DAW: Community Managers

Earlier this week, I was talking to my brother on the phone, just chatting and asking after his life up in Toronto, and he told me he was applying for a position at a video game company. Of course, I wished him luck. He then proceeded to describe the job responsibilities and requirements, one of them being strong knowledge of online forums and familiarity with social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. My first reaction: “Oh dear merciful God, you wouldn’t have to deal with the community, would you?”

Can you blame me? I mean, don’t get me wrong; these days, I think we’re very fortunate to have a bigger voice and so many avenues of communication with game companies and developers. On the whole, I feel this has been great for both sides.

But you know…we gamers can also be a pretty hard bunch to please.

Over the last two years of blogging, I’ve followed the news of many game launches with interest, and always, my first thought when picking my way through the zillions of rage-filled posts on official forums and Twitter feeds is, “Daaamn, I really don’t envy the community managers!” And especially not those involved with MMOs. Thankfully (or hopefully), much of the abuse appears to stem from a small minority of the fanbase. But some of it still makes me literally cringe in my seat to read. Honestly, I really don’t know how CMs manage to do their job and stay sane at the same time.

So this year for Developer Appreciation Week, I’m going to do something different. For the last two years that I did DAW, I gave my thanks and kudos to the development teams for the MMOs I’ve enjoyed over the last twelve months (along with plenty of mental hugs). But this year, because of time constraints — but also because I truly believe that as a group they deserve my utmost thanks from the bottom of my heart — I want to express my appreciation for the hard-working men and women who work in MMO community management.

So to all the community managers of the wonderful MMOs I play and love: I thank you for your dedication and your social interaction with the community, for your work in providing us with the news we want and relaying information to creators, and for coming up with new and fun ways for us to enjoy awesome games with our friends. And because I know I’m not above bitching and complaining every once in a while, I also thank you for putting up with the likes of me. Here’s to another year of DAW!

MMOGamerMom

Hello readers (that is, if I even have any left), long time no see. Even wordpress has gone and changed its interface on me and I’m left here stumbling around like an idiot getting used to this posting thing again. Amazing how much can change in a month when you’re not paying attention. I don’t even want to know how far I am behind when it comes to what’s happening in the gaming world.

As you know, Mr. GC and I welcomed our first child back in February and we are as happy as can be! A month later, I’m still amazed when I look at her. It takes my breath away thinking about how much I am in love with this little tiny person. And yet, it is so true what they say — a new baby changes everything. I knew this already, of course, but I mean, wow. They really did mean everything in your life..let alone my gaming habits.

In truth, my life was turned upside down the moment that stick turned blue. I was ecstatic…and terrified (oh, who am I kidding, I STILL feel that way). Long time readers might remember last summer when my blogging activity dipped for a while (well, I’ll tell you it wasn’t just because of SWTOR beta!) I must have spent two months flat on my back, too nauseous with morning sickness (which should really be renamed to “all-day sickness”), playing MMOs and watching my toon bounce up and down made me motion sick (how the hell does that work?!) and most mornings my fingers were too stiff with carpal tunnel (another one of those joys of pregnancy no one tells you about) to even grip a mouse. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I could barely sit in front of my computer for more than a half hour without feeling like a rancor was stomping on my spine.

And those were the easy days. Now my entire life seems to revolve around feeding, changing, burping, rocking, soothing, etc. etc. etc. The first few weeks, I barely even found the time to pee! Needless to say, falling behind on my MMOs is the least of my worries. Even this blog post has taken me three sittings to write (so far). These days whenever I have free time, it’s no longer MMOs time, it’s do-my-long-neglected-chores time, eat-before-I-forget time, or catch-up-on-some-Zs time.

Yeah, I definitely miss playing games and blogging. There are evenings when I’m looking wistfully over my husband’s shoulder as he plays SWTOR while I’m nursing the baby, living vicariously through him as he clears Ops with our guild. I still have yet to play much of Mass Effect 3, since I made it only as far as the introduction. I’m still struggling with the decision of whether or not to preorder The Secret World. Will I have more time by then? Admittedly, taking care of the baby is getting easier day by day as she grows and I’m getting the hang of things.

But you know, despite being horribly sleep deprived and having to say good bye to all my hobbies, I love being a mom. I’d do it all over again in a second, and sacrifice even a whole lot more. Anyway, I think it’s time to officially proclaim this blogging dry spell as the semi-hiatus that it is. I’m not going to shut this site down or anything, I love blogging too much for that and I have every intention of starting up again once things get a little less crazy. Posts still might pop up every now and then depending on my schedule, but I think things are going to remain quiet for the next little while.

I look forward to when things around here pick up once more — when I start gaming again or when the baby can sleep more than two hours without waking up crying…whichever comes first! Thanks for reading if you’re still around, and have fun for me!