Today's guest is Greg Castle, Community Growth Manager for Essential Mod at Spark Universe. Greg started out as an archaeologist before finding his way into the games industry, and it turns out the two careers have more in common than you'd think.

We chat about what a "community growth manager" actually does, the unique challenges of managing an 800,000-strong Discord server, and how skills from archaeology translate surprisingly well to community work.

Greg also shares the story of landing his dream job working on a game he'd been covering on YouTube for years, his philosophy of constant experimentation, and why empowering community volunteers as "bastions" is one of the most effective things you can do as a community manager.

Games mentioned in this episode:

- Minecraft: https://www.minecraft.net/

- The Bazaar: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1617400/The_Bazaar/

- Rodeo Stampede: https://www.yodo1.com/rodeo-stampede

- Crossy Road: https://www.crossyroad.com/

- Train Simulator: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/Train_Simulator_Classic/

- Dota 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/570/Dota_2/

- Guild Wars 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1284210/Guild_Wars_2/

- Overwatch 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2357570/Overwatch_2/

- Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: https://store.steampowered.com/app/292030/The_Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt/

- Teamfight Manager 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3009300/Teamfight_Manager_2

Find Greg on:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywcastle/

- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/divok232.bsky.social

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