Let me say this right out of the gate: I was sorely disappointed by Diablo Immortal, and I have several gripes with the project, but I cannot add to the vast amounts of comments that's been made about the game already. As such, this thread is not an attempt to discuss Diablo Immortal (there's already one for that), but rather one specific element of the presentation that pisses me off to no degree:
The treatment of Wyatt Cheng.
Wyatt Cheng is the senior game designer for Diablo 3 right now but it exactly what Wyatt Cheng is: Wyatt isn't part of the responsible marketing team. It is not his job to understand the customers, 'nor is it his job understand what they are looking for in the future. It's easy for us to ignore this fact - we might think it's absurd that a lead on the dev-team doesn't know better, but in the end it's irrelevant. Here is ultimately why:
Like it or not, Cheng is not responsible for any of this – and yet, he's probably more invested in Diablo than most everyone else. So even if Blizzard likes to shove it down your throat, there's likely some truth to his passion. They probably are passionate about it...
I have been against this for a while now. I don't mean Diablo Immortal, but this kind of marketing strategy.
It's not an old kind of strategy, but it really saw attention with Steve Jobs. He walked out there, as the expert authority on the matter, and communicated directly to journos and passionate fans.
It's a smart way of connecting with consumers, and it makes the ordeal seem less of sales pitch, but more of an authentic conversation. God knows I prefer it over the usual E3 Ubisoft conferences, where bad jokes reign supreme.
But perhaps most importantly: It blurs the line between business and community, and soon fans forget that all they see, hear, feel - and in the end buy - is a product tailored to find the perfect balance between something in demand, and something that will nurture the bottom line. Investors > everyone else.
Most marketing teams do a great job of hiding this fact, ultimately creating the aforementioned relationship, and that leads to trust. Trust which was so brutally broken at the announcement of Diablo Immortal. This is the backside to this kind of marketing. Fact of the matter is that once people get heavily invested in these things, they start believing that companies are there for them, and not for the investors.
But to think that Wyatt Cheng had to play the role of the evil guy during this fiasco... It feels so bad to me.
I don't know how they gather data, but I am yet to comprehend how the marketing team was honestly thinking the reaction would be any less brutal than it has been. To have Cheng walk on stage and present these paying attendees to witness everything they never asked for, and then force him to deter the frustration at the same time, making it even worse... God I pity the man... I truly hope he is alright. Imagine yourself in his shoes.
PR and marketing at Blizzard seems a fucking joke when you factor in the attempts of damage control, which we have seen the past days In my opinion Cheng was thrown under the bus, and I hope he gets the pad on the back he deserves. I don't think he has done a bad job at Blizzard – I think Diablo Immortal will be a good game for what it sets out to be.
It just wasn't what fans wanted. At all. The reaction seemed inevitable, but I don't support any notion that Cheng should've known better. That's not a fair statement, and certainly not when someone is getting paid to know this.
The treatment of Wyatt Cheng.
Wyatt Cheng is the senior game designer for Diablo 3 right now but it exactly what Wyatt Cheng is: Wyatt isn't part of the responsible marketing team. It is not his job to understand the customers, 'nor is it his job understand what they are looking for in the future. It's easy for us to ignore this fact - we might think it's absurd that a lead on the dev-team doesn't know better, but in the end it's irrelevant. Here is ultimately why:
Like it or not, Cheng is not responsible for any of this – and yet, he's probably more invested in Diablo than most everyone else. So even if Blizzard likes to shove it down your throat, there's likely some truth to his passion. They probably are passionate about it...
I have been against this for a while now. I don't mean Diablo Immortal, but this kind of marketing strategy.
It's not an old kind of strategy, but it really saw attention with Steve Jobs. He walked out there, as the expert authority on the matter, and communicated directly to journos and passionate fans.
It's a smart way of connecting with consumers, and it makes the ordeal seem less of sales pitch, but more of an authentic conversation. God knows I prefer it over the usual E3 Ubisoft conferences, where bad jokes reign supreme.
But perhaps most importantly: It blurs the line between business and community, and soon fans forget that all they see, hear, feel - and in the end buy - is a product tailored to find the perfect balance between something in demand, and something that will nurture the bottom line. Investors > everyone else.
Most marketing teams do a great job of hiding this fact, ultimately creating the aforementioned relationship, and that leads to trust. Trust which was so brutally broken at the announcement of Diablo Immortal. This is the backside to this kind of marketing. Fact of the matter is that once people get heavily invested in these things, they start believing that companies are there for them, and not for the investors.
But to think that Wyatt Cheng had to play the role of the evil guy during this fiasco... It feels so bad to me.
I don't know how they gather data, but I am yet to comprehend how the marketing team was honestly thinking the reaction would be any less brutal than it has been. To have Cheng walk on stage and present these paying attendees to witness everything they never asked for, and then force him to deter the frustration at the same time, making it even worse... God I pity the man... I truly hope he is alright. Imagine yourself in his shoes.
PR and marketing at Blizzard seems a fucking joke when you factor in the attempts of damage control, which we have seen the past days In my opinion Cheng was thrown under the bus, and I hope he gets the pad on the back he deserves. I don't think he has done a bad job at Blizzard – I think Diablo Immortal will be a good game for what it sets out to be.
It just wasn't what fans wanted. At all. The reaction seemed inevitable, but I don't support any notion that Cheng should've known better. That's not a fair statement, and certainly not when someone is getting paid to know this.
