For the past few, Epic Games has been releasing buckets upon buckets of information weekly, (what achievements unlock what in-game unlocks, what retailer pre-order’s get you what, etc.) along with releasing two new “alternate reality” games (using that term lightly.) The first is a “Wall of Brotherhood,” an interactive ‘wall’ chronicling the past, present, and future of the men and woman of the Gears of War fiction and an interactive “COG Codes,” site in which users must log in through their Facebook account to find and enter codes found in emails, websites, blogs, and even real life to receive personalized certificates and printouts.
Now, personally I’m a fan of such gaming antics and whatnots, but the manner in which these have become available is alarming! I consider myself a gearhead and am pouring more than $600 into the latest installment, but I’ve felt quite left out! In order to find out the information that’s been released lately I’ve found myself having to spend hours scouring Epic’s poorly built forums looking for post about the latest info; Or tracking down multiple different employee’s twitter accounts in order to see when and if any new info has been tweeted.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but love for Epic Games and the products they produce, But I’m beginning to feel lost in the floodgates of social media news releases. All that Epic needs to do is slow down a bit – Maybe release weekly updates like Bungie did – just so that we, the community, don’t have to rely on the community members with free time to deliver the info.
In seems in this day in the technology age, most companies have to use social media in an attempt to better connect with their fans – something I love and have absolutely no problems with – the problem arises when a company plans to release a hit game such as Gears of War 3 and relies solely on social media. Imagine of the latest info for Modern Warfare 3 wasn’t covered by large news sites (like the Gears unlocks in question.) Now imagine that this info was released solely through Facebook, Twitter, and weekly live streams of the developers talking. Now try searching through the hazardous MW3 forums for info. Talk about a pain in the Assassins Creed (See what I did there? That was punny.)
Now, I’m not writing this to hate on Epic Games. They’re one of my favorite developers and listen to the community an insane amount – I just feel as if they’ve taken social networking a bit too far.
Have an opinion on this? Sound off in the comments.
