MMORPG.com columnist Victor Wachter, no stranger to the world of Community Management, writes this look at the job, its history and what it takes to succeed.

An MMO is a big beast with thousands of players and as many different playstyles. You can open forums and twitter pages and whatnot and people will come to discuss your game, guaranteed. Left unmanaged, the community will grow like kudzu: rapidly and unhealthy for the larger environment. Community growth is a good thing, of course, but when it revolves around a business, it has to be cultivated and managed carefully, or the resulting conversations from that communicating could do more harm than good.

In the early days of the Internet, there were far fewer outlets for communities to form than today. You'd primarily find them on usenet, IRC or smaller BBS'. The fansite back then was typically a geocities page with a few low-res screenshots. They grew organically, and just like today, they talked about games. They talked about what they did in the game, their opinions of it and gave advice on how to play it. And they flamed. Oh, did they ever flame.

Read Community Managers: Where We Came From.

an entertaining read!

and i agree with your thoughts on how effective community managers should deal with an agitated forum crowd.

what i dont understand is why companies like SOE have created a completely different job description for their community managers to the one you describe here.

most of them (and those who were) are emotionally unstable, forum nazis who prefer to treat people like 6 year olds when they are not acting like such themselves. they go as far as setting forum rules they or their mods don't bother to follow but are quick to ban and threaten should posters on their "black list" ignore. this takes us into the bias and preferential treatment area which they also excel at.

they seem to view their forums as potential dangerous grounds which need to be ruled with a firm hand rather than a place of opportunity to get the consumers on their side.

... i wonder why all the defensiveness?

Originally posted by Troneas

most of them (and those who were) are emotionally unstable, forum nazis who prefer to treat people like 6 year olds when they are not acting like such themselves. they go as far as setting forum rules they or their mods don't bother to follow but are quick to ban and threaten should posters on their "black list" ignore. this takes us into the bias and preferential treatment area which they also excel at.

I do have a question for you on this statement. Why is it that rule breakers are mad when they get punished for breaking the rules?

I hear of people getting banned from games for exploiting, macroing, gold selling etc. And their excuse is always the same "Other people were doing it." Other people breaking the rules doesn't make it ok to break them yourself. The police can't possible catch every single speeder, but by speeding you know you risk getting punished for it. If you are willing to break the rules, be willing to suffer the consequences.

I think the biggest problem with Community Managers or any other similar title person on the forums (Public Relations etc.) is that they are bound by two rules. 1) Try to put a positive spin on everything and 2)Only release information we as a company say is ok to release, which is little to none.

So they get stuck in trying to make players happy but without being able to tell them why something happened or that something is going to change in a future update to give them a heads up. Now I do understand on why MMOs are so tight lipped with their information however I think they need to ease up in that area. Let players know a little while before a patch that a balance change is coming so players are both ready for it and can gear up their character for the new way it has to play. Let them know when something has been temporarily removed to a bug and when it will be accessible again. Just let them know ahead or time and let them know why.

Sigh... derailed into an SOE rant thread from the get go...

You might want to go back through and check for grammar and spelling. I just caught a few mistakes while going through the article.

This was a very good article! Great insight. Could you possibly give us a little information on what would be best to study and such to become a community manager? Some previous articles have talked about breaking into the industry, but I'm always interested in what it takes to become a community manager or a developer or a programmer, etc.

Interesting article.  However I got to say you got to be carefull how you handle stuff. 

Like find out what the comunity is freeking out. Look into the complaints and try to figure it out.  Far to many times I have seen companies.  SOE, Turbine both have a record of locking threads, and yes making those threads disapear all together only to followed up with new threads going what gives that thread is locked.

Deleting and locking threads is not the answer, trying to handle the crisis in a positive manor is the way to go, instead of having a formum omod drop on the thread and trying to change the subject.  There is usally a really good reason why folks get bent out of shape, and that is usually when something goes way wrong.  Especially when the threads has more than 50 pages that tells you its a hot topic right of the bat. 

I really think the forum mods need to monitor that kind of situation and talk to the devs and high ups before going wacko, and locking a thread out, when that happens it tells the player base  hey look the dont give a rats rear end, and thing go down hill from there, and that is the reason why so many of us are cynical at best when it comes to certain game companies and not having any trust in what the do.  All the lies and half truths add up after a while.

Originally posted by Troneas

what i dont understand is why companies like SOE have created a completely different job description for their community managers to the one you describe here.

 

most of them (and those who were) are emotionally unstable, forum nazis who prefer to treat people like 6 year olds when they are not acting like such themselves. they go as far as setting forum rules they or their mods don't bother to follow but are quick to ban and threaten should posters on their "black list" ignore. this takes us into the bias and preferential treatment area which they also excel at.

 

they seem to view their forums as potential dangerous grounds which need to be ruled with a firm hand rather than a place of opportunity to get the consumers on their side.

 

... i wonder why all the defensiveness?

Gee what a shock, the Fringers come in to complain about SOE business practices, folks could set your watch by you guys. Entertaining, but as usual wrong.

People go on SOE and other sites, totally ignore any rules concerning moderation guidelines then proceed to whine bitch and moan when the rules are enforced and folks are banned. Of course then the alt accounts pop up with claims of bias, defensiveness and blacklists.

If folks follow the rules set up by the site owner, all goes well. Its really not that difficult to understand.
 

Originally posted by erictlewis

Interesting article.  However I got to say you got to be carefull how you handle stuff. 

Like find out what the comunity is freeking out. Look into the complaints and try to figure it out.  Far to many times I have seen companies.  SOE, Turbine both have a record of locking threads, and yes making those threads disapear all together only to followed up with new threads going what gives that thread is locked.

Deleting and locking threads is not the answer, trying to handle the crisis in a positive manor is the way to go, instead of having a formum omod drop on the thread and trying to change the subject.  There is usally a really good reason why folks get bent out of shape, and that is usually when something goes way wrong.  Especially when the threads has more than 50 pages that tells you its a hot topic right of the bat. 

I really think the forum mods need to monitor that kind of situation and talk to the devs and high ups before going wacko, and locking a thread out, when that happens it tells the player base  hey look the dont give a rats rear end, and thing go down hill from there, and that is the reason why so many of us are cynical at best when it comes to certain game companies and not having any trust in what the do.  All the lies and half truths add up after a while.

I think locking threads is sometimes very necessary. I'm my experience with Turbine (I only play AC) the locked threads come in 3 forms. 1) There is a debate that has lots of people on both sides and boils down into flames everytime the topic is approached. 2) There is an issue and it has already been brought up and is being worked on but new posts with the same info keep getting posted. 3) People directly break the forum rules.

In all 3 cases that action seems correct. I've seen them let more stuff go on the forums then I would think should be allowed actually. I never really visited SOE forums when I played any of their games so don't know on that one.

'Community Manager'. Interesting title. However, I don't particularly feel like being 'managed' by a company I pay for their products, so it's not off to a good start.

It's not really the job of the company to 'manage' their customers - and that's what these people are.  Managing expectations, managing the proper flow of information, fair enough. But implicit in the term 'Community Manager' is that the company wants that bunch of customers to be something - but what, exactly, are they being 'managed' into?

IIf an organisation wants to 'manage' me, they can give me a contract and put me on the payroll. Otherwise, what they really need are good customer relations, but you can only have that if you regard those customers as a partner in making the product a success. That has the awkward problem built in that us darn people just seem not to be happy with the too often sub-standard service, lousy information flow and PR spin they are being sold. Every mmo company is happy to pay lip-service to that 'partnership', though - shame so few, if any, are prepared to spend the money and invest the time needed to make it genuine.

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Troneas

 

Gee what a shock, the Fringers come in to complain about SOE business practices, folks could set your watch by you guys. Entertaining, but as usual wrong.

People go on SOE and other sites, totally ignore any rules concerning moderation guidelines then proceed to whine bitch and moan when the rules are enforced and folks are banned. Of course then the alt accounts pop up with claims of bias, defensiveness and blacklists.

If folks follow the rules set up by the site owner, all goes well. Its really not that difficult to understand.
 

 

Got permabanned from the SWG forums for telling a player who felt cheated by the NGE that if he bought his game from Wal-Mart, they're usually good about returns, even if their policy is not to give refunds for opened software. I didn't do it rudely (I wasn't a disgruntled vet at that time.The permaban sure sped up that process though).

How is that against the rules?

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Troneas

 

Gee what a shock, the Fringers come in to complain about SOE business practices, folks could set your watch by you guys. Entertaining, but as usual wrong.

People go on SOE and other sites, totally ignore any rules concerning moderation guidelines then proceed to whine bitch and moan when the rules are enforced and folks are banned. Of course then the alt accounts pop up with claims of bias, defensiveness and blacklists.

If folks follow the rules set up by the site owner, all goes well. Its really not that difficult to understand.
 

 

 

Got permabanned from the SWG forums for telling a player who felt cheated by the NGE that if he bought his game from Wal-Mart, they're usually good about returns, even if their policy is not to give refunds for opened software. I didn't do it rudely (I wasn't a disgruntled vet at that time.The permaban sure sped up that process though).

How is that against the rules?

You mean they didn't tell you what rule you broke? They just up and banned for suggesting a game return huh? If thats the story you want to stick to thats fine.

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Troneas

what i dont understand is why companies like SOE have created a completely different job description for their community managers to the one you describe here.

 

most of them (and those who were) are emotionally unstable, forum nazis who prefer to treat people like 6 year olds when they are not acting like such themselves. they go as far as setting forum rules they or their mods don't bother to follow but are quick to ban and threaten should posters on their "black list" ignore. this takes us into the bias and preferential treatment area which they also excel at.

 

they seem to view their forums as potential dangerous grounds which need to be ruled with a firm hand rather than a place of opportunity to get the consumers on their side.

 

... i wonder why all the defensiveness?

 

Gee what a shock, the Fringers come in to complain about SOE business practices, folks could set your watch by you guys. Entertaining, but as usual wrong.

People go on SOE and other sites, totally ignore any rules concerning moderation guidelines then proceed to whine bitch and moan when the rules are enforced and folks are banned. Of course then the alt accounts pop up with claims of bias, defensiveness and blacklists.

If folks follow the rules set up by the site owner, all goes well. Its really not that difficult to understand.
 

 

ok, so clearly your abilities (and that of your friend snarewolf above) to interpret forum guidelines does not extend to reading comprehension, so i highlighted it for you and i'll spell it out:

they set the rules and dont bother to follow them and expect others to do so.

and to snarewolf no, this is not about me or exploiting of any kind.

in essence i was referring to, amongst other things, the posting of certain topics by the community manager on sections where those topics are supposedly not allowed to be discussed by the playerbase.

you know, you could have asked for clarification if you didnt know what i was referring to instead of attacking me or the fringe. its not my fault you fail at empathy or reading comprehension.

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Troneas

 

Gee what a shock, the Fringers come in to complain about SOE business practices, folks could set your watch by you guys. Entertaining, but as usual wrong.

People go on SOE and other sites, totally ignore any rules concerning moderation guidelines then proceed to whine bitch and moan when the rules are enforced and folks are banned. Of course then the alt accounts pop up with claims of bias, defensiveness and blacklists.

If folks follow the rules set up by the site owner, all goes well. Its really not that difficult to understand.
 

 

 

Got permabanned from the SWG forums for telling a player who felt cheated by the NGE that if he bought his game from Wal-Mart, they're usually good about returns, even if their policy is not to give refunds for opened software. I didn't do it rudely (I wasn't a disgruntled vet at that time.The permaban sure sped up that process though).

How is that against the rules?

 

You mean they didn't tell you what rule you broke? They just up and banned for suggesting a game return huh? If thats the story you want to stick to thats fine.

They said I was permabanned for insighting an uproar... or something along those lines. Which of course, I wasn't. I have since then of course. Their moderation made sure of that. But at the time up until the banning, I just wanted to play the game.

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

Originally posted by Troneas

most of them (and those who were) are emotionally unstable, forum nazis who prefer to treat people like 6 year olds when they are not acting like such themselves. they go as far as setting forum rules they or their mods don't bother to follow but are quick to ban and threaten should posters on their "black list" ignore. this takes us into the bias and preferential treatment area which they also excel at.

 

So they get stuck in trying to make players happy but without being able to tell them why something happened or that something is going to change in a future update to give them a heads up. Now I do understand on why MMOs are so tight lipped with their information however I think they need to ease up in that area. Let players know a little while before a patch that a balance change is coming so players are both ready for it and can gear up their character for the new way it has to play. Let them know when something has been temporarily removed to a bug and when it will be accessible again. Just let them know ahead or time and let them know why.

This is a great read for me personally and enjoy more in the future (hinthint). Just to give you some additional info from the other side of the fence on community management I'll bite some from my own point of view with it.

I think most community managers want to show the community as much as possible. That's because most community managers are just like the player when it comes to development of a new game or next big update. I can't stop myself from being all excited whenever I go and watch a internal demo or new game concept for our games in one example. So you know how hard it must be for us to hold in all that awesome info when we post to the community.

The main thing is that community managers don't have control over what goes in and out of the game. We must have patience just as you do when it comes to releasing information. We have to take it in baby steps because simply every game idea or process is not perfect or makes it into the game. We wouldn't want to tease everyone everytime developers got together in one room and thought about the next awesome idea that has some evil plot to blow up the player into a million pieces.

So nothing is intentional there, we just have to take our time to ensure the right things get conveyed on the right times.

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Troneas

 

Gee what a shock, the Fringers come in to complain about SOE business practices, folks could set your watch by you guys. Entertaining, but as usual wrong.

People go on SOE and other sites, totally ignore any rules concerning moderation guidelines then proceed to whine bitch and moan when the rules are enforced and folks are banned. Of course then the alt accounts pop up with claims of bias, defensiveness and blacklists.

If folks follow the rules set up by the site owner, all goes well. Its really not that difficult to understand.
 

 

 

Got permabanned from the SWG forums for telling a player who felt cheated by the NGE that if he bought his game from Wal-Mart, they're usually good about returns, even if their policy is not to give refunds for opened software. I didn't do it rudely (I wasn't a disgruntled vet at that time.The permaban sure sped up that process though).

How is that against the rules?

 

You mean they didn't tell you what rule you broke? They just up and banned for suggesting a game return huh? If thats the story you want to stick to thats fine.

any topic containing pre-cu during the first year of the nge, no matter how polite it was, was locked down and deleted for "excessive negativity" - go and define what that means. soe is obviously very sensitive about this, as forum nazis should be.

after the first year they were locked down and deleted for "this topic is has been covered too many times to be considered current game play discussion".

and it wasnt covered once because they locked them all.

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Troneas

 

Gee what a shock, the Fringers come in to complain about SOE business practices, folks could set your watch by you guys. Entertaining, but as usual wrong.

People go on SOE and other sites, totally ignore any rules concerning moderation guidelines then proceed to whine bitch and moan when the rules are enforced and folks are banned. Of course then the alt accounts pop up with claims of bias, defensiveness and blacklists.

If folks follow the rules set up by the site owner, all goes well. Its really not that difficult to understand.
 

 

 

Got permabanned from the SWG forums for telling a player who felt cheated by the NGE that if he bought his game from Wal-Mart, they're usually good about returns, even if their policy is not to give refunds for opened software. I didn't do it rudely (I wasn't a disgruntled vet at that time.The permaban sure sped up that process though).

How is that against the rules?

The SWG O-boards are a a prime example of a toxic community that has little in the way of effective community management and moderation. The forums there are hostile, and players flame each other at will. I guess the forum PvP offers more entertainment than the game. 

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

They said I was permabanned for insighting an uproar... or something along those lines. Which of course, I wasn't. I have since then of course. Their moderation made sure of that. But at the time up until the banning, I just wanted to play the game.

Permabanned? Really? You mean your posting here won't show differently?

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

They said I was permabanned for insighting an uproar... or something along those lines. Which of course, I wasn't. I have since then of course. Their moderation made sure of that. But at the time up until the banning, I just wanted to play the game.

 

Permabanned? Really? You mean your posting here won't show differently?

Not here Baron, the O-boards. You really wanna prove me a liar for some reason. Why?

Cms all too often are treated like firewalls or moats to keep the player base(angry villagers) away from the Dev's/suits.  They get the mushroom treatment almost as bad as the player base does, in all too many companies. The best ones(like Sanya and a few others) try to do a professional(and all too often thankless) job with very limited resources.  The worst just make matters worse for the community and the company.  Most are in the middle. They understand the ideals, but often situations get out of control, and they have to resort to heavy handed tactics in a desperate attempt to restore some limited order to the forums.  Such tactics can become habit forming... And have some NASTY downsides.

The companies suits and Dev's usually look at CM's as little more than minimum wage flunkies, in much the same way most view their CS reps. Thats not only bad for morale(turn over rates can be horrible) but it costs the companies bottom line in terms of lost players and bad word of mouth(much more important than suits seem to realize).  The idea situation is for both CS and CM's to personally report to someone high enough up the corporate food chain, that they can get accurate, timely information both ways(giving and getting).  As online communities evolve CM's will take on ever more importance. Those companies that either can not, or will not adjust to that, are going to pay a heavy penalty.

Originally posted by Wraithone

Cms all too often are treated like firewalls or moats to keep the player base(angry villagers) away from the Dev's/suits.  They get the mushroom treatment almost as bad as the player base does, in all too many companies. The best ones(like Sanya and a few others) try to do a professional(and all too often thankless) job with very limited resources.  The worst just make matters worse for the community and the company.  Most are in the middle. They understand the ideals, but often situations get out of control, and they have to resort to heavy handed tactics in a desperate attempt to restore some limited order to the forums.  Such tactics can become habit forming... And have some NASTY downsides.

The companies suits and Dev's usually look at CM's as little more than minimum wage flunkies, in much the same way most view their CS reps. Thats not only bad for morale(turn over rates can be horrible) but it costs the companies bottom line in terms of lost players and bad word of mouth(much more important than suits seem to realize).  The idea situation is for both CS and CM's to personally report to someone high enough up the corporate food chain, that they can get accurate, timely information both ways(giving and getting).  As online communities evolve CM's will take on ever more importance. Those companies that either can not, or will not adjust to that, are going to pay a heavy penalty.

A very wise post here.  I think companies would benefit greatly from listening to and using what Wraithone has said here.  Sadly, they probably won't.

Also, the article itself was quiet excellent and insightful.