The Question that Drives Us
By Brian "Ashes" Sloan

Another day of IRC. Another day of scouring web sites, data mining forums, holding fingers to the wind, stooling pigeons and putting our ears to the ground. All for information.

Information. It is the currency of the Internet, it is the currency of The Matrix, and in these anticipatory days before the release of The Matrix Online, it is the difference between paupers and kings.

Much of the speculation around Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment's up and coming MMO title is based off the little bits of code that have been dispensed to the online press via press summits and exclusive releases.

Much of what we know about The Matrix Online comes from the generic releases from the developers to gaming web sites. Many of the interviews cover much of the same ground, many of the video capture sequences show much of the same thing, combat.

So, from all that, we begin to piece together a picture of what we “know” about The Matrix Online.

But even amongst all that we know, it still does not satiate. It does not suffice to quell our burning interest in the deepest workings of the game. It does not paint a clear enough picture for the average Internet gamer to warrant a definite purchase of the title, so far from release.

This is, of course, something of a concern for Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment. Of course they've got the “fan boy” market to count on. There were people that bought Shiny Entertainment’s title Enter the Matrix, on the name alone.

But the “fan boy” market isn't something to bank on. The “fan boy” market is a fickle and unforgiving demographic. Because for all the time they spend spreading rose petals around a developers feet, the minute they feel the developer has failed them, the rage at the perception of such failure is all the greater. The “fan boy” market can cancel subscriptions just as quickly, and with generally more drama and venom than any other demographic.

So, with that established, WBIE must reach out beyond the “fan boy” demographic. And attempt to romance the veteran MMO player from other major titles being released in the fourth quarter of 2004. It must attempt to seduce players from other action titles as well, such as First Person Shooter fans. This is another daunting task, with Valve Software's Half Life 2 scheduled for a release around the same time.

WBIE's major mountain to climb, is in making its title irresistible in a market that is not only already slightly glutted with pay to play MMO games, but in also in making MxO so shiny and attractive, that it distracts the market long enough to consider playing their title, versus Everquest 2, and World of Warcraft.

The largest part of the MMO market plays one game at a time. This was evidenced quite clearly by SOE's Online Passport system, which gave a customer access to all Sony Online Entertainment MMO games for one set price. While it did originally gain some customers to SOE's two other MMO titles (Planetside and Star Wars Galaxies) the numbers generated from the all in one package were less than stellar. And instead of distributing its player base between all three games in a knock out blow to its flagging subscription rates for Planetside and Star Wars Galaxies, much of SOE's customer base stuck with Everquest, regardless of the ability to pay a set fee for three games in one easy payment.

So, given that example, the chances of someone buying EQ2, WoW and MxO in November, are very low. Especially since the three titles will bill to three entirely different companies.

So what is it that WBIE can do to romance the market? The suggestions are endless, and even the MxO forums have official posts asking people what they want to know.

MxO is currently wrapped in fairly understandable secrecy. A copyrighted story and a trademarked brand name, it is obvious that WBIE could do itself more harm than good, three months from release, by showing its hand too early.

But the community is restless. They want to know if Monolith and WBIE have brought them the holy grail of online gaming. They want to know now, how much they will be enjoying MxO in November.

And that is where much of the confusion and insecurity lies. The community on the whole does not sieve every bit of information released to the Internet about MxO. The news releases are too wide spread, the forums are too full of posts. And since the attention span of the average online gamer is roughly equivalent to the length of an MTV music video, many people believe there is no information at all.

This is, of course, not the case. With some time and effort put into researching the web some what, much of the released information comes to hand with a fair amount of ease. But, even that is not enough.

After having taken some time to consider this situation myself, I finally realized that there is no amount of printed information that can be released that will sell MxO to the Internet gaming public at large.

No video demonstration or edited capture, no matter how large, will show the average online gamer enough. A five gigabyte 1280x1024 resolution guided tour of Mega City will not be enough.

So instead of focusing so much time and effort on releasing information to the public. WBIE should change its approach entirely.

The average gamer doesn't want to read web sites. The average gamer doesn't want to comb forums. To be honest, the average gamer rarely even participates in forums. The forum community, for any game, in general, is often less than 1% of a games active player base.

What the average gamer wants to know is “when” can “I” see it for myself. And that is going to be the only thing that sells the game to them before release.

Now, that sounds odd, it sounds like I'm saying; “Hey WBIE! Let everyone into the beta right now!”. And from a marketing standpoint, that is giving away the goose with the golden egg.

Currently, WBIE's approach to the MxO Beta test has been very secretive. There is an NDA. People that are in the beta can't even tell you that they are. And that is still a viable stance.

But instead of trying to use generalized press releases and small pieces of video footage to catch the market, all WBIE has to do is use their Beta Registration feature itself as the baited hook to catch the market.

As I stated, players want to know when they can see it for themselves. And with no real extended effort on WBIE's part...they can quite easily “tell” a player when they can.

We are all relatively aware that there will be an Open Beta period before release for pre-orders. That is enough for the rabid fan to pre-order the game, but in the case of the average online gamer, its not.

So, to catch that average online gamer, without opening your NDA, without putting every bit of content you have on display pre-release, all you have to do, WBIE, is publicize your beta phases.

This turns the MxO beta into a content feature by itself. You set a schedule of weekly or bi-weekly beta invite dates and make them available on the beta registration page. That way the players “know” that on such and such date, “they” might get to see the game for themselves.

This makes the beta slightly like a lottery. People will come to the site to see when the next wave of beta invites are going to go out, they will begin to look over the available information, they will begin educating themselves.

This is, in essence, viral marketing. By making people aware of when the next beta phase invites will go out, it increases traffic to the main MxO site, you expose more and more people to the game. Online gaming news sites will announce when the next beta phase invites are getting ready to go out, this increases traffic to their sites and to the main MxO site.

This “infects” the potential market with a fever to see the title. Instead of the current status quo which is the “yeah right, you'll get into the beta....not” general attitude people get from MxO staffers. It gives every gamer the belief that they will see the title, because everyone knows that they'll be selected for the next beta phase, right?

And, this also infects the market in a word of mouth fashion. Instead of “Hey have you heard of MxO” in a gaming IRC chat, someone will say “Hey MxO's next beta wave is this weekend, you better go to their site and register!”.

And furthermore, it infects the market via networks of friends, because no matter how strong the NDA, someone is going to say something to someone else. And as the old saying goes, a rumor can run around the world. If the title is good, the underground will pass it around, and the online gaming market is its own underground.

So that is the question that drives us, and the answer that I believe will suffice. We do not need a 365 page detailed players manual released to us pre-release. We do not need a feature length video with a guided tour of Mega City.

All we need to know is “When can I see it?” And for many, “when its out” is not the answer they want to hear. All it takes is a slight change to the marketing approach, the secrecy remains, the NDA remains. But the biggest question, that everyone has, is answered.

Guest Editorials and the opinions expressed therein are those of the author and not necessarily the views and opinions of the staff or editors of The Matrix Online Stratics.

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