Digital Deadwood site draws gamers across the globe

By Deb Holland, Journal Staff Writer | Monday, August 23, 2004

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DEADWOOD -- In the six months since its inception, Digital Deadwood has introduced cybertourists from the world over to the historic Black Hills town.

Although they have done little to advertise Digital Deadwood, developers at TDG Communications have been pleased with the flow of traffic to the site.

TDG opened the site to the world in March at www.digitaldeadwood.com. The Web site has thrived thanks to the success of HBO's original series "Deadwood," according to Dustin Floyd, administrator of the site.

TDG president and owner Tom Griffith credits Floyd and Monte Amende for working many of the 1,000 hours it took to develop the site last fall. TDG worked with Vancouver-based Orangeview Productions to create the site, and recently applied for copyright protection because, according to Griffith, the concept is a new and innovative invention.

"This is the front of the wave," he said.

Amende, TDG's creative director and one of the originators of the Digital Deadwood concept, said the original idea for the site was born last October.

"We had been playing with it in our minds, but, at that time, it began to solidify. The really serious work began in November."

One of the most difficult aspects of the site was balancing performance with user friendliness.

"We could have made it super-spectacular, but then it would only have run on 10 percent of the machines out there," Amende said.

Digital Deadwood features a virtual three-dimensional view of Deadwood's Main Street area. A visitor to the site can create his or her own character to "walk" up and down Main Street and, with a mouse click, "peek" in the doorway of each historic building on the street.

The peek reveals facts about the building and may even include a historic photo.

As visitors meet other characters on the street, they share tidbits about the town's history. Venture to Mount Moriah Cemetery, and you'll encounter Wild Bill himself. He urges you to ask him about how Wild Bill came to be in the lawless Deadwood in 1876.

Amende created most of the graphics and characters you see on the screen. He admits that the idea for moving the characters around in the virtual community actually came from watching his young son on the computer.

"He loves to go on to Nogin and Nick.com. I just thought it would be really cool if all he had to do was click and point to move the guy around town."

Creation of the characters began initially with pencil sketches.

"If you put a true proportioned human on the screen, they would look really thin, so I wanted to make them a little cartoonish with exaggerated body parts," Amende said.

Amende says that each time he finished another character, it was like giving birth and the whole office celebrated.

"It was really exciting when Wild Bill was done," the Belle Fourche native said.

Amende continues to tweak the site and will for some time to come.

"Just yesterday, I created a character for me. He looks like this little federal agent all dressed in black," he said last week.

And Amende continues to place what he calls "Easter eggs" into virtual Deadwood.

"It's like these little hidden jokes and features that create whimsy and make it fun."

When people enter the site, they are required to register their name and e-mail address. That information has gone into a database for future direct marketing to the users.

Digital Deadwood currently has about 1,600 registered accounts, Floyd said.

The average age of a visitor to the site is 35. Most are between the ages of 27 and 40.

"That is definitely who we want to attract," Floyd said. "Deadwood already draws quite a number of people in the 50-plus demographic. Attracting the young crowd is important."

And more men than women visit the site, Floyd said. Statistics show that 63 percent of Digital Deadwood account holders are men and 32 percent are women. Those figures mimic the statistics of all Internet users, Floyd said.

Nyla Griffith, Tom Griffith's wife and vice president of TDG, said the site appeals to a wide range of computer users.

"Demographics have changed significantly over the years. It's not the 12-year-old boys anymore," she said, adding that more people, especially adult women, are playing online games.

"It's fascinating to see how people click through the site," Nyla Griffith said. "We're finding a lot of people using the site used to live here and are homesick so they come to visit virtual Deadwood."

Todd Epp of Harrisburg said he is a big "Deadwoodie."

What brought him to the Digital Deadwood site?

"I believe someone had posted the link on one of the HBO 'Deadwood' discussion boards, so I checked it out from there," he said.

Epp says he doesn't play games online often, so he really went to the site for information on Deadwood's history.

"I'm 45 and doubt I'm the demographic they are looking for to do all that stuff," Epp admits.

Figures also show that those finding the site have used Internet search engines for topics such as "Deadwood," "Al Swearingen," "Wild Bill" and "Seth Bullock."

"When they call up any of those main characters from the series, we come up," Nyla Griffith said.

In addition to just walking around the virtual historic town, visitors to the site can take part in real-time chat with other users, simple games such as blackjack and arcade-style shootouts, detailed quest games, and can book travel and peruse the wares of real businesses.

All that makes the concept unprecedented, Tom Griffith says.

"There are games on the Internet that operate in a similar way, but most of them require you to buy some software, pay a monthly fee and have broadband Internet access," he says. "Not only is Digital Deadwood free for anyone who wants to log on and accessible to those on dial-up connections, but it's an accurate representation of a real place. It's not just a game; it's a digital environment that mirrors the real world."

To date, TDG has invested about $80,000 in the project with $40,000 coming from The Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission. The success of the site will depend on bringing in more partners. To date, Silverado and the Broken Boot Gold Mine have contracted with TDG to create commercial sites on Digital Deadwood.

"We can create any business in town as it appears in real life. But we can do so much more," Amende said in a news release. "We can create virtual players clubs at the casinos, so that Digital Deadwood users can gamble with their virtual money and build up points. When that user decides to visit the real casino in the real Deadwood, they can use those points for free drinks, room discounts and gaming tokens. We're creating brand loyalty even before people walk in the front door."

Although the staff at TDG says that Digital Deadwood is keeping them busy around the clock, they know this concept could lead to the creation of other virtual locations in the future.

"Digital Deadwood is part of a broader concept we call Digital Destinations," Nyla Griffith said in a news release. "This idea of interedutainment - combining interaction, education and entertainment on a variety of different levels - could be applied to any place in the world, from a big city with a solid shopping district to a tiny town with a national park in its backyard to amusement parks to stock markets. ... the list is practically endless."

Contact Deb Holland at 394-8416 or deb.holland@rapidcityjournal.com