Power of WoW
World of Warcraft, with more than 9 million subscribers as of 7-24-2007, is one of the most successful MMORPG to date. But parents, lovers, and friends pay the price as the WOW addicts isolate themselves into their fantasy realm of the never-ending conquest of obtaining the ultimate gear. I share a tragic tale as two of my cousins succumb to the dark powers of WOW in these recent years and the terrifying effects it holds. I myself, once succumbed to WOW, but I was able to resist it in the end!

A Deadly Game
My two cousins had been playing WoW since 2005 and are still playing to this day. In order to even motivate them to talk to me I need to use word terminologies that wow users communicate upon. Noobs, pwn (owned), quest, loot, phat, uber and grind are common words used in WoW and other MMORPGS. Your best bet to communicate with them is to use words that they are comfortable with (marketers take notes). People in WoW spend countless months to achieve their ideal gear only to be obsolete in a month as better gear are implemented to keep the gamers coming back for more. Unfavorable effects such as personal hygiene, anger, impatience, losing track of time, being too skinny or fat starts to show on these gamers (especially my cousins) as they play the game for countless hours each day (results may vary!).

Ahem.. Back to Marketing!
What does this have to do with marketing? Marketers are already marketing their products and services in Second Life (Online Digital World). They can surely do it with WOW (Chinese WoW Coke commercial). With millions of fans and gamers playing WOW your message will definitely get across these gamers and news will hype it up. But how can you advertise your products or services inside the game for maximum coverage? IF Blizzard is willing to let you advertise.. your best bet is to have them make your LOGO into a “useful or fun” WOW item or skill just to reinforce your brand awareness. They will most likely put it into their action bar and WAAALA! They are staring at your logo as they play 24/7.

Stick with Blizzard…
Blizzard is a great video game with top selling games like Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo series. Each game and expansion pack is a top seller with multiple awards so it pays off to have them help you advertise too, if you both have the same target market…

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