As more and more developers seek to foster passionate communities around their games, inspired community management is critical. Today, Game Developers Conference officials are excited to highlight a few notable talks on the topic that you'll be able to attend at GDC 2015.
These sessions will be part of the GDC Community Management Summit, just one of eight that will take place Monday, March 2nd and Tuesday, March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA during the first two days of the conference.
Developers Raph Koster, Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton have all worked on multiple online games (Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, The Old Republic [pictured]) and during their talk, "Managing Game Communities Within the Culture Wars", they'll share concrete community management practices for dealing with audiences of varying passion and commitment levels that you can immediately apply to your own projects.
These veterans of online communities will discuss not only what has both worked and failed in existing communities, but also discuss what else could and should be tried to protect the fun games can provide without losing player passion.
Plus, Ubisoft's Gabe Graziani will share some unconventional approaches to nurturing a fervent fanbase around your game in his GDC 2015 session "Unconvential Wisdom on Creating a Passionate Community." Check it out for advice on how to use counterintuitive PR practices like personal apologies and responding to trolls to foster a unique, welcoming culture around which your community can rally.
Finally, make time in your busy GDC schedule for the "Straight Talk About Community Manager Tenure" panel session. Experienced community managers from Microsoft, Motiga, Bigpoint and the University of Washington's Center for Game Science will discuss how the role of community manager has evolved and what benefits you'll reap from investing in senior-level community management practices.
For more info on these and all other announced talks, head over to the GDC 2015 Session Scheduler, where you can begin to build your conference week and later export it to the up-to-the-minute GDC Mobile App, coming soon.
Also, conference officials look forward to announcing more GDC 2015 sessions spanning a diverse array of game industry issues in the months ahead.
For more information on GDC 2015, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
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