Grummz Reveals Another Way Community Managers Ruin Games
Former Blizzard producer Mark Kern, alias Grummz, has been talking about the ubiquity of video game community managers who have a clear sociopolitical agenda and say disturbing things about race and the gamers they’re supposed to interact with. I wrote about it a few days ago when Grummz posted about what the position entails and why some of the people who currently hold it for various game developers are a problem. This week, Grummz appeared on Eric July’s podcast, For Canon Sake, and talked a bit more about community managers and what they do. You can see the clip below:
It’s no wonder Grummz is putting such an emphasis on community managers. They’re uniquely positioned to influence how games are made because they can cut off communication between gamers and developers. They can convince the devs that gamers love their stupid, woke nonsense, and then the sales don’t match the report. Why they aren’t fired after this is beyond me, but they’re getting their way, regardless of the money lost. This reminds me of Sweet Baby Inc.’s tactic of getting game company employees to “terrify” their marketing departments into making their games diverse, inclusive, and whatever other buzzwords lead to woke games. It’s a very similar approach and equally insidious; the community managers are convincing the developers who hire them that all is well, the people love their lousy games, and, at worst, a few “trolls” on the internet are complaining. Moreover, they’re bullying other community managers who don’t want any part of it, making sure their influence is pervasive. It makes me wonder if there are more decent developers than we may think who are being led astray; of course, I again come back to wondering why, if this is the case, the community managers aren’t fired. Do the devs think something else is to blame for the sales? Maybe, like failing movies, the community managers are convincing them it’s still COVID.
