Community Managers of the Gaming Industry

The online community manager’s role as we know it only recently exploded as a sought after career within the past 5 years. Little do people know that online community managers have been around since I had my Atari 2600. Why am I mentioning a 30 year old home video game console? Well, because gamers have been forming communities to share cheats, tips and codes since the introduction of Pong.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Sam Houston, the community manager at Playfish EA in San Francisco. Sam was nice enough to carve out some time from his busy schedule (His baby, Monopoly Millionaires, launched this past week, check it out!) to chat with me on the differences and similarities of community managers within the gaming industry and their corporate/enterprise counterparts.

Dan: First off, do you refer to yourself as a community manager?

Sam: It really depends on the company. At Playfish, my official title is “Online Content Manager.” It straddles many disciplines; marketing, content management, community management, project management. One thing it doesn’t cover is moderation and enforcing community guidelines. Those functions are left up to the Community Admin that oversees the forums.

Dan: Hmmm, that sounds very familiar [The Many Hats of Community Managers].

Dan: Do you have a nickname for community managers like me? White-collar? Suit? Enterpriser? Corps?  I promise I won’t be offended if there is one.

Sam: No, not to my knowledge. I belong to quite a few gaming communities and there’s no mention or reference to any such nickname.

Dan: Bummer. If I was gaming community manager, I’d definitely make one up.

Dan: Have gaming community managers ever made the leap to the enterprise? Or vice versa? Is this frowned upon? How do you get your foot in the door?

Sam: I can’t speak for all, but I started on the fan side of things. I started my own website. Soon after, a game developer ended up contacting me and asked if they could host my site. I ended up working for them and have been on this side of community management ever since. I would suspect that most start the same way. Compensation is structured very differently. You don’t become a gaming community manager for the big bucks. These are super passionate people. They’re in it for the pure love of the industry.

Dan: What are your primary responsibilities as an online content manager?

Sam: Email campaigns, copy-writing, bug tracking and resolution, feature requests management.

Dan: Hmmm, that also sounds familiar [The Many Hats of Community Managers].

Dan: What’s the most difficult part of being an online content manager?

Sam: Keeping my finger on the pulse of the community. Always being aware of what’s going on. I’m so busy; there are not enough hours in a day.

Dan: What sort of analytics do you care about?

Sam: Daily Active Users count, or DAU. It’s all about getting members to come back and play again.

Dan: Ah, sort of sounds like our Active Participants metric

Dan: Lastly, anything else we should know about the gaming world and its community managers?

Sam: It’s continually evolving. Even though the role is nothing new, we’re still trying to figure it out; especially now with social gaming on social sites, mobile apps and in-app purchases. There’s always a new challenge.

Have you ever wondered about your counterpart in the gaming industry? Were you surprised by some of Sam’s responses? While you mull it over, check out Monopoly Millionaires on Facebook. I’m off to build some hotels…