I read the MMORPG.com report about the Austin Game Conference 2006, one of the article is entitled AGC Panel: Emerging PR Strategies for MMORPGs.
According to Wonacott, “The best thing that’s happened to the MMO Games industry from a PR standpoint is WoW. The worst thing that’s happened to the MMO Games industry from a PR is WoW.”
Follow up:
I agree, and many unbias gamers and people in the gaming industry agrees to that statement. In fact, in my gaming network and colleagues, we’ve been discussing how WoW postively and negatively changed and/or affected the gaming industry – locally, internationally, specifically and as a whole – for a year now. But many will not agree, to my opinion, they are bias towards World of Warcraft.
How bias? Today, bloggers, analysts, the media, and the gamers judge OLD and new games against WoW. Is that what we call fair judgement or unbias opinion? Related to this is how gamers compare Guild Wars and World of Warcraft. In my opinion, and I believe I share this opinion with countless others out there, GW and WoW must never be compared to each other as these games are at both ends of the spectrum. Putting it another way, Guild Wars is the leftist and World of Warcraft is the rightist. Or in yet another way, as far as West is to East, that’s how far World of Warcraft is to Guild Wars, and vice versa. But we’ll keep on hearing and reading how WoW players hate Guild Wars, and how GW players hate World of Warcraft.
I play both games religiously, that’s why I can say and claim that they are completely different and must not be compared to each other. I have Guild Wars Prophecies (Campaign 1) Pre-Order and Collector’s Edition boxes; Guild Wars Factions (Campaign 2) Pre-Order and Collector’s Edition boxes; already reserved for Guild Wars Nightfall (Campaign 3) Pre-Release Pack and Collector’s Edition boxes. I also have World of Warcraft Standard Edition, 2 boxes; and already reserved two boxes for the upcoming World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion pack. And finally, I played both games since closed testing phases. I think that qualifies me to say firmly what I’ve said above.
Anyway, back to the Austin Game Conference 2006, what caught my attention for the said article from MMORPG.com is this:
Bohle spoke of getting the message across to audiences outside of the gaming community, but who may be interested in the game; Comic book fan clubs, anime sites, etc. “We have to treat fansites like the press and provide these loyal consumers access to assets for their site.”
“We have to treat fansites like the press and provide these loyal consumers access to assets for their site.”
However, bloggers and fan-sites can turn around and bite the hands that feed them as they are usually run by people passionate about the games they play and often have a loyal following. The one thing that Kramer likes about them is that “They are a two-way street. I can write a comment in rebuttal to a biased post or if the information provided is incorrect.”
It is very true today. I’ve been telling this to a certain business entity for years now but they never listened. They still stuck to their very old marketing gurus, whose knowledge, styles, and strategies will never work in a gaming industry that relies heavily on fansites, bloggers, social networking, fan-made content, word-of-mouth, to put it simply, viral marketing, user-generated-content, and longtail (I finally understood what longtail is). If only this entity at least gave my ideas a try, they would have become number one already in the industry. All is not lost however, their competitors are embracing the new generation of PR and marketing, and I applaud them for that.
And the same message for the PR servies and developer companies. Give fansites and bloggers the level of respect they should be given – treat them as you would treat any press. Provide them with fresh news access, Press Releases, and assets. Word-of-Mouth is still the best tool to gather support. Besides, if they were bias, you yourselves can counter it. In fact, you don’t have to, let the other fansites and bloggers counter the bias reviews and articles. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy developing your products.
Bloggers and fansites – keep up the good work!!