounce rate.

Sessions

38,593

Users

26,625

Pageviews

90,908

Pages / Session

2.36

 This from the 1st of August to 21st August. What this is basically telling you, is that we have had 91k page views, 38.5K sessions and 26.5K unique visitors this month.

Compare that to July

Sessions

59,106

Users

39,208

Pageviews

183,085

Pages / Session

3.10

Compare that to June

Sessions

19,784

Users

11,291

Pageviews

60,573

Pages / Session

3.06

 Compare that to May

Sessions

22,790

Users

12,401

Pageviews

69,369

Pages / Session

3.04

Compare that to April

Sessions

51,748

Users

30,352

Pageviews

157,335

Pages / Session

3.04

 Compare that to March

Sessions

84,551

Users

56,622

Pageviews

189,509

Pages / Session

2.24

Compare that to February

Sessions

74,048

Users

49,007

Pageviews

198,892

Pages / Session

2.69

 

 

 

 Compare that to Janaury

Sessions

59,691

Users

40,276

Pageviews

157,743

Pages / Session

2.64

 

 

 What that basically tells you, is that in May and June we had poor performance. Not because of anything other than it was a slow 2 months and that was evident on the site itself - although you do tend to find that a dip in visitors is expected around May / August period due to holidays and so forth but we are actually fairly steady.

Now we need to take steps to improve the overall user experience, make sure we can attract people to the site and have them stay longer and I think the LFG system is a step in the right direction (not the sole answer but part of the solution).

Edited August 21, 2015 by Hells Warrrior

[Matuzz]

Destiny has end game content that needs 6 players and has no matchmaking. Zombies on the other hand is casual mode and needs 4 players and has matchmaking. But honestly you never know how sucessfull it will be until you try it. I think the 2 major audiences would be 1. Easter Egg seekers and 2. Custom Zombie players. I don't see it attracting much people for normal casual games of zombies.

[Zelkova]

I find a lot more players out there who just want to play for fun rather than do EE.

[AlphaOmega]

To all who responded to me, thank you for your opinion. That definitely changed my mind, espicially the charts. 

I guess its a good idea. Im on board for it and ill donate so long as i can paypal it

[Rissole25]

Best idea ever.

I seriously hope this works and is successful. :)

[Hells Warrrior]

OK folk's, 

I have instructed the developer to proceed to making the custom application for us, we have received 11 donations so far, big thanks go to

@NaBrZHunter
@Kill_All_Monkeys
@Hells Warrrior
@Lenne
@Rissole25
@InfestLithium
@Shooter
@GRILL
@Covert Gunman
@Tainted Opossum
@Greenchico97

Thank you so much for the donations, we haven't decided what we will do with this but please be assured we will do something but not entirely certain as to what yet. I have personally donated $173 to the cause and I would hope others will dig deep and help us reach the milestone we require to reach. We have approximately 8 week to raise the remaining amount but I would hope we can reach this target way before then.

This is my kids inheritance I'm spending for the benefit of CoDz - I'll never see that money again but I will be able to see the happiness in everyone's eyes (which is reward enough for me). Please, if you can spare a few dollars hit that donate button (remember to select CoDz LFG, rather the server donation). 

Thank you.

Edited September 19, 2015 by Hells Warrrior

[Lenne]

<3

Although I didn't get a notification that I donated, which makes me sad. : (

never mind. Good guy HW edits his posts like a champ. Danke vielmals. :3

Hopefully we will reach the goal. :3

Now gimme that dutch usergroup. 

Edited August 28, 2015 by Lenne

[Shooter]

I've made an initial donation to help with the costs. I'll prob make another one later as the deadline approaches. I have no doubt we'll reach our goal before the deadline, but if we're getting close just let us know and we'll make sure it's met.

I have high hopes for this application. I know there's certainly a demand for it, especially as we start inching towards BO3's release. 

Also, maybe we could hold Zombies related contests or tournaments for members of CoDz.LFG to encourage people to sign up for the site. Just throwing around ideas.

Anyone that visits this site daily and looks at the new content can tell you that this is a good idea. Everyday there's always a bunch of threads from members looking for players for the EE or High Rounds. Just look at the New Content page and you can see it for yourself.

We just need to find a way to market this to players so that they're aware something so awesome exists.

[Hells Warrrior]

@Shooter Thanks for the donation appreciated.

[GRILL]

Anyone that visits this site daily and looks at the new content can tell you that this is a good idea. Everyday there's always a bunch of threads from members looking for players for the EE or High Rounds. Just look at the New Content page and you can see it for yourself.

We just need to find a way to market this to players so that they're aware something so awesome exists.

hopefully we can just get the word of mouth thing going. When the Destiny LFG was created, Bungie themselves gave it promotion. I don't think 3arc would give us a shoutout, but some of our members have had interactions with 3arc through social media.

we also do have some prominent youtubers around the site, and we would never want to outright ask them to promote it on their channel - but if the LFG works then perhaps they will help spread the word.

We should also reach out to other zombie communities like NGT, Activision Forum, CODZ reddit and others - letting them know this is not a gift just for codz, but for the fan base as a whole.

Lastly it couldn't hurt to crank out a press release and send it off to the likes of CharlieIntel, Kotaku, Polygon and other gaming news sites.  I've written press releases before - and could probably make one with a lot of the content I wrote in the OP.

Regardless, made my $48 donation last night - and will make another in 2 weeks time. Really want to see this project through, about 6-8 months ago I came to Craig with this idea. Covy also independently wanted to do this as well, and it's clear that if we don't make this happen - someone else will.

[Hells Warrrior]

It does exist elsewhere but poorly implemented, basically just a shoutbox/messenger thing - the plan is to make this work for everyone but to use it I'm thinking registration is a must.

[NaBrZHunter]

Thanks for the update! Hoping to pitch in more with upcoming paychecks as the deadline nears.