Taking Control

I've been a Community Manager and MarComms professional in video games for almost six years now. I always knew I wanted to work in games, but I left High School without any practical advice on how to make that happen. I effectively wrote it off as a pipe dream and pushed it out of my mind for nearly a decade. Opportunities like that weren’t for working-class Northerners like me, surely?

As a career and financial safety net, I decided learning a trade was probably the sensible thing to do. The plan was to learn a skill that would always be in demand and then eventually pursue what I really wanted to do. Before I knew it, six years had gone by, and I was a miserable (and woefully underpaid) Vehicle Technician.

When I eventually realised life had started to pass me by, and the motor trade really wasn't a fulfilling or welcoming environment, I decided to go back to school. It seemed like getting a degree would really help me realise my dream of either getting into games or becoming a writer (my other passion). As I couldn't afford to quit my day job and go back to education full-time, I completed my Bachelor's Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing around my full-time job.

That did the trick. I started to make inroads into the games industry, thanks to freelance games journalism opportunities at outlets such as Switch Player and DualShockers. As I went, I realised I was getting more involved with the wider gaming community. Before that point, I'd enjoyed games as a hobby and a form of solitary escapism. Now, I was an active participant in the discourse and community around games. I'd finally found my tribe.

Having established myself as a writer and freelancer for games media, with some additional bylines at places like MCV/DEVELOP and Lost In Cult, I knew I eventually wanted to bridge the gap to work studio-side, but was largely at a loss as to what I could offer and what roles I'd be a good fit for. I couldn't code. I wasn't an artist. I didn't know design. My degree wasn't even game-specific.

The answer came from an unlikely source. In August of 2019, I picked up a game from a studio I didn't really know much about. Something about this new IP from a popular Finnish developer grabbed me. The X-Files tone, coupled with an ethereal, dimension-bending narrative, really spoke to me. It was a power fantasy set during a supernatural government cover-up with a kickass female lead...need I really say more? The trailers and wider marketing around it drew me in.

I became obsessed with the game and started to be active within the CONTROL community on places like Discord. Although I'd never had the inclination before or since, I decided CONTROL would be the first game I attempted to cosplay. The game was full of interesting and flawed characters to pick from. One character stood out among the rest, however. Dr Casper Darling. The Head of Research at the Federal Bureau of Control. What an icon.

With MCM London just over a month after the game's launch (an event my brother and I already had tickets to), I had a tight deadline to turn something around. I posted about my cosplay progress on Twitter, sharing print files for bits I'd made in Photoshop (because it was so early in the fandom that those things didn't exist yet). I actually still see people using my old FBC Head of Research staff badge in their cosplays! It always makes me smile.

Sharing my intentions to cosplay Dr Darling online got me spotted by the official CONTROL account and by the Community Manager leading on the game (who worked for the game's publisher, 505 Games). She was going to be attending MCM too, and wanted to arrange a meet-up. I'd never done anything like that before. It was the first time someone in an official capacity had ever paid attention to something I was doing in the fan space. It was pretty exciting!

After some lovely words of encouragement for what I was doing, as I was the first person to ever cosplay Darling, Antonela and I DM'd back and forth on the run-up to the event so we could coordinate a meet-up. I met her in the PlayStation area of the event, where she was accompanied by her friend, and eventual colleague, Sarah Kendall. Sarah was cosplaying series protagonist, Jesse Faden, and together we took some photos for the CONTROL social media account.

Antonela and Sarah were super welcoming and kind, despite how socially awkward I must have been in cosplay for the first time. As well as me just generally being a little intimidated speaking with strangers who had cool, enviable, and professional jobs. I left that convention with a huge smile and a very cool (and unexpected) CONTROL press kit for my troubles. I also left with a sense of purpose.

For many, the TL;DR of this story is I made a cosplay, and the studio/brand account for that game wanted to feature me in some comms. Pretty straightforward. Happens all the time, right? But for me, it was a real moment of clarity in terms of what I wanted to do. I was just a random member of a growing community, but I'd been made to feel like someone important who was doing something worth celebrating. I wanted to give people that feeling. I wanted to champion other people. I wanted to be a Community Manager.

A lot of the skills I'd honed in online gaming circles and through my freelance games journalism were surprisingly transferable. Networking was also invaluable during the days when Twitter was a fun place to connect with games industry marketing professionals. Before the dark times. After a brief stint as a volunteer Community Manager for an indie dev in Dundee, I managed to land a full-time role for one of the leading game developers in the VR space...and the rest, as they say, is history.

My professional origin story was being the recipient of wholesome and supportive community spotlighting and then realising I wanted to do that for other people. Antonela set an incredible example I've been trying to follow and honour for the last six years. Hopefully, people think I'm doing a good job on that front!

When Antonela found out I'd landed my first full-time CM role, she offered to give me a "Community Manager 101" crash course to make my first week (and beyond) that much easier. She genuinely wanted me to succeed. It gave me the best start. I took her up on her offer, and we chatted on a video call for over two hours. One of the most selfless people you could hope to meet. How dare she set the bar so high!