1fe6da No.13932130
Why are community managers always so shit at the games they manage? Couldn't they just hire some powergaming autist who is actually good at the game? I'd think they would be able to better convey the wants of the players.
d9e2d2 No.13932137
No skill floor to stop them. Hence, any shitty person will do, apparently.
25a5af No.13932145
and when there is a skill floor to stop them, well, its not like the HR person would know well enough to hire someone who knows what they're talking about when it comes to the game… or like the HR person would actually know about more than some very basic stuff about the game, such as "its an RPG" and "you can play as a dwarf"
25a5af No.13932146
1fe6da No.13932177
Okay, but if Blizzard can hire some autist like Tigole as an actual designer for WoW, how hard is it to get someone good at vidya to be community outreach?
4cd842 No.13932184
>>13932130
Well, our industry has a culture of incompetence.
d6f7ea No.13932192
all community managers are fucking cancer, how about we like get rid of them altogether?
4939fb No.13932497
Community managers are there to literally manage the community, and by that I mean giving the developers the community they want, not the other way around.
>>13932177
Tigole was always a covert member of Blizzard who was assigned specifically to sabotage EQ. You really believe him and Rob Pardo being in the same guild, that were the only ones the forum staff listened to by the way, was a coincidence?
5076a9 No.13932520
Do you honestly expect someone who actually spends time playing videogames to be socially adept enough to manage its community?
a940b3 No.13932546
>>13932497
This. Community managers manage the community, it's in the fucking job title. People seem to have fooled themselves into thinking community managers are supposed to be some kind of liaison.
4b9cb8 No.13932625
>>13932130
>Couldn't they just hire some powergaming autist who is actually good at the game? I
No, because they'd rather give their friend/family member a nice cushy job instead of someone who's qualified or will take their position seriously.
d0186f No.13932626
Community manager is a joke job that people in the company give away as a favor to otherwise useless cronies. Usually you get a community manager job for literally sucking someone's dick in the company.
1f10fd No.13932633
>>13932130
hardcore fans are worse than noobs
if they are forum moderators, they think of themselves as gods
and if they are a part of the balancing community, they make shit even worse gameplay-wise
>tf2 scene, where everything is nerfed because prosoldierzz cry about people killing them
87733d No.13932657
My theory is that it takes a special type of faggot to be considered as a community manager, and with the "power" they get they just can't contain their faggotry anymore.
f406f6 No.13932682
>>13932145
>HR
Nowadays, barely any companies have dedicated HR departments. It's just a cost overhead with no profit. So most new hires are via networks, which does include shitty family members and friends.
97f4e0 No.13932720
(((community))) is kike shit
7d47de No.13932737
What is the point of community managers anyways? A handful of recent indie/AA/kikestarter games have already flopped because some faggot community manager always creates some retarded political/personal controversy just a few days before release.
f9fba9 No.13932820
>>13932737
This. Community Managers are a liability at this point. Think about all the very public drama these assholes have caused over the last few years.
99a586 No.13932937
>>13932130
Turns out there isn't much overlap between the interpersonal skills required to deal with the specific part of the community they're supposed to manage, and highpowered vidya autism.
They'ld call everybody shit and piss off all the whales.
bbedb9 No.13932973
>>13932737
Well there are a few types.
The first is basically a paid forum moderator.
The second is someone who helps put together and host in-game events. Quizzes, races, spawning mobs in the middle of town, that sort of stuff.
The third is someone who ideally understands the game's community and reads through all the posts on forums, discord, reddit, etc, and both distill feedback to give to devs, and answer concerns of players and assure them that the next patch will fix everything to stop them from rioting.
There is also the fourth type, who will intentionally destroy the community and destroy any hopes of success the game had.
>>13932937
In a number of games, I've seen the opposite. For example, in wakfu, their english CMs are basically absent aside from posts that all have -20 or more downvotes. Meanwhile the guy who wrote the guide on Enutrofs was always well respected by noobs, whales, and powergamers alike. Basically every post he made people would say "Ankama hire this guy." Instead they drive away people with their lack of communication or rationalization of the weird patches they make.
9e3624 No.13933125
>>13932130
I can answer your question having been a comm manager for an old gaming community (although I wasn't shit at it, just really average).
It's all about being a primadonna. None of the community managers give a shit about the quality of the game or whether they're good at it or not, they just care about keeping the community active for their own egoism. Most comm managers see it as a power trip, except they also think they're in the right in using their powers in that the thriving of the community is both their goal and their constraint. If the community stagnates, it's their fault most of the time because of their inability to deal with bad PR.
>Couldn't they just hire some powergaming autist who is actually good at the game?
Here's the thing about comm managers: they don't require any professional skill, so devs/companies/the four autists that direct a forum are justified in getting on board via nepotism. Turbo autists don't make very convincing comm managers because, if they're hired by a company, they'll always take the side of the community in all possible scenarios (as they're autists who love the game itself more than the developers), if it's a ragtag bunch of indies they can't because power autists don't drive new blood into the game as much as people with social skills.
a60e85 No.13933151
>>13932130
Similar question with a similar answer: Why would an avid anime fan choose to volunteer to work at a convention when they could be attending the convention? Because it's not about the hobby, it's about seeking out and seizing power, no matter how small.
bbedb9 No.13933174
>>13933151
I know people who have volunteered to work for completely altruistic reasons, but typically only do it 1 year because they're turned off by the cliquishness of the con staff.
>>13933125
But when you actually have forums run by people knowledgeable about the game, the community typically thrives. Whether it is by a fan or by the dev himself.
4939fb No.13933196
>>13932973
Take a look at any MMO community and the people every player trusts or looks up to is the guys doing the theorcrafting or boss fight videos, never the developers. Hell, there's no one the players hate more than the developers when it comes to almost any online game.
311cf2 No.13933197
"Community manager" always struck me as a reprehensible phrase. I'm not your employee. You don't get to "manage" me. Management implies you have power over me. You don't get power over me because I play your game.
No online community has ever benefited from this management.
It's no coincidence that the old definition for management was trickery and deceit.
a60e85 No.13933208
>>13933174
I did it one year because a friend begged me for help and it was a free badge and hotel. Otherwise, most of the people who do it year to year and at numerous cons are doing it to weasel their way up in power.
b9605d No.13933215
They are hired based on social skills not video game playing "skills"
4d7c59 No.13933243
>>13932130
>better convey the wants of the players
This is exactly why they don't. A CM is like a cute puppy to keep the goyimplayers happy and have someone to yell at that has no real power.
4939fb No.13933252
>>13933215
They don't have social skills either.
ef63e4 No.13933272
>>13932973
>paid
They don't pay, anymore. They take people who do it for free. Even big companies like Epic Games do this.
b2ea40 No.13933400
>developers are holding a livestream
>community managers hold Q&A
>ask if they enjoy pretending they're an important part of the team
>banned
4939fb No.13933445
>>13933400
I want to say I remember Ghostcrawler doing that but I'm not sure. Man it must sting for him knowing he'll never do any sort of meaningful marine biology like he wanted to.
99a586 No.13934165
>>13932973
>downboats
That doesn't stop when some friendly guide maker or community member gets hired. That's just how faggots express their vague discontent and absorbing it without going insane is their primary job skill.
6fc5da No.13934863
>>13932130
>Why are community managers always so shit at the games they manage? Couldn't they just hire some powergaming autist who is actually good at the game?
If by community manager you mean a weird mix of PR, both community content and development, and forum moderation; this generally requires social skills or the personality type that attracts attention.
987aa3 No.13934879
>job is to talk to people
>not to play games
<wwhy guy tasked with PR not focused on git gud at game
What a stupid thread.
b560d8 No.13935091
>>13932130
Because their existence is only to benefit the corporated part of the industry, the same part of the industry that blatanly tells you that you dont know what you really want, praise and try to shove walking simulators, and thinks gameplay is a toxic word and games are art, the same part of the industries that hire devs to developg games that they woudnt even play because they dont even play vidya, face it managers and the whole PR department on any vidya game exist as a form of cronyism. Nothing less, nothing more.
ee2156 No.13935161
It's baffling how so many gaming controversies happened because of a shitty Community Manager. They had one job.
a637a8 No.13935171
>>13932130
>hire some powergaming autist
Yeah, I can just imagine this going down really well.
533783 No.13935186
>>13932130
>companies
>hiring autists who will do a very good job
>in the current year
The Affirmative Action Stacies don't want to work with a bunch of quiet autists who just do their job all day. They want chads who will flirt with them all the time.
e9e7db No.13935228
>>13935161
Literally the Niggers of a dev team.
f4b056 No.13935237
>>13932130
>wanting some horrid aspie to do it
Lose lose situation if you ask me
a350c4 No.13935258
>>13932130
community manager and pr spots get filled with diversity quota. they're essentially "throw-away" hires
2973b4 No.13935319
The thing with community managers is the vast majority of the time you aren't even aware they're there. They usually just answer emails and manage the twitter account. The only time you even remember that such a job exists is when one goes off the deep end
if you look at it statistically 99.9% of community managers do their jobs and as a result you generally don't even know they existed in the first place
2d764e No.13935354
>>13935237
>>13935171
>>13934879
Like I mean ideally they are a non-autist who happens to understand how the game works and plays it an hour or two per day, but it really helps empathizing with the players if you actually know what they have to go through.
a637a8 No.13935364
>>13935354
>who happens to understand how the game works
>and plays it an hour or two per day
Just admit you didn't think this one through.
>but it really helps empathizing with the players if you actually know what they have to go through.
That would be helpful, but finding someone with the right balance of passion and character is going to be difficult, especially for the peanuts they pay the hotpockets. There's a reason mods, janitors and admins tend to be the way they are.
515a72 No.13935390
>>13932130
Because cool people wouldn't want to be community managers. Only a fucking useless faggot would want that.
5790e3 No.13935432
Community managers are usually someone's girlfriend. It's a tragic mistake as you really do need someone that can effectively relay info back and forth.
4939fb No.13935441
>>13935432
Sucking a penis is sort of like a back and forth information relay in terms of the nervous system.
5daf3f No.13946068
>>13932192
because someone gotta do it
6880e3 No.13949201
>>13932130
Because the entire reason the position exists is to give a job to the HR manager's friend's kid with the worthless liberal arts degree. There is no actual need for a "community manager"
84e22a No.13949253
>>13935432
If I was a dev I would just lurk existing internet communities for feedback.
a9d683 No.13949254
I don't trust any community manager that doesn't communicate in memes.
6880e3 No.13949346
>>13949253
Pretty much this, it's why guys like Kamiya lurk /v/