Completely fair criticism. We don’t do enough currently to support small to medium sized creators, and that’s something I’m tasked with improving. Not much more I can say right now, aside from “I hear you”

yes.

Creator relations means supporting the entire OW creator community, to work to retain existing creators, to maintain relationships with folks who may have churned out, and to foster up and coming creators who are just starting on their journey.

BTW. we’re hiring dedicated support for this responsibility as we speak: Community Manager, Creator Support job in Irvine, California, United States of America | Community Development jobs at Blizzard Entertainment

Your feelings here are all valid, and I want you to know that the team is aware and frankly, feels similarly. To a T, every perso...

I can ask, however to set expectations - we don’t generally share data publicly unless it’s something that really moves the needle.

I will say this: the April Fool’s card was the bar against which we measured the first Creator ExCard’s performance and it hit or exceeded all of our expectations

Not speaking to any specific meeting or otherwise, but there’s a lot of behind the scenes relationship management that the community team is responsible for. Making sure that creators are prepared for our “big beats” and are able to make the best possible content is to everyone’s benefit, player and dev alike.

For sure. This was a factor that was specifically pointed out during our initial analysis of the ExCards performance. Even with that knowledge, the overall impact was positive.

Sure:

• Specifically for Damage, there was an overwhelming number of Heroes for one person to handle, which lead to not every Damage Hero initially receiving the attention they deserved. to address this, we’ve divided the category among 2 creators for the next card
• There’s a perception among some players that personal biases play too heavily into the proposed changes. This is something that all of the creators we’ve been working with for the second card are very self-aware about, and they’re paying close attention with their notes
• Some players don’t understand why we’re working with creators and not the broader community. Our goals for this project (engaging with Creators in a unique and interesting way, instigating more competitive events in the community, and increasing CCV on Twitch) weren’t clearly stated ahead of time, so I’ll own that
• there’s a perception that this somehow takes away from developing other...

Friend, I am a Community Manager, not a designer.

This is a small way that the community team can drive towards a creative solution for keeping the game fresh (through the ExCard), all while not having an adverse affect on T4’s other development priorities. The halo effect of content creators feeling excited, higher engagement with the feature in game, and increased CCV category wide on Twitch during the tournament, are all welcome additional benefits.

Grateful for the kindness and yes, we are iterating with a goal of improvement and optimization each go-round. Ultimately, we’d love for these collaborations with content creators to be both fun and sustainable, so we’re keeping an open mind as to how we can level up both the ExC and it’s related Creator Cup

Critique is great, however I personally believe the last ExCard was pretty successful, by multiple measurements.

• It had a very high adoption rate (meaning lots of players checked it out)
• It had a very high hours played (in comparison to other cards)
• Content Creators were generally positive about it
• Broadly, players were excited about it

I know that it’s easy to be cynical and only focus on the negatives, however you have to take in the good with the bad. Otherwise you’re just cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I don’t want to steal any of the spotlight from the creators here, so that’s all you’ll be getting from me today

They definitely didn’t forget them, especially Symmetra

You do realize Aaron Keller has never posted on the forums right? Now that I think about it I don’t think we’ve had a single Orange Post since Jeff Kaplan left.

Yep, and replies like that are more or less an attempt to make sure everyone stays on the same page. I also wrote out a facts list in a separate topic about today’s news. I did that more or less as setting the realistic expectations I think we should have for Blizzard (both in the short term and long term). This news is jarring today, and I feel passionately involved, but that is because I have invested so many hours of playtime into Blizzard’s games and I have strong friends for many of their team members. So it is my hope that anything I express on these forums is done so under the expectation that you the community can learn a greater understanding of how Overwatch continues to grow as a game.

Let’s also be clear, there are times I screw up… badly. I mean let’s not forget about the Role Queue Beta Season incident. Thank god, Scott Mercer stepped in and set the record straight on that fiasco, but I still feel bad that how I interpreted official documentation from Blizzard and how I ...

Let me make sure I am very clear about this, if an opportunity is available for me to join Blizzard and I know I can make a difference, I will try to pursue it. I have applied for many positions in the past and I know I have the support of many of Blizzard’s current and past team members. However, it still comes down to making sure the best people fill their needed roles, and I want my experience to be fairly compared to others with relatable skills. I have no regrets not being presented with an opportunity to join Blizzard, instead, I often gain more insight and experience.

Right now, you may notice there is a Community Manager role position for Overwatch on Blizzard’s career page. For as tempted as I am to apply, I am lacking core experience for that role’s specific duties. The good news is that I am finding ways to build on that experience in the gaming industry as a whole, and I am active...

Be all like…

I’ll still be around and reading forums/reddit/Twitch chat/Discord/etc… daily. It’s important as part of the team that I stay connected with your experience, all with the goal of being an effective advocate internally.

You’ll not be rid of me that easily

I said this in a previous thread, however it bears repeating here: the majority of my focus for the last month and change has been on strategic planning and alignment (since before the holiday break). This is normal for management around the start of the calendar year.

WyomingMyst and Jodie both did a great job of describing many of the responsibilities of the community discipline. This is on top of several hours of meetings/day.

I don’t tend to lean on titles in public (I don’t think they matter to players in the vast majority of situations, which is why all of our titles on the forums are “Community Manager”). As the team lead, over time I’ll naturally be focusing less on the day to day tactics, and more on team/community goals and strategy. As the team grows, I’d expect to see less of me day to day, but much more of folks like Jodie (and our eventual teammates).

I’m certain that it may disappoint some of you that I do not, in fact, sit on the forums with solitaire open in another w...

It’s exciting news, and I’m looking forward to learning more.

I do understand that folks may have questions about today’s news. I am certain that we’ll be sharing more information with you all as soon as we’re able.

Fair! But this one is from ME.

Y’all! Andy never left us!!

It probably feels like that since I have been trying to spend more time with y’all on the forums, but I promise he’s here!!

To speak to the other subject in this post, it can be difficult to quantify what Community Management is because our goals are qualitative. Our pro strats are driven by sentiment, awareness, engagement and building a healthy ecosystem around a game we love!

Blizzard is special to me because of how involved the community team is in the development process. Team 4 puts a lot of value on my team because of how much they value the Overwatch community-- which is all of you.

I am going to let Andy know that you miss him, and I promise you will be seeing more of us both from now on.