Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Connecting Locally

Common sense tells us that it’s harder to deceive someone in person than through the Internet. Likewise, interacting with a room full of fans at a conference can teach you a lot about communicating with fans on the Internet. Global Agenda, working without the media resources of a publisher or PR firm, took a decidedly old-fashioned step that seems to be paying dividends.

“We started by reaching out to local universities with game design or interactive media programs - Georgia Tech, the Art Institute of Atlanta, Savannah College of Art and Design. We have them in to test, and we would work with the professors to make it relevant to what they’re studying.

“Then we went a little more local. One of the nearby high schools had an after-school gamer’s club where students would bring in PCs and consoles and play games together. For five or six consecutive weeks we had them meet one day a week at Hi-Rez, and they turned out to be our main in-studio test base.”

Hi-Rez launched its “Get in the Game Georgia” initiative earlier this year, and has even brought in state economic development officials for testing sessions on Thursdays, which Hi-Rez has come to call “unofficial newb day.” Shortly after the initiative began, the Global Agenda team started seeing registrations from Chicago, New York, California, and then all around the nation. The next step was to work the floor at trade shows and work with MMO niche sites like Ten Ton Hammer.

The grass roots / DIY approach to marketing and PR may not be for the feint of heart, but Hi-Rez feels that it’s paying off. First the schools, then the state, next the nation, and then perhaps Hi-Rez has its own “global agenda.”

NetDevil, a developer that has employed similar grass-roots marketing efforts, likewise puts an emphasis on connecting with players: “Our marketing team is heavily involved with direct representation of the game. For example, they are always present at trade shows, community events, and so on. We received a lot of feedback about our control scheme and made many adjustments in that area. While we had strong visuals even in the beginning, we added quite a bit more variety based on early feedback as well. There's probably hundreds of things like that.”

Closing Thoughts

We asked April about the differences between MMO marketing and mainstream games marketing, plus what makes for excellent PR in our little gaming niche, and her thoughts are a perfect way to wrap up the discussion:

“[Tabula Rasa Lead Designer] Paul Sage used to call it the difference between a one night stand and a long-term relationship. When marketing an MMO you have to feature those longer term attributes and features of the game. MMOs are a major investment of a player's time and they want to know that the investment will be worth it in the long term. PR's job is to keep the game in the news to attract new players (you can trust us, we keep making new content), past players (look at all the new fun you can have with your old characters - come back!), and current players (stick around for all the new stuff!).”

Grace built on that, explaining that good PR is a two-way street.: “Marketing can be many things, but I think that the best thing is if it is a communication tool between the public and the development team. We want to communicate what the game is to make sure that people have the correct impression of the game. We want to drive the core values in such a way to build excitement. However, we also want to listen to the feedback and responses to those messages to see if maybe we are missing something. People know what they like and respond strongly to what they see. As we show the game and talk to people, their comments feed back into the process”

At Ten Ton Hammer, our reason for being is that we believe an open and honest dialogue between players and developers is the best way to ensure that tomorrow’s MMORPGs are as good as they can possibly be. Even through the lens of objectivity, we’re in the information business, and that at times makes us part of the PR process. But no one likes it when their work and the ethics of their profession are examined under a microscope, and Ten Ton Hammer can’t thank Michal Adam, April Burba, and Grace Wong enough for taking the time to talk with us. A big thank you goes out to the many players that responded to our questions with conviction and candor.