User blog:ZeroTigress/Turnover

Another year and another Community Manager for iRO2. That now makes 4 CM turnovers for iRO2 since it launched in 2013. First was HelVerdandi, who was replaced by Jello Shaker, who was replaced by Zanbee, who was replaced by Maridah, who is now being replaced by Varitas. Njoror is the only iRO2 CM still around from the game's launch.

The iRO2 CM position is starting to look like Hogwart's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher position. HelVerdandi must've jinxed it since she occupied the position for the shortest time (about a month). Jello Shaker was a bit of an oddball since he didn't really seem like he was taking over the position seeing as how Zanbee had more presence (his welcoming thread had since been deleted to clean up their tracks). And yet Jello Shaker is still labeled as a CM despite not being connected to any WarpPortal game. So I don't know what is going on there. Just looks like the position of a CM is a joke to them or something.

Interesting to note is that Maridah and now Varitas are not only CMs of iRO2 but Dragon Saga as well. Dunno when that happened, but it does explain Maridah's recent absence from the iRO2 section. At the same time, it paints a rather bleak picture for Gravity Interactive themselves if they can't find separate CMs for each game they host. Granted, most people interested in a CM position for a MMORPG would rather apply for more prominent companies like Blizzard and Riot Games. Heck, even Nexon and Aeria are more well-known than Gravity Interactive.

So what's up with this rather high turnover rate for iRO2 CMs? I think mostly it has to do with the game itself. Whereas RO is in a constant state of needing improvements due to it lacking a lot of basic necessities of modern MMORPGs, RO2 does not. Unlike RO, there's a working mailbox system, a working auction house and vending system, a better introduction tutorial for new players, and a better crafting system that doesn't rely on gambling and a bunch of other stuff. So the only improvements that RO2 really needs is content and mechanic elements that can only be done by developers. As such, there's little that RO2 players can do when it comes to investing creativity into the game compared to RO. Other than bug reports and small scripting like Tonitrua's trivia bot, there's not really much that can be done about the game to increase player interest in making it better.

With little that can be done about the game, iRO2 CMs can only collect bug reports and proposals and send them off to the developers. So it's not hard to see why they've been assigned to manage both the iRO2 and Dragon Saga communities in order to keep themselves busy. Not like there's enough stuff going on for iRO2 for them to have weekly livestreams like iRO, which is why iRO2's weekly livestreams ceased after a few months of launch. There's just not enough stuff to excite players about. You need only look at the game's patch notes to see that the only major changes to the game currently are to its Kafra Shop. Bugs aren't getting fixed on a weekly basis and even if they were, the CMs don't always know about it because the developers don't report which bugs have been fixed. It's just nothing but a dry, soulless cycle for iRO2.

So it's no wonder iRO2 CMs would rather move on to something more exciting than to stick with Gravity Interactive for the long run. There's just not much worth staying on for with the game how it is now and the playerbase waning.