Labour Booklet. Community and Content

admin: The insight into WOT-project is continued. We are going on with the revelations of our internal secrets but we keep the best bits for later and proceed with the description of how the operation of the game works. Today the department that appeared under our thorough examination is…ours, of the people who deal with you, dear players! We are called Community and Content department and the managers of the department are serving as a link between you and the developers. You’ve seen us already featuring in Beginner’s Diaries but then you were reading mostly about our leisure. However we do work! And this blog post is all about our daily routine and how we deal with…you!
As you can probably gather, we work in two different directions – the audience from Russian and other Russian-speaking countries and the players who enjoy playing World of Tanks on European and American servers. Obviously we are going to acquaint you with those whose nicknames you see regularly on forums.
And here is the face of the community:
Veniamin aka Zephid, Community Dept Lead

“Despite rare acrid comments we do not want to spare the game from players! Our main task is to make the community happy by means of some game-related entertainment including events and specials. We tend to make it comfy for fun, communication, creativity. No game exists without players and that’s why our department’s functions are crucial as we work with the players’ feedback, statistics, preferences, actions…” Zephid says.
In other words, what we do here is checking on you, guys! We are responsible for dealing with players in terms of their obeying the rules of the game, solving conflicts, proceeding feedback, informing you about the news within the project and its plans, organize events and specials.
Actually you should be a little apprehensive of us… We are strict when it comes to dealing with players violating the rules of the game.
And the terror of all the breakers is embodied in the name of Gustav_Fuchs (aka Andrey) whose responsibilities include banning accounts in case of different violations. He is a real threat not only for independent players but also for whole clans. He deals with all problems regarding these alliances of players and he also has the right to disband clans.
Gustav_Fuchs aka Andrey

“The thing I really like about what I am doing is its tight connection with history. Very often I cannot make a decision without a thorough look through reliable historical sources and consulting numerous specialists,” - Gustav_Fuchs says adding that the very best about his job is the preparation of info about in-game vehicles and those to be implemented in-game later.
As for violating the rules we analyze each situation separately and the degree of seriousness influences the choice of punishment. To help us out we gathered a team of reliable and dedicated moderators who are always there to check the forum threads and monitor the general atmosphere reigning on the community portal.
Obviously, the same scheme is applied to encouraging the players. Hard to imagine our life without World of Tanks contributors’ help. We observe their work and do our best to encourage them accordingly. Owing to their active participation in all aspects of the life of community the work of community managers goes smoothly and the communication between developers and players is being executed successfully.
The person responsible for the coordination of moderators’, translators’ and basically all outsourcers’ work is known among players as mediahead. media aka Alexey fancies the job a lot as it always brings something new.
mediahead aka Alexey

“I have a great deal of routine work that I am supposed to do always but every week I am trying to find something new to work on. Currently we are preparing the launch of some new projects including the one for newbies that will help newcomers to get adapted fast and WOT-radio that we are working on together with the players. I am open to new ideas and initiatives from our players and I always support them. So, do not hesitate if you believe you have a worthy idea to suggest!”, mediahead explains. He also added that at the moment he is busy with preparation to Electronic Entertainment Expo – E3 – which takes place in Los Angeles. So, if you want to see him in person, you know when and where to find him - Los Angeles Convention Center June 9-11. By the way, the exhibition promises to be great! Just imagine the three real tanks – American, German and Soviet – that have been rented by Wargaming.net to organize a parade along the streets of the city of angels. Apart from that on June 10 everybody who happens to be in LA will get a chance to catch up with the devs (and media) for real in a friendly atmosphere of a cafe specially rented for WOT-gathering (follow http://game.worldoftanks.com/news/ for details and updates).
Possibly the most fantasy and energy-consuming part of the job of community-managers is organizing events and specials. This deal of work is mostly under the control of our youngest representative – Valter aka Vladimir. There’s no end of creativity in this community-manager and in the sphere of dealing with players creativity is a must!
Valter aka Vladimir

“My job is really interesting. I deal with users every day and each of them is unique and interesting. My working day starts with checking forums and PMs to find out what issues are of greatest interest and importance for players. My main goal is to help them and make their day as good as mine!” Valter admits.
Although the guys work really hard, you would never know that without the news feed on our community portal. The news feed update is the main responsibility of content-managers who work side by side with their community counterparts.
Mad_Hatter aka Veronica prepares news and supervises the US community portal, namely the news articles threads, in order to obtain the correct feedback which will eventually be passed on to the developers.
Mad_Hatter aka Veronica

“I adore my job as I am a kind of a megaphone that broadcasts WoT news to all its players. The opportunity to present news in an exceptional way seems too yummy to miss it! And surely, communicating with our noble warriors gives me perfect basis for self-enrichment,” Mad-Hatter confesses.
Same task on the European server is performed by Cheeka aka Irina, whose favourite thing about the job is spotting game-related news and issues, making interviews with players winning competitions and contests and presenting them in blog posts or news feed.
Cheeka aka Irina

“WOT is not just a game, it’s the means of uniting completely different people who have their different reasons for spending time on battlefields or forum threads discussing game-related and non-game stuff. And that’s always fun and joy to learn what players are when they are not in a tank,” Cheeka reveals.
All devoted tankers know that the main sources of information – community portals - are in English. It could be a trouble for a lot of those Europeans who speak English not well enough or do not speak it at all. The intermediates between such players and the devs are the community managers speaking German and Polish and our helpful outsources from France, Spain, Hungary, the Czech Republic etc.
Gretchen aka Margarita is a life-line of the German-speaking community. Alongside moderators Gretchen deals with all the issues the German-speaking players are worried about. She is also the one who has been responsible for the translation of the game client and the localizations in German. Those who want to meet her in person will get this chance during the exhibition in Koln in August.
Gretchen aka Margarita

“The job allows me to communicate with people from different parts of the world. Although I speak German and English, I prefer to work with the former and it makes me really happy that I am helping the whole of German-speaking community to enjoy World of Tanks to the full scale in their native language. And the thing that makes me proud is that we all are working on the project that has been developed by ourselves,” Gretchen resumes.
Polish-speaking players can also enjoy the game in their native language owning to the help of Schperling aka Pavel. Taking into account that the Poles are really active participants of different events and tournaments (which, by the way, are also coordinated by Schperling), his knowledge of Polish is to everyone’s avail. Currently Schperling is busy with the organization of the Grand Finals of Ural Steel Championship that will take place in Moscow shortly.
Schperling aka Pavel

“I get great pleasure from organizing WOT-tournaments as the game concept is just perfect for organizing cybersport events. And before Ultimate Conquest was introduced in WOT, tournaments were the only means for players to show their combat skills. However the appearance of Ultimate Conquest won’t stop the series of competitions and tournaments. Quite the opposite, we are preparing a range of captivating struggles not only on the global map,” Schperling reveals a bit of a secret. Together with Schperling Electro Bragin aka Alexey is also busy with the organization and coordination of the tournaments.
Electro Bragin aka Alexey

By the way all tournaments markings, all banners and other designs on the web appear owing to work of another soldier of the community front – juraj aka Anton. In other words, he makes the life on our portal beautiful!
juraj aka Anton

However the main secret of our department won’t be revealed in this blog post. The person who knows answers to all of the questions (the main Q(uestion)A(nswer)-specialist) – Overlord – has decided not to give out any detail about himself.
“Everything players might be interested in, they will find in my blog,” Overlord states. Well, what can we add? Read Overlord’s blog!
Getting more and more involved? More stuff is coming soon. Do not miss it!