Real-world tie-ins for Titan?

[rodos]

http://www.neowin.net/news/blizzards-next-mmo-to-feature-real-world-products

The job listing for "Franchise Development Producer" for Blizzard's "Next-Gen MMO" specifically states that whomever gets the gig will, "... Work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment's next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.

I've seen some commentary around this, mostly along the lines of ad-supported free-to-play model (via billboards and product palacements).

I'm going to go on the record here as saying these people are thinking far too small.

How about this: Every Coke you buy in real life is redeemable for a Coke in game, which acts as a stat-boosting flask.

Then, if they really want to close the loop, they can make the Titan Bucks that you get for selling your epics redeemable at the Battle.net Store for more Cokes. That's just one tie-in. There could be dozens, linking all aspects of the game to real-world products in both directions.

Here's Jesse Schell talking about the future of gaming at DICE 2010 - the really crazy stuff starts at about 20:00. This talk stirred up a lot of discussion, and a lot of people think he's crazy -- but a lot of those people aren't in the advertising and marketing business.

The Gamer Fuel battle-bot promotion in WoW a few years ago was a toe in the water, and the Diablo III real-money auction house is the rest of the foot. Titan is going to be the real deal.

[Teranoid]

Raid leader:"Alright we're gonna ready check it up a-"
"THIS READY CHECK BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE NEW FORD FUSION HYBRID! FORD. DRIVE ONE!"
Raid leader:"Goddamnit.."

[Skye1013]

I will only buy one if I can redeem a code to get one in game... that's all I'm saying

[Invisusira]

Reminds me of one of the first Extra Credits, where they touch on what they think they'll see in future mmorpgs, including more real world <-> in game content.
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/the-future-of-mmos

[Nikachelle]

Raid leader:"Alright we're gonna ready check it up a-"
"THIS READY CHECK BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE NEW FORD FUSION HYBRID! FORD. DRIVE ONE!"
Raid leader:"Goddamnit.."

I loled.

[Shyrtandros]

http://www.neowin.net/news/blizzards-next-mmo-to-feature-real-world-products

How about this: Every Coke you buy in real life is redeemable for a Coke in game, which acts as a stat-boosting flask.

Coke: Adds +20 Haste for 3minutes followed by -20 haste for 2 minutes?

[halabar]

http://www.neowin.net/news/blizzards-next-mmo-to-feature-real-world-products

The job listing for "Franchise Development Producer" for Blizzard's "Next-Gen MMO" specifically states that whomever gets the gig will, "... Work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment's next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.

I've seen some commentary around this, mostly along the lines of ad-supported free-to-play model (via billboards and product palacements).

I'm going to go on the record here as saying these people are thinking far too small.

How about this: Every Coke you buy in real life is redeemable for a Coke in game, which acts as a stat-boosting flask.

What concerns me the most with that is not the in-game placements, but rather the restrictions on the IP that real-world products would create. Fantasy, historical, and steampunk are all out. You are limited to modern-world and futuristic.

So, we either have Blizz-Sims or Blizz-EVE.

Hrmm....

[Skye1013]

Not necessarily... who says it has to be a coke in game? Buy a red bull out of game, get a crimson steer in game... I'm sure they could come up with all sorts of similar exchanges for whatever genre they want to go with.

[halabar]

Not necessarily... who says it has to be a coke in game? Buy a red bull out of game, get a crimson steer in game... I'm sure they could come up with all sorts of similar exchanges for whatever genre they want to go with.

If it's single products like the Pepsi promotion a few years back, perhaps. But once you start having more companies involved, they will want that in-game advertising. It's all over the Facebook games already.

[sfrog]

Honestly tie-ins would make me incredibly sad. I work in retail right now, and the amount of sheer greed the reps present to us is...remarkable. I don't play to deal with even more of the same of my every day life, from dealing with reps, to commercials on TV, to ads everywhere I go - I want a break from it.

[PsiVen]

I don't think there's anywhere near enough information to speculate reasonably on the scale they intend here. The Deus Ex: Human Revolution backlash for including advertising was sizable, and amounted to a couple loading screen blurbs and a brand name or two thrown into billboard textures (people promptly stopped giving a shit after release, although modding to disable the ads was quite easy). I don't think we're going to see the level of incredibly cheap, full-frontal product placement that plagues the sports and racing genres. That said, for all we know Titan will be an athletic MMO racer and run fully orthogonal to Blizzard's current fanbase.

Product placement, RMAH, one-off promotions, and in-game-power bought from the developer are very different situations. Even the RMAH doesn't cross the most important line of selling player power, because it enriches players who actually do farm those items and value them highly. Intrusive advertising is something currently reserved for EA's annual excrement and is openly reviled enough that they ought to know better. At worst, RMAH brings a dynamic much like Magic: The Gathering where you keep buying your drugs from the dealer who sets the supply, but the prices of the items you're collecting are entirely controlled by the secondary market's demand.

What really concerns me about Titan is the social aspect they seem to be pushing. Activision-Blizzard has been dead wrong about what gamers want in social features with the introduction of RealID and Facebook integration. If they really wanted to build a more social community they would have developed Steam integration (still controversial to be sure, but far more useful) but there's no chance of that happening. Battle.net 2.0 is an unmitigated disaster and I expect Titan to be the full-on realization of that failure. After Pandaria fails to revive WoW's subscriber base, BlizzCon 2013 will be highlighted by Titan's announcement being widely panned. With any luck, that will force a major restrategizing and the cancellation of Titan as it currently exists, if they even make it to the formal announcement before that happens.

[Invisusira]

The Deus Ex: Human Revolution backlash for including advertising was sizable, and amounted to a couple loading screen blurbs and a brand name or two thrown into billboard textures (people promptly stopped giving a shit after release, although modding to disable the ads was quite easy).

I haven't heard shit about this, nor did I even notice it when I played through the entire game.

[Arnock]

I don't mind product placement in games/movies, as long as it makes sense within the context of the game/film, and isn't obtrusive.

[Fivelives]

Didn't EverQuest try this at some point? I seem to recall hearing something along those lines.