Kyle Rowley, the Community Manager for RF Online from Codemasters, has written a report to tell our readers what it's like to be a Community Manager for an MMORPG.

Whether you're an active member in your preferred online game's community or not, sometimes it's good to get an insight into what the guys behind that vague forum title "Community Manager" actually do; outside of the participation in community-driven banter that you all love so much, that is.

For those of you who are not familiar with myself, or my alter ego "Laeth" I'll do a quick introduction. My "real name" is Kyle Rowley and I'm the Community Manager (CM) for Codemasters Online Gaming' Sci-Fi MMORPG Rising Force Online (RFO). Professionally, some could call me a n00b in the Community Management business - I've only been CM for RFO for around 10 months after all - so my words are not to be taken as the bee's knees on what community management entails, or how one would go about doing this for a living; but it should provide some insight for those of you who are interested.

You can read the whole article here.

Nice read Laeth...you're doing a fantastic job, keep it up!

who is that freaky looking guy with the Dr. Evil eyebrows....?

Great articel, hopefully more of us get some more respect towards a job like that (though i still have lost every single aspect of respect towards SOE even after reading this topic......sorry), Topics like this (or also the Wanna be a mmorpg develop) are topics really needed in forums like this.It sheds some light on darker areas in gaming it also explains why so many people would get the wrong answers on questions asked (sorry SOE again) seeing how bussy you all are it must be  easy to make small mistakes but i also have lucky enough more good exp. from it then bad :)

 

Nice article. I really hope you'll write a bit more.

I do think CR's are far too underapreciated usually and get all the flak for stuff they can't help. Articles like this help to make their job slightly more clear :)

So, do you actually ever play the game you are CM for?

Originally posted by amcyr
So, do you actually ever play the game you are CM for?

When I get home - yes. Not enough hours in a day :d.

great article, i think we all know that we put CM's through ALOT of grief lol especially those working for Blizzard. its nice to get a look at what you guys do and gives me a better appreciation of it. Thanks for a look into your job :D

Thanks for that article! I enjoyed reading it and look forward to becoming a CM aswell ;)

This was some good information. IMHO, the best MMOs have CMs that take the time to build a presence in the community and are recognized.  I would think the "community" in the title would be a no-duh but I've played some games where they don't seem to know what is going on, where days pass without a response to a severe problem... to never communicating at all. I don't know if it's because there is no communication between the CMs and developers or they just don't care... but the community suffers because of it.

I think you can often tell how "healthy" a game is by the communication between players and the company. If the CMs are willing to discuss the game, answer questions, or find out an answer to a question if they do not know... then the game is doing well. If they are ignoring questions, don't know answers to too many questions, and there are a lot of complaints... there is a management problem somewhere - maybe they get no information because the developers think it's funny for the CMs to get chewed up by the wolves... in that event... eventually... they go down the toilet... like DNL or SWG.

Originally posted by Laeth
As you’re representing a company you have to find a balance between ensuring your responses are accurate and informative as well as including your own personal touch. No one likes a ‘corporate-speak’, blabbering community manager after all.

This made me think of the CMs at a certain well-known MMO (not this one) that use the "working as intended" schtick overly much. It seems dismissive and condescending when you hear it for the, oh... 1,000th time with no reason why it is working as intended. They also treat their player-base like they're on drugs and dropped out of 3rd grade.

For example, the ambush skill reads, "cannot be dodged" My opponent dodges it... "Your ambush was dodged." I want to know why and if it's a bug. Instead, I get "working as intended"... ok, why?

CM comes back and says, "This is a rear-positional attack. Are you sure you weren't in front of your target?"

It makes me wonder if they even play their own game. You can't use this attack unless you are in the right position. You get a bright red warning message that says the action can not be performed. There is no way it can be used except in the correct position. It can't be dodged from the front if I never attack.

Issue unresolved - CM ditches the forum topic with a final working as intended. I smack my forehead repeatedly on the desk in frustration. I assume the overused "working as intended" means "Don't care, can't be bothered, or you must be mad or on drugs." I don't play that game anymore...

If i was a CM i'd hate not being able to slag the game off it i thought the company was putting it into the shitter like SWG lol.

 

Infact i'd hate working for SOE or Lucas Arts

Wow these people look really wired and strage.

As someone who wishes to get a job in the "wired and strange" world of CM, I'd like to know if I'm crippled by my lack of professional industry experience. I've been involved with fansites for years, have run my own and have written for others, but I get the feeling that his amateur experience is really not valued when companies go looking for CMs - they want someone with paid industry experience (and, as Laeth said, he had QA experience).

Also: how big is COG's CM staff? What sort of CM-staff-to-player ratio do you have?

Originally posted by UnSub

As someone who wishes to get a job in the "wired and strange" world of CM, I'd like to know if I'm crippled by my lack of professional industry experience. I've been involved with fansites for years, have run my own and have written for others, but I get the feeling that his amateur experience is really not valued when companies go looking for CMs - they want someone with paid industry experience (and, as Laeth said, he had QA experience).

Also: how big is COG's CM staff? What sort of CM-staff-to-player ratio do you have?

Industry experience is not required to be a Community Manager at Codemasters. The more hands on experience you have running fan sites, press sites and anything else that enables you to directly deal with some kind of community will be beneficial. As long as you can show enthusiasm/passion for playing games, have good customer service skills and can demonstrate that you have the ability to successfully run an online community - in my opinion - you have a good chance. 

As for our community team - we have one Community Manager per game and several community staff (Alchemic Dream) who help deal with forum moderation and community relations.

Hope that helps.

Great article!

I myself am going to apply for a Community job at Codemasters soon and hope that my community experience over the last almost 10 years will help me achieve that. I have been running decent-sized guilds with very active guild community websites and forums for around 6 years now, I briefly worked for guidefox.com (Germany), writing professional Lineage II game guides and I have been hosting events (300 people LANs) a few times a couple years ago. I currently live in Denmark, however, I plan on moving to England as soon as I land a job there. Where in England doesn't matter to me.

I'm graduating at an international commercial college in a few months and I'm turning 21 in April. Is there an age or other requirements for a Community job that I might be lacking?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Originally posted by DKShadow
Great article!

I myself am going to apply for a Community job at Codemasters soon and hope that my community experience over the last almost 10 years will help me achieve that. I have been running decent-sized guilds with very active guild community websites and forums for around 6 years now, I briefly worked for guidefox.com (Germany), writing professional Lineage II game guides and I have been hosting events (300 people LANs) a few times a couple years ago. I currently live in Denmark, however, I plan on moving to England as soon as I land a job there. Where in England doesn't matter to me.

I'm graduating at an international commercial college in a few months and I'm turning 21 in April. Is there an age or other requirements for a Community job that I might be lacking?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 
Hello DKSadow,

To my knowledge, the only real age requirement is that you're over 18 years of age. I myself am only 21 - so there is definitely no bottleneck there with regards to age and your application. It's hard for me to advise you on other skills / requirements you may be lacking, as I’m not the one who does the hiring and firing here in COG. It sounds like you have plenty of community driven expierence, plus you're keen on getting involved in LAN events which is always good (we do plenty of events here in COG).

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask =)

Cheers and good luck!