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OGDC '07 Interview - Alan Crosby on Community

Posted May 15th, 2007 by Shayalyn in Alan Crosby Interview OGDC
Crosby on Community

An Interview with SOE’s Alan Crosby
By Shayalyn

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I had an opportunity to sit down with Alan "Brenlo" Crosby, the Director of Global Community Relations for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), for a chat about gaming communities. We were joined by Craig Dalrymple, SOE’s EverQuest II community manager. The gentlemen shared their thoughts on managing expectations, dealing honestly with players, and fansite communities. We also discussed Vanguard: Saga of Heroes--the MMORPG that SOE co-published and launched in partnership with its developers, Sigil Games Online--and the stories and rumors circulating around claims that SOE is about to become “more involved” with the forward progress of the game.

First impressions of Alan Crosby suggest a good-natured, genuine and funny man; Crosby is one of those people easily classified as a “nice guy.” But speaking with him reveals this nice guy knows his stuff when it comes to building and wrangling gaming communities.

Facing the Vanguard Community

Naturally, with my attachments to the Vanguard community, my first question to Crosby was regarding the future of Vanguard given the impending increased SOE presence. As you might expect, Crosby was unable to discuss the details. Still, he offered that some information could be heading our way the week of May 14th.

I asked Crosby about the challenges SOE would face in confronting a restless Vanguard community. After all, there’s a potential for significant new developments in a game about which players already have many opinions and expectations.


Alan Crosby, Director of Global Community Relations, Sony Online Entertainment
“When people become attached to an idea it’s actually worse than becoming attached to an IP,” said Crosby. “People might get upset about red squirrels versus grey squirrels in a game like Lord of the Rings Online, but they’re usually willing to be somewhat forgiving. But when people are attached to a vision, they’re a lot less forgiving. It’s the ideas and not so much the content they’re attached to, and when those ideas change, that’s very upsetting.”

And we talked a bit about those changing ideas and ideals and their effect on the community. It’s obvious that Crosby still feels the weight of the much maligned Star Wars Galaxies NGE (“New Game Experience”) hanging over his head. He mentioned, after a discussion panel just prior to our interview, that he’d been waiting for the NGE to come up during the roundtable. “It always does,” he quipped.

So how does a community manager deal with an increasingly hostile crowd, particularly one, like the Vanguard community, harboring fears that their game is about to be messed with, not to mention some gamers who are still carrying a grudge over SWG and the NGE?

“If I was going to manage that situation,” Crosby said, “I would be honest with the players. I would open up discourse and stop talking about names and visions and start talking about practicalities.”

“Are you going to be able to sell that?” I asked.

“I think it’s going to be a tough challenge,” Crosby replied, his expression resolute. “But games, as much as our fans want them to be [something else], are still a business. The audience at large is a different audience than there was 8 years ago, and you have to acknowledge that and make the best decisions for the good of the game while still keeping its integrity.” He went on to clarify, “That doesn’t mean that you go in and you remove the death penalty or something…you stick with the game’s core…but you improve upon it.”

At this point, EQ2 community manager Craig Dalrymple jumped into the conversation. “Even if it’s not ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ type news, if you’re being forthright and honest [with your community], I think people respect you more,” he said. “When it comes to EQ2, and I have to make some announcement I know isn’t going to be popular, I never lie. Or if I don’t have an answer, I’m honest about that, even if it makes me look foolish to say, ‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out.’”

On EverQuest II

This gave us an opportunity to talk more in-depth about EQ2. Through community chatter, I’ve had the feeling a good many people left EverQuest II to play Vanguard. I asked Crosby if there was an exodus from one game to the other.

“There was not,” he answered.

“The EQ2 forums quieted for a little while,” added Dalrymple, “but that’s normal when anything new comes out, whether it’s a game or a new expansion. People are curious.”

I put forth my opinion that EverQuest II is a much better game now than it was at launch, but that the improvements came only after a good many of EQ2’s players had unsubscribed. “How do you get those people back?” I asked. “Can you?”

“It’s a challenge,” said Crosby. “In my opinion, it’s not marketing, it’s word of mouth that brings players back. You have to get people talking. Get guilds talking. When you have a game like EQ2--which I think is the best MMO out there right now--word gets around. We can’t go out there and say, ‘Hey, this is the best MMO out there,’ because people won’t believe it, but when you can get the players talking they’ll get people back.”

“It’s not about slick marketing and buzz words,” added Dalrymple. “You’re a gamer, so you love games, and you go out and you talk to people. ‘Hey, we’ve got this coming down the line. I think it’s really cool.’ It’s about communicating as a gamer to other gamers. If you’re enthusiastic, that shows.”

Fansites (Huh!) What are They Good For?

During the panel on community earlier in the day, Crosby had remarked that doling exclusives out to fansites might not be the best way to for developers to go when it comes to building community. “That doesn’t bring players to [a game’s official] site,” he said. Other panelists disagreed, so Crosby clarified. “It’s not that I don’t like fansites; I love fansites.”

Later, during our interview, I decided to get a better take on Crosby’s stance. “Doesn’t traffic to a fansite ultimately result in players to a game?” I asked. “Don’t we have similar goals; to provide information to players about an MMO?”

“Absolutely,” answered Crosby. “It’s a symbiotic relationship. But community deals with retention. And when I give you an exclusive like an interview, that’s going to reach current players and increase retention, but it’s not going to bring new players to the game.”

“That doesn’t mean you won’t get exclusives and interviews and dev diaries and such,” he quickly added. “There’s a mountain of content waiting to be shared with the fansites. Even with a game like Toon Town, which is the simplest of games, aimed at kids, there’s a huge amount of content to talk about.”

“And in a game as big as EQ2 or Vanguard,” added Dalrymple, “you’ve got things like game mechanics and quests and character development and on and on. There’s really no end to it.”

The Future of Vanguard

While Crosby was unable to enlighten us as to how SOE will become more involved with Vanguard, he did offer reassurances.

“Vanguard isn’t going anywhere,” he said. “The game will go on. And there will be no NGE, or NVGE, or whatever. Vanguard will still be Vanguard, only, we hope, better.”

The next few weeks should prove to be interesting as news of SOE’s increased involvement with Vanguard becomes official. In uncertain times, one thing seems clear: Alan Crosby is a voice of reason and knowledge when it comes to community matters.