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In celebration of Disability Pride Month 2024

 

Community Management:

the culture, challenges and convictions of representing studios whilst Disabled

 

In this conversation are Paige Harvey and Elizabeth Plant.

Paige (she/they) is gaming community manager at Special Effect, with nearly a decade’s experience living with multiple chronic illnesses and ADHD. They work to help bring the joy of gaming to other physically Disabled people, so they can share the immense love she has for them. Paige is extremely vocal about Accessibility, and does her best to ensure equal entertainment and education in working with Special Effect and beyond. They’re also a streamer and podcaster, with a love of harnessing community through those channels too!

 

 

Elizabeth (she/her) is Glowmade’s community manager, as well as a professional voice actor and writer-director for videogame and audio-drama. Having lived with ME/CFS since childhood, Liz is a fierce advocate for Accessibility and authentic Disabled representation; within both the industry as a workplace and in the games it creates. Gaming and voice acting are her means of “crafting normalcy” in management of her symptoms and energy, alongside nourishing community and conversation around stories that forge connection.

 

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What’s your relationship with Accessibility and Disability Representation?

 

PAIGE
So, I’ve just turned thirty. I was diagnosed as Disabled at 19, with psoriatic arthritis – which has now sort of evolved into a form of spondylitis, because it affects my back as well. Since then, like Pokémon, I’ve collected them all: I have endometriosis, fibromyalgia, slipped spinal disks, ADHD and depression and autism. Basically anything I could catch, I did!

ELIZABETH
Team Rocket absolutely fears you.

PAIGE
Oh, exactly – Giovanni has nothing on me!

But I’ve been around Accessibility and Disability for a long time. Before I was Disabled, I was born to two Disabled parents. Grew up with them and their various issues, understanding what it’s like to grow up in the “lower class” on the poverty line, and all the mess of the benefits system. Understanding how your life changes when you get sick as you grow up.

I ended up loving gaming because it was a big escape from the literal pain, as it were. That led me to my current job as community manager for Special Effect, helping other physically Disabled people find the love and relief that I find in gaming.

ELIZABETH
It’s wonderful to see that; that channelling of positivity and growth and nurturing, through your experience. It’s what I love to see most in the industry, really. People who break away from that stereotypical aspect of what you think a developer or gamer looks like, or can be, and showing up like: “This is me. Disabled. Working class. Queer. Neurodivergent. Thriving.”

PAIGE
It’s what I love about the industry as well! Seeing the growth of people like me; not necessarily from similar backgrounds, but who have had similar struggles. People who are marginalised, haven’t always had everything handed to them; have grown up around people who haven’t always considered they could break out and do what they actually love. Because those are the people that fight for others like them, and they’re wonderful!

 

What is a community manager? What do we even do?

 

PAIGE
It’s a huge question, and it really depends who you ask. Or, rather, what a community manager should do versus what a community manager often ends up doing! [Laughs]

The easiest way I’d explain it to someone who’s never heard of it is: I’m a steward. I am a communication line between company and client. The people that say things, and the people that want to hear them and say things back. But what that also means is – I care about both groups.

My background is actually in the games industry, as community manager for Frontier Developments on games like Elite Dangerous. And my job has always been to know what the people I’m representing love, and fighting for that internally; likewise, knowing internally what we’re doing to reciprocate that and bring it back to them. Obviously that isn’t always something they want to hear, so then it’s about understanding how to communicate and respect everyone; to keep those lines clear when there’s a million people involved.

In my current job it’s: “How do I let people know that there are other Disabled people who wanna game, and that we need your help to do it?” And it’s amazing that I get to talk to these people, and share their stories, and share how much love there is. I get to take that back, saying: “Hey, team – these people would love to know more about immunocompromised people, can we do that? Hell yes, now we get to actually go and research this, and give people what they want!”

It’s very, very gratifying, I find, to be able to give people what they want; and also what they don’t necessarily know they need to know.

ELIZABETH
Absolutely. It’s a bit like being a sexy octopus Alexa. Where you’re this invisible mouth-piece, doing so many things in the background with so many moving limbs, seemingly of their own accord, but they’re all working together for this one exciting whole.

PAIGE
Exactly! A community manager, if you are thinking on the whole, is someone who talks to all those people internally and externally, and then has to write a million reports about it so that everyone understands what’s going on. But at the same time, they’re trying to do a social media plan, and make the content, and do sentiment reports on who likes what post and why. That’s without things like live-streaming, and events planning, and influencers, and a million others that vaguely fall under it…

It’s not simple! But we do like spinning plates, and we’re good at it!

ELIZABETH
It’s so much, even for able-bodied people.

That’s the crux of why I’m doing this series, in particular: it’s a lot for me just as someone with Chronic Fatigue, sometimes maybe too much, but that gratification and impact and constant dialogue we can open between people is what keeps it something to fight for! Even if we are often the more unsung kind of hero in an industry where the game itself is often key.

PAIGE
Oh, for sure. I think, for studios, often it can be a bit swept under that community managers actually fight for them. And that manager is a part of the community themselves. You can’t work on a game for three years, and rack up thousands of hours, and not love the game at least a little bit!

What does it mean to “represent” your company as a Disabled person?

 

ELIZABETH
Community managers are that ‘face’ of a studio – they’re the direct contact from the company to the world, and that can be a lot. I suppose I ask because it means something – I believe – to be that whilst also being a marginalised individual. And that often seems to be the case with community managers – many of whom I’ve come across being all kinds of intersection between queer, neurodivergent, and more.

PAIGE
It’s very interesting, because there’s all kinds of things to manage a community for. It can be quite scary. The internet is often faceless, and not always the kindest place. So where you’d normally have trolls as an individual, when your community is made up of a million individuals, there’s room for that much more of it. You need to be prepared to face that coming through professional channels, and know that your team is behind you.

The one thing I always try to make people aware of is that you’ve got to have thick skin. That doesn’t mean it should  be the case, but it unfortunately is true. The thing you should aim to do is work with people to ensure it doesn’t have to stay thick. You should  be able to be soft, and gentle, and love things. You should  be hurt if somebody’s rude to you! But you should always have other people behind you to back you up.

With that will then come a very physical, emotional toll. I’m sure, with most people, if you have a good cry, you’re gonna feel tired afterward! But if you then times that by chronic illness – or chronic fatigue, any kind of condition that exacerbates pain – you’re going to take emotional pain that will turn into physical pain. So you might end up having a flare-up or relapse, and that’s difficult.

It does also mean that when things are good, it’s still tiring. When you feel good, you wanna work hard, and you wanna do all kinds of things because you’re finally well enough to… and then you realise you didn’t take your medication, because you didn’t manage the time properly, and now you’re in pain. So it’s a lot more micromanaging when you are a marginalised creator or community manager, because you have to manage yourself as well as everyone else and their expectations.

ELIZABETH
That I think is quite a unique challenge for us, is the managing of the spoons. It very much is a boom-and-bust with me, because I get so excited when there’s a project I really care about – like these interviews, last month’s Pride interviews! I got so invested in them, and I spent all hours of the day and night transcribing them, working on the graphics, and I just collapsed. I think I’m still in that – especially after just running an event at Develop last week! I’m exhaaausted! [Laughs]

Yet I still feel like I absolutely have to push my best, and exceed that. Because I’m the only one at the studio doing this – I’m the only one who has the bandwidth to work for the community – and because they’re so important to me. Representation is more crucial in the industry now than it ever was. And part of me is like… well, isn’t that worth grinding myself down for? If it feels like this is the least I can do, from my corner and with my expertise, do I back down just because I’m going through an energy crash that often is inevitable for me anyway?

PAIGE
That definitely feels like a question constantly tied to the chronic experience. It’s hard to rest, and it’s frustrating, but we have to force ourselves sometimes to do nothing – and that sucks!

For the main question, again… I think there’s a really great benefit of having people who are marginalised being integral to your communications. Accessible communications are incredibly important, because there’s a lot (a lot, a lot!) of Disabled gamers out there; who, if no-one is there to represent them, won’t be represented.

There won’t be captions, won’t be Alt-text, won’t be any kind of consideration for what colours are readable, too many emojis, etc. But if you have someone who is marginalised, for whichever reason, they will represent their own. And then they will do their best to represent others, I’ve found, because we all understand – even a little bit – what it’s like to be in each other’s shoes.

They’ll carve out those areas of understanding and communication, because otherwise who else is even thinking about it? It’s like these interviews you’re doing – keeping a conversation going and being loud about it. If you have somebody with experiences different to the perceived “norm,” you get so much more vibrancy and beauty in your communities – because people realise that the door is open! That the ramp is rolled out, not just the stairs! That everyone, from every background, can be understood.

How Accessible do you think Community Management is, as a role?

 

PAIGE
Ooohhh, dear… Interesting one…

It’s interesting because of how vast a community manager role can be. A lot of people assume that social media managers are community managers, and they kind of are and they kind of aren’t. Same with people who only go to events for marketing, or only run online communications, graphic designers – community managers are and aren’t all these things, and more!

Wherever there are people, there is community. So I couldn’t say the entire role, for one person, would be Accessible because it’s gonna be really difficult. One, to have that many hours in the day without getting exhausted. Two, to have everything you need to be able to do those hours to achieve everything you need to, single-handedly. Then have the energy to get on a train and go out to an event – let alone do the event!

So if you were to make just your one community manager do all that? The role is not Accessible, whatsoever. It’s just not gonna happen – even for an able-bodied person with all the stamina in the world.

But I do think there are parts of it that have become more Accessible over time. Live-streams as a main way of communicating with your audience, I absolutely love. Because anyone can stream. I’ve even seen streamers who can’t use their voice, so they’ll use a text-to-speech module to communicate. Or they’ll have pre-written segments that go into their chat, if they’re selectively mute. I love that!

I work fully remotely from home, in a different country from the main body of Special Effect. And I get to do my job safely, and comfortably, because it’s been made Accessible. It’s not even so much about, “Am I able to physically do this?” It’s more, “Do I have the tools made available for me to be able to do this, and if not, how can we change that?”

How do you think the games industry interacts with Disability?

 

PAIGE
In terms of how it works with its communities, as it were, I definitely think it’s getting a hell of a lot better. Technology’s getting better, and the people that have grown up with this technology are getting older and getting into the industry. You and I probably grew up playing games, and through developing our illnesses realised we wanted to keep doing that – so we’re going to keep fostering an environment where both we and other people can.

As technology improves, so does Accessibility and what we can do with it. The way we communicate about it has started getting better, there’s more understanding of what we need where.

When it comes to representation, it’s interesting. One of my side hobbies is a podcast, Trash Talks – talking about things that’re so bad they’re good.

ELIZABETH
Oh, yes. Yes. This is my bread and butter!

PAIGE
One thing I’m looking into is Disability representation in film and games. And there’s not too many things where Disability is at the forefront, or really mentioned, but the times there are? I love those characters. I always come back to Halo: Reach which has a character called Kat, who has a bionic arm. She’s an engineer, and she uses that arm to do more detailed electrical work. And I love that it’s a Disability, but they’ve made it a very cool space-y bionic thing, that lets her stand out for positive reasons too!

 

What does equity look like to you?

 

PAIGE
Ah, equity. Beautiful word. To me, it means get out the way if you’re not the right person for something.

When it comes to equality, and being an ally and being in a space; take up that space if there’s somebody there who cannot speak up, or cannot fight for their own rights because it’s not safe for them to do so. But when it is, get out of the way and let them do it! You’ve done wonderfully, but we all have our time to just stand in the back and cheer!

There’s a lot of opportunities that a lot of people could take because they have the privilege to take them. Equity is realising you don’t have to take them all, because you have every other opportunity. Get out of the way for someone who needs it more than you, and would otherwise be overlooked.

One of the things I love, and brag about a bit, is Special Effect have a Disabled stream team that gets together every GameBlast – which is our big fundraising event every February. And I specifically put that together. It’s for people who’re Disabled, in any way, and I’m never gonna ask you for proof of that or grill you like many systems do.

I wanted to foster a space for them to have that great experience, where they’re looked after and have the resources they wouldn’t necessarily have anywhere else. Not many will see a large group of Disabled people and say, “We need to put in the time to ensure they have better opportunities.” So that’s where I choose to put my time. I’m just one person, though, so imagine what the industry could do if everyone did just one thing that felt right.

 

Lastly, do you have any favourite community interactions to share?

 

PAIGE
I really like to tell this story. It’s my personal proudest moment, and it makes me cry every time.

When I was social media manager on Elite Dangerous, a lot of my job was going on the social channels, seeing who’s mentioning the game. And I came across a post from a man saying his nephew was in hospital, and it was really sad that – with the way his eyes were swelling up during cancer treatment – he was going to have to stop playing his favourite game; which was Elite Dangerous.

So I said, “Bugger that for a laugh, that ain’t happening on my watch!” I messaged to say I work for the game, was there anything we could do? And he was actually in hospital in the city that the game dev studio was in. I immediately jumped up, went to my boss, said: “Cool. I’m gonna be out of office tomorrow; I’m going to hospital. I’m gonna go visit this kid.”

I went round, and we grabbed goodies, told everyone what was going on, went to the CEO and got merch signed – this really big gift bag of really cool stuff! And the next day, me and my lovely co-worker Sally went to visit this boy called Michael.

He was around 15, autistic gentleman, going through cancer treatment and he was not getting better. He was struggling to see and play his favourite game, and all he wanted to do was have some friends and enjoy his time! Off the back of that, we ended up sharing his uncle’s posts, and members of the Elite Dangerous community saw that and said: we’re not gonna let this kid suffer alone.

So they started playing with him. They went on journeys with him, flew with him, hung out with him on calls. Obviously with parental guidance, as he was a minor! That was really important to us, was keeping him safe, too. And we watched as they then brought in a bigger TV so he could see the game easier, and the devs would send him cool packages for special items for his ships in-game. The dialogue was constantly open for whatever he needed. It was brilliant.

I got to watch the community rally behind this kid they’d never met before, who was just going through something really really crap. It actually led to us getting in touch with an author who’d written some stuff for the game, who ended up writing a story about this kid; Commander Michael Holyland!

A bunch of amazing voice actors recorded it in a single day, and we did a forty minute story about this kid saving the world! We took that to the hospital on an iPod and sat there with him and his family, watching him giggle and smile and say, “That’s me!” He lay down and listened to the entire thing, and wanted to listen again as soon as it was over.

He passed a couple of days later. But the fact that all these writers, actors, developers, his family, even just players who love the game, were all able to get involved… and it all came from me doing my job, and seeing a chance tweet. We were able to make this kid’s last few weeks full of friendship and joy and spaceship battles.

Gaming does so much good, and when people think it doesn’t, it breaks my heart. That kid turned to games to escape a really shit situation, and people came along with him for it. Why wouldn’t you want to give that to somebody?