Emergent Future

...scarce. Or, it seems to be. I cannot say that I'm surprised that I find plenty of information on game industry jobs on designers, coders, and writers, finding information on community-based jobs is a different story. At best - if mentioned at all - it will get lumped into 'Business' or 'Misc jobs'. Of course, there are reasons for this. There are likely much fewer people in community jobs than there are in other fields, such as design, art, and programming. Most other jobs outside of these are also usually found in many other industries and are a touch less competitive. Thus, getting them doesn't really require much information.

The thing is, community jobs are weird. They aren't really found in most other industries and while it seems similar to PR, Marketing, and/or Customer Service, it really is its own beast. Yet, it also seems like very, very few people actually want a job in community. Rather, community is somewhat of an entry position like QA (which you can also find tons of information on), or somewhere that you inadvertently fall into. It makes sense, then, that information on community positions isn't nearly as plentiful as other fields.

Doesn't something seem a little off here, though? There aren't necessarily a whole ton of people in community positions (really, don't quote me on that) and most people either fall into it or are using it to get into something else (you can quote me on that). Community jobs aren't really a huge focus. I think Sanya over at Eating Bees made that pretty clear with a recent post as well.

It might be a weird job, but this seems weirder. With how much talk has been going on with community lately - MMOs getting huge, consoles with online capabilities, a stronger focus on multiplayer/online gaming, Xbox Live Achievements, Playstation Home (eventually), etc... etc... - it seems like people in community roles for game companies would start to take on a much more promenant role. Considering how much good a solid community team can do for a game, for a company, for a profit margin even, this just strikes me as strange.

But, perhaps that's just me. My view on the inside workings of the industry is, of course, limited. Yet, it really seems this way to me. I, for one, would like to see more information out there on community positions as a start. I also would like to try my hand at getting some information on these jobs out as well. 'Course, I lack experience in the field and the experience of getting a job in it... But, when have I ever let trifle, silly things like "credibility" and "resources" slow me down? Pssh!

... Okay. Doing that might be hard. Still, I'm determined and I have to much time on my hands at the moment.