David's Wiki Report

From LIS5313

Thoughts on the Minds Behind Big Gaming

1 Introduction
2 About blogs
3 How a blog works
4 How a corporation can benefit from a blog
5 Playstation.Blog
6 Other Features and Web 2.0 Technologies
7 Media Resources
8 Resources

[edit] Introduction

Web 2.0 has many facets. Most people think of things like YouTube and Facebook but blogs were one of the first Web 2.0 tools and have become synonymous with the news. Major corporations, broadcasters, journalists, and even the common man can author a blog, and the users of the internet worldwide turn to them for up to the second information. Whenever news breaks, be it industry news or political affairs, bloggers around the internet fire up their posting client and start typing away. Below is a more in depth look at the technology behind blogs, and how Sony Computer Entertainment America uses the Playstation.Blog to reach its customers and get valuable feedback in return.

[edit] About blogs

A blog is kind of like a newspaper that updates at any moment. By and large it is like the editorial section because blog are typically written from an opinionated point of view. Fortunately that point of view is seldom difficult to discern. Since blogs are generally not objective, users often read the same bit of factual news on a variety of blogs to get as many different opinions on the same topic as possible. Blogs aren’t always about news. Increasingly people are writing blogs that have nothing to do with political or industry news, or really anything note worthy. Soccer moms and teenagers and grandfathers alike are authoring blogs ranging on everything from “How to feed a family of four on 10 cents per week” to “Outfits I force my cat to wear.” In short, you can find a blog on just about any subject.

[edit] How a blog works

Blogs are basically content management systems that run an entire website and allow for easy, frequent updates. Large blogs are almost always maintained by a staff of writers so a web interface or desktop client is used so that each author can upload their articles and any necessary associated files from wherever they like to work. Software that runs a blog such as wordpress, drupal or blogger runs on the server it is hosted on and stores data in a database. The database allows users to do things like search for articles by date, author or tags. Most blog software also makes publishing very simple for inexperienced users. This can be considered a curse as much as a boon. We now have an internet where almost everyone can be an author regardless of the value of their content. (Wikipedia 2007)

[edit] How a corporation can benefit from a blog

Traditionally companies used things like focus groups and market response to decide how they could better serve their markets. While these methods won’t be leaving anytime soon, the blog is more effective in terms of immediate response and broad user exposure. Anyone with access to the internet can read a company blog and get provide them with valuable feedback through comments or e-mail or phone calls at all stages of the development process. This free and honest market research can prove to be invaluable for a company that is trying to give its customers exactly what they want.

Playstation.Blog Screenshot from 12/11/2007

[edit] Playstation.Blog

The Playstation blog is published on the Sony Computer Entertainment America website by a cornucopia of executives, game developers, network administrators, graphic designers and virtually anyone involved in the Playstation industry. These insiders can write articles on up to the minute news before official press releases can be prepared and sent out, keeping the blog sometimes weeks ahead of magazines and other industry news sources. In addition the blog uses a comment system that allows readers to remark about articles and build a discussion with other readers and even sometimes the authors themselves. The authors can then read and analyze these comments to determine how the market may respond to upcoming projects. If reactions are negative, sometimes problems can be fixed before the product hits the market potentially saving the company money.

[edit] Where does the content come from?

This is part of what makes the particular blog truly efficient. Most blogs are written by people with a strong interest in a subject area, even professionals and experts in their field, but they still only represent their own opinions and beliefs on the subject matter. However, the Playstation.Blog is authored by not just some group of semi-professional writers but by the actually employees of Sony Computer Entertainment America and various developers and publishers from third party companies. When you get industry news from the Playstation.Blog you are literally getting it straight from the horse’s mouth. No rumors, no hear-say or conjecture based on industry trends, but honest to goodness news from the people who makes the decisions about the entire platform from hardware to software. This kinds of up to the minute reporting allows gamers, customers, or anyone to stay at the cutting edge of whatever is going on with SCEA. (Manjoo 2002)

[edit] SCEA Employees

This is the most common type of poster on the Playstation.Blog. Hired for the writing ability, these are professional bloggers who get their news directly from SCEA executives and grunts alike and then process it into a clear, concise, and enjoyable to read format. Although it may seem like an unnecessary mediator many industry heads simply don’t have the time to write good blog posts, but they can brief the writers who can then spend time crafting quality posts. This also allows for media posts, which are posts that contain audio, video, or images that have to be cut and arranged. The process of preparing a media post can take even longer than a plain text one, thus furthering the need for the full time blog authors. (Rubenstein 2007)

[edit] Developers

Both first party (in-house, employed by SCEA) and third party developers have been invited to write blog posts about hot upcoming titles or any other industry news that might help get the market buzzing. Remember the desire here is to create market interest, so often times just getting to follow the inner workings of a big development studio can be as exciting to gamers as the games themselves. Plus, this inside knowledge from the production studios and developers makes gamers feel more attached to a title once it becomes available. Knowing who did the art direction, or why certain features were added or cut and other background knowledge make for a richer gaming experience.

[edit] You

Every so often, the discussions in the comments become so deep and well thought out that they are turned into posts of their own. This is certainly less common than the other sources, but it is no less useful! Having editorials coming direct from the consumers posted right on the official Playstation.Blog helps to foster a feeling of community, and also reassure the customers that their input is valued and utilized. Sometimes the action is taking place below the articles, in the rich discussions that go on between the commenting public, and the authors who often get in on the dialog.

[edit] Comments

Comments can be the life or death of a blog and the Playstation.Blog is no exception. Attached to every post is the ability to add comments. This is standard blog procedure, but some popular blogs disable it to save on bandwidth. The value of allowing users to comment cannot be overvalued and has many benefits for both the bloggers and the users. Firstly, the bloggers get immediate, often anonymous and subsequently completely honest thoughts from their user base. The anonymity can invite spam or unnecessarily negative remarks sometimes, but these are easily filtered out leaving just the valid criticisms and the neutral or hopefully positive comments. Second, this open dialog allows for the clarification of common misunderstandings. Sometimes you just don’t say exactly what you mean, and even more often a post will spur on many questions from the readers. Thanks to the commenting system readers can seek answers from other readers who may have understood better or even from the authors themselves. Authors often become engaged in the discussions to do their best to keep the record straight and to help guide the conversation in a way that will be most beneficial to the company.

[edit] Posts

Posts are what you call the articles, editorials, and general ramblings the authors publish on a blog. They are usually organized by section and almost organized by date. In fact, most blogging platforms like Wordpress, MoveableType, and Drupal organize your posts by category and date for you. You can customize the category and you can even set false dates or future dates so the blog will update automatically! But not all posts are just plain text. Many contain photos, video or audio, and sometimes there is no text at all. (Buckmaster 2007)

[edit] Types of Posts

This is where creativity can come out. Straight text posts may be the most common, but they are not always the best way to convey the information. Often you need pictures, like in the case of a photo blog or when a written description is too complicated. Sometimes blog entries require audio media for background music or, more commonly, when the text cannot convey the sounds necessary. Now it has even become a common practice to do video blogs where the entire article is done in the form of a video. These can range from direct speaking to acted out scenes to mini television shows to anything else you can imagine. The Playstation.Blog uses all of these different types of posts to communicate with their readers.

[edit] Other Features and Web 2.0 Technologies

A blog is fine but there are lots of powerful ways to enhance its usefulness and appeal. The Playstation.Blog is no slouch when it comes to using the best methods to get its readers involved. Along with most blogs comes a handy RSS feature which allows readers to be updated when ever new posts are posted or updated. They also provided the entire article in their RSS feed so you can stay up to date without even going directly to the site!

In addition to the traditional RSS feed the Playstation.Blog also has a Photo feed which contains all of the high resolution screen captures and photographs that are used on the website or in the articles. A picture is worth a thousand words, and hot-off-the-press HD photos shout every one of those words. The photo feed is a handy way to keep people excited about the newest games and software.

And if you’re very particular about your RSS feed delivery you can download the Playstation.Blog dashboard utility for OS X or the Yahoo Widget which will keep you up to speed in a familiar and attractive way. For the old school there is still the option to receive updates via e-mail instead of via RSS feed, so even the less than tech savvy are able to stay current with ease.

Along with the feeds there are a few other handy sidebar gadgets that list the most recent posts in certain categories to make for easier navigation. Not every reader is going to want to read about every game, so these little breakdowns help them find the news they want while avoiding the rest.

There is also a “Quick Poll” that serves no real purpose but helps to keep the readers engaged. You could harvest the data as market research, but many of the questions are more for entertainment value.

The biggest Web 2.0 tie in is the inclusion of the “Digg This” button with each article. Digg is a social news side that is user supported. That means that all of the articles it posts from most popular to least popular are submitted, and voted upon by users only. Digg is a very popular social news site and has the most traffic among sites of that type. The Digg button accompanying each article allows readers to submit blog posts to Digg with one click, which then get the news out to anyone utilizing Digg even if they do not read the Playstation.Blog. In this way, the fans help decide which blog posts are most note worthy but actively helping to share them with the rest of the internet.

[edit] Media Resources

Intro to the Playstation.Blog A brief video that introduced new users to the blog and some of the web site’s interesting features. It’s not all about the articles, after all!