GamePro.com has a nifty article discussing the role of community managers at video game companies, and Capcom's Seth Killian is interviewed extensively."I do my best to drag out my producers to every one of [the live events I host], because there's nothing like seeing real fans to soften up even the hardest producer and to really see the enthusiasm and the love that people have for a lot of these products," he says. "It inspires them and, I think, opens them up to discussing issues that people really want to talk about relating to the game."
Killian calls this a "superhealthy feedback loop" where the dialogue between developers and community stays passionate without getting ugly on either side. When it's good, it's great -- but when a crisis situation arises that somehow takes the feedback loop out of the community manager's hands, there's danger for both the community and the company.
Go Seth! Always bringing great stuff to the community.
This is an interesting read, as it focuses on companies' level of transparancy regarding the product they create and the people who are, in effect, the keepers of that transparancy (or lack thereof). Seth is the lone example of the "fan" who got his day in the sun, and he runs that ship with sensibilities that set him apart from the standard "corporate mouthpiece" role that is expected from other community managers industry-wide. He tends to speak from the level of a devoted Capcom fan, which would naturally speak TO fans of the same products. Naturally, there will always be a particular point where tranparancy has to end, but Seth K. seems to ride that line to the absolute point of satiating the fans who are hungry for any and all news out of Capcom's camp, all while keeping the things that are too unfinished/untested/incomplete safely tucked away from the public eye until they're in full bloom and ready to be unveiled. He's the only one who seems to know that the community who spend the money on your product damn near religiously demands and deserves one of their own to speak to them about the progress of the products they crave. Most other companies would stand to learn a great lesson out of Capcom, especially considering how guarded Capcom has been in the past, and how their community management affects their sales, development and overall public view.
i respected him after i found out he was a college professor
He's alright, he's good at his job, he's SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS THE CROWD HE'S APPEALING TO, not since Ben Judd(Producer on Bionic Commando Rearmed 1 and the 3D Bionic Commando) have I have I seen such commitment to his project.
But still at the end of the day he's PR, who sometimes obliviously ignores questions asked by fans, that might reflect badly on project(Some of the unchecked Infinities, Unblockables and Sagat's Million options to tiger DESTRUCTION!). On top of that Seth has no first hand control on the project(remember he's Community Manger of the American branch) in question(Vanilla and Super 4). So in that respect I really don't care for S-kill as an employee of Capcom since his role is and I repeat not that important, he's still a great person who's done a lot with his life and for the street fighter scene by playing, organizing and helping expansion of it. I'm hoping he'll become someone who actually has hands on development(more then just QA testing) and become some one I care about as a capcom employee.
Seth is the man