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Interview with Tim "Dropixel" Chappel Mythic's Community Manager

startle

Siege... Where the fun begins.
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If you had any words for the UO Community what would they be?You guys are amazing! Though you may not realize it, you inspire so many people and have set so many records. I have been watching a lot your fan sites for a long time and still remember opening my first UO game and pulling out the cloth map. I am truly humbled by getting to be a part of such a history rich, industry defining game. Ctrl+b, Rel Por
Well said, Dropixel... Welcome to UOStratics.
 

Shakkara

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Awesome community manager, I never even heard of him. I want his job, sounds relaxing :)
 

Taylor

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Tim is awesome. Really cool guy with a lot of talent and insight.
 

hen

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Awe,.. thank you! This made my day! :D
Tim seriously, where have you been for the last year and a half? You are community manager? Where have you been and why have you not posted here for a year and a half? I will **** paragon gorillas over the moon if you give this an earnest answer.
 

KLOMP

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First they interview the art guy in a game that gets like two new sprites per year if we're lucky, then they interview the community manager that most of the community has never heard of before. Maybe next they'll interview the UO jetpack designer or the UO dinosaur wrangler.
 

Shakkara

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First they interview the art guy in a game that gets like two new sprites per year if we're lucky, then they interview the community manager that most of the community has never heard of before. Maybe next they'll interview the UO jetpack designer or the UO dinosaur wrangler.
Maybe Bonnie thought it would be a bad idea to have the game designer interviewed that designed refinements.
 

Petra Fyde

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The interview is what is known as a 'human interest' piece. If it doesn't interest you, don't read it. Snide comments about it simply reflect badly on the person making the comment, not the interview, the interviewer or the interviewee.

Most of Dropixel's posts are in answer to requests for help with accounts problems, I would guess that he probably has more private messages than posts.
 

Frarc

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Dropixel helped me with 2 account problems in the past and in both cases the problem was solved. All communication was done trough PM and E-mail.
I am very pleased with his help. :)
 

Taylor

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Tim helped me get my account issues fixed.
 

Snowdrop

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Tim helped me get my account issues fixed.
Wow I wish he could help me fix mine! All I got was: You may want to send an e-mail to [email protected] with all your account information from the e-mail associated with the account. Unfortunately, I do not have access to billing information for the accounts.

-Dropixel
Which I have done and Im still nowhere close to getting an answer much less a solution!:sad2:
 

Hannes Erich

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Hi Dropixel.

I remember when you helped me last year-ish with navigating the account stuff, and I got you in touch with one of my guild mates who thought he'd never be able to get into his old account because of a lost email address, and password, and username; And somehow you worked your magic and they were able to dig up this guy's records and confirm ownership. He was in-game on his original account the very next day. I don't think you were Community Manager at that point. So congratulations! Personally, I've heard nothing but good about you and your work ethic.

Now for the criticism. :eek:

I also haven't heard enough about you. Or from you. It's true I'm a major lurker and don't have room to talk, but I'm not the CM. :p

Obviously, Ultima Online is a 15 year-old game, and a large portion of your attention will always be elsewhere. I'd have to be really thick not to understand that. But--and this is just a suggestion, same way I'd suggest any other feature or improvement--I think if you blocked out some time every couple of weeks just to make one or two oddball comments, cat pictures, answer a couple of random questions around the forums, you'd see how far a little presence goes. I greatly appreciate that you've helped people with specific issues like account access, but that's not what I'm talking about. I mean the other part of community management. If time doesn't allow, see if someone around there is willing to give up just a tiny slice of their time.

The game might be old, but there's still a community here.

If you ever run into Andy Belford around the building you work in (not sure where he is at EA now), tell him Cap'n Electric said hello.
 
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Merus

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The interview is what is known as a 'human interest' piece. If it doesn't interest you, don't read it. Snide comments about it simply reflect badly on the person making the comment, not the interview, the interviewer or the interviewee.

Most of Dropixel's posts are in answer to requests for help with accounts problems, I would guess that he probably has more private messages than posts.
I guess the point to some of the snide comments is that someone with the title "community manager" might be expected to be a little more involved with the community. I am certain he gets some pm and occasionally makes a public post regarding an account question.

But let's take the most recent debacle... Moving the login server to the cloud. All evidence suggests that this has caused serious issues with logging in. Personally I have to close my client and restart EVERY time I want to switch characters. With 7 accounts and well over 40 characters I regularly switch between this is a major hassle... I can only imagine the pain in the rear this is for people with more accounts than me. Furthermore, everyone I play with is having about the same issue. This has been going on almost a week now. IMO our "community manager" should be right here with us talking about the issue and giving the community updates as to when this will get resolved. To date, nothing...from him or anyone else.
 

Hannes Erich

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Every community I've been a part of for the past 15 years that thought they could get more dev/CM love by being rude and demanding... turned out to be wrong.

I know that stinks and flies in the face of how you'd expect the world to work; but respectful communities always get more respect and as much as that sucks, it's never going to change.
 

Packrat22

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I am part of the silent majority. I regularly browse the boards (lurk), but seldom post.
I am truely happy to see these new interviews. I like to read a little about the people working behind this great game.
These are not "where is uo going" posts, "fix this for ME" posts, or "**&&*%% uo" posts. Lots of those posts already :(
These are human interest posts, yes, I find reading them, I have a smile on my face and know that those behind the computer screen want UO to grow and succceed as much as I do.
 

Tina Small

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I suspect that the reason we hardly ever see Tim post (and why Kai and his predecessors rarely posted), other than with regard to account issues, is tied into this comment he made in the interview: "Some producers like to keep tight control over what’s posted and send me everything so I don’t have to spend much time on hashing out copy." It may well be that it is easier for Mesanna to keep tabs on what's being "officially" posted about UO or may work better with her particular management style if only a handful of people are allowed to actually make posts about in-game content. If Tim doesn't design, program, test, or fix actual in-game content, she might not want him to talk about it either.
 

kelmo

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Wow, 31 postings sure sounds like he's burning a whole straight through that old keyboard of his. Come on Kelmo even you can't believe this crap you spew everytime a person wonders what happened to the team.
*smiles* I do believe. I am sorry that you view my postings as crap. You are entitled to your opinion, though. *shrugs* I can live with that.

Did you even read the interview Picus of Napa? I am just curious.
 

hen

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Kelmo the communication we receive is simply not good enough mate.
I understand Stratics staff have to defend these guys, but it is not good enough.
 

Tanivar

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The people at EA & Stratics really should cut the posters with an attitude a lot of slack. Come on, look at what we've been putting up with over the years, the current latency & packet loss problems making game play little fun if not pointless, and the abomination called Refinements coming to us in the future. Everyone has their b.s. limit, and many of us have gotten awful close to that limit. As more of us hit that limit and go play something else, there will be less attitude shown here. Be patient.
 

hen

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The people at EA & Stratics really should cut the posters with an attitude a lot of slack. Come on, look at what we've been putting up with over the years, the current latency & packet loss problems making game play little fun if not pointless, and the abomination called Refinements coming to us in the future. Everyone has their b.s. limit, and many of us have gotten awful close to that limit. As more of us hit that limit and go play something else, there will be less attitude shown here. Be patient.
Basically, the devs posting here equals more visitors equals more ads equals more money for George. The staff have to side with the devs.
 

Picus of Napa

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*smiles* I do believe. I am sorry that you view my postings as crap. You are entitled to your opinion, though. *shrugs* I can live with that.

Did you even read the interview Picus of Napa? I am just curious.
Of course I read it, I read nearly every thread on this main page and others. I thought it was amazing how it was impied that he opened his UO box with the map yet he really only started playing PC games when he joined Mythic. I might have mis-read that part but I recall opening the same box in 1997, odd but I'm sure something flew over me.

Sorry Kelmo, I understand that you Mod's have a thankless job and I'm not going to bother attempting to change that. I find it amazing that here we have the head CM/CSR guy and nearly every week we have people begging with help about game issues with no reply. Once in a while bonnie's email gets tossed out and the issue is solved but that is a straight fail in my eyes. There are so many things that this guy is tasked with, I understand that, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend that the game is going fine and CS is 100% top notch when it just plain isn't.
 
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