I could sum it up by just providing this link and this link. But for an additional sentence, Mark Jacobs (CEO, Mythic) started a blog and has responded there to the public outrage about EU database servers that malfunctioned poorly during this weekend’s WAR Open Beta. It has caused a bit of a conversation over at Scott Jennings’ blog about whether it was appropriate or not for Jacobs to post there directing his commentary towards the WAR community.
Official forums are a Community Manager’s playground. It is where they have gotten to know their members, where they set the precedent for good reaction and communication from the executives of their company on down. It’s where the players go to see commentary “from the horse’s mouth” and where they expect to be heard when they react to it. It’s where you build a relationship – one with trust and better understanding. And on a semantic level – it’s where a good CM can control the tone and ensure that the correct message is being received.
Mythic made the decision early on to skip having an official forum and thus, a blog is born. Regardless of the intentions of the initial reason for starting this blog, it was evident by his latest post that Jacobs is in need of a place to talk to his community and read and respond to feedback from them. Developers having blogs is not a new thing. You’ll notice however, that there are right ways and wrong ways to do it.
Right Ways:
You have a blog, you have a disclaimer that says that anything you say is not representing your company. You know full well that everything you say still DOES represent your company when you put your full name on the blog and people know who you are. You talk about whatever the heck you want, but you’re addressing the people who read your blog AS a blog writer, and not as a developer of your company talking with your community. Generally you’re chatting about the industry or your profession as a whole, or linking LOLCats.
You have a blog hosted by your company and linked to from your company’s official or corporate site. You talk regularly about what’s going on in your game and with development. You may or may not allow comments as it may be more of a news post than a conversational post. This is an official blog and it’s branded as so.
Wrong Ways:
You start a blog up on Wordpress, state your name and your affiliation, and then proceed to discuss things like your server downtime, your plans for changed classes and races, and your release schedule.
What’s wrong with this? Game companies have community, marketing and PR departments for a reason. Messages are carefully crafted (not fabricated, but crafted) to portray the right message. An accurate message with the right tone. Almost as important as the message itself to the player is who is giving the message. When it comes from the CEO or President of a company – they’re going to give it more weight. When it comes from a Community Manager they trust, they’re going to take it in stride. When it comes from a CM they don’t know too well yet – they’ll be wary and if all goes well…every bit of positive communication from a CM helps build a relationship with the players. You have to let your CM’s do their job if you want to have a smooth flowing community.
Like I said earlier, an official forum is a CM’s playground. It’s also a CM’s nursery and kindergarten..where they grow with the community as a strong leader and someone to appreciate and respect and trust. When you go through them and address the players on an external media – you are setting your CM up for feeling less able to react to the needs of the community, less approachable to the mass audience and less prepared for the backlash when it happens.
There is nothing wrong with CEOs, Lead Designers, executives etc. blogging. It should, however, be either in official capacity and worked into communication plans within the company – or completely casual and in ADDITION to a forum. Your dedicated community wants to be heard, and good developers want to hear them. You should always be prepared for 115 comments on your blog when you address your players and they have no other way to talk to your staff. Good conversation is important, but don’t forget about your CM and the relationship they’ve been working hard on building – it’s harder for them than it is for a VP.
