Just to let readers know, my blog is on hiatus for about a week due to the crazy holiday hours I am getting at work. Hopefully, I will run into a lot of ideas along the way and have a lot to share with you when I return!

This blog started out as a social media assignment for class. It was my first time traversing the blogosphere since the late 90’s and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  One thing I did not expect was that I would enjoy blogging as much as I have so far. Blogging has helped me discover new things about the online world and about myself. When I started this blog, I wrote about how I hoped the blogosphere would help me discover a career path. As a student who has one term left of college, it is something I really need to nail down as soon as possible. In the process of discovering new public relations avenue I was suprised to find that my blog did help me discover exactly what career path I want to follow.

For those of you who haven’t read my blog, I started out writing about random topics. First my introductory post, followed by a post about Toyota. My next post is when I really discovered my new PR passion. I have always been a fan of video games, but had never noticed how big a part pr has in the virtual world. What started out as a one-time blog post eventually became the theme of my blog. More than the theme of my blog, video game pr has evolved into my chosen career path.

This is not the end of my blog, just the end of the first chapter of my blog. This blog is now transitiong from something I need to do, to something I want to do. For my last “assignment post” I want to take a quick break from video game PR. Instead, I want to give new bloggers a few steps they may help them find a new passion and career path to follow

1. Explore. Take the time to explore different avenues on the internet. Use your first few posts to explore, in detail, a variety of topics.  By giving yourself some time to explore you may discover new things that spark your interest.

2. Narrow it down. Pick one (or two) topics that you really had a good time researching. Write another few posts about these topics, and give yourself some time to explore them more indepthly. This will give you the chance to decide whether this is something you really have a passion for and would want to focus your blog on.

3. Invest. After finding your passion, invest time in finding new topics within your overall umbrella topic to write about. Not only will is help you discover new and exciting things, but it will keep you up to date on your chosen topic. Keeping up with news stories and new trends is imperative when looking for a career path.

These three steps should help you discover a new passion to enjoy, and maybe a new career path to travel down. I am a perfect example of what a blog can help you discover! Stick around for more posts on video game PR in the future. I am looking forward to beginning this next chapter of my blog, and discovering new parts of video game journalism.

A new design for Xbox Live has been in the works for quite a while. Xbox Live, the online community for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, is the most popular online forum for gamers around the world.  Over 1 million people log on to Xbox Live daily to kill each other with rocket launches in Halo 3, help each other find orbs in Fable 2, or gather gamer points in Mirrors Edge.  So, when a new interface was annouced a number of Xbox Live users, including myself, were skeptical.  Why change the interface of a system that is already widely popular?

On November 19, the new interface was introduced.  Along with millions of other users, I downloaded the interface update on the fated day. I was mildly suprised when I saw the final outcome. Instead of an updated version of the old Xbox interface, the new interface reminded me of a modernized version of a different console: The Nintendo Wii. The Wii interface features an interactive scrolling system through popular games; the new Xbox interface included this feature, but with a 3D twist. Another popular Wii feature are the Mii’s, little virtual people you can create that have their own community on the Wii interface. The new Xbox interface featured a similar virtual creation known as Avatars, which look like an updated version of the Nintendo Mii’s.

Now, as an Xbox 360 user who does not own a Wii, I was happy with the new update. I loved the new scrolling design, which made it easier to find friends and gamer points. I also enjoyed making my virtual avatar. Quite a few other users agreed with me as well. However, the interface also got a few negative reviews from users of the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, or both consoles. A number of video game critics have accused Microsoft of stealing directly from the Wii interface.

So when it comes down to it, is the new  Xbox interface a good public relations move or bad public relations move? Even though there are uncanny similarities between the two interfaces, I feel that the decision was a good one in the long run. In the beginning there will be some bad press and controversy, but in the end I think most of the public will accept and learn to enjoy the new interface. As a video game enthusiast I am interested in what other think about it .  So now my final question: What are your thoughts on the new interface?

Being in my last year of college, I seem to find myself constantly busy.  If I am not at school than I am working on my internship or working at my job. Gamecrazy, my present employer, is a video game store that gives me a sneak peek into how the video game industry works. One of my duties is to keep myself updated on the new video games and pre-order gifts that are being released in the near future.

A video game pre-order gift is essentially an added incentive for customers. The pre-order gift has become increasingly popular throughout the last decade, and nowadays it is not uncommon to have a customer inquire about future gifts.  Pre-order gifts come in all shapes and sizes (including key chains, art books, exclusive in-game content, and much more), but the gift is normally chosen depending on the video games specific audience. For example,  the widely popular Harvest Moon series released two games this year, both with its own pre-order gift. Being that that majority of Harvest Moon gamers are female, under the age of 20, or both it’s no surprise that the pre-order gifts were adorable plushy animals. The Nintendo DS release, “Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness,” came with a plush chicken, while the Nintendo Wii release, “Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility,” came with a plush cow.

From first hand experience, the cow and chicken plushes were widely successful. Some avid fans (and new fans) pre-ordered a Harvest Moon game specifically for the pre-order gift.  Like the majority of pre-order gifts, the plushie was only handed out to customers who bought the game after they pre-ordered the game.  Essentially, this meant that some of the newer fans were paying $29.99 (or more) for a plush cow. Even though they were getting the game along with the plushie, they were essentially paying the $29.99 for the plushie and just hoping that the game was enjoyable as well.

The Harvest Moon example is a great case study to show exactly why pre-order gifts have become popular.  The allure they present to both die-hard and new fans is often too much to resist. Even games that don’t follow the “audience rule” and release random pre-order gifts (such as the straw bag released for Little Big Planet) seem to draw in a few customers as well.

In all, the pre-order gift is a ingenious public relations tool for video game companies to use.  It gives customers an added bonus to buy a game, draws new fans in, and is a fairly cost effective method.  Have you ever bought or been drawn to a video game because of a specific pre-order gift?  I’d love to hear some personal stories on the “magnetic pull” of pre-order gifts.

In-game advertising has become widely popular in the last few years. Companies have seen it as a great way to reach Gen-Y and Tween consumers. Still, it might come as a surprise to some that the latest to jump on the in-game bandwagon is none other than Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is going to go down in history for a number of reasons: Being elected as the first black president; being the first Democratic president since the 90’s; and being one of the first Democratic nominees to get predominantly Republican states to vote for him.

Barack Obama is also the first presidential nominee to utilize in-game advertising, and other various forms of social media. To strengthen his campaign and reach the younger generation, Obama used a number of unconventional advertising techniques. In early October, the first in-game advertisement for the campaign was seen on Burnout: Paradise, a popular XBox 360 racing game. The advertisement was filtered through XBox Live, the online system that comes with the popular Microsoft console.

Even though the advertisements were only accessible in 10 states, the advertisements were highly talked about via the worldwide web. Through blogs, video game websites, and advertising websites, the buzz quickly spread about Obama’s virtual billboards. The Obama campaign bought virtual advertising space in over 10 games after its success in Burnout, including the immensely popular Madden 2009. What started out as a small virtual advertisement erupted into a public relations phenomenon, thanks to word of mouth and the Internet.

Did video games help Obama win his campaign?  Due to so many advertising techniques being used, the real answer will probably never be known.  But, the in-game advertisements probably did help Obama conect to some of his younger fans.

Do you think video game advertising will start being used more commonly for political campaigns in the future?  I believe that with the video game industry’s exponential growth, it is definetly not out of the question.  Only time will tell.

With a busy school schedule and an even busier work schedule, I have not had as much time for studying as I would like this term. Last week I found a moment of freedom and decided to head over to the library for the first time this term. Upon entering the library, I found myself stopping short at a rather strange sight. There, in front of my eyes, was a huge rack of video games. Not books or journals or magazines, but video games.  Puzzled, I made my way over to the information desk to find out why the University’s library was suddenly stocked with not only books, but video games as well.

As it turns out, gaming in libraries has been around for quite some time.  As the times change, libraries have also changed. In the 1980’s CD’s started to appear in libraries, in the 1990’s movies started to appear in libraries, and in the early  21st century the internet arrived in libraries. So would it not make sense that video games follow suit in the later 21st century?

Video games in libraries has created a rare case where two audiences are benefiting from one public relations move. For video games, a library creates another oppurtunity for a child to try I (and potentially buy) a video game, as well as a chance for word of mouth  to spread. For libraries, the presence of video games has brought kids into the library and revitalized the relationship between children and the written word.

Hands-on video games and systems, such as the Wii and Guitar Hero, have also allowed libraries to host tournaments in their local communities. The tournaments not only offer a safe haven for kids, but also enlighten kids about certain games and make the library a “cool” hangout. According to an article in Escapist magazine, these tournaments are also offering education to kids in a fun way.  Jenny Levine, a member of the American Library Association, states that gaming and libraries are a “perfect fit.”  To read more about Levine’s theory, please look at page 32 of this PDF.

Libraries will continue to evolve as the times do, and I cannot wait to see what video games and libraries will do next!

In my Advanced Public Relations Writing Class we are exploring a wide range of social media. Recently, my class and I each created and submitted a podcast. It was my first time creating a podcast. The topic I chose for my podcast was environmental scanning, the art of researching your outside environment to stop future crises from happening.

In class, our teacher gave us the option of posting our podcasts on our blog. Originally, I had decided not to post it because I wanted to stick with video game public relations as my blog theme. But, then I asked myself why couldn’t environmental scanning be related to video game PR?

The five main steps of environmental scanning, according to Kendra S. Albright, are as follows: Identify, gather, analyze, report, and decide.  To learn more about these steps, and get a more in-depth look at environmental scanning, please listen to my podcast.  It can be found by following this link:

http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/Members/nemchsab/untitled-1.wav/view

In a previous post, I discussed a video game crisis centered around PR.  If the five steps of environmental scanning were applied to this case, it is possible that the crisis could have been avoided in the first place.  Do you think environmental scanning could have stopped the Little Big Planet crisis?

On a side note, as it is my first podcast I would really like some tips from those of you who listen.  I know I have a mishap here and there, but I would like some creative criticism on my tone, word choice, and whatever else you notice.  Feel free to critique to your hearts desire!

This weekend, my roommate, Rio, and I had the pleasure of downloading and trying the new demo for Mirror’s Edge. A video game demo is virtually a chapter or training mode that the video game company (Electronic Arts in this case) has developed.  Mirrors Edge is a ground-breaking new first-person game.  Though it is based on a first-person shooter engine, “running” is your main goal in the game.  After playing the demo, Rio and I both agreed that when the game comes out on Nov. 11, we are both definitely picking it up.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, a few weeks ago Rio and I also tried the demo for the game Fracture. Fracture is a game that is centered around a terrain deformation system that allows your character to use the surrounding environment as a weapon. Fracture is developed by Lucas Arts, who I am a huge fan of, so I was really excited to try out the dynamics of the game.  Unfortunately,  even though the game possessed a unique idea and engine, when it came down to it the demo just did not work for me.  The engine was hard to control, and the perks of using the ground as a weapon did not live up to the games flaws.  Due to our disappointment in the demo, we both agreed that the game was a rental at best.

As the two stories above indicate, game demos can have both good or bad impressions.  I’m sure there are a number of people who played the demos mentioned above and disagree, but the overall consensus that I’ve seen on message board is that the Mirror’s Edge demo was positively received, and the Fracture demo was negatively received.  Even though demos are meant as a public relations tool to give the customer a chance to try the game and want more, they can sometimes backfire.

So, are video game demos good for a game or bad for a game?  When it comes down to it, I think for the company they are overall bad.  Even though there are lucky companies whose demos lead to big game sales, more often a demo disheartens many fans.  A demo essentially is a great tool for a customer; it lets them decide whether it is worth it to fork out $60 for a game.  But in most cases, it lets them know when a game is not worth the $60.  Overall, I think that a game demo is a great tool for customers and a most likely disastrous public relations tool for video game companies.

Please feel free to post your own thoughts on the video game demo system.  I would love to hear what other gamers think of the whole process.

UPDATE:  For some reason my last two blog posts were not published on the dates they were supposed to be.  I want to apologize to my readers for the inconvenience, I will make sure it does not happen again.

In-game marketing is a form of advertising that has been around for a decade, but a series of new advertising and public relations techniques have recently popped up on the scene.

This past summer my roommates and I became slightly obsessed with Rock Band 2. The music-based game, which features a set list of popular songs and a variety of instruments to play, is instantly addicting.

The game includes a variety of sponsors. Guitar and microphone manufacturers, such as Fender and Sennheiser, advertise by “selling” virtual instruments at the Rock Band Music Store. Another set of not-so-noticeable advertisements can be seen in billboards that are featured on the virtual stage your band plays on.

While playing Rock Band 2 with my roommates, I was surprised to see an advertisement for Verizon on a billboard in the back. A few days later, the billboard had changed to a advertisement for Tropic Thunder. In-game advertising is nothing new; it has been around since the early 90’s. What IS new are the dynamic and ingenious ways that companies are finding to utilize in-game advertising and public relations.

The billboards found in the background of digital concerts is not the only new technique being implemented by companies in Rock Band 2. Companies have also been utilizing the “leader boards,” digital boards on XBox Live where people from around the world can compete to have the best scores on Rock Band 2. According to an article on Game-ism, two specific companies, Geppetto’s Secret (phone number only) and Destoyer Pedals, gained the spots of 2 and 11 when the game first came out. To attain the scores, the company must have done one of two things: They either spent an obscene amount of hours practicing and perfecting their Rock Band skills, or they hired a Rock Band expert to acheive the score for them. Either way, it shows that companies will do almost anything to get their names known.

There are also the number of companies that get lucky and achieve “incidental” credit. A number of games that take place in our current society add anything to make a game more realistic. For games like Fifa International Soccer and Grand Theft Auto, this includes adding billboards with real-life companies to make the game more lifelike. Even though the gaming companies receive permission to use big-name brands (like Lamborghini and EA Sports), their symbolism is meant to increase the realism of the video game, and not to increase brand knowledge. Because of this, the big-name companies do not have to pay the video game companies, and thus pick up “incidental” and free recognition in these games. This can be seen as a very useful public relation tool.

The gaming industry is constantly changing, and advertising and public relations are going along with it. The recent techniques I have talked about today are just a handful of new media tools in the virtual world today.  If you have any questions, or would like to request any specific tools to be talked about, feel free to comment and let me know!

UPDATE:  For some reason my last two blog posts were not published on the dates they were supposed to be.  I want to apologize to my readers for the inconvenience, I will make sure it does not happen again.

Sony Playstation has had its fair share of downs in the past couple of years. The anticipated Playstation 3 was laughed at for being extremely expensive when it was first released. The company has lost many of its exclusive game titles, including Final Fantasy XIII, the most recent installation of one of the best role-playing video game series of all time. In fact, when most consumers choose between a Sony Playstation 3 and a Microsoft XBox 360, the only thing still keeping the Playstation 3 afloat is the exclusive Blu-Ray capabilities the system possesses.

Since losing a number of its exclusive game titles, Sony has been working on developing new exclusive games. One small game that was thrown into the mix was called Little Big Planet. What started as a “little” game quickly become a big hit at trade shows and video game conventions around the globe. Soon enough, LBG (the gamer reference for Little Big Planet) was one of the most anticipated games for in 2008.

A few days before its Oct. 21 release, LBG was delivered to retailers around the globe. It was also still being tested by core groups of gamers. Just two days before the release date, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was informed by testers that one of the songs featured in the background of the game contained offensive lyrics. The offensive lyrics (sung by Toumani Diabate) ended up being direct lines from the Qu’ran, a holy Muslim text. Due to the fact that the reading (and therefore listening) of the Qu’ran is sacrilegious, SCEE hastily recalled the game, first locally, and finally globally.

So now the question: Was recalling the game the right move on Sony’s part? Did Sony’s public relations practitioners make a good move or a PR faux pas?

Many consumers believe that the background music would not have been noticed by many. The lyrics were recognized by one out of hundreds of game testers. Thousands of people who pre-ordered the game were angry at the delay. Unfortunately, many forget how fast word can travel in our society.  Word of mouth makes it hard for PR practitioners to keep anything under wraps for long.

Others might wonder why the song was caught at the last minute. Was Sony trying to make themselves look good by delaying the game on a religious basis? Many think not, seeing that Sony lost millions of dollars by having the games shipped back, revised, and then reshipped.

Working at a video game store, I have first-hand experience on how angry some people were at the delaying of this game. Most people found it “laughable” that Sony delayed the game for just one song(look at the comments for this article). However, with all the controversy and anger over the game, every person who pre-ordered the game bought a copy when it was rereleased on Oct. 25, and the extra copies sold in less than a day.

Do I think Sony made the right choice? Unfortunately, by the time word got out about the offensive content, many distributors had already started selling the game. So, the recalling of the game really did not stop the offensive content from getting out there. When it comes down to it, I think Sony made the only choice they felt they could. If they had time, they could have released a downloadable patch (like they did for a previous game shown here) that would virtually erase the offensive content, a move that would have quieted angry consumers and saved the company money. UPDATE: Sony has announced a patch that will be automatically downloaded to PS3’s to remove the offensive content from those who got their hands on copies of LBG before they were recalled.

There is no way to tell if Sony made the right choice. A hundred different avenues could have been explored, but Sony did not have the time to try to find the best possible choice – they just had to choose and go with it.

If you have any input, please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear about what you would have done in a crisis like this.