Exclusive: How Blizzard Drew People To Hell

A game as highly anticipated as Diablo III demands a marketing campaign that hits consumers wherever they are, whether it’s online or in front of their television. The level of passion for the game warranted a campaign designed to directly engage consumers, and that was achieved with a community site designed with the help of the Ayzenberg Group. John Pingol, Blizzard community manager for Diablo III, and Ilja Rotelli, Blizzard’s Global Director of Community & eSports, kindly answered some questions for us about the online engagement site and other aspects of the Diablo III marketing campaign.

How has your web presence evolved ever since Diablo III was initially announced?

Blizzard Community Team: The Diablo III site we launched with the announcement of the game was a fairly static ‘marketing’ site with basic enemy, class, and content information. While it was a great site with a ton of relevant content, our goal was always to create a true community-driven site that not only provides visitors with dynamic news and exclusive content (short stories, developer updates, downloadable media), but also online tools found in the game guide section, like our skill calculator and item database. These all come together on the new Diablo3.com community site we launched in August, 2011, and provides visitors with more ways to learn more about the game, get excited pre-release, and post-release serve as the primary destination for game news and info.

Talk to us about reveal.diablo3.com, and what you were looking to accomplish, and how Ayzenberg helped you reach those goals

Our main objective was to create an experience that invited people to become acquainted with the lore, setting and heroes of Diablo III. To achieve that, we empowered them to influence the outcome of the site, provide exclusive in-game rewards for participating, and provide unique and highly sharable content.

How did you coordinate with other parts of the company to make sure that elements of the web/community campaign went off synced with other parts, not the least of which being the game’s somewhat moving target of a release date?

Each of the teams within Blizzard coordinate their individual and coordinated efforts during sync-up meetings, and work to make it clear to each of the internal stakeholders any and all risks and opportunities. What really assists us is a common goal to put out the highest quality content and experience possible.

Even after the game was revealed, certain aspects of it changed as it approached release. How aware does the community team have to be about that and what do you try to communicate with fans?

When the designers are looking at a new direction for a system we’ll sit down with them to get a solid understanding as to why the change is being made, what the reaction may be, and how we can effectively inform our players. Generally, if we’re making a big change it’s because a lot of thought and effort has gone into making the decision, so we already have good reasons for why a change is being made. It’s then just a matter of anticipating various conclusions and reactions from our players and explaining the change to meet as many of those concerns and questions as possible, in a transparent and approachable way. We then watch closely, gather feedback, bring that back to the designers and address some of the follow-up concerns people have, and/or use the feedback to make any additional tweaks or changes.

Tell me about the plan to slowly roll out the announcement of classes. Was that the plan all along to do that methodical and slow revelation?

It was part of our strategy from the very beginning. With so much incredible content made specific for each class we did not feel that unleashing it all at once would do them justice. It also fit with our intent with the site to be something you want to keep coming back to. As content unlocked, people uploaded their photos, fan art was submitted to the contest, and classes became available you’d essentially always have something new to look at when you came to the site, and something new to share with your friends on Twitter or Facebook.

How was the Titmouse animation, Diablo III: Wrath, decided to be the central part of the community campaign?

We knew that the style of the video, Peter Chung’s resonance throughout geek culture, and this new take on Diablo lore and visual aesthetic through an animated short would fit perfectly as the centerpiece for the promotion. Not only was it a new venture for Blizzard, delving into 2D animation, it was something that would automatically evoke a reaction from the core community. Diablo III: Wrath was a deeper look into the Diablo universe and lore, something we knew our community was extremely hungry to learn more about. It all came together in a really perfect and somewhat unexpected way. We were really fortunate to be able to have the site compliment the Wrath short and vice versa, and hope it’s something Diablo fans will enjoy going back to and watching for years to come.

Guys, thanks.

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