·S4 E9

"Online communities are societies" ft. Community Manager Faye V

August 14

39 mins

Episode Description

Today's guest is Faye V, Community Lead Advisor at Chaos Manufacturing. Faye got a psychology degree, taught English in Japan, and spent years as a professional circus performer. From there she moved through the Pokémon Company, Singularity 6 (Palia), and Fantastic Pixel Castle, finally landing at Chaos Manufacturing today.

We chat about how her psychology degree shapes the way she thinks about online communities as cultures and societies of their own, and why understanding a community's context is the key to communicating with honesty and transparency when things go sideways. Faye also draws a great parallel between circus troupes and game development studios, and how years of "the show must go on" live-event experience taught her to stay zen when a patch needs to be delayed.

Games mentioned in this episode:

- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Super-Nintendo/The-Legend-of-Zelda-A-Link-to-the-Past-841179.html

- Lord of the Rings Online: https://store.steampowered.com/app/212500/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Online/

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

- Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/

- Elden Ring: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1245620/ELDEN_RING/

- Fields of Mistria: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2142790/Fields_of_Mistria/

- Icarus: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/

- Final Fantasy XIV: https://store.steampowered.com/app/39210/FINAL_FANTASY_XIV_Online/

- Palia: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2707930/Palia/

- Ghost (Fantastic Pixel Castle, unreleased): https://fantasticpixelcastle.com/

- The Binding of Isaac: https://store.steampowered.com/app/250900/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Rebirth/