NationStates Jolt Archive

Everyone knows that one a storefront or nation starts selling their item, they usually have a lengthy write-up describing the entire product. I also do this. But for a while I've seen that a lot of people don't really read the write-up and rather look at stats. I find some successful products are the ones without the long-write ups. So I want to find out:

Do you read the entire write-up or do you just look at the specs?

Thanks. :)

I read the full write-up if it's from a respectable source, like CSJ, Omz222, Praetonia, Sarzonia, you, and all those other incredible weapons designers I forgot to mention (sorry, I can't remember you all!). If it's a designer I'm not familiar with, I might just go for the specs, and then if I'm reasonably convinced it's not godmodding, I go from there. Also, spelling and grammatical correctness in such write-ups is important to me. A few typos here and there are understandable, but if the write-up is choked with errors...well, I begin to lose interest in reading the write-up. Technical descriptions can be difficult enough to understand without errors. So, as a long-winded answer to your question, I generally read the write-up and the specs.

Whenever i'm buying I always check the description to see if it's realistic MT weaponary and not PMT or FT etc. I also like to know exactly what i'm buying and a little history behind it.

On my own storefront I include full descriptions for every item and a little background information on the research behind it and how it should be used etc. I am also upgrading all items to include pictures as I think it helps the purchaser to see what the product will look like and so improve his RP potential. If you look around a bit you will see that all other good storefronts do this too.

I have massve writeups, but no-one ever buys my stuff.

And no, it isn't rubbish. I jsut odn't know if its worth all the effort of typing the thing.

Well, it really depends. If you're writing a detailed product description for every product on a storefront, most people's eyes are going to glaze over and they're not going to give it more than a quick glance. However, if you give too little information, that's not going to be enough.

What I do in a lot of cases is a very large write-up where I detail information about a product, the reason for its implementation, and the thought process behind why I created it, and leave that in a R&D post. Sometimes, I bring that R&D post to the storefront thread in its own separate post, but carry over just the specs into the actual product listing on the storefront.

Sometimes, I'll include a link to the detailed product description with the specs listing on one of the first posts of the storefront. That way, people can get the quick and dirty information they need (like what type of ship it is, what kind of weapons it has, etc) and they can read the detailed write-up if they choose to.

Another good idea, and something that Doomingsland does with his products, would be to include a brief description of the product and why you should buy it along with the product description. If you want more information, it should be readily available, but you can find out the advantages to the product you're buying right up front if you're not certain about statistics or what makes one product superior to another.

I never make storefronts. I have a new thread for each item, which is usually enough.

I read the specs first, then, if I find it interesting, I read the rest of the write-up. For example, I'm not about to read a write-up for the latest Gundam or ST rip-off, but original ships are usually quite interesting.

Probably best to do a bit of both. Were I to redesign my storefronts, I would have a main page with a splashy logo -- like Praetonia, Sarzonia, and Hamptonshire -- the company's mission statement (like Klonor and me), a list of products and services, a subsequent entry with a glossary and explaining realistic purchasing in NS (glossary at the bottom). For the products and services, I would have a link to a major category -- say, battleships -- that lists the names, specifications, etc. of a particular weapon system or whatever, with very obvious (i.e., "click here to see an image of 'x'") links to images and to a specific page, either within the storefront or on another thread, describing the product in great, well-researched detail, but that also lists the specifications. Such a method is very link-intensive, but it would offer the potential purchaser all the information he or she requires.