MMO Gaming

It seems like Darren is trying to stir up trouble asking if bloggers are considered press. Here’s the best way of saying it. Sometimes, yes. Not every blog or blogger is press but some most definitely are. It seems Darren’s definition is that press reports facts and news. If so we have a lot fewer press outlets than people are claiming. Blatant lies, half-truths and ignoring facts seem to be a regular part of the news media’s agenda. Newspapers, magazines, television, etc. all ignore things each and every day that the majority of people feel are important to “journalistic integrity.”

That is another issue entirely though, and I don’t feel like talking about the pitfalls of traditional media. The other point seems to be, from what I’ve heard of this debate over and over, that traditional media is accountable for what they write. They have someone watching over them, bloggers do not. I generally agree with this point (even blogs on a network or multi-writer blogs have only the loosest of rules for what is or is not allowed on the site) but not necessarily that this should be an all negative thing. We don’t have anyone telling us what to write. You know what this means? We don’t have people making us “change” our opinions to be less volatile. We aren’t told that we can’t say “X” about person “Y” because they gave us “Z” dollars. It isn’t all good of course, but there are positives and negatives to this side of the argument so saying it belongs on either the pros or cons side of the table is hard to say.

Darren also mentions the fact that companies don’t know what to do with us at this point. If that’s the case, let me tell you exactly what the industry should do with this “alternative” media. Take the time to work with and talk with them. As many of them as you can. Gamespot, IGN, 1UP and a host of others are great sites when you want to get your name out there. If you want people to know about your game you will not find a better place to advertise first. When you want people to start playing your game though, you go to the bloggers. Why?

These major sites require major money…and people, to run. This means that, whether aware of it or not there is some bias in everything they write. Think of it like this: If I see Bill Gates on TV telling us how we should all go out and buy the latest Microsoft product I’m going to take his words with a grain of salt. Of course he is going to say that it’s his company. Or perhaps you think that is not a useful analogy. After all these big sites aren’t being run by any of the companies of the products they are advertising. Fair enough. Let’s say that 2K Games (makers of Bioshock) tell you that the Xbox 360 is really the next-gen platform of choice for real gamers. Are you going to run out and buy a 360? Or do you realize that them saying “Get a 360″ while not directly putting money in there pocket does give them a better chance to sell you a copy of their game Bioshock which appears on…oh yeah, the Xbox 360?

There isn’t anything wrong with that. They could very well believe that the 360 is the platform of choice for real gamers, but that doesn’t make it a good selling point. Contrary to what many seem to believe the average end-user of a product is fairly intelligent at least when it comes to not buying the load of crap we get constantly pushed into our faces. (I don’t include in this parents who are buying the games for their kids or anything like that who may or may not be knowledgeable on the subject.)

Back on topic though, what does this have to do with major sites vs. bloggers? With a major site you get the opinions of “some guy” with a blogger you get a different feeling. The informal tone of a blog means you get a stronger notion of being a “friend” to the readers. More than any review on some site I trust the opinions of my friends to let me know if I should pick up a game or not. That includes the other blogs that I read. It’s why I gave EQ2 another go. It’s why I’ve resubbed to CoH a few times. It’s what got me started in WoW.

Game companies, marketing departments, advertisers, et al. always say that word of mouth is the best form of advertising. Bloggers are the new word of mouth. They are “word of mouth 2.0.” They combine the greatest marketing influence of all, our friends, with the ability to still reach thousands upon thousands of people with the message. It is a winning combination for everyone involved, and to ignore it, to ignore us is folly.