The Community Lounge

This week I'm joined by a familiar face: Julia Rozwens, Content Marketing Manager here at Feature Upvote, my own company and the team behind this very podcast.Julia joined us four months ago, bringing around ten years of community management experience from an unlikely path: a law degree, a stint in tax advisory, and then a pivot through marketing into community roles at Omnidrone and eight years at Gameloft on Asphalt 8 and Asphalt 9, where she rose to Global Social Portfolio Lead.We chat about managing a community for a genre she's not personally into (she still doesn't have a driving license), her favourite CM memory from an esports tournament at Gamescom, and a funny story about a Discord ban wave that got a little out of hand.We also discuss why community management too often gets treated as a dead-end entry-level role in gaming — and I'll let you in on a secret: if you've ever wondered why the Feature Upvote social accounts have so much personality, that's largely down to Julia.Games mentioned in this episode:- Titan Brawl (Shut Down): https://www.gamepressure.com/games/titan-brawl/zd4add- Asphalt 8: https://www.gameloft.com/game/asphalt-8- Asphalt 9: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1815780/Asphalt_Legends/- Slay the Spire 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2868840/Slay_the_Spire_2/- Slay the Spire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/646570/Slay_the_Spire/- Dave the Diver: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1868140/DAVE_THE_DIVER/- Orbital Blues: https://soulmuppetpublishing.itch.io/orbital-bluesFind Julia on:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rozwens/- Twitter: https://x.com/julerrThe Community Lounge is brought to you by Feature Upvote – Painlessly collect feedback from your players. More insights, less noise.Subscribe to the Community Lounge newsletter and get notified of new episodes and articles: https://featureupvote.com/thecommunitylounge/

Today's guest is Faye V, Community Lead Advisor at Chaos Manufacturing, returning for part two of our conversation.If you haven't heard part one, we recommend starting there. It covers Faye's unusual path into games through a psychology degree and years as a professional circus performer, and how both shape her approach to community management today.In this second half, Faye makes the case for open development, arguing that showing players how a game is built creates the kind of trust that lets a team survive inevitable troubles like unpopular patches or a delayed launch. She introduces her "chasm of empathy" metaphor for the gap between developers and players, and why hiring a community lead early, not six months before launch, is what builds the rickety bridge across it.We also get into the business case for investing in a community team, Faye's tips for first-time community managers, and how she believes community management skills are best learned through mentorship.Games mentioned in this episode:- World of Warcraft: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/- Final Fantasy XIV: https://store.steampowered.com/app/39210/FINAL_FANTASY_XIV_Online/- Lord of the Rings Online: https://store.steampowered.com/app/212500/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Online/- EverQuest: https://store.steampowered.com/app/205710/EverQuest/- Asheron's Call: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheron%27s_Call- Ghost (Fantastic Pixel Castle, unreleased): https://fantasticpixelcastle.com/Find Faye on:- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fayevis/- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/acobi.bsky.social- Twitter: https://x.com/ac0biThe Community Lounge is brought to you by Feature Upvote – Painlessly collect feedback from your players. More insights, less noise.Subscribe to the Community Lounge newsletter and get notified of new episodes and articles:https://featureupvote.com/thecommunitylounge/

Today's guest is Faye V, Community Lead Advisor at Chaos Manufacturing. Faye got a psychology degree, taught English in Japan, and spent years as a professional circus performer. From there she moved through the Pokémon Company, Singularity 6 (Palia), and Fantastic Pixel Castle, finally landing at Chaos Manufacturing today.We chat about how her psychology degree shapes the way she thinks about online communities as cultures and societies of their own, and why understanding a community's context is the key to communicating with honesty and transparency when things go sideways. Faye also draws a great parallel between circus troupes and game development studios, and how years of "the show must go on" live-event experience taught her to stay zen when a patch needs to be delayed.Games mentioned in this episode:- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Super-Nintendo/The-Legend-of-Zelda-A-Link-to-the-Past-841179.html- Lord of the Rings Online: https://store.steampowered.com/app/212500/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Online/- Minecraft: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us- Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/- Elden Ring: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1245620/ELDEN_RING/- Fields of Mistria: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2142790/Fields_of_Mistria/- Icarus: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/- Final Fantasy XIV: https://store.steampowered.com/app/39210/FINAL_FANTASY_XIV_Online/- Palia: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2707930/Palia/- Ghost (Fantastic Pixel Castle, unreleased): https://fantasticpixelcastle.com/- The Binding of Isaac: https://store.steampowered.com/app/250900/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Rebirth/Find Faye on:- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fayevis/- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/acobi.bsky.social- Twitter: https://x.com/ac0biThe Community Lounge is brought to you by Feature Upvote – Painlessly collect feedback from your players. More insights, less noise.Subscribe to the Community Lounge newsletter and get notified of new episodes and articles: https://featureupvote.com/thecommunitylounge/

Today's guest is Chandler Wood, currently working with Skilltree Marketing. Chandler started his community management career truly in the deep end. He left games journalism, where he'd spent about a decade, to join Avalanche Software in his hometown of Salt Lake City working on Hogwarts Legacy. He only left the role years later when love took him to New York.We chat about Chandler's "oil in the engine" philosophy of community management — being the translator and connective tissue between brand, product, and audience rather than a mascot or figurehead. He shares what it meant to be a community manager for the studio as much as for the players, how he helped Hogwarts Legacy build its own fandom identity distinct from the wider Wizarding World audience.Chandler also gets into the power of listening, making broadcast content feel one-to-one, and his best advice for first-time community managers.Games mentioned in this episode:- Hogwarts Legacy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/990080/Hogwarts_Legacy/- Expedition 33: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33/- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2909400/FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REBIRTH/Find Chandler on:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandler-wood/- Website: https://www.chandler-wood.com/The Community Lounge is brought to you by Feature Upvote – Painlessly collect feedback from your players. More insights, less noise.Subscribe to the Community Lounge newsletter and get notified of new episodes and articles: https://featureupvote.com/thecommunitylounge/

Today's guest is Greg Castle, Community Growth Manager for Essential Mod at Spark Universe. Greg started out as an archaeologist before finding his way into the games industry, and it turns out the two careers have more in common than you'd think.We chat about what a "community growth manager" actually does, the unique challenges of managing an 800,000-strong Discord server, and how skills from archaeology translate surprisingly well to community work.Greg also shares the story of landing his dream job working on a game he'd been covering on YouTube for years, his philosophy of constant experimentation, and why empowering community volunteers as "bastions" is one of the most effective things you can do as a community manager.Games mentioned in this episode:- Minecraft: https://www.minecraft.net/- The Bazaar: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1617400/The_Bazaar/- Rodeo Stampede: https://www.yodo1.com/rodeo-stampede- Crossy Road: https://www.crossyroad.com/- Train Simulator: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/Train_Simulator_Classic/- Dota 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/570/Dota_2/- Guild Wars 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1284210/Guild_Wars_2/- Overwatch 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2357570/Overwatch_2/- Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: https://store.steampowered.com/app/292030/The_Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt/- Teamfight Manager 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3009300/Teamfight_Manager_2Find Greg on:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywcastle/- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/divok232.bsky.socialThe Community Lounge is brought to you by Feature Upvote – Painlessly collect feedback from your players. More insights, less noise.Subscribe to the Community Lounge newsletter and get notified of new episodes and articles: https://featureupvote.com/thecommunitylounge/