"The industry is smaller than you think" ft. Community Manager Vicki Fieldhouse

Today's guest is Vicki Fieldhouse, Senior Community Manager at Secret Mode. Vicki took an unconventional path into games, entering community management in her mid-30s after years of trying to break into the industry. Her journey involved customer service from running her own business, social media management, and streaming RPGs during COVID—all of which became the perfect foundation for her community management career. We chat about how Vicki landed her first games job by streaming Fighting Fantasy books on YouTube, why being genuinely passionate about the games you work on matters, and the challenges of taking a lead management role that led her back to hands-on community work. Vicki also shares insights about the differences between working for developers versus publishers, the importance of honesty when you can't fix a bug, and her work on Cozy Quest: Secret Mode's annual celebration of cozy games featuring nearly 300 developers. Games mentioned in this episode: - Fighting Fantasy (Gamebooks): https://www.fightingfantasy.com/- Kingdom Two Crowns: https://store.steampowered.com/app/701160/Kingdom_Two_Crowns/- A Little to the Left: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1629520/A_Little_to_the_Left/- Loddlenaut: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1644940/Loddlenaut/- Winter Burrow: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3008740/Winter_Burrow/- Sqeuakross: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2871440/Squeakross_Home_Squeak_Home/- Everything is Crab: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3526710/Everything_is_Crab_The_Animal_Evolution_Roguelite/- Spore: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17390/SPORE/- Split Fiction: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001120/Split_Fiction/- Jurassic World Evolution 3: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2958130/Jurassic_World_Evolution_3/ Find Vicki on: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriasteele/ The Community Lounge is brought to you by Feature Upvote—Painlessly collect feedback from your players. More insights, less noise. Subscribe to the Community Lounge newsletter and get notified of new episodes and articles: https://featureupvote.com/thecommunitylounge-newsletter Chapters (00:00:00) - Vicki's Journey into Community Management(00:07:09) - First Steps in the Gaming Industry(00:10:40) - Transitioning Roles and Responsibilities(00:13:03) - Understanding Community Management Roles(00:16:18) - Tips for New Community Managers(00:17:54) - Memorable Moments in Community Management(00:21:54) - Challenges Faced as a Community Manager(00:27:38) - Navigating Community Issues and Player Expectations(00:29:35) - What Vicki is Playing and Personal Favourites