The Game Dame

Ya think?? HAHAHAHAhahahaha… woooo… boy, I crack myself up.

Still, below is a quote from the Battle.net email that Blizzard sent out, and here’s the blog post I wrote after Wrath came out. Your assignment: compare and contrast.

Our goal is to create the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard gamers, with new community and communication features like cross-realm World of Warcraft chat, real-life friends lists, cross-game communication, and much more.

You decide.

Notes for a next generation MMO

A little part of me has died today. Our guild master told us that he was taking several months off from the game, with an eye toward quitting altogether. Last week, another key guildie, also from For The Horde, announced his intention to take a financial vacation from the game. As I mentioned in my last post, the game is also getting old for me. My main point was that Blizzard has failed to bank on and expand what makes the game most addictive and fun: its social aspects. 

I’ve looked at other MMOs, and have been pretty bored by what they offer. All of them seem to be copying WoW. None of them is really thinking outside of the software box. The only differences among them are graphics style/quality, content (storyline), and play style (PvE, PvP, strategy, sims). Even the genres are limited to Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Nothing new. All you have to do is paste those labels onto some dice, roll them, and *POOF!* you’ve got a new MMO! Of course, by “new” I really mean “same old, same old.” How can these MMOs compete with Blizzard if they are only imitations?

Way back in the dark ages, I interviewed with Blizzard for Subscription Marketing Manager. It was essentially a customer loyalty job: how do we keep current subscribers and bring back former ones? I was (and still am) uniquely qualified for that job, but they passed on hiring me. I gave them a list of things both in my interview and follow-up emails which I thought they should use for customer retention. If they’d only have listened to me…

Here are just a few of the things that Blizzard could’ve spent time and money on to improve the game, rather than just crank out new dungeons  which are merely mish-mashes of old dungeons:

Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, people, I need your help! I’ve been trying to get a job at Blizzard for 1.5 years now and Monday I applied for the position of Associate Producer of Analytics for Online Technologies — a job that seems to have been written right from my resume. I’ve applied through their email address and also through a recruiter for Blizzard that I found on LinkedIn. But now I want your help! Do any of you know anyone at Blizzard who could at least get my resume in front of the hiring manager (not just HR or a recruiter)? Even better, do you know anyone in the Online Technologies department? If so, go to my Contact page and shoot me an email. I’d really appreciate it! Thanks!

In December 2006, I got to interview for a job at Blizzard. I was so excited that I nearly peed my pants for every day before the interview. (That takes a lot of Mountain Dew, I tell ya.) I was applying for a job that I thought would be a slam-dunk for me: Subscription Marketing Manager. I mean, hell, that’s exactly what I did in my last job and it was finally a way to transition into the gaming field. I even had an inside angle: a friend of mine had worked with the Director of Marketing back when they were both at Sierra. Unfortunately, friends, it was not to be. I don’t know if they’d already picked someone internally and they were just interviewing me as a courtesy, or if they thought I was “too” something — old, young, white, ugly, pretty, fat, skinny, or… female. It certainly wasn’t because I was unqualified: I excelled at every skill required and had exactly the prescribed background.  I cried my eyes out when I heard I hadn’t gotten the job. I was depressed for weeks.

Okay, but that’s just the lead-in for my question. One of the bits of information I got in the course of the interview conversation was that they believe (according to their “market research”) that only 5% of their subscribers are female. By this I mean that they think only 5% of the account holders, not toons, are female, which is their justification for primarily male marketing. I was flabbergasted. At that time in my WoW gaming life, I didn’t even know any male players! All my friends were female in Real Life (RL). I know this because I’d had various forms of proof from each of them, including voice chat. They told me, patronizingly, “Oh you just think they’re female. But are they really?” Of course, it’s an interview situation so I’m not going to argue with them, but this stat has stuck with me ever since then.

My question for you, readers, is what do YOU think the RL percentage breakdown is for males and females playing WoW? Do you think the Blizzard Boys are right? If not, what do you personally think the breakdown is?

I was watching college football today and saw this commercial for Toyota Tacoma trucks. It’s a WoW parody and it’s HYSTERICAL!

You… must… see!

Very interesting that MMOs are becoming mainstream instead of fringe “geeky” activities. Says some interesting things about Tacoma’s demographics, too. I love the fact that Blizzard has a sense of humor about the game. So many people take WoW too seriously but at least Blizzard can laugh at itself (all the way to the bank).