The TrendWatch

I believe user generated content is undergoing a maturing phase. In the beginning, users would exercise their free speech throughout the web in a direct yet chaotic fashion. There was no actual guidance for these users as they would post whatever they liked or felt like. In time, brands and products start recognizing the potential of this trend and started figuring what could they do to turn UGC into something useful (or profitable).

In case you are wondering, this isn’t an article on UGC history. It’s actually about how one product, a videogame, used the user’s opinion directly on their product and succeeded on adapting a classic into a new classic. I’m talking, of course, of Street Fighter IV.

Street Fighter IV needs no introduction IMO. Basically everyone played Street Fighter II – defined what 2D fighting games are and is still considered an amazing fighting game. Several games have appeared since the popularity burst of Street Fighter II (since Street Fighter I) was… not that good) – like the Street Fighter Alpha Series, Street Fighter III – 3rd Strike or the 3D experiment-gone-wrong Street Fighter Ex. But since Street Fighter II nothing actually memorable had come in the former games besides new characters and updated graphics. But it all sounded the same and a worthy successor was still to be found.

And then Street Fighter IV comes along. In a time where fighting games are all moving towards the 3D arenas, Street Fighter’s developers thought differently – they knew their consumers, they knew what they liked. So, a game was created in which 2D was mixed with 3D in a way new and old player both would enjoy. Better yet – they kept their old saying “easy to play but very hard to master”. Which means you can enjoy the same difficulty level on medium that you could enjoy on the first Street Fighter IV. And where did all this input come from? Directly from the consumers!

Besides this, the original arcade Street Fighter IV had a determined rooster of characters. For the console launch they decided to place a few extra characters. To decide which characters they were placing, an online pool was held where the users voted on a few old Street Fighter Characters. The result was that the 4 top voted characters were placed on the game! This is what you call pure User Generated Gaming – the developers just took the players input to create a game that is considered by many as the best fighting game developed. And did I mention it has an almost flawless online mode?

What can we learn from this? First of all, UGC might be disappearing as we know it as the users are starting to focus their content generation efforts with an actual purpose besides just exercising their free will. Brands and companies are the main winners from this effect – using the right tools online allows them to put the users working in behalf of their products. Either by submitting a video that might turn into an ad or giving input on a product, UGC is starting to reveal a true purpose for Brands. And guess what – as the Street Fighter fans might say, it’s a win/win situation for both consumers and brands.