Neverwinter Nights 2: Pay Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain!

NWN 2 WC: What is the greatest benefit thusfar with promoting NWN 2?

Brandon: Working on Neverwinter Nights 2 isn't as much a benefit as it's a privilege working with such a fine group of producers and developers. Obsidian Entertainment is really a rare breed of development studio, they have the vision, passion and talent to make great projects even better.

I know it may sound like traditional marketing spin, but it's the simple truth. If you want an RPG done and done right these days, your list is very, very short...and Obsidian is right at the top. You might think that's because it's a small market, but that's not it at all. RPGs continue to make up one of the best-selling genre in all of gaming. Only a few studios have the skill, experience and raw chops to do them justice.

I suspect Obsidian is going to be very busy for a very long time, which is good news for all of us -- we get to play those titles!

Shane: Not to "gush" to much but working with Obsidian is awesome. Easily the best group of guys I've worked with in the computer game industry. I've said this before and I'll say it again nothing is better than working with people who make games for the right reasons. Beyond Obsidian, the NWN franchise is the most notable D&D franchise in the world. I never actually got to work on D&D itself when I was at Wizards. I left right after they acquired TSR so this is really special for me.

I spent so many summers playing D&D growing up that I just love to be able to tell my parents that D&D pays my salary, bought my car, and, yes, lets me go on dates. That in addition to I love the old NWN and BG/Icewind Dale games. They are easily my favorite computer games I've played so for me its just neat all around.

NWN 2 WC: What has been your greatest challenge thusfar with promoting NWN 2?

Brandon: Our biggest challenge has simply been keeping up with the overwhelming demand from the community and mainstream media alike for information about Neverwinter Nights 2. Everybody wants to know about the latest installment in one of their favorite RPG franchises. And, by everybody we mean everybody. Germany, France, Australia, Russia, Poland...you name a country and I'll identify a fan of Neverwinter Nights in it. It keeps us pretty busy, but there's no question that it's certainly a lot of fun.

Shane: In terms of the community, NWN has a huge history. It's been going strong since 2002. It's got longevity behind it, not to mention size. With that come some rather unique challenges unlike any fan group or gaming community I've really worked with before. Honestly, I'd say the biggest challenge as a community manager for NWN2 beyond the overwhelming demand for information is the balancing act of trying to stay at the center of the community itself and steer a big ship that can be at times very set in its ways. For as great as the NWN community is, it's challenging trying to get all the different factions of it to co-exist with each other and still be perceived as unbiased, neutral and objective. NWN2's modification-friendly nature attracts talent and breeds competition. When you get that talent and competition in the same room it can lead to a lot of pilitics and to some degree, hostility. I think at the end of the day our biggest responsibility to this huge 3 million+ person community is to just try and make sure that people are well informed and having fun.

NWN 2 WC: What is the general 'schedule' you follow when promoting a new site or game? For example, where do you begin? Developer interviews? Announcements? Building a website for the game?

Brandon: Ask that question of 10 people and you'll invariably get 10 different answers. That said, it's usually best to start with an official announcement about the "deal" or "new widget" followed by a series of interviews and outreach activities about it.

That initial announcement and promotion is the easy part. Once you're ready to really begin promoting a new title you'll need to spend a significant amount of time with the development studio and publisher identifying key development dates, timelines, schedules, etc. All in an attempt to completely plan out your promotional activities from start to finish and ensure those plans are included in both the developer and publisher schedules. If you need to be at GenCon in August, you'll need to make sure the team is available, a stable build will be ready and that you've actually got something new to show people that want to see the title. Not to mention, booking media appointments, providing assets, securing booth space, arranging flights, etc.

All told, the process of promoting something is almost identical to developing it. Proper and insightful planning and scheduling is the most significant key to success.

Shane: First we star out with a round of drinks, Brandon likes beer, and I usually have Vodka Martini (preferably apple). I personally hate beer and don't understand the taste of it at all. Now if we're trying to act all "professional" I might have wine. Brandon, still drinks beer (rolls eyes). Then we hit the parties, probably starting with Microsoft and ending up at Sony (because they give great luggage at the end of the night)..wait um what was this question again?

Err let me start over..."What Brandon said".

NWN 2 WC: How long do you generally work with producers/developers in promoting the game? For example, how soon before release are you hired and how long after release do you generally stay with the promotion?

Brandon: In a perfect world, you'd want to begin working on a title as soon as the deal is signed. This ensures a proper and prompt product announcement and some initial activity letting the world know you've got a new title on the way. This can happen as far out as 2 years or more.

A traditional PR/community outreach campaign for a well-known, established title should cover at least 12-18 months and may extend well beyond the product release date. Neverwinter Nights 2 is a perfect example of a title that requires a much longer and involved promotional process, including its unique need for significant support after the game releases.

Of course, what should happen and what does happen are often very different things so it can vary greatly for a myriad of reasons.

Shane: Like Brandon said, typical pre-release community management starts 12-18 months before the game ships. A typical game with no expansions will usually have 3 months of post launch support. However, Neverwinter is a totally different creature. Truthfully, I think supporting the community after the launch of the game will be more important in many ways and equally challenging than getting the community ready for the launch. It'll be fun and I'm looking forward to it immensely.

NWN 2 WC: What is the single best piece of advice you can give to people looking to promote their persistent world or fansite?

Brandon: The good news is it has never been easier to promote anything than it is today. And, it will only get easier as communication technology continues to advance at its current pace.

However, all of this ease of communication comes with a price. It's REALLY noisy out there. It's so easy that everyone's doing it for just about everything you can imagine -- from funny viral videos to email scams to myspace websites to legitimate products we might actually care about. And, this "noise" exists no matter what you're doing -- even a module or persistent world is competing against every other module maker out there. It's niche noise, but noise nonetheless.

So, it's easy to get the word out, but you're competing with all of that noise, what do you do? Generally, the solution lies in doing several things consistently well. First, you absolutely must be proactive in widely communicating the existence of your product, whether it is posting on forums, sending out news announcements or any number of related activities. With the speed of communication today, people expect faster and more regularly updated information than ever before, which means you also need to be consistently communicating news, updates and related information about your product. Another important aspect (possibly the most important) of your communication outreach efforts is to be extremely responsive to anyone and everyone who may have questions, suggestions or whatever. Acknowledging everyone even if it's to say you'll get back to them later is worth its weight in gold.

Strangely enough, those are pretty much the keys to success for any PR and community management campaign -- be proactive, be communicative and be responsive.

Shane: For me the single biggest piece of advice I can say is that there is no such thing as "to many" fan sites or a community that is "to big". Try and use the community as a big support team. Get to know the other fan site managers. Become part of the network. They say attitude is everything, and that's really true for aspiring Fan Site and Persistent World managers. How you approach the community will largely dictate how the community relates to you. Like I said before avoid being competitive and combative it you find yourself in disagreements. The Internet and NWN2 is plenty big enough for everyone. Cooperation, coordination, and enthusiasm are the keys to managing a great site and helping the overall community grow and prosper.

WOW, that was so Tony Robbins!

NWN 2 WC: What other expert advice would you give to site or world owners?

Brandon: You do have to make a quality product, or else it won't matter how proactive, communicative or responsive you are.

Shane: The best fan-sites are the ones that take their "journalism" seriously. When I say seriously I mean they be objective, be fair and try and keep their own opinion out of the news they report as much as possible. The best world sites really immerse the reader into the world itself.

There is no such thing as giving to much information or trying too hard to convey what makes your world cool.

NWN 2 WC: What type of character do you anticipate creating for NWN 2? ;)

Brandon: I've always split my time between playing ranger-y characters and slightly evil spell casters. So, there's no doubt I'll be playing a Warlock in Neverwinter Nights 2 and who wouldn't play a 3.5 Ranger? Can you say Haxx0r?

Shane: When I play D&D I usually always play fighter characters. I'll probably mess around with some of the various prestige classes like the weaponsmaster. Or, a Drow with two swords. Kidding! Well probably kidding.

NWN 2 WC: Add anything here you'd like to include.

Brandon: Thanks for the interview!

Shane: The best thing about working in games is you get to help entertain people. Our job is to literally to facilitate information about something people want to do for fun and amusement. So with that in mind, if you have not seen this video you simply must!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7521044027821122670

Enjoy!

NWN 2 WC: Thanks guys...and that movie is a HOOT!