Game community management acts as a bridge between developers and players. A variety of skills are required to ensure that users enjoy playing a game while also maintaining a positive space for them.
Game community management has evolved over time, shifting its focus from traditional internet forums and communities to social media. That said, the main objective remains the same: to help game developers communicate with their users online and create an environment where people can share various kinds of information with each other.
Today, we will learn what a Game Community Manager does, and what type of skills are required to become one. To do so, we will hear from one of our experts here at Latis Global, a global CS service provider that helps games reach users in the overseas market.
How To Become a Game Community Manager
1) What does a Game Community Manager do?
As you may know, a Game Community Manager is responsible for managing a game’s official social media account, website, community cafes, etc. Although it may initially seem like a simple, easy, and enjoyable task, it’s not as easy as it seems. Since every post and comment on the official website essentially comes to represent the official stance of the company, each one needs to go through multiple stages of approval before they get posted. On top of that, you have to post notices daily, leave comments, and write reports about various community metrics.
“Exercise caution when writing official statements!”
Monitoring the community and identifying its trends are also crucial parts of the job. We also plan community events periodically and sometimes create images on our own. We meet with our clients to discuss what kind of content is needed and how it should be posted on the official community, after which we design and create the content accordingly. We also plan events to align with any possible upcoming seasonal or on/offline events that have been scheduled. For the most part though, the community manager’s job follows a set routine. It’s not as laid-back and enjoyable as one might expect.
2) Game community management challenges that are often overlooked.
First of all, one of the most unexpected and difficult aspects of this job is that it’s actually more formal than you might think. It may seem like an enjoyable job that anyone who loves playing games would be able to do at first glance, but in truth, it’s a strictly organized job with a clearly defined task.
As mentioned earlier, even a simple notice needs to be approved and reviewed multiple times. On top of that, you need to have a clear understanding of the game’s content, which is difficult since there’s not much time to actually play the game during work hours. You can fully understand the content only if you play the game during your free time or even after work.
“It’s all work and no play.”
One of the challenges is that the preferred social media platform can differ from country to country, making it important to familiarize yourself with every single platform. For example, Korean gaming communities rarely use Discord, but it’s a popular platform in English-speaking countries. Another challenge comes from the fact that schedules are always subject to change. There are times when release dates change, or pre-order schedules suddenly get moved up or delayed. As a result, there are a lot of instances where we’d have to prepare all new content because the ones that had been prepared in advance have to be changed to match the new release dates or pre-order schedules. Naturally, this leads to a drop in quality, but since content must still be uploaded on time, there is no alternative.
“The perpetual struggle: Speed vs. Quality.”
It can be difficult to make such compromises, especially when you’re emotionally invested in the game you’re managing. The more attachment you feel to a particular game, your performance at work may improve, but it will also diminish your personal life. You will find yourself constantly monitoring the community even after clocking out, and once this realization sets in, the resulting feeling of despondency can be great. You have become unable to separate your professional life from your personal life, putting yourself at risk of harming both. Make sure to set clear boundaries between your job and your personal life.
3) What’s your advice as an expert for those who want to become a community manager?
Game Community Manager’s job may certainly seem easier and more straightforward compared to other fields, especially to users who already have experience in other online communities.
But if you love games and enjoy playing them, you’re probably better off as a gamer rather than a community manager. Someone with great writing skills are much better equipped to overseeing various types of content as a community manager than someone who is merely good at playing games.
A community manager needs to keep honing their writing skills.
Notices, comments, reports, content posts… these are all written. This means you should be able to write with various degrees of tone and formality. You’d need basic grammatical skills as well as an awareness of how effective a piece of writing can be. Simply being active on online communities isn’t enough. You’d need to read a broad range of genres, from the classics to popular fiction. While reading web novels and light novels are also good, they alone are not enough. The more you read, the larger your vocabulary and the more polished your sentences will become.
Also, it’s important to develop a good eye for content. It’s good to check gaming-related content frequently, but being able to quickly identify trending movies, tv series, or YouTube videos will allow you to come up with more unique ideas while managing your community.
if you love communicating with people through content creation, I wholeheartedly recommend taking a shot at becoming a community manager.
