Director's Cut: The Community Manager Discussion from My Interview with Scott

[Ratman_tf]

This is something I'm surprised hasn't happened yet. I suppose though, it's only a matter of time.

Allegiance came close.

[Venkman]

I've actually thought MMO companies should allow external communities to grow within an "official forum"... and MMOs should grant guilds their own forum and management system right on the MMO's website, directly connected to an official forum.

Isn't that what SOE has been doing with eq2players? I think this presents more challenges than its worth though, for the company and the players.

What happens when the guild or a significant part of it eventually moves to a new game, as always happens? Does SOE for example need to be expected to keep the guild's one and only forum destination even though the majority of conversation is about, say, WAR?

There's also the question of content rights. Does SOE want to sign up to be the target of an RIAA or MPAA probe when a whole bunch of copywrited content gets distributed through their system?

All in all, I think it's best the guilds build their own game-agnostic destination. With all of the free tools out there, it's a joke to set something like this up anyway. And doing so internalizes the social problems to the one group who should be accountable to fixing them and suffering the consequences.

[taolurker]

EQ2Players, wasn't the first, and SOE also has the same deal for Vanguard and EQ1, for an extra $3 a month. It IS the first with guild management tools available, including a nice little roster and tracking information, but it doesn't exactly allow you to use it unless you pay for the additional cost per month, and that's for each person wanting to access it.

What I meant is that MMOs should do more for the guild communities, without additional costs, and it should be working in concert with official forums and MMO home pages. There is more that can be done for guilds than most MMOs offer currently, but what SOE is offering is at an additional cost, when GamerDNA/GuildCafe does that for FREE (although with a subscription that allows expanded options).

I don't think there is that much of a challenge for the company, in SOE's case, especially not for copyright or forbidden content because only the guild membership can access their specific forum... If a guild leader allows that to happen, and doesn't moderate his own forum section then he bears the responsibility.

If a guild discusses other games, but still maintains a guild with paying subscriptions, then I fail to see why that would that would be an issue either.. A guild with no active subscriptions would have their guild site archived, or removed, but as long as they are part of the game and paying, then this would equate to more value for their subscription dollar.

I spoke at length one time with a game company's Community Manager, and he also didn't understand what I was saying about value for the subscription dollar in something more than just the game. Obviously, if a game is making money, giving free stuff to canceled accounts, or trials to people who never played, then why can't they give something extra to make customers really feel like a community and make them feel like they're truly getting value for their subscription dollar? Refer a friend and in game rewards don't count.

[Venkman]

This is not about me or others "not getting it". Maybe 10 years ago you'd have a valid argument worth bolding about. But these days anyone who plays an MMO has the basic skills needed to build their own guild site. And heck, even 10 years ago there was EZboard. Not the best by any stretch, but there, customizable and usable.

As a former guild leader of the same group of folks who traveled between games, I do not see the benefit of tying things to one game and one game company's whim. People come and go all the time, just as they travel between games all the time. Eventually even a meta-game guild is going to give up on the original game that they all met in. Further, in any guild with potential, there's always someone who's got the basic skills required to do their own site and forums. Between the size of the guilds (bandwidth) and the number of freebie hosts out there, it's really just as easy as paying the extra $3 per person. So even if eq2players was free, what happens when the guild does go away? Hope that at least one person is keeping an active eq2, eq1 or VG account? Sure in a guild the size of FOH maybe that's a foregone conclusion. But for anyone smaller, what would be the point of even taking the chance.

The reason more companies don't do this though is two-fold. It does cost them more money (there's a big difference between buying more servers through your procurement group in a large company and just opening up an account with 1&1) and they figure the players are going to go do it themselves anyway.

Finally, on the copyright thing: SOE is not absolved of copyright infringement any more than YouTube/Google is, because the raft of lawyers behind such actions aren't going to just go after the minor guild leader. As we see weekly, they're still going after the enablers.

Guilds happen for the same reasons older games grew player economies: players who want and aren't getting services go out and do it themselves. This genre has ALWAYS been about the community that surrounds the GENRE, not just the guild stuck in one game. A whole third party industry exists just because of that fact alone. The only difference between what you and I are talking about is the way things are right now absolves the game company from having to own the guild and the guild from having to throw all their eggs in one basket.