To be a Community Manager [Off-topic]

[Amy]

I saw on TLD's facebook that Hinterland is searching for a Community Ambassador (manager). http://hinterlandgames.com/jobs This really caught my attention because only 3 days ago I had spoken with my parents that aspire to become exactly that, a CM! Currently, I'm a Sophomore in high school, but I like to plan early. I was wondering if anyone either at the studio, or even just here on the forums could give me any advice or knowledge on ways to get started towards becoming a CM. I'm assuming I'd major in communications, marketing, or something similar to that. And since most companies have their headquarters in either California or NY, I'd probably move to CA after completing college. (Currently I live in North Carolina, so that'd be a big move, but I'm willing to do that for my goals)

So yeah, any advice/useful information that could possibly help me on my journey ?

[FoneBoneJay]

I can give you a case study in how not to do it research Erling Ellingson & Craig Morrison and Age of Conan. How they took an MMO that was predicted to be a WOW killer, which sold over a million copies and had 400k active subscriptions and ran it into a ghost town within 3 months, and within 18 months were merging servers and have since merged so many times there is no community left and the product went free to play.

That is how NOT TO DO IT!

They failed to listen to customer feedback and drew their largest audience, open world PVP players away to competing products which have also since failed, and were never able to bring back the audience they once had because they launched an incomplete and poorly optimized, unpolished program. In essence they hyped the game to no end, NO END, yet failed to deliver. I challenge that "SIEGES" which were supposed to be hallmark of the game and DX10 at launch were ever successful implemented or that their programming or server infrastructure ever supported their product.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3 ... hp?print=1

There was a guy when I flew the Falcon in 2005-2008, C3PO who was a great community manager. What AOC failed to do when the launched and subsequently after was listen to their community. When Craig Morrison came in it was all PVE PVE PVE development. Even PVP developments which should have been the core of the product were in addition and submissive to PVE development. It was horribly received by the community and the community left like shit down a pipe.

Years and years of the same thing drove their stock way down too. The product never got "fixed" it just got added on and the team moved to support the next big thing the secret world, and yeah that pretty much sucked too but I never played it or gave them my money. I had a 600 member guild at the peak of our Age of Conan days. We had about 2 dozen officers, and every day 3 or 4 members would just stop playing until about a year later we were down to 50 guys and 2/3 to the end of the city build and people just decided it was over and better to go our separate ways. Not because the game sucked but because it wasn't getting any better. Patches would be released every 2 months, and then fixes for those patches which broke tons of shit 1-2-3 weeks later.

All in all, they lied about what they launched with, their player numbers, what direction the game was going and Erling Ellingson is a lying sun of a bitch.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/09/16 ... interview/

They EVEN EMPLOYED SHILLS to prop up their community. People who were working for the company would post disinformation. Yeah don't do that shit either. Rule #3 be honest with the community. and etc.

Watch this guy lie right through his smile...

Being a D bag...

Reviews...

"The Difference is very simple. Other MMO companies actually fix their issues and do not break 30 other things in the process like failcom."

"I dont think it will be finished soon enough. The servers are already dying and some are dead. Tyranny and Deathwhisper are the only ones with maybe 1,000 people. Lastime I played before I quit i did a search for 80's in all zones and it showed 12."

Would have been a great game if not for the devs and leadership of that product getting in the way and obfuscating what the community wanted and needed from it. That will be your job as a CM. Represent the community to the devs and make them take your input as to what the community wants. Play the actual game and see how it works and doesn't work. Make the devs work on fixing broken shit and improving the overall game.

[Amy]

Solid advice. Thanks for your post

[CuteBeaver]

I don't want to give you the wrong advice, so I'll just mention someone who for the most part did things very well. Margaret Krohn (formerly employed by SOE) was a wonderful community manager. She donated her time to actually host and run Friday Night OPS, on Twitch which showcased some of the Outfits (Guilds) in Planetside 2. She also spent allot of time and effort getting the players to support a charity called extra life. She would run marathon gaming events staying up for 24 hours while live streaming to get donations and had to deal with a host of problems. Everything from creepy stalker guys, to DDoS attacks on the charities, and some of the games she was streaming.

She left a big void in the Community when she left to join Curse gaming. Maggie will be missed. Also no ones perfect and one thing which always struck me was her ability to be honest and apologize if she forgot something or made a mistake. For example forgetting to show up for a community run event to use her developer powers to reset the PVP map. Major woopsie but nothing that can't be forgiven by the 500 people playing with an honest human explanation.

Anyway as a female gamer she earned my respect. I think acting in a way that inspires confidence and shows humility is important. Making people feel welcome and appreciated is key, no matter how annoying those people might actually be. Good luck to you. The lack of privacy CM"s have to deal with is somewhat concerning to me.

[Amy]

Thank you for the example! That's the perfect example of what I want to do; to be the friend of the community, even if it means going to extremes to do so!