S***'s on Fire! A Cautionary Tale in Community Crisis Management

[Music] in communities and my journey learning on how to handle crisis this is a deeper retrospective on the Kotaku and subsequently republished article what it's like to be the community manager for the West ps4 game ever using my story I'll be looking at birth of professional and personal aspects I'll be outlining some of the most important attributes of both areas I have found crucial and I'm going to tell you how I apply is to best interact with my communities after professional I'll be touching on the importance of transparency ownership a responsibility use of empathy clear communication and effective messaging on the personal side I'll be emphasizing self-care support networks mental health knowing your limits and recovery after crisis so previously as a scientist as you can see here that's actually me in an airlock exiting a negative pressure room so my

background is in science genetics and microbiology to be exact and I haven't had any previous training in PR communications or community management I am completely self-taught currently I'm the Community Engagement Manager at EA fire monkeys based in Melbourne Australia and I'm responsible for all life titles I'm also a relatively young upstart in the games industry and I've only been around for a few years so a question I get a lot is how the hell did you end up in games so I started in Inghams on a project called wander there is where I learnt my community management skills but also one crucial thing crisis management I originally joined to help out a friend I started off in QA and moved to community management at product launch taking over all social media channels without instruction of mentoring despite not having guidance my philosophy of approach at the time was that I would try to do what I felt was in the best interests for both the community and the

development team so just a little bit on wonder it was an exploration narrative focus non-combat MMO for PC and console yes I know it's quite the mouthful so is in development for a number of years with a very small team of less than ten people based in Melbourne Australia so before wand is launched there was a lot of interest from both domestic and international media as you can see here by some of these headlines and quotes it was demoed at pax prime south east australia Gamescom and even had an indiegogo kickstarter there was a lot of hype surrounding a game including press interests which commented on the first impressions of the game itself beautifu a kingly beautiful gorgeous sheer joy and mystery of exploration these were some of the headlines and quotes from sites such as Kotaku and polygon wonder was definitely different in terms of gameplay style and visually on first impressions it was indeed very pretty

however wonder was far from perfect this is an example of some of the problems that wonder had it's what I affectionately called the slingshot effect and I feel it actually speaks volumes about the game itself this is another example so what you see here is a hero a humanoid form of the character you play clipping straight through some rocks and blatantly ignoring the collision volume so I wonder had a bunch of life issues such as constant crashing progress loss as well as intrinsic game issues such as clipping janky animations as well as unfortunately clunky controls unfortunately wander failed to live up to expectation and deliver at launch there was a significant element of media negativity as you can see here on top of really quite negative player sentiment and criticism it was slammed by critics

in particular gym quiz ition who's known for his quite pointed view in games he was particularly harsh and wonder how how did this game trick the world into thinking it was something when it was absolutely nothing that was only the beginning of the storm inner monster live issues we had such as the progress loss in the crashing it was relatively common for players to state that Wanda was literally unplayable this is the review page for Wonder from Steam and this continues right down the page as far as you can read it was at this time I took over the social media platforms Facebook Twitter steam forums Google+ and I even started my own twitch TV campaign stream this was my idea consisting of daily QA as with the developers I play through the game answered some questions and field for any feedback coming through sometimes these sessions lasted for more than four hours which is not bad for a

first-time streamer but the net result seemed really positive as we didn't receive encouraging feedback and sentiment from the community overall from me doing this these are just a small selection of some of the comments who received about Wanda it was an avalanche with more coming in by the hour on top of the negative press we were receiving in regards to some of the commentary we received we had unsavory accusations of us trying to steal money from the Australian government as Wanda had received funding for its development an interesting comment I'd like to point out here is from Jennifer she says a non-combative game made me rage quit which says it all behind the scenes what people didn't know though it said I wasn't just handling social media but I'm also trying to support our creative director and loan programmer as we work through all the many days and nights together I was burning myself out trying to support the game publicly and privately that took a very heavy

emotional toll on me on a few occasions I had to simply walk away from my laptop and just take a moment to breathe in the rare moments where that didn't work I broke down in tears so the really was on fire with the emotional strain stress and ultimately tears I was not fine so I'm gonna go through and give an outline on how I break down messages from players and their points in any engagement across platforms I start by looking at key topics friction points turn up the message itself points where I can offer insight and information as well as looking for opportunities to connect and really engage I'll also give my perspective on how I respond to communities must also what I can also doing what I can to turn an engagement into a positive

interaction so this is a comment we receive in our Facebook from a player named Daryl I'm not going to read all of Stroeve it so any game may receive comments similar to this a lot more comments we did receive when not nearly as well written or as reasonable with this however I'm going to use this as an example of how I approach answering player commentary using the professional skills I outlined depending of my presentation as I'm not going to have you read through Darrell's extensive comment I'm going to break this down into the following key points which I've drawn from his comment so Daryl isn't attracted to the role-playing nature of wander the play style isn't quite as personal preference he describes wander as an empty sandbox with nothing to do as well as state said he isn't trying to be mean and how he's conveying his experience he's bored yet holds out hope for something interesting eventually but ultimately right now there's not enough to hold his interest in the game he

regrets buying the game and it not living up to his expectations and mentions attempting to get a refund from Sony but the most interesting point I found out of this was at the very end is that he he expresses that he is apologetic for communicating here's a very negative experience this is my response to Dale's comment and it's almost equally as wordy so I'm definitely not going to make you read it all but I will be breaking down my response to show you how I approach responding to this in addressing the comments involving player feedback on your product you need to keep in mind some very important questions firstly what were the specific issues raised secondly what are you gonna do about addressing these problems like what do you need to do I use these questions as a guide in writing my responses to comments and I find them generally useful in my everyday messaging a key point to remember is to

communicate clearly your progress and process such as is there any news on terms of fixes update atas etc one of the things I did to help the community during my time and wonder is that I wrote a fake use and directed the community to them which they did actually find quite helpful also when dealing with repetitive questions I developed a template for responses which became the foundation for a reactive messaging system an effective method I still used to this day on a personal level I was terrified I'd say something wrong as we all know the internet never forgets in the first part and worst of my response to Darrel I try to empathize with him and try to build a relationship by acknowledging and understanding his point of view some to keep in mind is that individuals have approached you opened up that dialog and taken the time and effort to write their comment they've ultimately come to you seeking

for advice in the second part of my comment I go on to further acknowledge and address the issues raised in his comment I also shed clarity on the situation as a whole and what our intentions and actions are moving forward I go on to reassure him and acknowledge that his points are valid and that we would try to do something about them overall I try to be as transparent as possible in answering in the last section of my reply to Darrel I approach problem solving by taking ownership of the situation and giving an honest clear answer to the best of my ability I attempt to consolidate the relationship further and build rapport this is evidenced by my final statement take care of yourself acting and showing an element of care is humanizing your brand and product part of Community Engagement is connecting with individuals and your community as a

whole by showing that you care you are connecting with your community on a truly human level my entire experience wasn't completely bad it's not all fire and brimstone trust me so there were some positive things that came out of Wanda such as lasting friendships with developers both in Australia and externally I also made friends with players so for example I have two friends of mine in Seattle Penny and James who I actually met through Wanda because they were playing the game and I've kept in contact with them since so despite the negativity that we did receive we did have some positive feedback from players I also went through brand new experiences and discovered a whole new set of skills that I didn't know I previously had but the one big thing is that I ended up in the career in games when dealing with a crisis in your community it's important to know your limits I worked beyond my limits much to

my own personal judgment so these are some tweets that I wrote from the Twitter from the wander account I wrote these times where we went home so as you know 6:30 a.m. 5:20 a.m. 4:30 a.m. the one good thing out of all of that is that we eventually got to go home at 4:30 a.m. instead of 6:30 in the morning as you can see I was working crazy hours to the point where my car got towed I had missed birthdays dinners brunches coffee time with my friends and family I almost went completely broke to the point where I had $8 left in my bank account I got sick to the point of being bedridden yet I still continued to stream the community never sleeps but you have to you are at the forefront and someone who can actively do something in the midst of a crisis it's really important to take care of yourself I can't stress this enough as you will be

tempted to push yourself but you have to be careful as the last thing you want to do is burn so this is one of my favorite moments working on the project pizza was ordered for us by some fans in Germany and it arrived - midway through my twitch stream so if you actually go back and read the recorded streams there's one point where I go pizza so in the middle of a negativity storm when just about anything can go wrong and has gone wrong when someone tweets your address you kind of expect a large angry mob to show up at your doorstep it's not a particularly rational thought however in a situation like that it feels like just about anything is possible despite the dark times we had a support network which even include complete randomly a random strangers the community rallied around us both development and players alike it was then I began to take steps to better look after myself such as wrapping up my Twitter streams a bit earlier when I was

sick or I needed rest eating better and looking after myself more than just eating pizza and takeaway I eventually left the project in August 2015 and began my own personal journey to recovery I spent a lot of time with friends going out and generally really generally reacquainting myself of the world I took time to recover mentally and physically from working a wander and I had to teach myself in a way how to relax as I'd been under pressure for such an extended period of time where this was all I really knew both mental and physical health were things I had to work on that I had to put myself back in a good state it took a while and it was predominantly my friends and family and a lot of sleep that helped me get through that process to be back to normal and the person I am today since leaving the project I have freelanced but during that time I was deciding

whether or not I should go back to science continue on to a medical degree or staying games because I discovered that despite the interesting experience that I had into the games industry I'd really enjoyed the interactions and engagement with players I found something very deeply fulfilling in eventually I applied for a job at EA and they took me on then I have taught me a heck of a lot since my time and wonder I've really developed personally and professionally since then and I've been exposed to new opportunities and challenges ultimately I'm really glad I made the career change and stayed in games I've also got a whole new perspective on how games are made and promoted I've seen Wonder Girl from an idea from coding asset creation animation testing to its release and aftermath I have immense admiration for everyone who works in the games industry but particularly community managers like yourselves who are on the communication

front lines so in summary never underestimate the tremendous wrath of a measurable horde of irate gamers but at the same time never underestimate your own strength in a dire situation stay calm communicate with your community honestly empathetically and clearly take responsibility where needed and be proactive in your endeavors with engagement ensure that you're taking care of your basic needs physically and psychologically and rely on your support networks of friends family and colleagues in the industry other Community Managers have been a great help to me know that no matter how difficult the situation is you will weather the storm but most importantly for the sake of your health well-being and your product take time and step away from the computer I'd like to share with you a particularly gift which I feel typifies the experience of community crisis

management thank you so there's a mic in the middle for anyone who would like to ask some questions hey how's it going I'm a community manager and I've worked for a lot of big brands outside of gaming though and when they have a crisis maybe it's because people in games I don't know maybe they feel like their money's already spent and gone down the drain I know refunds are sort of a debate issue but I'm just wondering how you feel about people asking for refunds and even though we can't always offer refunds is that something that you would ever use to appease a community or is

that just like a dangerous can of worms that you never ever want to crack open so the question is about refunds and how we sort of approach that that's an interesting question and to an extent it depends upon your platform so a refunds policy may be different on Steam versus how it is in the App Store so what you can really do from your side is just refer them to the correct channels for the appropriate technical support usually with a lot of developers they don't handle that transaction process it would still need to be gone through with the platforms but the best you can do to help them is redirect them through the appropriate support channels so in dealing with some of the different projects that you've worked on especially having multiple projects from a community management perspective how many people do usually tied to any one given project especially if you have like a full spectrum support mechanism like social media forums and so on and

so forth so the question is personnel per project and how the support goes with communications and that it really depends upon your project so I've had the privilege of being able to work on a tiny indie project as well as something bigger such as EA where I've gone from a small community to several million so it really depends it depends upon your staffing levels and also what your colleagues are willing to do what they feel like they can do in their power whether it's like answering the occasional tweet on Twitter and that that is so community management you are speaking to a community and individuals so as to what might be an ideal scenario for support for community management it's hard to it really depends upon your own personal your sorry your team's communities and situation at that point in time thanks for the talk that was great

I really liked the way that you broke down Daryl's comment and how you replied to him addressing all of his points I was just wondering for say the kind of like shorter Mena comments um that you can get that it just kind of like this sucks and I hate it did you bother replying to those and how did you go about responding to those kind of people yeah so in regards to short comments like you suck I hate your product on that how do you go about interacting with that you are within your rights to ignore very negative or toxic comments because for example on Facebook if you answer a comment that will often float it up to the top of the comments section which may not be an ideal situation I mean it's great that you can and one strategy I would employ is to turn a negative situation to a positive so someone might be really pissed off in terms of something to do with your game and you can be like right so what exactly is your issue how can I help

have you tried X Y and said so turn it into a positive interaction however if it's just blatant abuse then you kind of better off not interacting with it so it's certain extent how are you able to gauge so how do you measure the effects of what you do on the community as a whole so there's a bunch of really great social listening suites out there that's really good in measuring sentiment of your community as well as measuring the effectiveness of your campaign so definitely recommend looking into one of them but in terms of me starting out when I was you know without any mentoring without any sort of instruction on that sort of thing I basically had to go through the responses by hand myself to really

if my actions were doing something constructive and positive for the community so you kind of got to do it by hand but if you have the means and the resources to I definitely have a look at social media listening sweets as they can often callate stuff into a report quite easily for you so that'd be my suggestion that's a very good question what made me stick around I'm stubborn as hell but also I believed in the philosophy of wander it was an unpolished untested very different game it wasn't an assassin's creed or anything like that but I believed in the philosophy and I still thought there was something there and the team members I

worked was for very genuine very passionate people who obviously loved what they were doing so in part I was inspired and motivated by them to stay around however for the sake of my own well-being I had to eventually drop the project because it just wasn't viable for me to keep on living the way that I was doing so in essence what kept me going is short sheer force of will and also really a fantastic team and environment I think that's everything has anyone got any more questions all right well thank you very much coming to my talk and make sure you check out those surveys [Applause]