Une journée dans la peau de Bashiok, Community Manager
J'ai eu l'occasion de vous parler plusieurs fois du mini-site dédié au 20ème anniversaire de Blizzard. Si je le fais à nouveau, c'est parce que la société nous propose de découvrir une nouvelle interview permettant de découvrir la journée-type d'un employé. Cette fois-ci, c'est Micah Whipple qui s'y colle. Ce nom ne vous dira probablement rien. En fait, il s'agit de Bashiok, Community Manager depuis un bon moment chez Blizzard. L'interview est uniquement disponible en anglais pour l'instant, mais cela ne rebutera pas certains d'entre-vous. La version française arrivera probablement d'ici peu.
Update du 5 décembre : La version française de l'article est disponible !
8:00am : I hit the snooze button.
8:10am : I hit the snooze button.
8:20am : Normally I'd hit the snooze button a few more times, but I manage to roll out of bed, abandoning the soft warmth of my sheets for the cold, bitter world. I'm not a morning person. Some mornings I'm also not a shower person. This is one of those mornings.
I tend to get into work, most days, at around 9:00 a.m. I'm a community manager, which isn't my actual title (that'd be editor), but it refers to the work I do. These days I go by my super-secret name “Bashiok,” and at some point I was also “Drysc,” but whichever name I go by, my goal is always to ensure the work we're producing is of “Blizzard Quality.” (Imagine a "ting" sound and a lens flare effect reflecting off that term.)
Most people don't quite understand what a Community Manager does. Some think we just sit in the forums all day. Not true! It's an understandable misconception as this role is still a fairly new thing. It's not a position most companies have, a lot of the work isn't seen externally, and from company to company the responsibilities can vary wildly. In some cases, a Community Manager will also do PR and marketing for an entire company. Being as large as we are (our North America Community Development and eSports team numbers over 35 people) we're able to specialize.
Any time I'm asked to sum up community management, I refer to that scene in Office Space where the guy being fired feebly tries to explain how he acts as a courier between the customer and the programmers, and ends up screaming about how he has people skills. It's a fairly apt comparison, as that's a big part of who we are, only we're (hopefully) more useful in reality than in the reference.
As players can't be present in internal meetings or take part in the decision-making process, our job is to ensure that their voices are represented -- so naturally we complain a lot (kidding!). We also act as a buffer for any external communication, ideally mitigating any issues once news hits the site. As players ourselves, we can help inform company decisions and communication to best serve the game communities. That's the overarching idea of what community management is about, but our department does a whole lot more, including run eSports tournaments and programs, social media outreach, promotional projects like the “Join the Dominion!” and “Your Fortune Awaits” promotional campaigns, as well as daily content creation. I'm a manager of the content team.
Discord