Viral WoW

Blizzard, the company behind the most suc­cessful and prof­it­able enter­tain­ment fran­chise in the world*, World of Warcraft, held a mini-​​conference in Paris last week to announce that a second sequel to its Diablo series — Diablo III — was in devel­op­ment. Unlike a lot of press con­fer­ences, they invited along lots of fans, active forum members and bloggers about the game. So far, so cool, but it gets better…

As is cus­tomary at top-​​end press-​​conferences, there was a schwag-​​bag for all attendees con­taining various branded giveaways. Mouse mats, mugs and stuff — it saves having to buy Xmas presents for a lot of journos. *cough*

(As an aside — Yay! that more bloggers and vocal fans are getting their hands on this stuff.)

But the cleverest bit (for me) was that this also included an online keycode for WoW that would allow players of that game to gain a new com­panion for their online avatars — the char­ac­ters they play in the game. Remember, they invited guild leaders and fan­at­ical WoW bloggers along**.

The pet itself will be a mini­ature version of the Archangel Tyrael of Diablo 2 fame who will travel with you on all your grand adven­tures in Azeroth! Pictures of this amazing new pet will be avail­able on the official website soon for every­body to check out.

Get it? The WoW pet is a viral promo-​​item for Diablo III! It’s limited edition, so it’s sought-​​after; it’s a sign of prestige in the com­munity; and it’s con­stantly in the face of relevant audiences.

Pure genius. Or evil.

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*World of Warcraft — or WoW to its friends — an online role­playing game which charges a monthly sub­scrip­tion — to around 10mn people.

**WoW players organise them­selves into ‘guilds’ to assemble teams for online combat and for social reasons — their leaders are the most visible, long­standing and respected players.

Via. Kotaku

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