Viral WoW
Blizzard, the company behind the most successful and profitable entertainment franchise in the world*, World of Warcraft, held a mini-conference in Paris last week to announce that a second sequel to its Diablo series - Diablo III - was in development. Unlike a lot of press conferences, they invited along lots of fans, active forum members and bloggers about the game. So far, so cool, but it gets better…
As is customary at top-end press-conferences, there was a schwag-bag for all attendees containing various branded giveaways. Mouse mats, mugs and stuff - it saves having to buy Xmas presents for a lot of journos. *cough*
(As an aside - Yay! that more bloggers and vocal fans are getting their hands on this stuff.)
But the cleverest bit (for me) was that this also included an online keycode for WoW that would allow players of that game to gain a new companion for their online avatars - the characters they play in the game. Remember, they invited guild leaders and fanatical WoW bloggers along**.
The pet itself will be a miniature version of the Archangel Tyrael of Diablo 2 fame who will travel with you on all your grand adventures in Azeroth! Pictures of this amazing new pet will be available on the official website soon for everybody to check out.
Get it? The WoW pet is a viral promo-item for Diablo III! It’s limited edition, so it’s sought-after; it’s a sign of prestige in the community; and it’s constantly in the face of relevant audiences.
Pure genius. Or evil.
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*World of Warcraft - or WoW to its friends - an online roleplaying game which charges a monthly subscription - to around 10mn people.
**WoW players organise themselves into ‘guilds’ to assemble teams for online combat and for social reasons - their leaders are the most visible, longstanding and respected players.
Via. Kotaku