Interview with Lightning:
Administrator at Vanguard Fighters
(part 2)
By Ralsu
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Questions about Running a Fan Site (cont.)
TTH: I have been told numerous
times on the SOE forums that all fan
sites are biased and that their administrators censor the community.
How do you respond to that? Did you find it hard to remain balanced in
your moderation?
VF: I would disagree quite strongly. While the community at
Vanguard
Fighters was easy to moderate due to the intelligent discussions and
utter lack of flaming, I never felt the need to censor anyone. All
views, in my mind, are valid and if someone says they do not like
Vanguard, as long as they post in a rational manner explaining why the
game does not work for them, then I see no reason why this should not
be
in the public domain. Customers have the right to complain, whether the
developers want to hear it or not.
Questions about the Differences between Fan Sites and Gaming
Networks
TTH: I often tell our community
members that one of the upsides of
a gaming network compared to a fan site is that the gaming network
wont go anywhere just because the community managers lose interest in
the game. The network will just hire someone else who is enthusiastic
about the game.
The other side of the issue is that most gaming networks are driven by
revenue and may choose to close down one game site on the network if
the community does not seem heavily invested in it. Meanwhile, a fan
site may not care if that game has 25K subscriptions or 2.5M
subscriptions.
How have your experiences with VF changed your perceptions of fan sites
and gaming networks?
There are definitely pros and cons. As you mention, due
to Vanguard Fighters running out of staff that care overly about the
game, the site has fallen by the wayside. What has changed dramatically
is my view of how much work really goes into building a fan site and
keeping it running smoothly. More people need to appreciate that it can
be a lot of hard work with very little thanks.
Questions about the Future
TTH: Will we see you running a
fan site again in the near future (Age of Conan Fighters or Warhammer
Fighters)?
I have no plans to start a new fan site as of now. I have had a
few offers from existing Vanguard fan site operators to move into an
administration role, so there is always that opportunity.
TTH: If
style="font-style: italic;">Vanguard is not the game for you
long-term, what are you looking forward to on the horizon?
I am not sure what MMORPG I will be moving to next, though style="font-style: italic;">Heros Journey looks interesting.
TTH: In what ways have you
benefited from being admin at VF that will help you in your career or
with future fan sites?
I have spent a lot of time administering the Apache / PHP / mySQL
back end of the site and have learned a great deal about that and the
building of a site under phpnuke and Simple Machines Forums /
TinyPortal. I have to say, I enjoyed developing the sites a great deal
more than the day-to-day housework.
a community site using phpnuke
again. The amount of work involved to keep the site running can be
rather extreme, and having experimented in my free time with many other
content management systems, I can say it is a poor substitute for the
likes of Joomla.
Parting Thoughts
TTH: Anything you want to add?
Vanguard still has potential. I hope SOE can draw that potential
out and show us what it really means to adventure in Telon.
TTH: Thanks for your time, and
good luck in your future endeavors!
this Vanguard Interview in our forums!
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