Monday, October 5, 2009

Modern Game Marketing - Modern Warfare 2's Infamy Trailer

Infinity Ward has released yet another Modern Warfare 2 trailer. I suppose I should have expected to write more than one Modern Game Marketing piece on MW2 as it is supposedly going to be the biggest holiday release this year. Here were are with another story driven trailer and you have to wonder what the gamers are going to think.

I always try to account for the differences in gaming demographics. With this trailer I thought I'd look at the differences between comments on Kotaku, Game Trailers, and You Tube. The trailer has been up for approximately 24 hours now so I'll take note of how many comments each posting has received and we'll record a quick survey of the comments and the overall opinion users display.

Kotaku's post had 467 comments at the time of writing.
--User vorpal_radish said "Awesome trailer. Gave me chills."
--User AraByblis pontificated "The only power capable of attacking the US on American soil is the US. I'm voting on some sort of civil war scenario. And the troops on both sides in the Washington scene appear American, the dudes on the white house roof were shooting at standard US troops. I think it will play out that a blackwater-like group will use a group of terrorist attacks as a cover for a full military coup." Many users responded to this posting, including their own break downs of the trailer detailing bits and bites that contributed to this theory.
The overall atmosphere of commenting was very much in depth. Commenters picked out specific details and were generally excited by the trailer. Of course, it helps that Kotaku employs a commenting system that promotes regular, thoughtful users.

Game Trailers' post had 1103 comments at the time of writing.
--User Brun0Th3BANK3r responded to Enfluence who originally said "Those graphics are..crap...and before you someone say im a graphics whore...im honestly not..i just like seeing what im shooting and right about now im thinking cod 4 ..you know the way every enemy BLENDS IN WITH EVERY TEXTURE IN THE ENTIRE GAME?" Brun0Th3BANK3r said "Thats why people who know more about graphics than you say they might be the best ever."
--User atheistnation wrote "awesome, attack on the home front.
going to kind of feel like a starting point to fallout 3 haha.
is there anyone who can really say this game looks like crap?"
In general, there was far less pleasant discussion. Some users were insulting others based on their opinion, some wrote incoherently, and even more didn't really hang around for a discussion, dropping a line and leaving.

Youtube's video had 7,947 comments at the time of writing.
--User seebrfc1 was spamming the comments with "I'm getting this game for free. You can, too. I have the details on one of my videos."
--User TheLittleWorldofGaz said "well concidering you've resorted to calling me childing names i think that shows how valid your argument is. I get better resolution on the PC, end of"
Ultimately I think we can rule out Youtube as a proper place to comment on video games. I can't deny that there is sometimes quite a bit of very watchable content on Youtube, but I don't see any reason to become a regular commenter there. Of course, some of the noise could be attributed to Youtube's huge user base, but I have a feeling eliminating even 75% of those users wouldn't necessarily bring the quality of comments up.

I'm letting this post publish within the Modern Game Marketing series because this very loose study of comments on these three sites still goes to show just how much a well designed and anticipated trailer can inspire desire in the modern gamer. Simply put, no matter where you find the latest MW2 trailer, people are going to be talking about it.

Modern Game Marketing is a series on how new games, and the corporations behind them, get you to want them.

1 comment:

  1. Nice blog… I have something to share with you.
    The Aardy is the coolest, most innovative promotional vehicle to hit mobile event and experiential marketing in years. Each Aardy is customizable. It’s such a versatile and unique vehicle that you’re probably looking at the pictures thinking of clever uses for it right now. To get more information visitMobile Display Trailers

    ReplyDelete