we used to call pacifiers 'binky'

When good Binkys go bad

This promises to be long and informative, which are two things every Community Manager should be able to accomplish. Ultima Online's lastest attempt to replace Jonathan Hanna, by the name of "Binky" has more or less quit his job. Okay techincally he hasn't filed a two week notice or walked off the job just yet, but based on his actions of late, I can't imagine any other justification; and I use the word 'justification' with the realization that I've so completely stretched its definition, that it no longer stays up without a belt.

For those who don't play Ultima Online, a group which includes the entire population of this planet with the exception of about 150 thousand of us, its an online game. This online game has a particular 'server world' which has long been considered the 'All Star' server - things are harder, faster, and more painful on this world called Siege Perilous. Problem: most people dont like Ultima Online. Problem Deux: most of the few people who do like Ultima Online, hate Siege Perilous. Its a server with all the costs of every other game server, but with a dramatically smaller population of players. In other words, Siege Perilous is going to be closed unless something happens.

In steps the Electronic Arts Community Manager, heretofore known as "Binky" which, when I was a wee tot, used to be the nickname for a pacifier. While I am not privy to the background behind this person's choice of the name Binky, pacification is certainly not part of the metaphor.

Binky starts a thread on EA's home away from home, known as 'Stratics' - a popular information/news broker for many online games, and at one time, actually hosted by Origin Systems, EA's Ultima Online babysitters. Shady relationships aside, Stratics was always looked upon as a closely mommied, but mostly independant source of information and news about Ultima Online. So back to Binky's thread: he asks in a poll question, what should be changed about Siege to attract more players.

This is where Binky gets to share the blame. A forum moderator for Stratics named Subishi, while not the only person to do so, fired an essay salvo at Binky's poll - the explosion sounded something akin to "Why do people not playing on Siege get to decide what happens on Siege?", and again, not the only person do offer this opinion, Subishi's clout and status in the Stratics organization certain gave this platform a seventeen ton delivery of muscle.

As an aside to the story, it should be pointed out that so far, Binky is in the right and Subishi is entirely in the wrong. If the issue at hand is 'how do we get people who are not playing on Siege to begin playing on Siege', then logic insists that the most important feedback would be from the people who at present, are not compelled to play there. To make them play there, the barriers that hold them back must be examined. Logic would also insist that people already playing on Siege would be, by and large, content with the server as it is. Not entirely, but certainly content enough to be playing there already.

But here's where Binky steps up to the plate, and crushes him an idiot home run out of the stadium: he issues the following private message to Stratics management:

So I am fed up with Subishi and his\her unprofessional attitude and way in which he\she conducts him\herself.
This is the message I was going to send him\her but decided I would just go to you. Who should I send my complaints to aside from you?
~~~~~~~
As a moderator on these forums I expect an unbiased and a much less personal and attacking tone from you on your responses and\or questions.

This is not the first time I have witnessed this from you and I personally do not appreciate it. You represent Stratics and as much as you may not like to hear it, EA.
We do have a professional relationship with Stratics. I don't care if you make these posts from a different screen name that does not have a UO Mod title, but I will no longer tolerate this type of conduct from you.
~~~~~~~~
As you can tell I am not a happy camper with this person and I want them talked to and\or removed.
If I ever posted and asked my business partners "why the hell does everyone get to vote on what happens on Siege?” I would be terminated.
Thanks.

So far, Binky is a crybaby, but just wait - the homerun comes in the next inning. That was just a seeing eye single down the foul line. It gets better. In a subsequent message to Stratics management, he reminds them that having game developers posting on the stratics forums is an honor easily removed from Stratics, and if they continue to post news updates that Binky requests they not post, well - what would Stratics be without any devs posting there?

Also, we, the developers, are in a precarious spot. We enjoy posting but not everything we post needs to be posted on the Stratics front page, all that does a lot of times is fuel the fire, especially after I specifically requested info not to be posted. I am trying to be as open and honest with the community as possible, and no, I don’t regret posting what I did, but it was for those people who were in the thread being vicious and implying they know how the company works.

This has been a topic of discussion here in the past, more so recently with more devs posting, and if we can’t be worked with on this we will have no choice but to scale down our posting even more.

Thanks for your time.

Not wise. Not wise at all. To make matters worse, he posted that Stratics was, whether they liked it or not, a representative of UO and EA; that Stratics had a professional relationship with UO and EA. Now, I only have relationships of the personal nature, but from what I read about in the funny papers, these 'Professional Relationships'; they mostly center around the transfer of money for services. Joshua Rowan should expect large sums of money in the mail soon.

The centipede's other fifty shoes have yet to fall, and the funny thing about millipede shoes is that if you dont watch closely, and listen with intent, you might not actually hear them. Im sure in the quiet silence of the forest leaf bed, Binky is getting chewed like a cow's cud by everybody including the night janitor - which in this man's opinion, is a waste of time. Its far less expensive to just let Binky continue setting fires and then racing to everyone's rescue to stomp them back out - until Friday, the unofficially official You Are Fired day for corporate America. Binky, you'll find card board boxes with lids in the supply room, but you'll probably have to put away the printer paper if you want to take them. Just some advice from somebody whose watched his share of morons come and go at the workplace.

Best of luck in your new career - I dont see a huge demand for lousy community managers in the online game industry. You are as 'common as a robin', my grandmumma would say. Dime a dozen if there were only twelve of you, my grandpappy would add.

(much of the information used to draft this was taken from Battle Vortex, specifically from this particular discussion thread.)

EDIT:This just in - Subishi is a 'she.' Which means drama++ because Binky is picking on a GIRL!