The night before BlizzCon, a quartet of StarCraft fans holed themselves up at the Anaheim Marriott, huddled over their laptops. They didn’t talk to one other, only typed away.
They were chatting with readers of their fan sites – SCLegacy.com, StarCraft2forum.org and StarCraft.org. Many couldn’t make it to the show, a 2-day fan convention for Irvine game maker Blizzard Entertainment that ended Saturday. By the end of the live-blogging session, they were astounded by the number of readers who participated in the Q&A.
“250 readers,” whooped Ryan “LordofAscension” Tower, who runs SCLegacy.com, one of the oldest fan sites dedicated to the 1998 game from Irvine game developer Blizzard Entertainment.
“Really?” said Jonathan “Joneagle_X” Tietz, administrator of StarCraft2forum. “No way!”
Combined, the three sites get a few thousand visitors a month. They produce in-depth analyses, interviews and battle reports. In return, there’s some money from ads, “but not enough to live on,” said Tower, a 22-year-old tax accountant from Michigan.
But passion like that doesn’t go unnoticed. These are official Blizzard fan sites. They agreed to provide certain details to Blizzard certain things in exchange for some perks. One perk: A free airline ticket to BlizzCon, which Tower gave to Ben Barrett, a staff member in Scotland.
“I’m 18. This is probably my most important thing on my CD (resume),” said Barrett, who can’t believe he snagged a free ticket to BlizzCon. “If someone told me two years ago that I’d be in a hotel being interviewed like this and in the U.S., I wouldn’t have believed them.”
Blizzard has a “couple hundred” official fan sites out of the thousands that exist, said Paul Sams, the company’s chief operating officer. Official sites must publish weekly and must give Blizzard monthly reports on site traffic, key stories and any other pertinent details. They also agree not to violate the games’ terms of service and be supportive of the game and the company.
“There are certain fan sites that go so far above and beyond and you just want to give them greater access,” Sams said. “We (Blizzard) can only go so far. We need more help. If something challenging comes up, they’re calling the army and spreading the word.”
Official sites get a link on Blizzard’s Web site and, every now and then, an exclusive. And then there are the free trips – to Korea, Paris and Anaheim. One person from each official fan site got free airfare to BlizzCon. They also got press credentials, which get them access to the press room’s free food and game play. The travel budget for BlizzCon this year was “in the five digits,” Sams said.
“They give us coverage (opportunities) that we just couldn’t get,” said Tietz, 21, from Gainesville, Fla.
But, added Barrett, “If we did something they didn’t like, or didn’t do our monthly reports, they would take it away.”
Not every fan site wants to be official for that reason. WoW.com, which attracts millions of visitors a month, isn’t official. Previously called WoWInsider, the site doesn’t want to report back to Blizzard, said Mike Schramm, a senior editor.
“You have to agree with them that fan sites are by fans and fans are supportive of Blizzard. But we’re fans,” said Schramm, who is based in Chicago. “We just want the freedom to say they’re wrong.”
A good example was coverage of last year’s bungled BlizzCon ticket sales, which left fans frustrated. Schramm wrote a lengthy report criticizing Blizzard.
“I don’t want to take credit for it (ticket sales) being better this year, but it was better,” Schramm said.
WoW.com does have more freedom than typical fan sites in a big way: It’s part of AOL’s Weblogs Inc. The corporation pays the bills for at least 6 full-time staffers. An additional 25 writers are piece meal. While AOL usually sends a large number of WoW staffers to BlizzCon, this year, the company paid for a preshow meet-up with fans of its fan site. They had expected 200 or 300 to show up. About 1,250 attended the gathering.
“Our stated site purpose is to cover their game. Even if Blizzard never talked to us, we’d still cover their game,” Schramm said. “It’s in their best interest to sit down and talk to us.”
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Know those fancy goody bags Blizzard is giving out? We can’t keep ours so we’re going to give them away to readers. Leave a comment on any of our BlizzCon 2009 posts and when it’s all over, we’ll put all the names in a digital hat and pick some winners. Good luck!
Coverage so far:
