The vast majority of the players in the video game industry don't get branding. Most community sites geared towards gamers look the same, are full of similar content and are a usability nightmare. The only people that understand usability, branding and aesthetics in the gaming industry seem to be the people who make the games. Think about it - when was the last time you saw a video game menu that was cluttered full of information, hard to navigate and unattractive? I can't think of one - especially not in the past few years. So why are all the gaming sites, which are geared towards the same audience, so dull and uninspiring? Why not make a site that looks and acts like a game menu? We think that very premise is where we will get a lot of our differentiation - how we will zig rather than zag as Neumeier puts it.
Our site looks, feels and acts differently than anything else in the space. It is designed to create the tribal gut feeling reaction that makes a brand charismatic. We're working daily on improving upon how we communicate the brand and we've got more work to do to make it clear, simple and compelling. We want to be the Halo of online gaming communities. Why Halo? Because it's got a great brand that's why! There's a reason why it's the biggest entertainment release of all time, why star director Peter Jackson has been trying for years to to make a movie based on the franchise - BRAND!
We're laying the ground work for extensions to our site to reinforce and bolster our tribe. We're building the story line and characters for a web comic based on the TitanStrike universe, a podcast discussing games/technology/music/movies, and challenges pitting our users against gamer celebrities. All of these extensions are meant to compliment the brand and create a movement.
We think this will speak to people - but at the end of the day as Marty puts it:
A brand is what THEY say it is - not what YOU say it is
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