Last week, Blizzard rocked the internet by announcing that Diablo 3 is well on its way to sending gamers to heaven.... by allowing them to fight the minions of hell. Irony? Or bad writing? Lets move on.
Arguably one of the most anticipated gaming sequels ever, Diablo fans have been clamoring for news on the series' third installment for 8 long years. And with a build up of anticipation like that, one can't simply spit out an antiquated, stale press release. No no, for a announcement like Diablo 3, you must create an atmosphere of awesomeness. Know thy Seinfeld, and practice the timeless art of seduction, which is exactly what Blizzard did. <Thinks of that Constanza picture... shudders>.
The images below are two in a series of several splash screens that Blizzard posted on their site over a several day period. The images were not posted sequentially, but rather "evolved over time", always replacing the image before it (if memory serves, the first image was day 2, the second image was day 5). No other information accompanied the screens. Blizzard played the part of the tease...
...and the blogosphere exploded with buzz, speculation, and excitement. Literally thousands if not hundreds of thousands of posts and comments, covering every gaming site imaginable, chronicling, in nauseating detail, every minor update to each new image and the possible ramifications. What did it mean? What game was this going to be for? Was it Starcraft? Warcraft? Diablo? A giant penguin thing? Where is the nearest ATM?! And it all led up to Diablo 3's eventual announcement on the 28th of June. /scene
Fast forward a few days and from the swell of excitement emerges a petition regarding this highly anticipated sequel. Do tell? Apparently, fans of the series are petitioning Blizzard to revamp the artistic direction of the game. You can't make this stuff up. Its not exactly the most edumicated sounding petition I've ever read, but the idea is pretty clear - supporters of this movement are looking for a grittier, darker, more "realistic" Diablo 3 than what appears to be being developed. There are even some touched up screen shots to prove their point.
There is another post to be had here about the death of color in video games, but I'll save that for another day.
When I first read the petition, I assumed it was just the product of a few Diablo fanboys with a little too much time on their hands. Then I noticed that there were more than 38,000 signatures on it (as of writing this post).
So where is all this going?
Despite the context, the broader point of this post isnt about gaming, but rather about community. The popularity of the "mystery reveal" effort is predicated on the idea that the community would drive the buzz. There were no tv spots. No radio ads. There was not even a formal campaign. Just a few images on a website had the power to generate an enormous volume of traffic and content all across the internet with a total cost to Blizzard of the few hundred dollars they paid an artist. Now thats what you call bang for your marketing buck.
The reason the mystery reveal worked is because Blizzard has developed a passionate following around their products - people who legitimately care enough about their games to spend time speculating about the possibilities. Part of that comes from making great games. But, just as importantly in my opinion, Blizzard is one of the stronger game publishers at nurturing that community - supporting interaction between gamers and developers, gamers and artists, gamers and other gamers, and ultimately making people feel as though their ideas matter. Blizzard helps gamers feel invested in a way beyond mere consumers. Not only does that pay dividends to shareholders, but it also shows itself during efforts like the Diablo 3 mystery reveal. When people feel involved, when they feel a personal connection to something, they get excited, and that is a powerful thing. A powerful thing that applies to a lot more than games... like say for example, a Learning Design Summer camp...
But if you extend this notion of community to the petition I mentioned, you can take another lesson from all of this. When you empower people to feel comfortable speaking, you might not always like what you hear. Diablo 3, like any big budget game, takes years to produce, million ins funding, and likely to investment (both mentally and emotionally) of a whole lot of artists who took the time to painstaking craft the world. To finally release it to the world, only to see a petition opposing your artistic direction might feel like a slap in the face. But this too is a side effect of building that community. The petition, much like the mystery reveal, plays out because people care. And that, friends, barbarians, and witch doctors, is a good thing.
After all, the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.
From a business/ organizational standpoint, probably one of the chief concerns about web 2.0 is that if you let people say what they think, it might not be all flowers and rose petals. After all, if you can't hear people complaining, they must not have anything to complain about. Right? RIGHT?! <sigh>
Though I won't have any sales figures to back this up for quite some time, I can promise you all that despite the petition, Blizzard is going to do just fine when Diablo 3 hits store shelves. But its quite telling that the Juggernaut that is Blizzard actually took the time to respond to the concerns that the petition raises - to engage the community, perhaps not completely as peers, but as customers with a voice that deserved attention. And in the end, they will be better off for it.
Just another example of the things we can take from games...
Arguably one of the most anticipated gaming sequels ever, Diablo fans have been clamoring for news on the series' third installment for 8 long years. And with a build up of anticipation like that, one can't simply spit out an antiquated, stale press release. No no, for a announcement like Diablo 3, you must create an atmosphere of awesomeness. Know thy Seinfeld, and practice the timeless art of seduction, which is exactly what Blizzard did. <Thinks of that Constanza picture... shudders>.
The images below are two in a series of several splash screens that Blizzard posted on their site over a several day period. The images were not posted sequentially, but rather "evolved over time", always replacing the image before it (if memory serves, the first image was day 2, the second image was day 5). No other information accompanied the screens. Blizzard played the part of the tease...
...and the blogosphere exploded with buzz, speculation, and excitement. Literally thousands if not hundreds of thousands of posts and comments, covering every gaming site imaginable, chronicling, in nauseating detail, every minor update to each new image and the possible ramifications. What did it mean? What game was this going to be for? Was it Starcraft? Warcraft? Diablo? A giant penguin thing? Where is the nearest ATM?! And it all led up to Diablo 3's eventual announcement on the 28th of June. /scene
Fast forward a few days and from the swell of excitement emerges a petition regarding this highly anticipated sequel. Do tell? Apparently, fans of the series are petitioning Blizzard to revamp the artistic direction of the game. You can't make this stuff up. Its not exactly the most edumicated sounding petition I've ever read, but the idea is pretty clear - supporters of this movement are looking for a grittier, darker, more "realistic" Diablo 3 than what appears to be being developed. There are even some touched up screen shots to prove their point.
There is another post to be had here about the death of color in video games, but I'll save that for another day. When I first read the petition, I assumed it was just the product of a few Diablo fanboys with a little too much time on their hands. Then I noticed that there were more than 38,000 signatures on it (as of writing this post).
So where is all this going?
Despite the context, the broader point of this post isnt about gaming, but rather about community. The popularity of the "mystery reveal" effort is predicated on the idea that the community would drive the buzz. There were no tv spots. No radio ads. There was not even a formal campaign. Just a few images on a website had the power to generate an enormous volume of traffic and content all across the internet with a total cost to Blizzard of the few hundred dollars they paid an artist. Now thats what you call bang for your marketing buck.
The reason the mystery reveal worked is because Blizzard has developed a passionate following around their products - people who legitimately care enough about their games to spend time speculating about the possibilities. Part of that comes from making great games. But, just as importantly in my opinion, Blizzard is one of the stronger game publishers at nurturing that community - supporting interaction between gamers and developers, gamers and artists, gamers and other gamers, and ultimately making people feel as though their ideas matter. Blizzard helps gamers feel invested in a way beyond mere consumers. Not only does that pay dividends to shareholders, but it also shows itself during efforts like the Diablo 3 mystery reveal. When people feel involved, when they feel a personal connection to something, they get excited, and that is a powerful thing. A powerful thing that applies to a lot more than games... like say for example, a Learning Design Summer camp...
But if you extend this notion of community to the petition I mentioned, you can take another lesson from all of this. When you empower people to feel comfortable speaking, you might not always like what you hear. Diablo 3, like any big budget game, takes years to produce, million ins funding, and likely to investment (both mentally and emotionally) of a whole lot of artists who took the time to painstaking craft the world. To finally release it to the world, only to see a petition opposing your artistic direction might feel like a slap in the face. But this too is a side effect of building that community. The petition, much like the mystery reveal, plays out because people care. And that, friends, barbarians, and witch doctors, is a good thing.
After all, the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.
From a business/ organizational standpoint, probably one of the chief concerns about web 2.0 is that if you let people say what they think, it might not be all flowers and rose petals. After all, if you can't hear people complaining, they must not have anything to complain about. Right? RIGHT?! <sigh>
Though I won't have any sales figures to back this up for quite some time, I can promise you all that despite the petition, Blizzard is going to do just fine when Diablo 3 hits store shelves. But its quite telling that the Juggernaut that is Blizzard actually took the time to respond to the concerns that the petition raises - to engage the community, perhaps not completely as peers, but as customers with a voice that deserved attention. And in the end, they will be better off for it.
Just another example of the things we can take from games...
SR ... blank stare indeed. I hear that kind of stuff all the time. I honestly just respond with something like, "what the hell are you afraid of?" I usually get the blank stare in return.
I think that for a lot of people this whole 'nonsense' idea of Web 2.0 and actually letting people TALK to one another is a pretty scary proposition. I honestly have to say that in a meeting a few months ago when we were talking about allowing students to connect with each other and build relationships and communities, someone actually said to me "and just HOW do you expect to keep students from TALKING TO EACH OTHER?! Negative word-of-mouth is VERY powerful."
*blank stare*
We have some teaching to do.