Um, I'm bad with intros so can I like write that part in later?
mutantdevle: Yes
Vice-T: That's fine, do it later!
Okay so I’ve written my intro after the fact, good! And now with editing magic it looks like I actually planned it out and I didn’t keep this part in at all for comedic effect. Smart, right?
Let’s get into this! Please describe your positions in the staff team!
Vice-T: You're talking to Vice-T, chief marketing officer (self-appointed because no one else wanted the role).
mutantdevle: I'm head moderator and a PR manager. Which still doesn't tell you what I actually do it's just a fancy tile.
And which one of you two would win in a deathmatch? Just asking!
mutantdevle: I have a demonic trident. So me.
Vice-T: I would absolutely go down like a sack of bricks. Or at least play dead so I get a sneak attack in.
I didn’t know there’s such a thing as a sack of bricks.
What exactly does a CMO do, Vice? What does a head moderator and pr manager do, Mutant?
Vice-T: CMO handles promoting the game, very basically! And assisting in pr, of course. Essentially, I'm the one in control of our social media aside from Discord, that's a whole other beast that needs other people to run. And, eventually, it'll include putting out advertising and the like. There's probably more to it, but that's the simple version.
mutantdevle: As head moderator, so far I've designed the new punishment system, led internal discussions regarding moderation, and created a community poll for feedback. Once all of that is done and the game is released I imagine my role will effectively just be a regular moderator with the added responsibility of ensuring all other moderators are doing a good job and updating any documents to do with moderating. I guess my responsibility would also include making final decisions on things but I prefer things be a group decision rather than just mine.
As a PR manager my main role under the previous ownership was effectively to advise the owner on how to act. I think good progress was made there but I can't pretend that my advice was always listened to. From January 2021 I was then set to be the one making all the forum posts and stuff like that but that was no longer needed after the game was bought. However, I continue to work behind the scenes giving lots of advice about community interaction. For example, I'll often play a strong role in when we leak/release various things as well as generally advise how official posts should be worded - picking up on things that should and shouldn't be included which is something Satanya, Vice-T and I discuss together. I'll also make suggestions about how to keep the community happy and engaged with the game which is most needed and most challenging whilst we all patiently wait for the game to be released. On the topic of suggestions, I'm also responsible for monitoring feedback from the community to get a sense of whether something has had a positive, negative or mixed reaction and reporting back any key suggestions people might have.
Mutant, you say that you monitor feedback and suggestions. How do you decide what gets reported back to the team? Is there like criteria you look for?
mutantdevle: As a general rule, if multiple people are saying it then it's worth listening to. When you have a larger community you need to start worrying about things like a loud minority swaying your perception. After all, people are more likely to be vocal if they don't like something than if they do, so for every 2 people complaining you could have 10 that are satisfied. But whilst the community is relatively small just 3 or 4 people sharing an opinion makes it something noteworthy. Sometimes a single person could have a really good point to make but you generally want to avoid having a single opinion dictate things. Additionally, the best feedback is from those that can express both a positive and negative opinion. If you had someone who always has something negative to say no matter what you do then they're just not worth listening to. Similarly, someone who is always positive tends to not provide anything useful unless they are very specific about what it is that's good. Being specific is the final criteria. General statements of "this is good" or "this is bad" are not useful. Though, when it's negativity that's specific, you have to be careful it's not just nitpicking. Usually the question of "how many people agree with this?" answers whether or not something is nitpicking.
So you always look for a balance of sorts, when it comes to input you share, right? Something that is constructive from someone that doesn't always nitpick or takes issue with every single detail?
mutantdevle: Yeah exactly. I think it's very hard, other than deliberately trolling, to be someone whose opinion is completely useless. But when it comes to getting feedback you do have to be more selective than most people seem to consciously realise. We can't listen to everything that everyone says or the game would be a mess. Actually, I'm not so sure describing not acting on a specific piece of feedback as not listening is fair. Listening does not always mean acting, it just means understanding the point being said. We consider every opinion we read and are therefore still listening, it's just that not everything is worth reporting back or acting on.
I think that's quite fair! And here's a question for both of you. Out of all the games out there, what made Everybody Edits special to you? Why did you choose to stick around for so long?
Vice-T: Well, weird question for me! Before this project, I didn't have very much experience with Everybody Edits. A certain devilish personality introduced me to it a year or so before the flash shutdown. It had a fun concept, and I played casually until then, enjoying what I played. I didn't think at the time that it'd end up helping to promote it, but life is weird sometimes! While I wasn't a diehard fan before, I'm certainly looking forward to helping make the game a special experience again.
mutantdevle: I honestly don't know to be honest. The nostalgia I guess? I loved playing the game with my siblings when I was younger. During my break from EE (I left before Mr Shoe did and came back during his vacation era) I played a small Minecraft server where there was a thriving community that I was a well known part of. That community gradually died so I left there and returned to EE and I guess I probably subconsciously sought out a similar experience. That may also be a subconscious reason why I care so much about not letting this game die, because I've seen it happen to a community before.
Vacation era, that’s one way to put it. This helps us segway really nicely into Everybody Edits! actually, so I appreciate those answers. Everybody Edits! builds upon the foundations that Everybody Edits (and the ill-fated EEUniverse reboot) established and laid down. You two have both have had access to the design docs, so what parts are you most interested in seeing players’ reactions to? What are you most excited for?
mutantdevle: All the cool worlds that will be created. EE never lived up to it's potential because by the time all the really cool features were added the game had started to die and people had lost motivation to build. And then some of the more complex mechanics could also not be fully explored due to the practical limitations of EE. Complex mechanics that have room to breath + a (hopefully) growing player base will result in lots of awesome worlds that were only theoretical before. The thing that gets me most excited would be the potential for animated worlds. Larger worlds sizes + no data limit restricting the amount of portals in a world + vision zones = something truly awesome.
Vice-T: I don't want to spoil too much here, and make your job of leaking things harder, but I'm really looking forward to see the community working with the freedom and scale that can be achieved with world sizes in the new system. I don't want to get all "early 2000s" and say that there's epic potential there with the new and returning mechanics, but, well, I guess I did. Personally, though, and this is probably just a "me" thing, the thing I'm most excited for us sneaking in jokes and references into smiley names and any descriptions I'm allowed to write for. No, you can't stop me.
I’m sure the owner could stop you if she happened to read this interview! Given both your answers, is it safe to say that Everybody Edits! takes everything a level higher? Is it worthy of its exclamation mark?!?!
Vice-T: I certainly think so! It's been 11 years since the original, so of course it's going to take advantage of the better tech to be the best that it can be.
mutantdevle: Dunno about an exclamation mark, but I'd definitely describe it as EE+. It's an expansion pack to EE that fixes the problems with the base game.
Mutant, way to leak another reboot’s name… But while I have you here, here’s a question specifically for you. What approach will moderation take in this new game? How will it differ from the previous game? Tell me the deets!
mutantdevle: Well, first of all it actually has thought put into it. I can't speak for the history of EE's moderation, but certainly when I joined towards the end it did feel like there had been no care given to the guidelines in place and the job felt like we were only there to prevent anarchy rather than ensure a safe and friendly environment. The new rules will be more clearly defined and the punishments will be more significant. There's actually going to be significant consequences this time around. As a general rule, players who break the most rules, and more severe rules, will receive very few chances before being given permanent punishment. However, how many chances you receive is decided by a very carefully planned system rather than by the differing moderation styles of biased moderators. The 3 things I had in mind when designing the way punishments will work was 1. creating a safe and friendly environment, 2. ensuring that the rules are fair and consistent, and 3. eliminating biases from moderators as much as possible. The specifics of the system are still being discussed, which is where the community feedback has the most influence, but I feel like what we have now achieves those 3 goals and I'm looking forward to 'running some simulations' to test the system and see it in action.
I’m sure there are some people that will be more than happy to misbehave for you to test out this new system! (Myself included in the beta testing~)
I don’t want the other person to be left out, so, Vice-T... about that Twitter...
Vice-T: What about it? Is the mild chaos a bit much?
How do you plan what kind of tweets go on there? Is there like a schedule of sorts?
Vice-T: Bold of you to assume that I have a plan. Generally, I try to post around the same time, taking a few days off occasionally, but most of the time, the tweets are unplanned. Unless there's a specific poll to go up or a game update, it's all what sounds good in the moment or maybe the day before. Don't worry, that'll change when I get access to the game assets and can make more elaborate jokes. Otherwise, this is the system I work with to keep things slightly unhinged.
Slightly unhinged is, uh... one way to put it for sure. How about that age old tweet? What’s the meaning behind it?! You know the one. What was the bug and what did it allow people to do under certain conditions?
Vice-T: Well, that one was before my time, one of the original tweets from the game's early days. The meaning is far too deep, introspective, and profound to get into right now.
Well, I expect more tweets like it in the future.
Now, there’s something I want to clear up in case there’s any confusion. You two have given slightly different impressions of the game— is it a new game altogether, an expansion pack, remake, or what?
Vice-T: I'd put it closer to remake, since it's carrying over the same ideas for the game as the original. A new experience built from the ground up with the original in mind.
mutantdevle: If the core concept and mechanics of EE existed as a game genre then I'd describe it as a new game. It's definitely a new game in the sense that it's independent to EE. But I'd describe it most as a sequel rather than a completely new game or a remake.
Let’s wrap the EE! portion up with one last thing — take a few minutes and describe EE! to everyone. All the new features, all the remade old features, etc.! But here’s the catch. Do it in one word! Sum everything up in one word. Good luck!
mutantdevle: Improved.
Vice-T: !!!!!!!
Uhhhh... thank you Vice-T. And thank you Mutant!
Let’s talk a bit about you two. Tell me about yourselves! What made you want to get into this community management / marketing aspect of development? Any inspirations in this field?
mutantdevle: Well, I originally applied for the community manager position under the previous ownership after campaigning for its existence for over a year before it became a thing and then becoming frustrated by the fact that the position went unfilled for several months after its announcement. The previous ownership wanted me to trial being a staff member as a moderator first, and I was soon promoted to head mod after frequently suggesting ways the moderation system should be improved. From there, I was set to be announced as the community manager in January 2021, but then the game was sold so plans slightly changed but I still ended up being a PR manager. So I guess I kinda got into the position accidentally with a "if no one else is going to do it then I will" attitude. I don't really have any aspirations in this field but I do think that I have several qualities that make me fit for the position and it also develops skills that will be beneficial to me in other aspects of my life.
Vice-T: I didn't have much interest in marketing until I was in high school. I think it was my sophomore year that we got a new computer/business teacher that I ended up liking taking classes with. I didn't have much drive to do anything after high school at the time, and he kinda convinced me to try out for DECA (a marketing competition thing), and I enjoyed my time with it. Ended up carrying into university, and I got my degree in marketing there. Unfortunately, there weren't many job offerings around me that needed it, so I gravitated towards the kind of position I have now. Or, at least, I eventually fell into it after floundering after college. So... yeah!
Those are some backstories! Two different beginnings leading to the same path, huh? You guys are doing great so far, though! I’m proud. I’ll continue watching you two silently and judgementally!
Last question before we wrap this interview up! If the staff team had a meet up, where do you think is the best place for us to meet? And if you say Gamescom you get fired automatically, FYI.
mutantdevle: Hell.
Vice-T: In my secret tree fort, but you gotta know the password.
I like hell more personally. Let’s go with that.
Thank you two for your time!!!
