Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Something... Something... Dark Side. Something... Something... Tweet



I've been meaning to do a blog about this for some time now, and recent events (our first ever forums have launched!) have returned it to the forefront of my confused animal brain. I am speaking, of course, about the recent canoodling between XSEED and that shape-shifting tart, Social Media.

With the recent spate (well, recent for XSEED anyway) of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, companies are finding new and frightening ways to slide their products into even the barest moments of your life. 140 characters and 4.4 seconds is all you need for a tweet. A Facebook action can be limited (but no less potent) to a single click of the “Like” button, and getting traction on Digg requires nothing more than a perfect storm of boredom and fast internet connections. We, too, hope to take advantage of your procrastinating ways by signing up for these communication sites, but which is best, and will they last?

Here at the XSEED office I’m pondering these things as we slowly but surely make headway into building a real community. I say “slowly” because every employee is usually inundated with actual ‘game’ work, and my shamefully Luddite heart rebels each time I have to learn the workings of some new service. Thus far, XSEED's glacier-like pace into the new world has produced a blog (hello!), several Facebook pages, a Twitter account, forums, and a brief moment of spasmodic seizures when it was suggested that we make a MySpace page before the fall of that mighty, image-flashing giant. It's hard to say what effect such media has had on our sales, but I do feel a kind of intangible sense of community starting to take form from the primordial ooze and, if twitter is any indication, it just keeps growing.

But... my hopelessly cynical outlook also cheerfully informs me that the conception, birth and death of a tweet can all occur within the time it takes you to refresh the page. A Facebook post may be buried instantly under the ever-present nuisance of 'Lil Green Patch requests, and forums may fail to catch fire and simply peter out in an embarrassing way. The only certain thing about these communication devices is that, much like the lettuce and tomato on a certain sandwich serve as an eloquent vehicle to propel the bacon into the mouth, XSEED needs these kinds of media to present our games in a way that reaches as many hungry gamers as we can. As we are not known for big-time marketing endeavors (due to our extremely limited resources), this little extra reach is essential.

So, if we may have a little back and forth on this topic (I shall duly post this in the forums and on twitter as well), what say you?

Is it (blog, Facebook, twitter, forums, etc) working? Which serves you best? Do you feel within hand-holding distance of XSEED now? Do you consider yourself a member of our community yet? Would you wear a “Pikkards: Nature’s Candy” t-shirt if one were made? Most importantly...

If we build it, will you come?


-Jess (Senior Editor, Community Manager, Bacon Enthusiast)

XSEED BLOG: http://xseedgames.blogspot.com/
XSEED Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/XSEEDGames
XSEED Twitter: http://twitter.com/xseedgames
XSEED Forums: http://xseedgames.com/forums/

12 comments:

  1. Guess I have to recomment. D:

    I really do feel like I'm a part of the XSEED community! Never before have I had the chance to communicate with the localization team of any games that I like before I got Twitter (and Facebook too, but I'm rarely on that sorta)! It's a great feeling to be able to thank those that worked on the games personally.

    It's really nice to be able to talk to staff and give them feedback on what they do, and to show them that you're supporting them!

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  2. Whoops, screwed up with my username. Apologies for the comment spam and screw up. D:

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  3. Well, I hope we can do a great community! I also want to see how you guys work!

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  4. I really like the connecting with fan stuff that has been rolled out in a glacial way. A media blitz is hard to keep up with most of the time. As for what I like best, facebook is checked most regularly, blogs are easy to follow if they are not updated 50 times a day and forums are great to check back on as the basic forums can show what is new since you last visited (as in new posts/replies/topics) so it all works out in the end. Twitter is neat but not for everyone.

    Keep doing what you're doing and it will get the message across.

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  5. I feel all warm and toasty every time I see a new XSEED blog post show up in my RSS reader. Oh wait, I'm on fire. Crapspackle.

    Since I already posted a unnecessarily detailed response over on the forums, I'll sum up my thoughts to the post here: Yes, all serve a unique purpose, I feel XSEED and I are nearing 2nd (creepy, I know), indeed, YES, and without hesitation.

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  6. As a newcomer to the XSEED site, I'd like to at least give my two cents...

    Since about a year ago, I've noticed that a bunch of my favorite games are localized and distributed by XSEED: the Ys series, Lunar Silver Star Harmony, Sky Crawlers, Half-Minute Hero to name a few...and you continue to churn out high quality releases all the time! That's not just some coincidence.

    I'm happy to support a company like XSEED, because you guys truly seem passionate about about every game that you sell and you always make sure that the fans are satisfied. This doesn't go unnoticed! There are people out there that want these imports! We don't get to experience some games from Japan here in the States and it sucks to miss out.

    It's just my personal preference, but I don't normally use social networking sites, so forums and blogs are just perfect for me. Facebook would be good too though.

    I hope you guys will continue to keep in touch with your fanbase! I feel like I'm contributing to something bigger than myself. Maybe if we work together, then we can keep getting some really high caliber stuff from Japan and make sure that XSEED keeps thriving!

    Thank you XSEED!

    P.S. I'm currently looking into that Premium Edition of Trails In The Sky (wink wink).

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  7. I wish you would update the blog more. I think it's really cool that there are forums now. I signed up seconds after they were announced. I go to the Xseed website pretty often, but I keep most in touch with Twitter and Facebook when it comes to announcements and Xseed news. Like, for example I found out you could get a limited edition item from Ys Seven by pre-ordering Ys I&II. If I had not seen that on Facebook and Twitter I might not have ever found out about it. I would also check the blog more if it was updated regularly. I for one really appreciate the games you are bringing over. I love Japanese culture so I'm just totally rolling in heaven with all the Japanese games, anime, and manga that are available. People like me really from the heart appreciate what your company does.

    And one other thing, can you please remove the box off your head???:) I'm sure wearing that 24/7 can become very trying.

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  8. Social media is cool, but I just wish you guys would update your website more frequently. A lot of times you'll have announced new games, but there is little to no information on them on your site (ie. There's a Wizardry website but no announcement or info about it on the main XSEED site). That's where I would start.

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  9. Let me remove my foot from my mouth. I see the announcement...

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  10. I just discovered the Blog, and I like it. Similar to previous comments: I love having the possibility to thank you for some awesome releases. To this day I spend a good 10 hours a week making new beats in the KORG-DS 10, and if you could serve as a proxy/repository for Cyberconnect2, I owe my current career as a game designer/artist to Tail Concerto! I always loved games, but that one just hit me in the head like a (good) ton of bricks :D

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  11. I don't usually read blogs, but i wandered here after wandering to kotaku and reading about you all and then to your facebook and then your website and then the store and now the blog. I think facebook is probably the best and easiest way to keep in touch with the most people. I love seeing you all actually reply to peoples interests and requests. Makes the whole localization publishing process seem much more understandable and less like a lottery where most of my favorite series only see half of their games in the united states.

    Also, I'm, holding out hope of one day seeing Front Mission 5 Localized for the United states. Even if its on ps3 or vita digitally.

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