Dewmocracy: from Mountain Dew marketing to MMO?
When it comes to MMOs, we here at Massively see it as our charge to explore every type of game out there, whether it be multi-million dollar blockbuster title in the making like Warhammer Online or a simplistic browser-based game like Dofus. We don't discriminate. Except, as in the course of my warm-up lap around the internet this morning, when I see the term MMO co-opted as a corporate buzzword for "anything online that appeals to the 18-35 male demographic." When I found a story claiming that Mountain Dew's new "Dewmocracy" campaign was part MMO, and a successful one at that, I was skeptical, as you can well imagine. Part of the spirit of the campaign is a story (penned by Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker no less) set in a sort of dystopian future where a man's soda options are enforced at the business end of a policeman's baton. Players are tasked with coming up with the newest flavor of Mountain Dew, which will be put to a national taste test later this year, and presumably free mankind from the long arm of tyranny.
Instead of factions in the tradition sense, you align yourself with whatever new flavor of Mountain Dew you like best. At this stage of the game, most of the preliminary flavor choices have already been made, so it's largely about branding. Using a flash-based interface that is strangely reminiscent of the MUDs of yore, you're tasked with making logos and other branding pieces to be voted on by other players of your faction. This is linked with a number of little mini-games that are derivative even by Webkinz standards. The only really "massive" aspect of the game is the fact that players get to vote on their favorite flavors and advertising materials.
What's perhaps most startling is that, even though this Dewmocracy thing hardly qualifies as an MMO in even the loosest sense of the term, their VP of Marketing has expressed an interest, and here I assure you I am not joking, in "expanding it into a long-term MMO." Pirates of the Unquenchable Thirst? Tabula Cola? World of Dewcraft? The mind reels in horror.
