Socialtext holds WoW's first press conference
A while ago, we told you about Socialtext's plans to run a real-life press conference inside the virtual world of Azeroth (Goldshire, to be specific). The conference went down two Fridays ago on December 1st in Eitrigg (a lot of Socialtext's employees are members of Joi ito's We Know, the guild famous for bringing corporate networking into WoW), and now here's a story resulting from the conference. Unfortunately, the story reads pretty dry (and mentions Second Life more than WoW-- apparently they're the leader for corporate schmoozing and marketing inside virtual worlds), but fortunately, writer David Ho included a much less formal (and more interesting) writeup of what it was like to talk to a corporate rep playing a Pally wielding an Obsidian Edged Blade (does the CEO of Socialtext play a DPS-adin??).
We have to give Ho credit-- he didn't just show up for the press conference as a level 1 gnome (that's what we would have done), he did his homework. He got a Night Elf to level 9 before being escorted to Stormwind and then the Twilight Grove in Duskwood. And we have to give it to CEO Ross Mayfield, too-- he held to his word of forcing those with questions to duel him before they were answered. What other press contact would be willing to fight the press to the death? Wait, scratch that-- probably all of them.
The press conference itself sounds more gimmicky than anything. If Socialtext was trying to actually announce something (besides the fact that they were having a press conference in WoW), they weren't able to get their message across, so it's not too likely that more high profile companies will start using WoW as a marketing outlet. But someone's got to lead the way, and even though they're Alliance (they do have a Horde guild called We No, but no word if Mayfield also has a Shammy), kudos to them for bringing an old idea to a relatively new world.
