Social Media & Digital Marketing in Singapore

Bethesda Demonstrates Understanding Of The Digital Age With Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is hands down my game of 2008. I’ve completed it once and spent about 45 hours to do so. But this isn’t a gaming blog, and this isn’t a gaming post. I’ve spent quite a bit of time observing what Bethesda (the creators of Fallout 3) have done with the game, and what makes it successful both in the long and short term.

Content
In this day and age, everything is about content. Fallout 3 delivers that in droves. Not only is the game content excellent, but as of right now, they have new “modules” of content being released every month from January to March. If each of those modules has content as deep and engaging as Fallout 3 (and I bet it will), then Bethesda easily has a cash cow on its hands (assuming the content isn’t free). Such content releases are a much more effective piracy-deterrence than DRM if you ask me. (Hear that, Spore?)

User-Generated Content
Deliberately or not, Bethesda made the virtual world so incredibly sprawling that you might say it’s too much for one person to explore by him/herself. So what happens? People crowdsource. From a Fallout 3 wiki to a user-generated shockwave map of the game, you can find virtually anything you want. Bethesda also released a tool (called the GECK) to enable users to create maps, rooms, creatures etc for the game, and presumably share them online too.

Embracing Social Media Tools
For the above-mentioned creation tool, the GECK, Bethesda has set up a wiki to help get community members. More importantly, they have a really fun blog that has topics ranging from promoting user-generated mods, sharing what games they’re playing (yes, it includes competitor games) and just generally having fun. I wonder if a company blog like this would do anything to change the minds of people who don’t trust company blogs.

If you’ve played Fallout 3, what do you think about these moves? Are other companies equally savvy when it comes to embracing the digital age? Or do you think many are left behind? Love to hear from you whether you’re a gamer or not.

Tags: best game of 2008, bethesda, bethesda blog, cash cow, content, digital rights management, drm, fallout 3, geck, geck wiki, people don't trust company blogs, spore, ugc, understanding the digital age, user generated content