The Beta News

I’ve had this post in my head for quite some time. I’m not sure if it will work, but I have to get it out of my head. I tried stabbing my brain with Q-tips, but it doesn’t help anymore.

Statement: Blogging is just like a massively multi player online game, it could be World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, Eve Online or one of the many other MMOs out there.

That’s quite a bold statement some might say. Oh yeah? Allow me to explain.

I’ve played MMORPGs since Ultima Online back in 1997, I gave Everquest one a go after that, but Everquest 2 is where I’ve spent a lot of my time.

I co-founded one of the oldest guilds on the Highkeep server, it was called The Arcane Order. I was a guild leader for several years until I retired over a year ago.

With my MMO experience backing me up, I can safely make this comparison. Blogging is like playing a MMO.

I’ll start out with the Multiplayer Online part:

1. On every MMO server there are celebrities ie. the coolest guild, players with the best gear, the guilds that beat the toughest raids, the best crafter and so forth.
2. When one of these celebrity players say something in the global chat channel, everybody chimes in. Answer their questions, laugh at their jokes or join their groups.
3. The biggest player celebrities also have most followers. What you say in the chat is often true and people tend to follow what they say and talk about it.
4. The celebs are often also among the wealthiest people on the server.
5. They are often among the first to reach the highest level, complete difficult quests and try out new things.
6. They work really hard and spent most of their time in the game improving their skills.
7. They keep their friend’s list updated all the time, they network and form guilds. However most guilds doesn’t accept anyone. If you play a fighter and they need a wizard, you have to be damn good fighter to be invited.
8. Both husband and wife plays the game.
9. From time to time a player may get a little too cocky and get a warning from a gamemaster.

Now I think you can see what I’m getting at, but to make sure let me explain with a corresponding number of points.

1. In the blogosphere there are celebrities each in their own domain. The blogging experts, the coding experts, the monetizing experts and so forth.
2. When one of these experts or celebrities say something on their blog it creates a wave through a lot other blogs. The global chat channel can be their blog or twitter. They can ask any question on twitter and get at least 50 different answers.
3. If Robert Scoble decides that he prefers Kyte instead of Qik, then Qik might as well just sell their servers to Kyte. If Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) doesn’t like a new start-up, thats not a good start.
4. Shoemoney’s Adsense cheque picture made him famous, Darren Rowse makes a living out of blogging too and with the referral money he earns every day I’m sure he lives ok. Same goes for John Chow.
5. You’ll often see A-list blogger first movers on new services and applications. FriendFeed couldn’t have made it without the attention from Louis Gray.
6. You don’t become a pro-blogger over night. It takes a lot of work, research and not just the right gear.
7. What would the blogsphere be without networks? Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, Mashable, b5-media, Gawker and many more. Aren’t they really a guild? You just can’t join them, you have to be invited and only if your blog meets the requirements.
8. Both husband and wife blogs, sometimes on the same blog.
9. The blogosphere doesn’t have any gamemaster or moderator (thank you for that), but it has some great people, who reminds it not to get too serious all the time. Loren Feldman is one of them. His satiric movies can really make your day.

Now there is one significant thing that sets the blogsphere apart from World of Warcraft or Everquest 2. On World of Warcraft the celebrity player can be a 13-year old kid, who has too much time on his hands and a big ego.

I haven’t seen many 13-year old kids making a living out of blogging…

So is my comparison too far fetched? Did I forget anything?

Thank you very much to Mostly Lisa for letting me borrow the photo.