With the end of Paris Games Week, which I did not attend, so ends our trade show commitments for this year. The last six months have been hectic with all the planning and travel. It’s been a busy and successful convention season, speaking to fans and showing off the Guild Wars 2 demo to the world. I’m not sure which trade show we will be attending next, but we’re in a lull for the winter months at least.
On a personal, professional level, I’m going to see if I can attend the Game Developers Conference again next year. I always get a lot out of it with regard to learning opportunities and in terms of connecting with people and networking. It’s also a lot of fun!
I’m also looking into local opportunities for learning, as well as continuing to read widely about technology, community management, and social media topics on the internet.
I know some veteran (videogame) community managers may scoff at the new, so-called “social media experts” and the upsurge of new school community managers who don’t come from a videogame background, people who have only become embedded in online communities and social media in recent years. Although the games industry, particularly in the MMO game space, has a multiple-decades-old history of using the skills of community managers and using techniques that “social media experts” use for grass roots marketing and relationship-building, I think there may be some things that games industry community managers could learn from the new breed.