311 replies to this topic

[MadLibrarian]

Welcome welcome. Glad you've arrived. Best of Luck

Edited by MadLibrarian, 27 February 2015 - 12:27 PM.

[Artur Valour]

Welcome Tina! Great having you onboard!

So Tina, my first question - What's your favorite Faction?
Follow up: What's your favorite Mech?

Edited by Artur Valour, 27 February 2015 - 11:08 AM.

[Noesis]

Felis, on 27 February 2015 - 11:06 AM, said:

Having been a community manager for a children's game should have prepared you splendidly for us!
Welcome to you!

"Overqualified" would be an appropriate word?

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Tina Benoit, on 27 February 2015 - 10:50 AM, said:

Hello MechWarriors!

I’m Tina, your new Community Manager!

I really look forward to getting to know everyone; I’ve been excited all week to say Hello! I am positive that we will get along great!

Your feedback/suggestions/wants/dreams/frustrations/happiness is all most important to me as I will be expressing them to the team, therefore I am all ears (or eyes rather) for you!

I would also love to hear the community’s thoughts on what your ideal community and/or community manager is like to you! Please share on this thread and feel free to ask questions too!

A little bit about my past, I have worked as a Community Manager for the game SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online and a children’s online virtual world called Petra’s Planet.

You will most often find me on the forums and the social media channels, I also collect your suggestions which you send to feedback@piranhagames.com (You may not receive a response here though, it’s for collection purposes so please don’t send support related issues!)

Now let’s hear you!


Regards,
Tina Benoit
Community Manager

A community manager, who communicates with the community regularly, and brings information to the forums as your employers rarely bother to do.

Other than that, don't be a stalker and power hungry like the last guy.

Then you and the community will get along great!

[Frank Olson]

Greetings from Germany! Have a nice time here.

[Wing 0]

Welcome Tina.

[AlmightyAeng]

Welcome, and good luck! I'll second what a few people have said...

For those of us who don't follow the developers on social media, it would be fantastic if interesting/important updates on the direction of the game that are shared days or even WEEKS ahead of time on social media had a dedicated section here on the forums.

Those of us here sometimes feel like the MWO official website is the LAST place to get new information posted.

[Cion]

Welcome

1- Please post official information on the forums that comes from other places (twitter, reddit, etc). It's lame to have to seach so many venues to get bits and pieces of info.

2- Please spotlight community events, tournaments, fan art, etc. Again, these are so spread out in different places that unless you are directly involved or know someone that is, most of this goes unnotices by the community.

I'm sure Russ has explained that this community is very passionate about this game/franchise. Expect anything and everything. Just remember that for every whiner and troller there are dozens more with constructive criticism and contributors.

Have fun in your new job!

[Akula]

Welcome and well met!

Firstly I shall join the others wishing the best of luck in your new role. Secondly I think the only critical role is that you are vocal within the community just to maintain a presence. The biggest problem when community managers work quietly from the sidelines is that many people stop believing they are actually doing anything. Keep making sure your presence is felt inside the community and I suspect things will go swimmingly.

[Little Details]

Tina Benoit, on 27 February 2015 - 10:50 AM, said:

I have worked as a Community Manager for...a children’s online virtual world called Petra’s Planet.

The skills you have garnered at Petra's Planet will be extremely useful to the position you currently find yourself at mwomercs with the...level of sophistication and temperament... of many of our player base.

[Rebas Kradd]

Welcome, Tina!

When I think of the "ideal" CM, I find myself as a community member hoping for someone who creates improves two-way dialogue between community and studio. This includes...

* Promotes use of the actual game forums

* Makes crucial information easy to find

* Relays player feedback and elicits/tracks/delivers responses from PGI (disheartening to have feedback seemingly evaporate and never be acknowledged with anything meaningful, even if it's just a "we'll see, gotta shelve that idea for now")

* Ensures that PGI's vision for the game is communicated eloquently to the players...

*soapbox*

Outside of Russ, there's almost nobody in the studio who takes the initiative to discuss the game's philosophy in-depth. We don't consistently have an idea of who's working on what, or even just generally the makeup of PGI's staff and who has what responsibilities. Feels like we don't really know them. We're in the dark on certain design decisions (i.e. the current economy, map design, the bent of the game towards accessibility or depth, etc.) and have been for a long time. Even the fantastic Karl Berg has gone kinda quiet lately.

I know you're all really busy, and it's tough to strike the right balance between hype and excessive promises, but it would be nice to see the studio be more forthright and enthusiastic about their product. Star Citizen has earned millions on literally this aspect alone.

I'd really love to see dev vlogs come back, perhaps a monthly post from each department head. Even if vlogs were just you trooping around the studio with a camcorder, peeking over shoulders (NDA/legal problems?) and asking random questions, it'd be a tremendous source of buzz and anticipation for us. We'd eat up weekly stuff like that. That stuff doesn't have to be fancy to be educational. As of now, the game just has no buzz machine at all.

/soapbox

In any case, it's good to have you. Don't let the goons let you down. You're coming in at a good time, and plenty of folks have renewed excitement for the game.

Edited by Rebas Kradd, 27 February 2015 - 11:29 AM.

[Felbombling]

Welcome Tina. This is a really good community once you understand that things were done in the past that didn't reflect too well on PGI, which in turn had a negative influence on PGI / community relations. But, on the bright side, things have gotten much better since PGI severed ties with their former publisher.

Here is hoping you enjoy your interactions with us... and as stated previously, keep the forum users up to speed on Twitter activity or Dev posts on other social media sites. Your head honcho doesn't really seem to grasp the usefulness of the 'official' forums set up for this game.

[Noesis]

More RP related content on the forums with the idea of story and characterisation will help to enrich the experience of players. This as they can choose to explore those more immersive elements of the game.

At the very least it will help to provide a better sub-context that helps to humanise the experience of "big stompy robots".

StaggerCheck, on 27 February 2015 - 11:21 AM, said:

*using very atmospheric sig*

Kudos to your sig Sir.

[MarineTech]

Tina Benoit, on 27 February 2015 - 10:50 AM, said:

I would also love to hear the community’s thoughts on what your ideal community and/or community manager is like to you! Please share on this thread and feel free to ask questions too!

Welcome aboard.

I'd love to give you my thoughts on what an ideal community manager would be... Unfortunately, I must be incredibly old, and/or particularly dense because I guess I really don't know what a Community Manager is supposed to do.

From what I've seen, I'm assuming you're meant to act as a public affairs officer/PR flak?

Or in Niko's case, look really really uncomfortable on camera.... (Sorry Niko, but we both know that was true.)

Either way, feel free to drop by for a visit with us birds and white knights in K-Town.

Edited by MarineTech, 27 February 2015 - 11:27 AM.

[Vasces Diablo]

First off, welcome!

Second, as (I'm assuming) you are no to MWO. I would love to hear your initial/early impressions.

[Homeless Bill]

Your experience with children will come in handy. What we want:

• News - Get information out to all corners of the community.
  
• Engagement - Come talk to people on /r/OutreachHPG, talk to people on twitter, and generally do your job in a way that affects everyone - not just the official forum crowd.
  
• Updates - Little things matter a lot. ****** level geometry, minor bugs, and tiny improvements matter. Huge, new features are great, but I can't tell you how many of us celebrated the removal of the River City statues or color-coded death messages.
  
• Priorities - In relation to the last point, pay attention to the little things that bug a lot of people; if you could get the team to knock out a couple low-hanging bugs that people care about, you'll be a hero.
  
• History and Honesty - Learn about PGI's past and do not repeat it. They've come a long way in the last few years, but you will still encounter bitter veterans that have every reason to feel lied to. Don't dismiss those people, or you'll have another /r/mwo on your hands.

Bonus Points:

• Website - The website is bad, confusing, and unhelpful. This community has an impressive number of contributors with guides, videos, twitch channels, and advice. Get that to new players, because right now the new player experience is ****** beyond all belief.
  
• Information Location - There is no one place where I can go to see all I want to see. No one place that has all the developer posts, news, important tweets, previews, etc. Well, except /r/OutreachHPG. But it's that way because, like most things, the community had to do what PGI won't. Hopefully, you'll have the freedom and time to organize information in a more centralized location.

Welcome on board!

[FindersWeepers]

Hullo! Get ready to be blamed for anything and everything!

[Dawnstealer]

You'll need this:



And thank you for sticky-ing that post on the Steiner boards!

[Jman5]

Hello,

Don't forget to spend time learning the game by playing it regularly. If you do that you will be much more comfortable engaging with the community and understanding their perspectives. The worst community managers I have seen are the ones who clearly don't play their company's game with any regularity.

[Moku]

Good luck in our Mechwarrior/Battletech universe.