Cryptic Studios, Oh How I Long For Thee

So, I have taken the plunge. Recently I applied to Cryptic Studios for an online community manager position. This development is both exciting and anguishing. Hope has filtered into my anticipation of a response to my résumé submission. The anguish is wrought from doubt.

First, lets talk about the doubt. Why do I have doubts about this application? The biggest source of doubt is not necessarily in my capabilities, it is in the process itself. There is so much I don’t have control over in this type of application process. I did not walk into Cryptic Studios and talk to the hiring managers myself putting my face forward and imprinting upon them. I have not had the opportunity to interact on any coherent level with the people who work there. My résumé is really the only representation there is of “Me” and a piece of paper just does not do justice to anyone. It feels like a blindfolded shot in the dark after having been spun around a few times. My persona, my character, my work ethic, cannot be communicated fully in this résumé submission process.

I have other doubts, mainly derived from typical issues of the human condition that are outside of what I know of my capabilities. Some of those doubts are relatively well founded but most of them can be described as typical human frailties.

In reflection to the doubt, there are things I know. I know if given the chance I can prove myself. No, I do not have any direct experience as an online community manager but the experience I do have in other professional endeavors are very applicable. I was/ am a teacher. The “was” is that I have taught high school English. Talk about community management! The “am” relates to my graduate work. I do not have an assistantship, which means I am not teaching as a pert of my graduate studies, directly. However, as a graduate student I am called upon to teach undergraduates in the classroom environment both directly and indirectly. I also have had to teach professors I have class with and interact with what it is I am exactly doing and why it is pertinent to English Studies as a discipline. Then there is the teaching of medieval martial arts, primarily long-sword.

Another professional experience I have that relates to this position are the four years I assistant managed Cyberia the Gamers Haven. For those of you who don’t know, Cyberia was a game shop where I live that sold collectable card games, role playing games, table top war games, and the appropriate supplies and accessories for said games. In addition to that, Cyberia was also a computer gaming café. It had 10 computers set up for customer use for a meager hourly rate. Much of what I did there was demoing games, setting up tournaments, facilitating game groups, setting up and running computer game events and competitions, and a heck of a lot of “personality management” of Cyberia’s regulars.

Non professional experience I have that pertains to the position is my serial Clan and guild leadership. Locally I was the leader and organizer of a competitive Starsiege Tribes Clan. Globally I have been a guild leader of guilds for 10 years consecutively as I have moved from game to game. I have established a few guilds but, more often than not, I end up being promoted to a leadership position, usually quite swiftly.

Then there is my studies and research. I will not go into this in detail because to do so would mean a long intensive description getting very deep into concepts within technical communication, narrative theory, New Media Studies, and literary theory (some of my work has showed up here on my blog). But, I will say the focus of my studies and subsequent research are MMORPGs. Over the years, in pursuit of my work, I have played over 36 MMORPGs and MMORPG like artifacts, looking at them very closely. Yeah, that’s what I said, over 36 MMORPGs. Obscene, isn’t it? Admittedly I have spent more time with some over others but I have gained an uncommon insight into the genre and the business of developing, launching, and maintaining MMORPGs and, as a result, the importance of community for MMORPGs.

What is the exciting part of this application to be an online community manager? What isn’t? From the perspective of my education it comes down to one statement. This is the exact reason I went back to school for my masters taking the gamble I have had to with life direction and my financial life. I have looked at MMORPG design with the intent of developing my own MMORPG, which I have been poking at for the last 3 years through the Wet Wyered Studio work group. My graduate education has been undertaken to facilitate that potential. A little deeper in that education is looking at how people who design and play MMORPGs communicate directly through forums and interviews as well as how communication occurs within the MMORPG environment itself. I am a geek, hear me roar!

From a total gamer geek perspective, it would be a dream come true! I have wanted to be involved in game development since I was about 10 years old. I could give a detailed history of what that dream is, how it developed over time, how I diverged from it, and then how I came back to it. But, like my trying to describe my studies, that would take entirely too long given the length of this entry thus far. What I will say is that gaming, especially video gaming, has been a deep passion of mine for more than three decades. The total list of video games I have played in my life would put that 36 MMORPGs to shame! To become involved in game design as a career, I can’t express what that would mean to my inner gamer geek. Even thinking about the prospect makes my heart beat a little faster.

There is so much more I could say about the prospect of becoming an online community manager for Cryptic, a company I have had deep respect for a decade now. This prospect speaks to my inner gamer geek, it speaks to my inner technical writer, It speaks to my inner cultural theorist, it speaks to my academic self all very loudly with an overwhelming boom. Will I get it? I have no idea. Do I think I am qualified for it? Hell yeah! All I need is the chance to get in there and prove myself. My biggest selling points aside from what I have mentioned here is my capacity to learn quickly and my adaptability. Given the chance and the time I am positive I could learn what I need to do this job… all I need, all I ask for is the chance.