Malgayne

I can't believe I missed this. You're amazing.

I posted it here: http://www.wowhead.com/blog=169603

You know we originally reported this story all the way back in January? :P

http://www.wowhead.com/blog=141411

Where are the thousands of concerned parents demanding tighter regulations on movie distribution? Or is it only video games that scare people these days?

Thanks for the cross-link. :)

Damn right.

I mention this in some detail on Alpha-Build.net (the post is at http://alpha-build.net/2010/05/05/the-evolution-of-the-community-manager/), but one of the interesting things I noticed is this: A lot of what community managers were doing, even way back in the day, are things that fansites were doing first. A community manager's role has always been to take the ideas and the behavior of the game's fans and present it to the rest of the studio in a way that makes sense. Community management itself is a discipline that began with fans and was adopted by studios.

Considering the MMO industry's dependence on its fans for long-term revenue generation, it's no surprise that MMOs picked up on these concepts first—but community management is about the FANS, first and foremost. :)

I've actually written a series of posts about this on Alpha Build. The first one is at http://alpha-build.net/2010/03/24/casey-monroe-world-class-gaming-expert/

I love this concept, and as you can see, it's really inspired me. The big question, to me, is how do we create games with the express intention of inspiring positive change in the players, and in the world?

Damn, I really thought we had that one. Working on it.

Be fair. The wallpaper was commissioned too, she is an actual Wowhead employee. Also, I understand that Sko cracked the whip on her and made her stay up all night to finish that one. :P

I'm amazed there are still people who are concerned about this, but just in case there is still somehow any doubt:

Wowhead is owned by a company called the ZAM Network. That happened in June of 2007. At one point, the same big media conglomerate that owned ZAM also owned IGE. Earlier in the year—before Wowhead became part of ZAM—that big media conglomerate sold IGE off to a private investor. Wowhead and IGE have never been part of the same company.