Advertising and promotional materials have changed a lot of the past few years. This can't be more true when it comes to the way the gaming industry participates in the market. Things have moved from being a one way communication into a vast community of participation. It used to be the company pushing a message or view of the game and leaving it at that. It has now moved to the company vamping the game up on various mediums, but always going back to the community. This communication and community can only easily and effectively be found in one place, which is online. Taking a look at any popular and successful gaming hit of this past year, every single participant had an online influence. This influence isn't only contained in one spot either, the web of communication is vast. You can find a presence on any popular social media platform such as Facebook Twitter, and YouTube, as well as 'Custom Communities' like the forums on the company websites themselves.
While visiting all these communities I came across this sentence here. "The fact that Morrowind’s modding community is still going strong 10
years after its release is a testament to how essential our community is
to the success of our games.". This statement pretty much sums up the fact that in order to succeed in today's gaming industry, you do in fact need to supply and interact with communities across multiple fronts.
Social and interactive communications has changed everything.
ReplyDeletePeople trust other people. I know when I buy a game I'm buying it off the recommendations of the people I trust. Anybody can make a trailer look good. Now your product better be amazing or everyone will know about it. Companies are forced to influence groups of people rather than just individuals. Gamers stick together.
I took value from your post, because it drives home just how important user generated content is. People don't just want to play games by themselves anymore, they want to play with each other. The Internet makes that a possibility and the groundswell provides a forum by which to hold substantive conversations.