Metaverse Mod Squad Talks About How They Can Help You Run an MMO

Mike, of Metaverse Mod Squad, outlines their staffing capabilities for gaming development

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/engage-expo-metaverse-mod-squad-interview.mp3

Or listen to it here…

Show Notes:
Interviewer: I’m here at Engage Expo and with me today is a special guest. How about you introduce yourself?

Mike: Hi, I’m Mike Pinkerton, COO of Metaverse Mod Squad.

Interviewer: And what’s that about?

Mike: Metaverse Mod Squad is the staffers for online games and virtual worlds. We are community managers, moderators and customer support agents. So, if you need people to work in your world, we’ve got the staff to do it.

Interviewer: Yeah, you know, can you talk about actually using community managers versus your own players to staff up the community. What’s the benefit?

Mike: Well, of course, there’s a cost involved, but the benefit is you are using professionals, people who are experienced and have a direct line of communication to management. And so, the best story teller from the management perspective is the professional community manager.

And that community manager can then facilitate that community so that the community can then run itself all along the down the line, but you can’t do that from day one.

Interviewer: You guys also offer a service to moderate chat and other things in world. Can you talk more about that?

Mike: Well, we do. We partner with our technology partners, usually, in world that uses the spam filter or white list or a black list, and then our moderators make sure that the chat is appropriate, age appropriate, especially for kids, and make sure that a positive experience is had by everyone.

Interviewer: Can you talk about, you know, for smaller developers they are focused on so many other things. What is the benefit of actually having some dedicated to the community and other things that apply?

Mike: Well, yeah, absolutely, I mean, the benefit of using an outsourcer, obviously, is that we’re the experts at doing it, and we’re flexible enough to work for the biggest game developer or the smallest one.

For a small developer, especially, one that you should be concentrating on your business and use us to help you facilitate that community.

Interviewer: Is there a certain amount of volume that developers need to have to even consider you? Should they be like a million players strong? How does that work? Is it just too overwhelming for an indie gamer?

Mike: No, no, although we do work with big companies, we’re also flexible enough to work with the small groups, especially where we see a smaller developer that has growth potential. We’d certainly willing to take on a partnership like that.

Interviewer: Can you talk about tips or suggestions you have for smaller game developers in terms of ways that they can moderate their community and have the players have a positive experience?

Mike: Oh yeah. Obviously, carve out a part of your budget to account for that cost. Use an experienced outsourcer. You can try and do it in-house yourself, but you’re going to end up spending, perhaps, a lot of time and a lot of effort. And, of course, there’s that learning curve, or you can go straight to somebody like us who’s done it before, who has a vast wealth of knowledge behind us. So, you’re can write one check. Make it easy.

Interviewer: Have you guys had experience growing communities, or is it mainly moderating?

Mike: No, the community aspect that I mentioned before is actually just that, growing that community. So, that means from before even launch, helping you build those tools and exactly what’s needed to be successful. Then on day one of the launch, building that core community, those core loyal users that can then being in their friends and their family and grow from there.

Interviewer: Great. Where can developers find out more information about your service?

Mike: Of course, at our website, MetaverseModSquad.com.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.

Mike: Thank you.