1st Edition
Mastering Community Management Chaos, Compassion, and Connections in Games
Introduction
- Community and Marketing? PR? Social?
- The Mindset For This Book
- A Better Internet
- How To Use This Book
Chapter 1: Online Community
- What Is Community?
- How Communities Form
o Culture and Community
- The Rise of Online Communities
o Third Spaces
o Avatars, Personas, Anonymity
- Communication Changes
o Studios and Communities
- The Power of Community
o Real Life Still Affects Life Online
- How Are Game Communities Different?
o Accessibility to Creators
o Self-Motivated Space Creation
o Conflict Is Key
o Comfortable Conversation Starters (And Sometimes, Passionate Ones)
- My Community Philosophy
Chapter 2: What Is a Community Manager?
- You
- The Community Manager Role
o Dangerous Misconceptions
o How Community Is Changing Marketing
- Your Speciality
o Charisma
o Writing
o Persuasion
o Feedback
o Humor???
- Success as a Community Manager
o Being a Public Figure Versus Being Private
- Creating Your Dream Community
o Values
o Finding Your Voice
- Joining an Established Community
o Internal Research (Or: Interrogate Your Team)
o Team Discovery
o Resource Gathering
o Game Clarification
o Community Insight
o External Research (Or: Interrogate Your Community)
o Player Discovery
o Resource Gathering
o Game Clarification
- You (Again!)
Chapter 3: The Basics of Community Strategy
- The Start
- The Building Blocks
- Intention
- The Strategy
- Discovering Your Community
o Player Profile
- Community Integration
o Lurker
o Casual
o Fan
o Advocate
- Community Connection Types
- Movement & Change
- Success Metrics
o Social Proof
o Values
- The Timeline
o Week 1
o Week 2
o Week 3
- Why Is This Worth The Effort?
o Mitigating Overdependence
o Organic Marketing
o Feedback
o Long-Term Pay Off
o Developer Happiness
Chapter 4: Building Communities Based in Kindness
- Creating Legends
- The Start
- Definition of Kindness
- Why Care About Kindness?
- The Responsibility of Kindness
- What Is RENEW
- Using the RENEW Model
o Rules
o Expectations
o Norms
o Ethics
- Warmth
o Creating Moments of Joy
- Measuring Success
o Quantitative Measures
o Qualitative Data
- What Is the Business Value of Kindness
o Goodwill
Chapter 5: Early Interest
- Ready, Set, Go
- Overview
- Starting From Scratch
o The Tenants
o Finding People
o Engaging
- Create Value
o Game Types
- People Types
o Press
o Influencers
o Players
- Growth & Value in Practice
o “Doing Things That Don’t Scale”
- Social Media
o What Is Social Now?
o Types of Social
o How Do We Do Social Media “Well”?
o The Importance of UGC
o What Platforms Should You Be On?
o FAQs
- Measuring Success
o Social Reporting
o Conversion Rates
o It’s Not Working?!
- Expectations
- Community & The Game
Chapter 6: Production
- Delays? In MY Game Studio?
- Overview
- Funneling
o Discord
o Newsletter
o Dev Logs
o Livestreaming
- Socialization
o How Members Create Identity
- Resiliency
o Emotional Intelligence
o Confrontation
o Caring
- Moderators
o How Many?
o Finding Moderators
o Choosing Moderators
o Knowing Your Mods
o Managing Mods
o Internal Moderator Guideline
o Example: Internal Mod Guidelines
o Automated Moderating
o Rewarding Mods
o The Importance of Moderation
- Conflict Management
o What Causes Conflict?
o Prepping for Conflict
o De-Escalation
- Turning Detractors to Ambassadors
- Grey Areas
Chapter 7: Launch
- Screaming Crying Celebrating
- Overview
- Launch Campaigns
o Hype Creation
o Sharing
o Triage
- Growth
o Viral/Overwhelming Success
o Positive Success
o Minor-Neutral Success
o Disappointing/Weak Launch
- Feedback
o Complaints
o Bug Reports
o Feature Requests
o Reviews
o Praise
- Sentiment Reports
o Sample Report
o Giving Your Opinion
- Connection
o Leadership in Community
o Roles in Community
- Social Capital
o Examples of Social Capital Activations Outside of Games
o Examples of Social Capital Activations Inside of Games
o A Warning
- Apologizing
o Steps for Communicating an Apology
Chapter 8: Post-Launch
- The End…?
- Overview
- The Game’s Sustainability
o Stickiness
- Community Churn Rate
o Mitigating Churn
o Community Creations
- Community Health Metrics
o What Is “Community Health”?
o Measuring Community Health
- Player Feedback Surveys
o Desire Paths
- Community Incentives
o Why?
o Considerations
- Introducing Change
o ADKAR Model
o Additional Considerations
o Case Study: Among Us Cosmicubes
o Not Everything Goes Perfectly
- Reviving A “Dead” Community
o Understand Your Issues
- Revival Work
o Reorganize Priorities
o Experiment & Track
- Reviving a “Dead Game”
o Why Is It Difficult to Reactivate Hype?
o Possible Activities
o How Do These Activities Help?
- Cleaning A “Toxic” Community
o Preparation
o Process
o Positive Reinforcement
o Bringing People Back
- Prepping For The Next Thing
Conclusion
- TL;DR Didn’t Read
- Authenticity > Statistics
- Thankful
Index
Biography
Victoria Tran is an award-winning community professional, speaker, and writer in the video game industry. As she puts it, she achieves success through shenanigans. She is the Communications Director at Innersloth, creators of the hit game Among Us, and co-runs Outersloth, their indie game fund. Her other game credits include Venba, Unpacking, Boyfriend Dungeon, Dwarf Fortress, and more. Additionally, she has been featured in media such as The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, IGN, Forbes, VICE, and BBC News. She shares her knowledge on how to create more empathetic, practical, and kinder communities on her Community Dev Newsletter and website www.victoriatran.com.
"As someone who has led community for some of the world's spiciest games, there is one person I trust more than any other for advice on managing community, and that's Victoria Tran. Mastering Community Management distills her hard-won wisdom into a definitive guide that every community leader should study." -- Ryan K. Rigney, Marketing Partner at a16z
"Victoria is a veritable encyclopedia of well-thought out knowledge into how game communities work, what makes yours happy, and how to sustainably work with the lovable-ish hordes that make up 'the gaming public'." -- Simon Carless, founder, GameDIscoverCo
"Victoria has not only been a friend, but a major inspiration in the community space since she took the scene by force through Among Us. She facilitated the astronomical growth of a worldwide community while keeping it fun and reminding the industry that a little bit of backstabbing is entirely OK. I could shower her with buzzwords and accolades, but seriously, the proof is in the pudding." -- Dylan Gafner, Global Community Lead, Bungie
