Dragon Empires Samantha Russell Talks About the Role of a Community Liaison Manager

By Michael Lafferty

“A good CLM builds strong relationships with the people”

Companies realize the importance of having teams in place for massively multiplayer titles in order to deal with incidents that take place in the game and to deal with the various issues surrounding the game. These intermediaries are broken into two categories – the GMs (game managers) and the overlord of them all, the community liaison manager.

What exactly do these individuals do?

Almost any one who has played in a massively multiplayer game knows that GMs are the folks you pester with petitions, stemming from “help, I’m stuck in this rock!” to a variety of other bugs and issues. They are in-game helpers. Some titles, like Anarchy Online, have elevated that role to a select class within the game, wearing unique uniforms. In other games, the GMs are just a voice that bursts into your private messaging system, asks what’s wrong and tries – when possible – to make it right.

But before all that is put into place, before GMs are selected and run through their paces, a great deal of the work for getting the communities ready to receive the game falls to the Community Liaison Manager.

Over at Codemasters, Peter Tyson was the CLM for Dragon Empires, an MMO title slated for release later this year. Recently Peter stepped down, deciding to live on a beach in New Zealand instead, and the job was awarded to Samantha “Satine” Russell. GameZone talked with Samantha about the role of the CLM.

Question: First, please explain exactly what a community liaison manager does?

Samantha: A community liaison manager is the interface between the fans and the dev. team. He or she is responsible for feeding the fans and news sites with updates/answers about the game and feeding the dev. team with feedback from the fans! A good CLM builds strong relationships with the people out there and serves as an approachable, available font of information.

Q: Does this mean you have time to play the game?

Samantha: I make time! It's so important to know exactly where the game is at during the development process. How can a CLM answer knowledgably about the game if they don't play it? Besides, I need to keep up-to-date with all the 'God' commands and secrets so I can pwn everyone ;)

Q: Putting out a regular newsletter must require a lot of work and coordination, especially with developers/designers who are busy working on the title. What is the toughest part of your job?

Samantha: Well, I've been in the position now for only a little over a week. As far as I can tell, so far the toughest part of my job is actually finding a good organizational system. At the moment I'm split between my trusty 'little book', e-mail, a task scheduler and post-it notes :D As for the developers, they're great, very amenable and will always help out as long as I give sufficient notice.

Q: As a community liaison manager, you should have a certain passion for the title. What aspects of Dragon Empires excite you the most?

Samantha: As some people will know, I have a penchant for the economy system. Now, it's not just because I'm a girl and I like shopping... I really enjoy manufacturing items and the list of possible items is so long that I still have many to try out for the first time! I have been known to get into trade wars with members of the QA team and at one point, one of the fanciest helmets in the game was selling at Yucca for over 30,000,000 scales which no one could afford, lol!

Q: Your nickname is Satine. Where does that come from? Are you a long-time MMO gamer? If so what have been your favorite games?

Samantha: Hehe :) The name Satine comes from the lead character from one of my favourite movies of all times. Guess which it is if you can!

Hmm, would that be … Ok, ok, I know, but I’m honor bound not to say. But how shocking! Well, maybe not … back to the questions …

Q: Tell us about the community aspect of DE, please. How will this game cater to the player community?

Samantha: Well, our community currently consists of many clans and many individuals. There's a huge mix of personalities and there are established social groups and hierarchies, just like in real life :) The clans want to own cities and to be able to fight other clans to take over their cities. The individuals want to fight monsters and/or other players, although some just want to manufacture goods and be a trader. Others want the life of an adventurer and some simply want to socialize and role-play in a beautiful fantasy world. Dragon Empires caters for all of that!

Q: Will there be events planned that will involve the community and/or clans within the DE realms?

Samantha: We will have a team that will not only stage in-game events to progress the lore, but also to recognize traditions and rituals, be they fictitious or otherwise, and, depending on how things unfold, it will be totally flexible in that clans and the community could be written into those plans/story lines in a moment's notice if so desired.

Q: We've already talked a bit about the aspects of DE that excite you the most, but what do you think will make this title unique in the genre?

Samantha: The aspect that makes Dragon Empires most unique is the player-controllability. We're essentially providing a world and saying to everyone, 'Go forth and do what you like'. :)  That and the fact that we have truly unique races and monsters.

I think that should do it. Thank you.

Samantha: You're most welcome. 

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