Diablo 3: Appealing to the Casual Gamer

Blizzard,

I am not here to solve all your problems. I won't go into the dreaded "end game" debate that everyone is concerned about, or any other of your seemingly countless difficulties that you must overcome. Rather, I come here to talk about a few things I have not seen brought up that will make Diablo more attractive to casual gamers (like myself) and ultimately help you make more money.


Idea #1: Hidden Items

Pretty self explanatory; consider it a game of hide and seek. The rarer the item, the harder it is to find. These items could be literally anywhere in the Diablo world and you could even make a backstory to it. Hell, you could even use this as your selling point. Maybe some items can only be found during the day (think: objects shining in the sun). Or they can only be exposed from a wall from a certain blast force. What if some hidden items weren't ever visible but you had to rely on a distinct sound made? There are tons of variables that can be considered but ultimately it creates a "holy shit I could be a few feet from the rarest item in the game at any moment" sense.

But the vast majority will not be finding these items, so what about them? I was thinking that when someone finds one of the items, this can be sent out to players on their mobile device letting them know that it was found (does Blizzard have an app? If not, that is a major leak. More on this later.). Not only can they view details of the item, but they can BID on said item. All participants will have until lets say 24 hours after the item is found to place their bid (if the finder wants to get rid of the item) to try to get the item.

I think an element of luck is exactly what's needed in a game like this, where literally the noobest of noobs could stumble upon fortune. I'm pretty much the definition of a casual gamer, and it would be much more appealing if I knew that there was an alternative method in acquiring rare items. Give the casual player something to play for.

PROS:
-Encourages exploration
-It gives casual gamers something to do/work for.
-Adds a "real time" element with participation outside of gameplay, which imo is big. I can't really think of any game where the brand connects with you outside of their game, this provides the opportunity to do so.


Idea #2: User Generated Content

Back when I was playing, one night I was getting stomped on in Vault of the Assassin (I think) and was dying. Fast. I had to GTFO. I started making my escape to find somewhere where I could use town portal, but one of the monsters (I think a doom viper) saw this and started chasing me. I was probably 1.5x faster than him so I ran to where I thought I could get out before he hit and killed me. So I stop, press T, and wait. Halfway through, the thing pops up on my screen and is coming right at me. I had to decide whether to relocate or wait it out, but I'm a gambler, so I rolled the dice. NOTE: once the DV gets to you, he sorta pauses, pulls back his spear, then jabs it at you. So he gets to me, pulls back, and EXACTLY when he went to jab at me, I disappear. He swung at air. I couldn't have timed it better if I tried again a thousand times. I can still picture it to this day. Definitely one of the highlights of my short D3 career. Yes, I did giggle like a schoolgirl.

Anyway, I thought it would make for a great commercial, which brings me to the idea of user submitted content for advertising purposes. I'm sure all types of unique situations pop up to all types of users that would make for great 15-30 second clips for outsiders to watch. Bizarre, funny, sad, perfect timing, whatever. In my opinion, it is perfect for commercial content and theoretically provides an endless stream on content. I came up with this earlier when reading about YouTube being more strict wrt copyright material, but thought YouTube is a great platform to put this on. I don't want to tell Blizzard how to spend its money but this type of content for commercial purposes would be better than 99.9% of the crap I am currently forced to watch. Each clip should basically tell a mini story that the average viewer could understand. Then you can compile all clips onto one channel so people can view on demand. Remember, Content is King! (I encourage all who are reading this to chime in with stories of your own if you have any good ones)

This brings me to the question: can users go back and review their gameplay after they are done? I haven't played for a while but I'm gonna guess no which is a problem. I think I remember this feature being on either Call of Duty or Halo? Not sure, but I think users would appreciate something like this. IF you do implement something like it, there should be a button where it saves that moment so you can go directly to it at a later time.

You can spin this off into so many things if you think about it. Reward participants if their video goes viral/if you use it in a commercial.

PROS:
-Great content
-Appealing to outsiders/potential sales
-Humor/viralability
-encourages participation beyond the actual product


Question #1: Bitcoin

This is purely thinking out loud. I'm a complete noob when it comes to Bitcoin, so maybe someone could chime in, but is it possible to use users' computers for mining purposes (assuming you have consent)? According to this one year anniversary chart, ~2.1 million users are playing on any given day. That's a lot of computing power imo.


Question #2: Diablo 3 Revenue Streams?

I can only think of 1) purchases of the game, and 2) AH commissions. AH must have not brought in that much money if you are discontinuing it, but where are you going to make up for this lost revenue?

So what are the D3 revenue streams?


Question #3: Mobile & Big Data

The only thing I could find about Blizzard using mobile after a quick search was an app for authentication purposes. Which is great and all, but I think Blizzard should consider doing more to interact with the consumer OUTSIDE of the game. Going off my hidden items idea, Blizz could put the Diablo maps within their app so users can search microscopically for the hidden items.

I can think of all types of things that can be done from a mobile perspective so I won't go into this too much, but is the authentication thing really the only mobile product they have out there?

Then there's Big Data. Obviously Blizz collects vast amounts of data and they have great products for  gaining insight to make better business decisions. What are they doing in regard to this? I'm highly interested in analytics and am simply curious about this.



General Thoughts:

Here is a good article I found when doing research:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-09-28-blizzards-success-isnt-magic-just-hard-work-and-open-minds

Blizzard obviously caters to the casuals and that article does a good job explaining why. I still think Blizzard needs to do more things to appeal to the casual gamer, and there is so much potential, but I don't think they see it yet.

Chobani

I love the use of distinct colors for each of Chobani's products, but I think they could make their packaging much more aesthetically pleasing, which will ultimately help sales. I don't like the fact that so much of its retail space is dedicated to the color white. Another gripe I have is that these cups are the most awkward thing in the world trying to hold in the same hand. Don't even THINK about holding 3 in the same hand; not gonna happen. Chobani has lost sales from me simply because I could not carry their product effectively.

There are 2 things, from a packaging perspective that need to be resolved:

-Visual/Aesthetics
-Construction

I see a lot of potential just from a visual perspective. The short answer is that I want them to have less  white and have more color; if they were to simply inverse the colors on their packaging it would look much better. I am fine with each of the specific colors, but I just think that these colors should be more prolific on each cup.

The colors are simply a visual representative of their product. Consumers are currently able to distinguish Chobani products from the rest of the yogurts, why not add emphasis on the colors and really let them stick out from competing products? This leads to the construction of the products:
I like the circular nature of the design, but I definitely hate the fact that there is a huge gap between all cups. It gives off a non-uniform look that ultimately hurts the aesthetics of the brand.

Lining up two cups side-by-side, I found that the gap between the two bottoms of the cups turned out to be 3.4 centimeters. The bottom of a single cup is 5.6 centimeters; meaning that the gap accounts for ~60.7% of the length of a single cup, which seems like a lot in my view. From a geometric perspective: if you were to see two cups side-by-side as a trapezoid, the gap in the middle accounts for roughly ~10% of the area in the trapezoid. Maybe not too much, but it adds up, especially from a real estate perspective.

Anyways, the point is that the gap doesn't look good. There is some great potential for Chobani to really separate themselves from other products if:

1. They use each of their colors as primary colors, instead of the current secondary color look
2. Uniform design was implemented. It is a bonus Chobani product are mostly (or always) placed together; take advantage of this and give your products a "connected" feel.
3. The products are stackable. I'm a poker guy so let me say that this is a "leak" that needs to be plugged.

As I said, as much white as possible should be  eliminated, evidenced by:

In settings like these, nothing about Chobani really stands out.

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That was only looking at your brand from a visual perspective. I have plenty of other considerations that you should look over if you want to keep consumers interested in your brand:

• Rewards system. I personally buy plenty of Chobani cups; it would be nice that if I bought a certain amount, I could be rewarded in some way. Since you have so many flavors, make a game out of it. I think the easiest way for someone to account for all the cups they buy is that once you purchase the product from a store, you can scan each barcode with your phone, and your Chobani app keeps tab of all the product you buy. I just checked my iPhone and see that you DON'T have an iOS app. It's 2013; that should be a crime. 2 clicks: open app, press scan. It's as easy as that. #ChobaniPoints
• Social. I'm sure some great pictures can be made from the visual colors of your products. Chobani should take advantage of this in the social space. Maybe even make a competition where others can vote their favorite picture and winners earn #ChobaniPoints
• I read somewhere that you weren't currently interested in expanding your product line. That's fine, but for future consideration: yogurt parfait & froyo.

"Lunch" break at work. Making my own parfait. Plain @Chobani yogurt w/strawberries 🍓🍓 pic.twitter.com/yCHQDCDszF
— Shelby (@Shelby_TIU) July 29, 2013

When froyo is closed, make your own 👍🍦🍑#chobani #chocolatecoverdalmonds #peaches @chobani http://t.co/85Hv0yFbnD
— Cait (@pieceof_cait) August 14, 2013

MLB Content Idea: Foul Balls

There is no moment quite like a foul ball moment. For that one point in time, nothing in the world is more important than that baseball to the fans who are near it. Heroes are born; cowards exposed. Chaos, confusion, and hilarity are only a few nouns to describe it. While we don't know when, where, and with whom this moment will occur, we do know that it is great content.

Foul ball pictures are a great example of undervalued content. These pictures provide a never-ending flux of variability. Maybe I am just a sucker for these types of candid moments, but it seems like a great opportunity to capitalize on. I see a scenario where MLB captures every foul ball moment and creates an additional revenue stream from it. In this world where one attracts eyeballs for ad dollars, this seems like a no brainer. Product placement has some potential here too.

It is also the perfect type of content for mobile and social media. These pictures provide constantly original material that can also be spun off in alternative ways to engage with the fans.

-Best of the Best (based on 1-10 ratings scale)
-Tagging individuals on Facebook/Twitter (I think people will think it would be pretty cool if they can be tagged in brand pictures; this product provides an opportunity to do so. I bet there would be plenty of people who would even make it their profile picture.) Heck, even make the comments section only available to them so they can share the moment together.


All it really takes is a few strategically placed cameramen at every game whose sole purpose is to capture these moments.