Making it as an MMO blogger: Part 1, page 3

What are some things a blogger can do to further promote a relationship with your company?

David Bass: It's pretty easy these days for bloggers to be heard. I truly appreciate a blogger who remains open and honest about their experiences with our company. If you don't like our game, that's fine, but tell us why. Don't just bash the game, explain exactly what it is you're not enjoying. A number of changes have gone into both Champions and Star Trek because we've caught things that bloggers have talked about on their sites.

Shaun Brodie: Talk to the community, and become an advocate for them. Then, provide us with their opinion. It's one thing if you write about your own opinion, it's another thing entirely if you're sharing thousands of people's opinions.

Sean Kauppinen: Be professional and at the same time tell us what you need or want, and whom, and how large, your audience is. People need to understand that we have limited time, but almost all companies can identify legitimate bloggers by their writing or community size fairly easily. At the same time, I have always worked under the rule of "Use your gut." If someone is really trying and you believe they can be a good partner, you take a chance.

Tricia Jenkins: The Fallen Earth community is one we're really proud of and we try really hard to keep our developers accessible. While we reach a number of blogs, there are a few bloggers who we work with on a more continual basis — usually the few who take the time to jot down developer questions or know specifically what it is they want to learn more about and send requests for journals or Q&As.

Wonder Russell: Check back in when the review goes live. Ask to stay on the PR list so you'll be in the loop when developments are announced. Get on board with Twitter. Have a great idea for a contest or article? Pitch it! These relationships are really about the dialogue.

Regina Buenaobra: The blogs that we enjoy tend to have some unique perspective and feature engaging, regularly updated content. We like to read bloggers that bring insight, context, and perspective to updates and new releases. We value intelligent critiques and a sense of humor. We enjoy reading bloggers who are clearly passionate about Guild Wars, and they communicate that passion and excitement through their blog. Kill Ten Rats is a great example of a blog that brings these qualities to the table.

It also doesn't hurt to ask for more information from community managers or PR. This doesn't mean all a blogger's wishes will come true, because it depends on what the request is, but it helps keep a blogger on our radar.

EM Stock: The larger the readership a blog has, the more we can justify supporting it. Bloggers who keep us in the loop on the growth of their blog (and who have numbers to support it), who act and communicate with us in a professional manner and who post consistently on their blog about our product exhibit a level of commitment and loyalty that we'll want to foster as much as possible.

Meghan Rodberg: Writing about us and our games frequently will help to cement that relationship; and again, being proactive in letting us know about new writing and activities is critical.

What are some things a blogger can do to harm a relationship with your company?

David Bass: If your blog is just there to rant, don't bother. While reading the hateful vitriol of an angry player is occasionally amusing, it doesn't help anyone, because it contains no constructive feedback on the core of the issue. Were you upset with the way Customer Service handled your issue? That's okay! But explain the entire story, and suggest improvements to the system. Don't just figure out as many synonyms to "inept" as you can.

Shaun Brodie: Nobody wants to be raged at, we're the same. It's one thing to blog about how you don't like something, say why, and offer suggestions for how we could fix it so you would like it. It's another thing entirely to rage for one thousand words because you don't like something, and offer nothing other than, "I don't like it. Now fix it, or I'll quit." Also, if we give you a scoop, but ask that you not go public until a certain date, please respect that. There's a reason why we may ask you to do that; things change on a daily basis here. If you break that date and post early, I can guarantee you'll never get another scoop from us, and you'll probably end up posting incorrect information.

Sean Kauppinen: Ask for money, threaten, or be unprofessional. Understanding that blogs have legitimacy to different audiences, because they are not media companies, helps effective and relevant bloggers realize that their community is more important than corporate goals.

Tami Baribeau: There are plenty of things a blogger can do wrong ;) Ask for freebies constantly, over-contact the staff, only post positive things about the game when freebies are provided, have constantly high-expectations on the amount of hand-holding the team can provide, misrepresent the content they're going to be writing about, act rude, etc.

Tricia Jenkins: Most of the bloggers we've worked with have been very supportive and genuinely interested in the game and company... Besides, who'd want to cross us? We've got mutated Prairie Chickens on our side! *evil grin*

Wonder Russell: If a blogger doesn't take what they do seriously and don't actually care about the culture of gaming, the gaming community, writing quality in-depth reviews (no writing the review after only a few hours of play), it's going to show. That reflects badly on us, and well, we aren't gonna be super happy to give you a free game next time! There are other obvious things I can think of, like using a blog to grandstand or trash talk other companies. That's never happened to us, but I'd guess it's a pretty common concern among game developers/publishers – we'd like to trust you and know we made the right decision.

Regina Buenaobra: I think one of the things that can be troublesome for bloggers is when they speculate far too much about the intentions or the inner workings of ArenaNet. They use that speculation as a basis for formulating opinions about the company that may not be based on fact. If a blogger is unhappy about what a company did with a game, that's perfectly valid. But speculating about a company's intentions in a way that presumes 100% knowledge of the circumstances generally gets grumbles from us. It's much better for a blogger to focus on what they know for a fact, and write about that. Fostering gossip and rumors, sensationalizing issues, and delivering tabloid-style content doesn't serve the game community and it presents the blogger as untrustworthy to us.

In general, it never hurts for blogger to put feelers out to a company if they have questions about something. There's no harm in contacting a company's community manager to see whether they can answer a question or escalate an issue to the right people within the company.

EM Stock: Bloggers who are hell bent on sabotage, who spread harmful/untrue rumors and who take the content we provide them with the intention of using it against us, will lose our support pretty quickly. Additionally, any blogger that doesn't at least give us the opportunity to explain or address something they've written that we feel we can shed some light on, will start losing our trust. We're not in the habit of trying to change people's opinions; we just always appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight.

Meghan Rodberg: Writing knee-jerk rant posts based on assumptions, and not verifying facts, is the fastest way to sever your relationship with a game company. Bloggers are in many ways journalists, even if many of them don't see themselves that way, and while their reach might be smaller, many of us in the game industry hold them to the same ethical standards.