MMO-PR-G: How to Market Your MMOs
“The best thing thatÂ’s happened to the MMO Games industry from a PR standpoint is WoW. The worst thing thatÂ’s happened to the MMO Games industry from a PR is WoW,” says Jason Wonacott of Webzen.
World of Warcraft is the barometer of popularity for MMOs. You know you’ve done well if your game is even mentioned in the same sentence as WoW. But it’s also a barometer of a different kind, the copycat kind to be exact. As an up and coming game you’d want to be as commercially successful as WoW, but at the same time, you don’t want to be an exact copy.
Although the panelists, Susan Bohle of The Bohle Company, Sean Kauppinen of Kohnke Communications (Moderator), Chris Kramer of Sony Online Entertainment, and Jason Wonacott of Webzen, agree that there is a great fragmentation of the industry in the current market place with the ease of setting up website and blogs on the internet. And that as time goes by, it’s becoming more difficult to get their message across.
“You have to have something really sexy or different to get noticed.” With Susan Bohle concluding that itÂ’s “harder to get your message across and through all the noise,” says Wonacott.
That’s why people like Chris Kramer of SOE turn to alternative ways of disseminating information like Instant Messengers, social networking sites, blogs and fan sites. He says that he has established MySpace communities to build communities for upcoming games. While Susan Bohle, goes outside of the box and reaches out to audiences outside of the gaming community 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,” said Bohle.
It is no secret that video footages and screenshots are staples of a marketing strategy. However, if an out-of-focus shaky video that someone took at E3 will suffice for die hard fans that will jump at any media released about their favorite game, it will make a PR person’s toes curl. “ItÂ’s your baby. DonÂ’t take ugly pictures of your baby!” says a very passionate Kramer.
However, PR is only half of how to make a game sell. The other half is actually how good a game is. So better make sure that your game can support all the PR stunts that you’ll pull or else it’s a drop in pressure in the WoW barometer for you.
Via mmorpg
“The best thing thatÂ’s happened to the MMO Games industry from a PR standpoint is WoW. The worst thing thatÂ’s happened to the MMO Games industry from a PR is WoW,” says Jason Wonacott of Webzen.
World of Warcraft is the barometer of popularity for MMOs. You know you’ve done well if your game is even mentioned in the same sentence as WoW. But it’s also a barometer of a different kind, the copycat kind to be exact. As an up and coming game you’d want to be as commercially successful as WoW, but at the same time, you don’t want to be an exact copy.
Although the panelists, Susan Bohle of The Bohle Company, Sean Kauppinen of Kohnke Communications (Moderator), Chris Kramer of Sony Online Entertainment, and Jason Wonacott of Webzen, agree that there is a great fragmentation of the industry in the current market place with the ease of setting up website and blogs on the internet. And that as time goes by, it’s becoming more difficult to get their message across.
“You have to have something really sexy or different to get noticed.” With Susan Bohle concluding that itÂ’s “harder to get your message across and through all the noise,” says Wonacott.
That’s why people like Chris Kramer of SOE turn to alternative ways of disseminating information like Instant Messengers, social networking sites, blogs and fan sites. He says that he has established MySpace communities to build communities for upcoming games. While Susan Bohle, goes outside of the box and reaches out to audiences outside of the gaming community 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,” said Bohle.
It is no secret that video footages and screenshots are staples of a marketing strategy. However, if an out-of-focus shaky video that someone took at E3 will suffice for die hard fans that will jump at any media released about their favorite game, it will make a PR person’s toes curl. “ItÂ’s your baby. DonÂ’t take ugly pictures of your baby!” says a very passionate Kramer.
However, PR is only half of how to make a game sell. The other half is actually how good a game is. So better make sure that your game can support all the PR stunts that you’ll pull or else it’s a drop in pressure in the WoW barometer for you.
Via mmorpg
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