“Change is the essential process of all existence.”
-Spock, Star Trek: The Original Series S3 E15
“Great things befall when one is brave enough to do something bold, strange, and unusual.”
-Ed Greenwood, Swords of Eveningstar
We’ve been mentioning this for a few weeks now but wanted to make it official: After 6.5 years as the Neverwinter Community Manager, I am passing on my sword, shield, hammer, and +1 armor to Ambassador Kael! Kael has been at the helm of the STO Community Starship and the CO Community Superteam since we both started together at Cryptic, boldly leading the Star Trek Online and Champions Online Communities.
In my 11 years in the game industry, I have been a Community Manager for various titles, but Neverwinter is where I truly solidified myself as a CM. I learned immensely from my peers but mostly it was the community, you folks, who helped me grow and evolve. For every person who provided constructive criticism, even when it was tough to hear, thank you. For every person who remained reasonable, rational and helped guide community discourse in a civil manner, thank you. For every person who created guides, helped other adventurers both in and outside the game, and upheld what it means to be a member of a community, thank you. And, finally, for the moderators who volunteered their personal times and unfortunately sometimes found themselves targets of toxicity, thank you – I truly could not have done this without you.
While I am hanging up my Community Manager helm, I am not going far. I am fortunate to remain on the Neverwinter team, now as a full-time Producer.
While Kael will handle the core aspects of Community Management, I take with me the Closed Alpha/Early Access program and the Console Test Shard access. I also hope to make occasional appearances on streams so you won’t be rid of me that easily!
As always, stay safe and take care of each other.
Nitocris/Julia
Comments
thank you.
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Being a CM around here surely isn't easy. Because of many other obligations there's simply not enough time to really be around that often. This has been an issue with all former CMs. You want to have smaller turnaround times for urgent questions and issues and often any reply at all. Latest example is the bag scam on the Bazaar: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1267107/72-slot-bag-of-holding-in-the-wondrous-bazaar-seriously. This is just something you have to publicly address and certainly falls into the lap of a CM. Failing to do so is unprofessional although it's likely a company / priority issue. There are dozens examples in the past where a simple "I've noticed this thread and try to get you information" would have saved a lot of grief. It's generally why CMs around here are pretty whatever and not held in high regard around here.
For Julia specifically I always felt she didn't handle one major community-divisive situation particularly well and it subsequently never got fully resolved. That was really unfortunate and I think actively harmed the game. Maybe others have better experiences (behind the scenes) but for me it's a complicated legacy at best.
Good luck! I hope you love your next challenge!
Live long and prosper.
Co-Guild Leader
Ghost Templars L20
Alliance: Tyrs Paladium
Main: Cleric (Heals|DPS)
Alt: Warlock