Eh-oh all! Long time no post, I know, but lift at Rare is keeping me busy. Still canlt quite get over the fact I’ve managed to break into the videogames industry, but there you have it.

Anyway, Bruce at Freeverse introduced me via e-mail to Matt Soell last night, and this morning I had an e-mail from him!!! How cool is that! For those that donlt know, Matt was Bungie’s community guy during the Mac glory years and was - i think - the first guy in videogames that saw the value of forums and started taking them seriously. Any old-=school Marathon player can wax lyrical about how strong that community was (1994 - present, I think) and that’s in no small way thanks to Matt Soell. Without him, Halo CE wouldn’t have got the massive head start with the hardcore online community that it did, which in turn helped shape the gaming landscape over the course of this decade.

Anyway, I’ve posted the e-mail chain below - oldest on top so you can read it chronologically. Enjoy!

On 3/25/08 1:44 PM, “Bruce Morrison” @ Freeverse wrote:

> Hey Matt,
>
> I’d like to introduce you to George, who used to be over at Feral and
> is now the Community Manager for Rare.  He just did an Edge Magazine
> about community management and would love to just say hi!
>
> He said in Edge:
>
> 7. Are there certain tools - blogs, forums, Facebook groups - that are
> better than others for achieving certain aims? What, for instance, is
> a blog good for doing?
> A blog is good for serving as a platform by which a developer can
> present their human side to the gaming community, rather than just
> banging on about product the whole time. Hopefully it endears a
> developer towards the community and they get to like how and why we do
> what we do just as much as they like what it is that we do. Blogs can
> be anything from a bit of fun to a serious recruitment tool it just
> depends on the atmosphere of the place in which you work. And theyre
> great for slipping out behind-the-scenes tidbits of information and
> for teasing the community. That said, no tease has ever come close to
> being as good as Matt Soells Cortana Letters. One day, if I practice
> really hard, I might be as good as Matt Soell.
> Above all, though, forums were, are and always will be the best.
> Theyre not so much democratic as anarchistic and allow for the
> greatest amount of freedom of communication within the community, When
> youre on a public forum, pretty much everybody (apart from the admins)
> are on the same level and I find that a fantastically exciting nay,
> addictive atmosphere.
>
> Also, have you seen this iPhone stuff?  It’s nuts!
>
>
>————————————————
> Freeverse, Inc
> Producer
> Bruce Morrison
>
——-Original Message——-
From: Matt Soell
Sent: 25 March 2008 20:35
To: Bruce Morrison; George Kelion
Subject: Re: Marathon Community

Hello Bruce and George,

I would be derelict in my duties if I did not point out that the Cortana
Letters were largely Nathan Bitner’s creation.  I was involved in the
concept stage when we figured out what those letters were going to be, but
while they were actually running I was just the de facto editor.

Bruce’s aside about how good I am is 100% accurate, however.

Not that you asked, but it seems germane: The Cortana Letters were a
deliberate attempt to connect with an existing audience (fans of the
Marathon games) and get them excited about a new game (the then-unannounced
Halo) by giving them something that would appeal to that community’s
inquisitive, imaginative, and intelligent nature - which never failed to
astonish and delight us. In an age where the most cynical and manipulative
marketing ploys come to us in the guise of “alternate reality games,” it’s
hard to believe that something like the Cortana Letters would spring from a
genuine affection and respect for the people who became fanatical about our
games…but I assure you that affection and respect was real.  There was no
post-mortem meeting wherein we analyzed the Cortana Letters from a
cost/benefit perspective; they weren’t a money-making exercise.  It seems
important to point that out.

Thanks for listening,

Matt

HOT

This was my ep1c reply:

From: George Kelion
Sent: 26 March 2008 10:09
To: ‘Matt Soell’; Bruce Morrison
Subject: RE: Marathon Community

I’ll not be too ‘industry’ to admit I giggled like a little girl when I saw that you’d e-mailed, Matt. It’s that genuine affection and respect that you express at the bottom of your message that I think caused our loyalty in the first place. The reason we are all still mind-bogglingly fanatical about the games is because Jason, Alex, Greg, Doug et al took the time to weave such an intricate plot that would leave us fans scratching our heads for years (not to mention the kick-ass map making tools) in the first place. That you then treated us with respect and allowed us to act like we partially owned Marathon’s story ourselves, or were at least party to it, is a feat I think that’s still unparalleled by a videogames company before or since.

I mean, on a personal note, if I hadn’t been hanging out on Marathon.org/forums and reading Hamish’s story page in the mid-to-late nineties, there’s simply no way I’d be sitting here at Rare’s plush HQ right now (or met Hippieman Bruce, for that matter). In fact Matt, if it wasn’t for you personally, I’m not even sure my job would exist! Correct me if I’m wrong, but other than stuff like QuakeCon, you wrote the rulebook on developer-community interaction whilst you were at Bungie. I don’t recall another company basically giving as much of a crap about their fans (for lack of a better word) than you guys, and certainly nobody other than you was going out of their way to give a faceless videogames company a human voice, some genuine character and rewarding you loyal and devoted following with really sweet presents like the Cortana Letters, the Vidmaster Challenge, Anvil, Forge and above all, keeping up to date with the forums and helping Hamish shape the Story Page. This was all *years* ahead of its time - it’s only recently that this type of activity has become more and more vital. So hats off to you sir, I really do mean it whenever I say I’m just stealing ideas from the book you wrote, as from where I’m sitting, you pretty much invented community management.

I take on board what you say about how Marketing has monetized this love and respect between creator and player. I’m a Mac guy through and through and there’s not a day that goes by without MGS’ Marketing team rankling me about something. The massive irony is that now the internet has given us all the tools we need to engage in meaningful dialogue with the people that enjoy our games, we have more restrictions on what we’re allowed to do/say than ever. I’m in the process of creating a couple of web-comics based around old Rare characters (Banjo the Bear is one and Jet Force Gemini is the other), however unless I can prove a direct cost/benefit correlation, I don’t think I’ll ever get them off the ground. I just want to do it as art for art’s sake - our community is already creating web comics of their own and they’re always banging on about how much they like our concept art, so I just figured it’d be cool - but the money men don’t see it that way.

Ack, I’ve written an essay. Thanks for the e-mail, it’s a real honour to be able to reply. By the way, I think Darran Jones from Retro Gamer has got in touch with Mr Seropian about doing a Marathon retrospective. I’ve also told Darran to contact you directly - may I pass on your e-mail address? Darran is also looking for a journalist to write the story – do you think Hamish could be encouraged to write it? I mean, if he did it’d end up being the definitive take, I reckon. Darran Jones’ e-mail address is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) – if you think Hamish would be up for it, maybe you could put them in touch?

All the best,
George K.

Community Manager
Rare Ltd.

PS: Sorry, I totally forgot to ask two fan questions – what ever happened to the disembodied soul that existed on the Bungie website at one point? And what was project Phoenix?
PPS:I only figured out what “Hat’s Off to 819” meant the other day (should’ve checked the Story Page, duh), which is how the whole conversation with Darran started in the first place.
PPPS: Bruce my friend, you are a fucking legend.

Ah, Stickboy. See I couldn’t remember who the heck Monkeythumbs was since you changed it to that. Quick search through the archives where you were quoted under your old name helped.

Anyways, that’s pretty cool.

That is pretty fricking sweet. Tell him I own frogblasttheventcore.com, because I do.

I’d also like to point out that Bruce is the man for both bring Marathon 2 to XBL and for bringing Heroes of Might and Magic V to the Mac.