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Mastering Community Management: Chaos, Compassion, and Connections in Games
Game communities are inevitable – in fact, they’re one of the main features of a game. How can our online interactions be better, kinder, and more productive conversations? How can community managers design online spaces with inherent kindness in mind and create places that encourage member growth and engagement? This book provides a step-by-step strategy for creating long-term, sustainable, and intentional online spaces that matter – ones that care, grow, and connect.
Using real-world experience in multiple genres of games, this book covers the fundamental concepts of designing an online community from the core basics of what it is, and then the journey from pre-launch to post-launch. With a deep dive into the practical framework for building stronger communities, it reveals the advantages and reasons why positive, cohesive, and unified spaces are more productive than their less structured counterparts. Additional engagement tips, and why these positive communities drive both business and ethical value, will be explored as an extremely relevant topic for our ever-increasing online world. The content will focus mainly on game communities and independent games, but lessons may be applied to larger studios and industries.
Consumers are more inundated with typical marketing schemes than ever, and social media has only become a more powerful, yet chaotic tool over the years. Leave the high-level concepts behind to dig deep and see how community managers can tackle ever-changing algorithms and an entirely digital world.
The theories and summaries will also help this book remain timeless – no matter how much social media tools or the internet applications may change, the values and core ways people understand each other and feel belonging will not. Pre-launch to post-launch guide – specifically directed toward activities and strategies for each stage of development. Review activities in key sections to help readers reflect and actively engage with the material. Case studies, step-by-step infrastructure, and background theory will help solidify the framework more practically.
Using real-world experience in multiple genres of games, this book covers the fundamental concepts of designing an online community from the core basics of what it is, and then the journey from pre-launch to post-launch. With a deep dive into the practical framework for building stronger communities, it reveals the advantages and reasons why positive, cohesive, and unified spaces are more productive than their less structured counterparts. Additional engagement tips, and why these positive communities drive both business and ethical value, will be explored as an extremely relevant topic for our ever-increasing online world. The content will focus mainly on game communities and independent games, but lessons may be applied to larger studios and industries.
Consumers are more inundated with typical marketing schemes than ever, and social media has only become a more powerful, yet chaotic tool over the years. Leave the high-level concepts behind to dig deep and see how community managers can tackle ever-changing algorithms and an entirely digital world.
The theories and summaries will also help this book remain timeless – no matter how much social media tools or the internet applications may change, the values and core ways people understand each other and feel belonging will not. Pre-launch to post-launch guide – specifically directed toward activities and strategies for each stage of development. Review activities in key sections to help readers reflect and actively engage with the material. Case studies, step-by-step infrastructure, and background theory will help solidify the framework more practically.
Kindle Edition
Published July 18, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 18, 2025
The perfect starting point
As someone aspiring to become a community manager in the gaming industry, I’ve often felt a little lost about where to even begin. The timing of Victoria’s book release couldn’t have been more perfect! Much like community management itself can’t single-handedly make a game successful, this book won’t magically transform you into a great CM. What it does do is give you the foundation by training you to think like a community manager, all while sprinkling you with Victoria’s trademark humor and warmth.
Who benefits
There’s a wealth of wisdom here for anyone building communities: streamers, Discord/Reddit mods, guild leaders – and of course the core audience, professional community managers.
Structure, method and presentation
The bulk of the chapters follow the game production pipeline (early interest, production, launch, post-launch), with each phase tied to corresponding ways of building meaningful connections. In practice, that structure won't be set in stone. As Victoria emphasizes, communities are living entities, always in flux and shaped by the chaos of game development itself. Not to mention different genres, budgets, studio size and values all shift the context.
So how do you even teach (or learn) something that always eludes our grasp? Learning grammar won’t make you fluent in a language and studying the philosophy of humor won’t turn you into a great comedian. You can study underlying principles, but fluency only comes through practice.
Community management may therefore never fit neatly into a university degree. It’s more than a branch of marketing. Being a good community manager is tied to cultivating a way of being and knowing which questions to ask yourself at the right time. And Victoria does a phenomenal job at making this implicit know-how explicit! Her book is like a compass, orienting you when you feel lost. It helps you adjust your sails and move in the right direction, equipping you with the right dispositions, sensitivities and perspectives needed to navigate your own context.
The presentation reflects this practical aim. Admittedly, it can feel like an endless chain of bullet points, but that choice makes sense. A dense wall of text would’ve been less usable. This makes for a playbook you keep by your desk and dip into whenever you face challenges or need direction.
Conclusion
To my knowledge, the only other game-focused CM book is Carolin Wendt’s The Pocket Mentor for Game Community Management. I plan to revisit this review later to see whether their community building philosophies diverge or complement each other, the pros and cons. For now, I can say Victoria’s book is an inspiring guide for anyone stepping into the field, especially for those aiming to do so responsibly, with a desire to foster authentically kind spaces in the gaming world, one community at a time.
As someone aspiring to become a community manager in the gaming industry, I’ve often felt a little lost about where to even begin. The timing of Victoria’s book release couldn’t have been more perfect! Much like community management itself can’t single-handedly make a game successful, this book won’t magically transform you into a great CM. What it does do is give you the foundation by training you to think like a community manager, all while sprinkling you with Victoria’s trademark humor and warmth.
Who benefits
There’s a wealth of wisdom here for anyone building communities: streamers, Discord/Reddit mods, guild leaders – and of course the core audience, professional community managers.
Structure, method and presentation
The bulk of the chapters follow the game production pipeline (early interest, production, launch, post-launch), with each phase tied to corresponding ways of building meaningful connections. In practice, that structure won't be set in stone. As Victoria emphasizes, communities are living entities, always in flux and shaped by the chaos of game development itself. Not to mention different genres, budgets, studio size and values all shift the context.
So how do you even teach (or learn) something that always eludes our grasp? Learning grammar won’t make you fluent in a language and studying the philosophy of humor won’t turn you into a great comedian. You can study underlying principles, but fluency only comes through practice.
Community management may therefore never fit neatly into a university degree. It’s more than a branch of marketing. Being a good community manager is tied to cultivating a way of being and knowing which questions to ask yourself at the right time. And Victoria does a phenomenal job at making this implicit know-how explicit! Her book is like a compass, orienting you when you feel lost. It helps you adjust your sails and move in the right direction, equipping you with the right dispositions, sensitivities and perspectives needed to navigate your own context.
The presentation reflects this practical aim. Admittedly, it can feel like an endless chain of bullet points, but that choice makes sense. A dense wall of text would’ve been less usable. This makes for a playbook you keep by your desk and dip into whenever you face challenges or need direction.
Conclusion
To my knowledge, the only other game-focused CM book is Carolin Wendt’s The Pocket Mentor for Game Community Management. I plan to revisit this review later to see whether their community building philosophies diverge or complement each other, the pros and cons. For now, I can say Victoria’s book is an inspiring guide for anyone stepping into the field, especially for those aiming to do so responsibly, with a desire to foster authentically kind spaces in the gaming world, one community at a time.
July 18, 2025
A truly insightful guide by one of my favorite trailblazers in community management (especially in the games space!) Her career alone makes this book a delightful read and one of my favorite books for 2025.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews