“I wanna be a care hare…“

While we would love to play Runes of Magic all day long, our job here is much, much more than that. The lines you are currently reading have been written by the CM team. We are also responsible for almost all of the news text, as well as lots of content on the sub-pages of the Runes of Magic homepage.

The role of a Community Manager varies from one company to another, but here at Frogster we aim to have a close and personal approach to every single user, no matter if they are active posters on our forums, a dedicated fansite and/or guild member or a single person on Facebook. This means that we have to take care that you, the community, are the top priority for any information related to Runes of Magic. And that is often not as easy as you might expect – but more on that later.

“Hey, only two meetings and seven deadlines today!”

We have to do multiple tasks (take a deep breath!), including replying to topics on the forums, writing news articles, staying in regular contact with our subsidiaries Frogster America and Frogster Pacific, transmitting any important info regarding the game (e.g. patch notes), reviewing the latest articles and news of the fansites and media, and ensuring the internal communication with other departments, such as Marketing, PR and Graphics. We also prepare the contests from A to Z and do interviews with fansites. One cool aspect of a CM’s job is that we also have the opportunity to travel all across Europe for press tours and conventions, showing off our awesome game. There’s always something to do, and it never gets dull!

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“Just five more minutes, mom… Oh, what now? Picture? Meh!”

For each and every task, there are multiple steps to respect in order to make the project work. For example, if we want to organize a special contest, we can’t just write a text, insert a “Seal of Approval” stamp and go for it! First, we have to do some brainstorming with the whole team, gather ideas from our fellow colleagues (including those from other Frogster games!), work on a first draft, get approval if needed, and rework the draft again and again until everything is complete – and then the text gets translated into the other languages. After a few days or weeks, depending on the size of the project, the event is ready to be published on the website! The best example is our annual Bake’n’Make contest – a true gem.

“What do you want from me?!”

And that is just a part of the work as a CM. Regular reports, gathering feedback, creating concepts and news, and staying in contact with guilds and fansites is also part of our daily work here at Frogster.

“Now there are thirty new threads!”

So what skills do you need if you want to be a CM? First and foremost, you have to be proficient in your native language, as well as English (which is our official internal communication language). Because one of our offices is based in Berlin, Germany, it’s very useful to speak German, but not absolutely necessary.

„Co prawda nie mówię po niemiecku, ale intensywnie pracuję nad tym, aby za jakiś czas rymować jak MC Goethe.“

(“Although I don’t speak any German at all right now, I’m working hard on it so that one day I will be able to rhyme like MC Goethe.”)

You also need to have excellent communication skills and be able to use any social media tool, whether it is “old school” (IRC, forums) or “2.0” (Facebook, Twitter). Patience is also a key for the role of a Community Manager, but most importantly you need to be able to overcome any challenges and always look for more solutions and ideas to promote the game. For that reason, a good knowledge of your market (Germany, France, the UK, Poland, Spain, and Holland, as well as USA and Australia) is essential. Communication is the key – as a CM you’ll always have to do the balancing act between being there for your community and also being there for your company. For most of the players, you’ll be the face and voice of the company, so it’s always important to think about every possible part of a posting before going public with it.

“Lasse moi think about das nochmal”

The regular schedule of a CM is punctuated by meetings, conference calls with our subsidiaries Frogster America and Frogster Pacific, translations, text preparation, chat sessions on Skype, and much more! However, it is greatly rewarding at the end of the day to see that your work is appreciated by the community.

We also have to keep up with the game mechanics and patches.

“Front AE? Really?“

That’s all for the introduction of the Community Management department. If you have any more questions, do not hesitate to leave your questions for us on the forum!

From left to right: (front) Laghmara, Silberfuchs, Quannah, (back) Zalmah, Kondoo, Aegil

The Frogster Community Management is split into product teams. As an overal CM team, this introduction might look familiar to you as it reflects the work of all Community Management team members at Frogster.