With
all the modern forms of digital media, it is difficult for sites to stand out
and be innovative or new. One such site
is the online forum and social site Battlelog for the multiplayer
game Battlefield 3. Created by Dice, the
same company that produces the Battlefield franchise, this online community is
designed to enable players to communicate, comment on games, and view the stats
of their friends; this game is rapidly changing the way videogame multi-player experiences
are innovated. Tracking stats and
friends is just part of the site, with plenty of extra features and planned
content for members at no additional cost.
It comes as no surprise that since the debut, Battlelog has received mass
quantities of press and interest by other game developers.
In
modern gaming, your statistics serve as an overview of how you do in games and
how other members of the gaming community view you. With innovative technology like Battlelog,
any player can be instantly searched and reviewed for parties or special game
events. For avid gamers or competitive
players, simple stat-sharing is critical when looking for opportunities to play
against other skilled players, sometimes even for monetary gain in
competitions. In a recent interview with
PCGamer,
a Dice employee was quoted saying “It [Battlelog] lets players recruit friends
into your squad and specify a server to play on, all from the comfort of a
browser window.” Though this may not sound
impressive to some, it should be noted that this system was developed with the
intention of crossing PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms. All of these platforms have their own systems
in place making it a difficult challenge to link them all together. The designers made the interface radically
simple and very straightforward, plus they used a Facebook-esque layout to
further simplify the ability to communicate with fellow Battlefield 3 players.
Possibly
the most notable innovation in Battlelog is the mix of social media incorporated
into the site itself. When a gamer
creates and links their Battlelog account with their Battlefield 3 game, they
are also given the option to link Twitter and Facebook accounts to Battlelog as
well. Such an interconnected system has
never been seen in gaming, and lets users share their stats over multiple media
platforms. Looking back at the reading
for “Always
Already New,” it is interesting to think of Battlelog as a distant relative
to the H-Bot that was created to help university students research specific
dates in history. I always find it
amazing to look at the precursors to media like Battlelog and see what has
developed in the time between. With
media moving so quickly, it is exciting to see where media technology like
Battlelog will take us in the years to come.
The gamers are not the only ones
who gain from this, however. With every
tweet or post about their in-game achievements, Battlelog users are spreading
the word about Battlefield 3 to their friends.
I believe this type of advertisement system is what Manovich was
describing in their article
on the evolution of media. Throughout
the article, Manovich comments on how the current path of media is little more
than improvements on the previous media technology and that there are distinct
roots that all lead back to the now primitive media techniques. This is also pertinent to the book The Medium is the
Massage in the method of conveying new media. When you look at Battlelog as a form of
mass-marketing for the Battlefield franchise, it is clear that the business plan
in mass-multiplayer gaming has shifted from the traditional “seeing is
believing” approach into a “keeping up with the Jones’” methodology. Though Battlelog is a huge step in the media
of online games, it is a simple combination of many different outlets in an
effort to use Battlefield 3 community members to advertise the game instead of
putting large sums of money into television or computer advertisements.
Main opposition comes from members
of the Battlefield community who feel Battlelog does not do an adequate job in
matching gamers into lobbies. There are
countless forums and threads about the petty issues Battlelog has, but a
particular thread on notbookreview.com
took a poll on the overall satisfaction with Battlelog only to find that about
half of the voters agreed that Dice should get rid of Battlelog altogether. Further inspection of the voters, however,
shows that a majority of those who do not favor Battlelog are looking for a
system to place them into games based on their statistics which is not what
Battlelog was created for. In the
article mentioned earlier about the interview with the Dice employee, the main
function of Battlelog is to let Battlefield 3 members communicate and share
their stats and achievements with other community members. From the foundation that has been created,
there is little to no doubt that in time, a system for matchmaking can be implemented. Like all things, however, this is a
development that will take time to reach full potential. Though digital media evolves in one week what
takes biological evolution decades, online members will just have to be a
little more patient and enjoy the digital marvel that is the current Battlelog.
Since its debut in the gaming
world, Battlelog has made a stir that few media forms ever achieve. Joining the elite ranks of Facebook and
Twitter, and partially riding the coattails of their success, Battlelog has
proven itself worthy of the title “artifact.”
By linking gamers of the Battlefield community, Dice has started a new
wave of media in mass-multiplayer games that will be wonderfully new territory
for other game developers to explore. In
this new territory, all roots will lead back to the advances made by Dice and
Battlelog, and will serve to remind future gamers where such innovative forms
of digital media began. Being a relatively
new form of digital media that relies on an annually replaced game franchise,
the future of Battlelog is anything but certain. One thing that is clear, though, is Battlelog
has definitely placed a steadfast flag in the shifting pixels of the digital
world.
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