Never Trust a Fan Boy

I am always a fan of communities. Especially communities and how they relate to marketing. South Park did an episode last night about using the internet to make money, this blog was started because I want to see how bloggers make money (see shameless promotions to the right), and really, it never seems to work. It’s the pyramid scheme of the new millennia a lot of times, you really have to have something people want to watch or read. That doesn't mean its not fun, just don't quit your day job.

That’s why the nerd community has picked up on it so well. Dorks across the globe really can’t get information, because there are so few of us in each individual community, but on the internet our name is Legion. Wizards of the Coast doesn’t really need to engage in marketing, they have a diehard community to do it for them. DND4.com is a great example. They have constructed a “Preview PHB”, which my friends and I have started dissecting for the latest clues about how we are going to play the game.

We are going to buy it, this just tipped us over the edge to make sure we place advance orders, advance orders I found out about on DnD4.com. White-Wolf Studios had the same opportunities for their Requiem and New World of Darkness series, but they blew it. They sued their fans instead of embracing them, and that has weakened their ability to market to their consumers. I am continually shocked that they choose to piss off their fan base. I don’t know why they haven’t taken a page from Wizards and chosen to STFU. I understand that each company has their style, Windows encourages third party manufacturers. Apple refuses to budge on opening their platform. Both have the pros and cons, both work. Thats the key though, both work, which is great because now I as a user have a diverse choice of options for my computing needs. Unfortunately White-Wolf has chosen to do things poorly, so I loose out on my options for angsty vampires.

In the end, White-Wolf studios enforcement of what I play has made an otherwise great game suck. Wizards has chosen to embrace the fans and its going to make 4.0 all the sweeter. White-Wolf needs to apologize and start kissing the asses of their community; otherwise they are going to go the way of the FASA-bird.

P.S. speaking of shameless promotion, this article is all about it. Click here to find out why!