MMORPG.com's Jon Wood writes this week about the Community Manager's position within a game studio, and how tying that position to the marketing department can be shortsighted.
I wanted to take the space of my column this week to talk about something that I've been thinking about on and off for a couple of months now, and that's the role of the Community Manager on the staff of a current MMORPG.
I'm going to go ahead and put the disclaimer on this article saying that I'm not intimately familiar with the specific internal workings of how each and every development studio is structured and that this is more of a musings piece than it is a direct criticism of any one company or individual.
With that being said, I have something to get off of my chest: Community Managers should not, I repeat should absolutely not, be members of your MMO's marketing team. If they are, there's a good chance that you're missing the point and a valuable opportunity to create a meaningful bridge between your game's development team and the people who are paying to play it.
Read Community Shouldn't Mean Marketing.
