Game Community Management - Star Wars: The Neglected Republic

There are a few things in life that you can’t go wrong with: pizza, beer, and Star Wars. Yet somehow, Electronic Arts and Lucas Arts, the creators of the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Star Wars: The Old Republic, have managed to get it all wrong.

Released in 2011, the game itself has been a massive success, achieving consistently high review scores across the board. At its peak it had over 1.6 million players and in 2011 received GameSpy’s Best MMO of the Year award. Clearly they’re doing something right. But it’s their lackluster community management service that’s causing them problems. Game community management involves online customer service support and engagement, allowing companies to manage and monitor their online communities while expanding their networks and maintaining their brand name. One of the most popular channels for this is Facebook.

Let’s take a look at Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Facebook page…

This is a fantastic example of a good Facebook page. We’ve got a nice, attractive header image that provides relevant information alongside the game’s instantly recognizable logo. There are a number of different applications, 2.1 million fans, and parents can instantly see whether this game would be suitable for their children. Great, but let’s take a look at where they’re falling short of the mark.

1. Lack of Copywriting – “Boring Conversation Anyway. Luke, We’re Gonna Have Company!”

Not bad. There are no glaring grammatical errors and it contains a call to action, which is good, but where’s the copywriting? Working with such a fun medium as a Star Wars game on a Facebook channel, there’s plenty of room to be creative and generate excitement, rather than just using the same old stodgy call to actions. Showing excitement and pride in your product will produce the same kind of reaction from your fans and followers. How about:

‘Attention troops! Put away your lightsabers and unman your flight crafts for two minutes in order to check out this awesome exclusive preview of Rise of the Hutt Cartel from MMORPG.com! May the force be with you!’

Not only is this example much more attention grabbing and interesting to read, it also makes the reader want to click the link. Which is the entire point of this exercise. The screenshot above is a perfect example of well written content targeted toward the wrong audience. A concise, informative call to action such as this would be ideal for, perhaps, a b2c software company, but not for gamers who have a strong, loyal attachment to your game. Even the best content will prove ineffective if it is not presented in the appropriate manner.  

2. Lack of Moderation – “You Underestimate the Power of the Dark Side”

One of the main jobs for a community manager is to ensure that all channels maintain a pleasant atmosphere and that everyone is having a good time. Internet forums and social media channels are infamous sources of flame wars and trolling, and it’s important that community managers moderate such content, lest it escalate into online bullying and create a negative experience for everyone involved. Take a look at the exchange below, just one example on this page, which is full of negative interaction between fans:

Let’s just pause for a second to take a look at the gravity of this comment. This is a serious form of Internet abuse but it also creates a negative brand image for the entire Star Wars franchise. As a popular brand, you need to remember that the way that you present yourself on social media represents your entire spectrum of products, online and offline. This includes the people that you are associated with and how they interact with you and others. Like it or not, the fans of your Facebook page are representing you.

Now take a look at the time stamp on that post. The abusive comment in question was left over a week ago and yet it has still not been dealt with. Part of the problem here may be that the page is receiving an overwhelming amount of interaction and the community managers simply don’t have the time to monitor everything. At its core, this is a good thing, as it demonstrates that they are clearly doing something right by producing engaging content.

However, as with any international community management project, it’s essential to have a fully dedicated team – people who can monitor all channels on a daily basis, regardless of the language. This can help to curb negative interaction and boost positive interaction, making the experience more enjoyable for everyone and preventing you from losing fans or customers. Comments such as this should be removed and the perpetrators should receive official warnings and eventually a ban if they refuse to comply with the page guidelines, which should be set out somewhere for all users to see. As Han Solo would say, “Watch your mouth kid, or you’ll find yourself floating home.”

One more thing; note how the third user was left to answer the initial question. This brings us onto our next point.

3. Lack of Interaction – “If This is a Consular Ship, Where is the Ambassador?”

Posting awesome, engaging content is great, but it’s only half of the battle; interacting with your fans is paramount. This doesn’t just mean presenting them with cool content, it means answering their questions and engaging with them on a personal level. Community management is all about bridging the gap between you and your fans and if you can’t interact with them on a personal level, then you’re only pushing them further and further away.

There are generally three types of interaction on this page: questions, complaints, and compliments. Let’s start with the questions…

Questions are one of the most important forms of interaction you can encounter and in order to maintain your fanbase, answering these is imperative. It shows that you appreciate and value your customers but it also allows them to get the most out of your product – if you can’t give them the support they need, then they are going to look elsewhere for alternative products, services, or games. Sure, it’s great if the other fans on your page can pitch in and help out, but even if they answer the question perfectly, it’s always worth confirming such, as an official answer is much more reliable than an unofficial one. It’s important to respond to every question on your page, even if the question has been asked before.

Now let’s move on to the complaints...

Here we have people directly stating that they are considering cancelling their subscriptions, which reinforces the point made in the previous paragraph. Remember, even the greatest games can fail with poor community management. When there are inconveniences or disruptions to a service, an apology should always be issued to your customers – some of the more consciencous companies might even offer compensation. It’s good practice to implement a three step process in these kind of situations: apologise, liaise, and respond. First and foremost, it’s important to apologise to the customer and ask for any additional information that may help to rectify the situation. The community managers should then liaise with the developers and finally come back to the affected customer with a solution. This three step process ensures that the customer knows that their complaint is being delt with and it keeps them satisfied with the service.

Finally, the compliments…

These are less important than the other types of interaction mentioned above, but still deserve attention. Common social practice dictates that when someone pays you a compliment, you respond with at least a ‘Thank you’ and the same goes for community management. With its ‘like’ button, Facebook makes this even easier. ‘This could very well be the greatest mmo of all time’ is certainly deserving of a ‘like’. Neglecting to do so implies a lack of appreciation, even if this is not the intention. Showing your fans the same appreciation that they show you only creates greater positive interaction and feedback – it’s a two way street and it makes the experience much more enjoyable for everyone involved, including you.

And finally, the number one blunder…

4. Duplicate Content – “Into the Garbage Chute, Flyboy!”

Duplicate content is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make when it comes to community management – the last thing you want to do is annoy your community by sending them the same message over and over again. But what you can’t see from these screenshots is that many of these posts were also published multiple times within the same day – whether this is due to a technical difficulty or an over-enthusiastic community manager is unclear. Either way, it still constitutes spam. This will only drive your followers away.

An interesting solution for when you don’t have an abundance of new material is to re-use old content from the archives. This can be very interesting for fans both old and new. However, publishing the same posts on nearly consecutive days is overkill. It’s important to keep your content fresh and exciting otherwise your community will stagnate and you will fail to attract new members. The golden rule: Fresh content equals new fans.

Community Management: A New Hope

When we look at the other regional Facebook communities of Star Wars: The Old Republic we find similar problems across the board, but the smaller communities at least once received a greater degree of attention:

Part of the reason for the recent neglect that these pages have been receiving is likely due to an influx of fans and internal changes following the game’s move to the free-to-play business model in November, 2012. And, to be fair to the Star Wars: The Old Republic team, many of the problems that they are experiencing stem from the game’s phenomenal success and are most likely a result of the team simply not having enough resources to deal with its popularity.

Star Wars: The Old Republic had one million subscribers within three days of its launch, making it the fastest growing MMO of all time. This number rose to in excess of 1.6 million, but dramatically plummeted to less than one million by July 2012. There are surely a number of reasons for this decline, but one of them, no doubt, is the lack of attention to community management and customer support. Let’s hope that the developers soon catch on and do something to turn that around and provide the game with the success that it deserves.

Before we go, let’s leave you with this little exchange, which sums up the community management issues on this page nicely:

Ryan Neal is a Copywriter and Project Coordinator at MO Group International, which provides professional multilingual game community management services in over 40 different languages.