Category Archives: Media

Bowling for Eyeballs

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Everyone knows that in the American South, football is a big deal. This year my undergrad alma mater had a perfect season with zero losses. It was the first time in nearly 20 years they didn’t have a winning season. Thankfully for Mississippi football diehards, these things are cyclical: Mississippi State and Ole Miss had good seasons without the shadow of Southern Miss to contend with. While I have no special love for their program, it’s worth pointing out that people in Mississippi probably care more about Ole Miss and their team than any other. It’s the “Howard Stern syndrome” in that probably more than half the population of the state roots for them. The other half watches them play just as dutifully, only they hope they get the snot beaten out of them. It’s the nature of the in-state football rivalries. I suspect it works the same across the nation.

On Saturday, January 5, Ole Miss made their first bowl appearance in a few years in the BBVA Compass Bowl. It was a really big deal for them with their new coach showing immediately that he could turn the program around. Huzzah to them for the improved season, too, but I can’t bring myself to watch Ole Miss play because of the previously mentioned in-state rivalries. I went out with some friends instead and had a great time. When I got home, I thought I would check and see if they managed to be Mississippi’s bowl winners this season after Mississippi State’s loss in December.

Having worked for WLBT, the Jackson-area’s top station, I went to their site first. Owned by Raycom, the site was recently rebranded from wlbt.com to msnewsnow.com. They feature sections on the local newscasts promoting “web extra” stories, even though this telegraphs to everyone that they are simply stories not big enough to make the news. While I haven’t done anything more than anecdotal research, I can say that none of these stories I saw promoted on the news were actually from Mississippi. This means they are devoting special attention on the home page away from local news for some reason. My best guess is the stories are from other Raycom stations. If this isn’t the case, they are simply teaching people not to turn to their website for local news with no upside for the station or company.

Let’s take a look at their “above the fold” page from the wee hours of Sunday morning after this bowl game in which every Mississippian was interested in the outcome:

Without scrolling, the only football game you would think was happening of interest to anyone was the BCS Championship. While Alabama was playing in that game, I don’t think they are as important to Mississippians as Ole Miss. Not finding the answer immediately led to an exercise of seeing which site got it right. From this point forward we will assume that any omissions like this are a problem with underpaid/undertrained web producers and not a systemic problem with the news outlet’s web architecture.

My next stop was at Jacson’s historical number two television station, WJTV, owned by Media General. Here’s what I saw there:

They score an A in providing information to the end-user in my opinion. The information is there with the score–no scrolling; no hunting; no clicking. They leave a lot of interaction on the table by not using the story as a way to draw you deeper into the site. There is much less content on their site obviously, but that’s not the topic of this post.

Next, I visited WAPT‘s site, the station owned by the Hearst Corporation:

While the site is cleaner, it’s still a failing grade for them. First, and off topic, they feature a truly horrible picture to accompany their headline. Was there no image to pull from the whole story with things in focus? There are three other chances in their “lead stories” area, but they miss them all.

With Jackson’s three television news outlets covered, I decided to toss Gannett‘s Clarion Ledger newspaper site into the mix. They reformatted their site to the Gannett standard a couple of years ago. Let’s take a look:

Another A+ as they not only let you know who won, they have a picture of the coach and the trophy. They also have several stories built around the game to give you more information and insight into the big game. It’s the sort of behavior that consultants teach TV news outlets, but if the owners of Mississippi’s stations push for this, it doesn’t carry over to their web coverage. I’ll single out WLBT for special criticism, too, as the “web extra” category is simply begging to have a photographer go to a bar and record people watching the game. A straight, video-only piece with fan reaction is perfect here. It’s an opportunity missed for two stations. WJTV and the Clarion Ledger both give you what you need, but only the newspaper’s website offers a chance to dig deeper.


Sales and Merchandising

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David DeMartini is the head of EA’s Origin digital distribution service. At this year’s E3, he gave a few comments on Valve’s Steam digital distribution service, the 800 pound gorilla in the field. Steam is known for having sales on games. These sales have been a source of criticism. The criticism centers around the idea that people will not buy games for their full retail price–that they’d wait for one of the big sales and only purchase the game at a generous discount. Discounting elicits different responses from different game developers. Most developers find the sales useful as a promotional vehicle for their titles. These titles typically move a lot of copies during Steam sales, but DeMartini thinks it damages the health of the intellectual property:

“We won’t be doing that. Obviously they think it’s the right thing to do after a certain amount of time. I just think it cheapens your intellectual property.”

“I know both sides of it, I understand it. If you want to sell a whole bunch of units, that is certainly a way to do that, to sell a whole bunch of stuff at a low price. The game makers work incredibly hard to make this intellectual property, and we’re not trying to be Target. We’re trying to be Nordstrom.”

A month later, Valve responded to the “Nordstrom” comment. Valve’s Jason Holtman commented:

“Ask our partners,” he said. “Ask the large to the small and see what they think about that. Putting it all in the bucket of, it’s all about the discounts, I don’t think that’s everything about it.”

“Discounts serve a lot of functions. Highlighting serves a lot of functions. The qualities of the games serve a lot of functions. Everything we’ve seen, PC games and IP and all those franchises are more valuable today than they were four or five years ago.”

“Discounting is one small function of what we do. It’s one small function of our market and our store. It certainly doesn’t seem to be anything that cheapens IP.”

Anyone who has worked in retail knows there is more to selling things than cheapening prices. Elastic prices certainly help, but real merchandising comes from placement of items. Grocery stores know how placement works. Companies pay for better placement on supermarket shelves with eye level having the highest premium. Steam offers a premium experience, but I would be shocked if games that appear on Steam’s front area, the area you see when you go to the website or launch the program, don’t have at least some kind of increased revenue sharing with Valve if not outright paying for that placement and the promotion that comes with it. Promotion is the other key value to Steam’s publishers/developers. If a publisher/developer is having a sale, but your game is placed near theirs on the home page, it’s a win for you as your game’s exposure is increased. Steam has been instrumental in exposing smaller games like Audiosurf. Games like Audiosurf have also participated in other promotions Steam has launched like last year’s potato collecting madness. That madness led directly into the launching of Portal 2, one of Valve’s own titles, sharing some of the launch promotion with independent developers. These independent developers are often strong supporters of Steam sales. Supporters also include the game buying public who visits the site regularly to see what new games are on sale generating purchasing opportunities for other titles in Steam’s main area which strengthens their position as the leading digital distribution service.


How can you make your MMOG different?

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Edge talks with Matt Firor, the director for The Elder Scrolls Online in next month’s magazine.  An excerpt is online.  In the article, they talk about the different generations of MMORPGs, starting with Ultima Online and Everquest.  The second generation is described as the time of Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft.  The modern age is Star Wars: The Old Republic and perhaps Rift.

What separates these generations for me is the role of the developer after the game launches.  With Everquest, which I played quite a bit in its first two years, the developers were very active.  There were always times when word would trickle down to you that something was happening on the other continent.  You’d run to Freeport and hop on the boat and hope there was something to see when you got there.  These events were controlled by the game masters and their minions.  They gave you a reason to play every day.  I never went to these events because I thought I could aid in battling whatever creature might be Godzilla-ing the countryside.  I went because I wanted to be a part of that event even if it meant losing experience points.

Since Everquest, I have sampled several of the later MMORPGs.  Rarely have I seen a locally run event.  There were some things that could have been, but weren’t.  When World of Warcraft launched the Cataclysm expansion, there was talk of dragon attacks that would unlock an in-game achievement if you were killed by the new Big Bad.  That has promise, I thought.  I did end up getting the achievement, but only in an older zone and a year after the game launched.  The new Big Bad, it turned out, was on a timer.  There was no game master controlling him.

The new crop of MMOGs can tab into the role of the game master to push the genre forward.  Yes, they will have to pay someone per every few servers to do it.  But the dynamism an event run by a game master can add will keep people playing.  If you have an overarching story to tell, let these game masters implement it.  The more you allow those game masters the freedom to shuffle how that story is told, the more interesting it will be for us as players.


Real American Heroes

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In 1998, as I was driving, something special came from my radio.  It was a beer advertisement…the first in what would become a legendary series of radio ads.  Budweiser’s Real American Heroes came at a time when I still listened to radio with commercials and gave me something to look forward to.  When either my brother or I heard a new one, we’d call the other and talk about it.  When I left home to find my place in the world, those ads were a way to befriend my new coworkers as they loved them, too.

You can read more about the ads and their origins at Wikipedia, but more importantly, you can listen to a few of them here.  I recommend number 13.  It’s my personal favorite.

These ads remain some of the most effective radio advertisements I have ever heard.


The Wind Through the Keyhole

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I am a latecomer to The Dark Tower. I began it a decade ago with a paperback of the first book, but couldn’t get into it. During my initial Peace Corps service, I bought the whole series as ebooks in mid-2009. I had more free time then and a netbook computer. Over the next six months, I traversed Mid-World with Roland and his ka-tet. I finished in early 2010. Not long after, King announced he would return to the series. I pity those who had to wait since 2004 for another tale.

This book has been described as part 4.5 of the series. Roland has made it past Lud, but he and his group are forced to take refuge along the path of the beam because of a vicious storm. While holed up, Roland tells a tale-within-a-tale. The outer is his early encounter with a skin walker. The inner is a story he favored as a child-the story of Tim Stoutheart.

Both stories immediately draw you into their grasp. The world is as rich in detail as ever with strange things from our world make interesting cameos as when the stick shift from a Dodge Dart appears. We learn more about Mid-World from before things moved on. We also gain new insights into Roland’s character and how he grew into the man we know in the series.

There are many great moments in each section. I am partial to the story of Tim Stoutheart because it shows us so much more of the world that was. It made me dream of a short story collection just from Mid-World. This book also features what we know to be the last truly happy ending in the series, but of course that’s the nature of tales retold.

I couldn’t believe how easily I slipped back into the world of the Dark Tower. The low speech came back to me quickly and without trouble. It was like seeing again an old forgotten friend. That said, I don’t think anyone would have trouble picking up the book without having read the others. It’s very accessible. Best (or perhaps worst) of all, it will only whet your appetite for the others, I think.

I read the book in a couple of nights. It was a pleasure to welcome Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy back into my world. I hope they come again soon.

Stephen King, I say thankee, sai.

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