DAY 2 - Monday started early (a bit too early for me) and fast. Luckily though I got too meet up with some familiar faces to start off from our friends @OPM_UK (Official Playstation Magazine UK), PC Zone, OXM UK and many others. What exactly we talked about I can’t say. As I said, it’s all about pacing with this type of stuff and trust me, it works on in your favor in the long the run. While the middle of the day is under wraps, dinner that night introduced me to a new love of mine…. MEXICAN DONUTS. An absurdly delicious and near-deadly of donuty-powdersugared-toffeetdipped dessert served at the restaurant in our hotel. While 2 could probably be considered unhealthy consumption of sugar, I snuck about 8 more orders onto the bill and stuffed my face like I was dying the next day. (which I felt like doing after the 9th Mexican Donut)
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure where French Fries got their name or if France is related at all really, but these will the most killer Fries I’ve ever had. Fantastic homemade french fries. I also got a desert of ice cream in the form of French Vanilla (honestly, I wasn’t just eating food with ‘French’ in the title on purpose, it just worked out that way…… REALLY!).
Ended out the day back at the hotel fighting with the local wifi to try and receive some assets from the guys back at IW studio for approval. Once that was done, it’s time to get some well needed sleep before another 7 AM start to the 2 days in Paris. Rinse and repeat then we’re off to Germany!
I’ve been advocating the power of Twitter pretty hardcore recently, especially the value in using it as a conversation tool and more importantly tracking those conversations and using the feedback contained within. That philosphy gave birth to http://twitter.infinityward.com . A Twitter web-app for tracking conversations and feedback for Modern Warfare 2 we’ve been developing behind the scenes.
The #MW2 app went live earlier today Yesterday, and within an hour has officially become the #1 most talked about topic on Twitter (just behind American Idol). I was blown away with the response to our first question, “Name one thing you’d like to see in Modern Warfare 2″ .
However, the ability to see real-time feedback and conversations about Modern Warfare 2 feeding through the app is only the beginning. The best part is the ability to vote on suggestions and rise in the ranks on the Leaderboards. Allowing us to quickly check the top rated suggestions, and reach out to the users with the best suggestions to hopefully include them in future events, beta tests, or community days.
When a question is asked, all you have to do is tweet your answer / suggestion along with #MW2 .
What is #MW2?
#MW2 is the official Hashtag for Modern Warfare 2. Which means, anytime I,or anyone else, is talking about Modern Warfare 2 on Twitter, we’ll mark it with #MW2 so it can be tracked and included on the http://twitter.infinityward.com live feed as well as searched for on Twitter.
#MW2 Leaderboards
Once you’ve thrown your suggestion or comment about Modern Warfare 2 into the Live Feed, you can track and vote on other peoples suggestions, and track the top users on the #MW2 Leaderboard. It’s a great way to get recognized in the community and I’ll be using it to identify community members to reach out to in Call of Duty / Infinity Ward future events and projects.
Feedback on the App
This is a fairly unique social media experiment in terms of using it to solicit feedback for game design. So any comments, suggestions, or feedback on how to make the #MW2 app even better is always appreciated. I’m always looking for new ways to reach out to our players and strike up a conversation. Feel free to drop me a line at robert.bowling@fourzerotwo.com with any inquiries about the web app, or how you can help.
It’s been a busy last few weeks, and it’s getting busier by the day. Tomorrow night though, I’m going to be taking some time out to attend a charity event I’m excited about called Twestival LA. It’s one of many Twestivals happening around the country that’s being organized through Twitter and supports the cause of Charity:Water. You can learn more about the event at http://givewaterla.org/ .
Essentially though, the goal of the charity is to collect donations that will help provide clean water via the construction of wells in underdeveloped countries. If you buy a child a bottle of water, you help them get through the day. If you provide them the means to build a well, you help their entire village for a lifetime.
So if you’re in the LA area tomorrow night and want to hang out, I’ll be at Club 740
I’ll be hooking up the volunteers of the event with some Call of Duty 4 water bottles while I’m there. I figured Charity:Water…. COD4 Water Bottles. Seems like a good fit eh?
If you plan on attending, let me know! I’d love to hang out while you’re there. Drop me an email, or hit me up on Twitter @ www.twitter.com/fourzerotwo
I’ll keep this short, considering I made about 10,000 tweets while there and I don’t want to repeat the entire trip, but I’m finally back from a week-long stint at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
The quick re-cap is:
Black Dynamite is absolutely amazing. Instant classic, and apparently got picked up by Sony Pictures for a cool $2 Million just after the premiere screening. So congrats guys.
Second best part of Sundance was the premiere of the Nazi Zombie slaying flick from Norway called Dead Snow. Note the (slightly blurry) pic above with said Nazi Zombie. If you can’t tell, his costume was awesome. (UPDATE: Dead Snow got picked up for distro by IFC films!!)
Ran into Computer, from ThreeSixMafia’s crew. Seriously one of the funniest people I’ve met in all my life. Eventually he ended up just crashing out at one of the parties:
Also ended up playing a little Call of Duty with Efren Ramirez aka Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite back at our place.
(holy shit, why do I look like I’ve never been in contact with sunlight?! PALE!)
Park City was a beautiful town which I hope to revisit at some point when it isn’t being temporarily transformed into Mini-Hollywood w/ snow. Aside from Paris Hilton nearly making me piss myself; All in all, it was one hell of a trip filled with lots of snow, lots of shows, and lots of tweeting.
If you’re interested in the full story int he form of a day by day rundown of the festivities, hit up the twit: www.twitter.com/fourzerotwo
If you’re not already addictively twittering, then I’m sure you’ve at least heard about it by now. As it’s hard to miss my personal account @fourzerotwo which is syndicated on the left-side of this blog. Twitter is a micro-blogging (140 character limit to be exact) service, which allows you to make quick and easy updates regarding “What you’re doing”, wherever you are. With the help of web and mobile apps like Twitteriffic on iPhone or TwitPic online, you can also attach photos and GPS coordinates to your updates.
Simple concept that seems to be oddly polarizing for people. Either you totally get it or you are completely boggled by it’s usefulness. I for one, LOVE IT. It was literally my life-line for the 3-something weeks I was on vacation with no access to a computer.
I kept tabs on the Gaza Strip Conflict via CNN’s Breaking News twitter @CNNbrk , stayed in tune with some of my favorite bands as they went through the recording studio, via Bad Religion guitarist and Epitaph Records head-honcho Brett Gurewitz twitter @OblivionPact (which led to the official Epitaph twitter being made @EpitaphRecs), and kept up on Gaming specific news among many site’s Twitter feeds, including @Kotaku.
In short, Twitter has personalized, summerized, and made the internet intimate again. Providing me 140 character bursts of information every minute, straight to my phone / email / other device of my choosing albeit the fact it also helped to further destroy my already limited attention span - but honestly, who needs one of those in this day and age.
While I’ve obviously been using Twitter personally for quite sometime, I’ve finally launched an Official Infinity Ward Twitter @Infinity_Ward this past week. Which I plan to update strictly with PR friendly updates, studio news, job postings, and some free DLC codes every now and again.
Essentially, if you’re not on Twitter yet, you should be. As it’s quickly becoming THE place to source exclusive and raw news regarding just about anything, as well as giving a voyeurtastic look into the personal lives of just about anyone you could imagine, from @MCHammer to more gaming note-worthy @djaffe .
The big reason I mention it though, is because Twitter (specifically @fourzerotwo and @Infinity_Ward) are going to play a key role in getting quick and raw updates regarding the development of our future games. As I can easily update them with info, news, and even photos from anywhere I am at anytime. While @Infinity_Ward will be focused on top-level news, @fourzerotwo will be chockfull of a more personal look and more in-depth details throughout development of our future games.
So try it out, go to Twitter.com, sign-up, and start tweeting. You’d be surprised by the people who are interested in listening or the amount of people you’d be interested in following. To get you started, here are just a few of the people I find interesting to follow:
Update: Sam “QforQ” Houston posted a comprehensive list of all the video game companies and people on Twitter for you to follow. Pretty handy resource for those new to twitter. Check it outhere.
Back from PAX! This weekend was insane. With just under 60,000 gamers, nerds, and the like converging on Seattle this past weekend; I was seriously in sensory overload. By far, the best part of PAX was the people. I met sooo many amazing people this weekend, hung out and just played / talked games. It was great to meet everyone, especially those from the community. Such as when I met up with TJ, one of our PS3 community members, (see:above pic) and hung out on Saturday. We hit up the show floor, checking out the booths and even inadvertently won a SOCOM: Confortation mini-tournament. I added the prize to the gaggle of swag the show had to offer:
… and that was just from the first day. The good stuff (including an exclusive Fallout 3 poster) came the next day. Fallout 3 was definitely the game of the show, with an incredible booth, complete with post-apocalyptic “booth babes”:
The game looks amazing, and is probably one of my most anticipated games to come out this year. Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead were both playable and looking fantastic, along with Gears of War 2, Spore, Mirrors Edge and quite a few more. It was cool to hear Call of Duty 4 being referenced when people were demoing games, such as:
Player: “What are the controls?”
Dev: “It’s just like Call of Duty 4, sooooo.”
When your game is being referenced as a standard for ANYTHING, you know it did something right!
After getting burnt out on the crowds of the show room floor, they had a console free play room I ended up crashing in for a few hours on Saturday night when I saw a lone Mario Kart-er looking for a challenge. That is exactly why PAX is so amazingly awesome. There is nothing like walking into a random room and sitting down to a four player game of Mario Kart with complete strangers and feeling like you’ve known them your entire life. PAX was filled with moments like that, thanks in no small part to the power of Twitter. The iPhone twitter app, Twinkle, exploded over the weekend with the amount of PAXers tweeting at the expo. I realized half of my tweets from over the weekend didn’t even publish to twitter because of Twinkle crashing, but the Near By feature was awesome for meeting up with fellow gamers around PAX. Sunday night was the craziest randomhappenstance I’ve had in years, by the end of the night our crew of 2 grew to 12 and ended in our hotel room. After taking a midnight wander through downtown seattle looking for a late night cheese burger, we ran into two fellow twitter addicts in the elevator which decided to join us. We got to a near by hamburger joint to find it closed, about the same time 3 PAX enforcers from New York were seeking some grub of their own. So the eight of us decided to seek food together and wound up at a local bar / grill called Taphouse Grill a few blocks from the convention center where we added a traveling musician from Bejing, China and a fellow PAX attendee who was hanging with him to the group. All in all we ended up eating a great dinner and then hung out in the hotel room talking games, movies, music etc. until 4 AM before we headed to the airport for a 7 am flight. Again… moments like this made PAX what it is, and why I strongly believe it is FAR more important as a gaming event than E3 has turned into. It’s about the gamers, the fans, and just geeking out something we all have a huge passion for.
Other than that, it was really cool to run into Felicia Day of Dr. Horrible / The Guild (see: above), Wil Weaton, and several others while at the show (all of which are Twitterers). Last but not least, I ran into at least one Call of Duty 4 cosplayer:
In addition to scoring a PAX exclusive shirt of Wil Wheaton’s which has my new favorite personal motto:
Can’t wait till PAX 2009, and if you aren’t already GET ON TWITTER, follow me, let’s play some games. It’s great for keeping touch with what your friends and fellow gamers are doing and joining in. Go to Twitter, sign up, go to my Twitter, follow me, and let’s play some games. Come on…. everyone’s doing it man! PEER PRESSURE!
