Roboculture

Love em' or hate em', you gotta give props to Blizzard. The reason why these guys rule compared to Harmony Gold's current marketing management is because they love their public. They understand not only the needs of the convention goer, but also for the average internet savvy fan as well.

There are literally dozens of videos of panels featuring their Creative Team (Chris Metzen, Rob Pardo, etc.) talking to their fans all the juicy details you want to hear about Blizzard products. Nothing is left out as convention-goers and internet people get equal chances in seeing all this cool stuff without waiting months on end for a "formal press release" Man, Harmony Gold's internet support blows.

I salute the Blizzard Team for their superior marketing. 

I've ranted long enough. If you've been in the gaming scene long enough, you may have heard of a product called Starcraft II. Ring any bells? Well, Blizzard released a tantalizingly short video featuring the Single-player campaign, and the new features are, while not completely original, are given so that they could expand on the Starcraft lore. What do I mean?

If you watch the demo of the campaign, there will be a scene showing the main characters standing on the bridge of the Battleship "Hyperion".

You can click around the battleship such as other idle characters, the various displays showing the stats of your mission and many other cool little nuggets.

Now what interested me was the introduction of the Galactic Map. Not new, right? Well, its still cool, because according to the developers, they created the map to expand upon the Lore.

Clicking on a system would detail the details of the planet, such as a brief video archiving its history, and its role in the greater conflict. I think this is really awesome because Starcraft is this... original franchise, and you have this company so committed in building up a rich science fiction history and stuff. I think it gives a little more weight to the galaxy.

What is my point in all of this? Do I expect Harmony Gold to actually do some world-building in the Robotech franchise? Of course not. Its management in some sense will not budge unless you have a personal relationship with Steve or Tommy Yune, the company's Double Team.

I just brought this up because for the next two years, the Robotech franchise might not have anything to by with beyond breakable toys-for-the-big-boys. It's really up to the fans to show their committment to the show they grew up with. You know, write fiction. Dream beyond The Shadow Chronicles. Draw. Build upon the established and decanonized lore. DO SOMETHING.

It doesn't have to be limited to a galactic map. The idea can obviously spread to other world-building aspects. Blizzard is just one of the more visible things I've seen on the net - about one company as enthusiastic as its fans, both convention-goer and internet-based. Sadly, this is not the case with Harmony Gold.

Their idea of enjoying the franchise is for you to attend their conventions. To hell with this mentality.