2012 has been an amazing year, filled with milestones, both professional and personal.
After five years of development, Guild Wars 2 launched. It’s been an amazing experience to help ship Guild Wars 2 to the world. Guild Wars 2 has racked up a lot of accolades this year, including Time’s #1 Video Game of the Year. Not too shabby.
Although Guild Wars 2 is the first full game credit under my belt, I’ve “shipped” numerous other projects, events, and initiatives whilst at ArenaNet. This past year has been filled with challenges and a lot of learning and I look forward to both next year, which will be my fifth year at the company (and sixth year as a professional community manager).
I was given more responsibility and was promoted to North American Community Team Lead, managing four other members of the Community Team. The global community management team for Guild Wars 2 is one of the best and brightest in this industry, filled with resourceful, hardworking, creative people who are genuinely fun to work with.
In 2012, I had one speaking engagement. It was at GeekGirlCon and I was on a panel at which I talked about misogyny and how it hinders women from participating in online and fan spaces. I have one speaking engagement lined up so far in 2013, at Emerald City Comicon—more on that when the event gets closer. I’m not sure whether I’ll be speaking at other conventions next year, but I would sure like to. Public speaking has been interesting for me, as I’m a generally reserved person. I think it has challenged me and helped me develop new skills, which is a good thing.
I volunteered to be a mentor to women seeking to get into the videogame industry. This was in response to Twitter conversation about why more women do not work in videogames. I was spotlighted at 1reasonwhy.net, which is a resource started by the person who sparked the Twitter conversation.
2012 has been a good year. Onward 2013.