Episode 5 - Lyn Dang (Noodle Cat Games)
Lyn Dang is the Senior Social Media & Community Manager at Noodle Cat Games, a remote-first indie studio. Noodle Cat Games was named one of the Top 25 Game Changers of 2025 by Lightspeed, GamesBeat, and Nasdaq, and they recently announced their first title, Cloudheim, a multiplayer action RPG.
Lyn has a background in community management for popular IPs like Summoners War and Palia, and is passionate about helping the next generation of community managers break into the game industry.
In this episode, Lyn shares how she got her start and offers advice for anyone hoping to land their dream job. We also explore the challenges of moderating online communities, from navigating player feedback and crisis moments to fostering positive, welcoming spaces, all while balancing player expectations with the realities of game production.
Lyn discusses how studios can create work environments where everyone feels passionate about their work, and how the freedom to experiment with quirky, player-driven campaigns (like a comically oversized in-game plushie) can foster community and turn players into advocates.
We also discuss the current state of the gaming industry, including the rising costs of game development and the role of AI in moderation.
Connect with Lyn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndang
Follow her on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/lynlovesgames.bsky.social
Episode Transcript
Daniel Lipson (00:01)
All right, we're rolling. Better Games, Better Gamers is a show where we talk about how games shape and are shaped by the communities and the people around them. For this episode, I have Lyn Dang, the social media and community manager at Noodle Cat Games, an independent studio, which recently got awarded the top 25 game changers of 2025 by Lightspeed, GamesBeat, and Nasdaq. previously, Lyn worked as a community manager on popular IPs such as Summoners War and Palia. So great to have you, and welcome to the show.
Lyn Dang (00:44)
It's nice to be here.
Daniel Lipson (00:47)
So as we get started, the question I love to ask is, what was your favorite game growing up?
Lyn Dang (00:56)
I think this is a common answer, but it's actually Kingdom Hearts 2. Or the original Kingdom Hearts. Okay, I like both, but I Kingdom Hearts 1. That was my first... It was interesting because before I played games, mostly on the PC. And then out of nowhere, my dad decided, you know, let's go to Best Buy. You know, take me in. That was unusual for him, but we actually waited in line and got a PlayStation 2.
and got Kingdom Hearts. And the only reason I got Kingdom Hearts, because I was like, I like the cover, there's Disney characters on here. I knew nothing about the game, but that was kind of my jump into, you know, that kind of style. Like it was very different from the more casual games that I would play. Like I would play browser games, you know, the ones online on the web browsers, like Neopets and other stuff. So that was kind of my first dive into like a fully fledged, you know, RPG. And I fell in love. I played the game.
I finished it, I did all the secret bosses and stuff like that. I collected all the little Trinity puzzles. Yeah, I was so obsessed with it.
Daniel Lipson (01:58)
Those bosses aren't easy.
Lyn Dang (02:00)
No, I beat Sephiroth, too.
Daniel Lipson (02:03)
That's awesome. What's your favorite world?
Lyn Dang (02:05)
I'm trying to remember, but I think I really liked Alice in Wonderland. It's like an early world, but something about the layout... Some people find it very confusing because there's like a lot of puzzles, you have to go through a lot of doors, and then you end up in different spaces. But something about the silliness of it I really enjoyed.
Daniel Lipson (02:20)
When and how did you decide to work in games?
Lyn Dang (02:24)
So everyone has their moment right? Their own story. For me, I feel like, and this is true for a lot of folks, but I've always played games. I just never made the connection of, Ok this could actually be my career. So that kind of realization didn't happen until I think college. I was attending, I was a business major, and I knew I wanted to do something in the business realm, but I wasn't sure what exactly,
like what was my dream job, what kind of title, what kind of career I wanted to have. And it wasn't until I attended like a panel that was careers in the gaming industry. And I think hearing from other professionals talk about their day-to-days, talk about their career paths, how they got into it, that really inspired me. And that was like the aha moment, right? The light bulb of like, wait a minute, there's people out there who like earn a living and they actually work in games and that's really cool.
And that sounded like something I wanted to do, but I didn't know how to go about it. My school didn't really have like a fleshed out gaming program or anything related to that. And I was a business major, so I wasn't even like an artist or a programmer or anything like that. But I did my research. I started getting more involved with like, okay, I think if I want to work in games, the first step is I should probably know how to make games. So I...
researched a bit and I found the local video game dev club that was on campus. I joined that and I remember like looking up YouTube videos, downloading Unity, making Pong as my very first project and just going from there. And as it turns out, I really enjoyed the process of like, okay, I haven't, this is something I'm very unfamiliar with, but I'm figuring it out. And what really made me enjoy the process was at the end of it, you have something you can share to others. You can interact with it. You can play a game. can, you know, win or lose. Like I really,
like that. And so from Pong, I would just iterate, know, expand my projects, start working on more stuff. I did game jams, I did competitions. And so I think that kind of involvement, especially in my college years, really started building a good background of someone, you know, who's committed, like, this isn't just out of nowhere pivoting, I really am, I really was determined to make it work. And so because of that, I was able to land a job in
games right after college, like I had it lined up. So I suppose that was my moment of like, I made it my goal and then I stuck to it very consistently.
Daniel Lipson (04:52)
That's a lot of perseverance. so you said you started with Pong. What were kind of some of the that you worked on in your college days?
Lyn Dang (04:59)
I got some really great advice from seniors who were like, don't try to make Skyrim, you know, as your next game, you're never gonna finish it. Don't try to like, you know, make big projects. So I was like, okay, I just want something I can complete, you know, to add to my portfolio, just like, to understand. And so I kept it small. It was a lot of clones, a lot of like, Pong, Mario clones, Flappy Bird clones, and then
Like slowly I would add more features. so with each project, I tried to focus on like, okay, for this, I'm gonna learn player controllers. For this, I'm gonna learn a little bit more about level designs and like actors and all this stuff is coming back to me. Cause I'm on the marketing side now, but this is like more actual game dev side. But yeah, so that's kind of my approach generally is rather than focusing on the project itself, it's what am I learning from it? What are the tools? And so each project I...
Like I get a hammer, I get a wrench, I get nails and that all helps with future projects and you build on that. And I still do it to this day. I still do game jams and hobby stuff after work.
Daniel Lipson (06:03)
What got you started as a community manager and how did that lead you into community management?
Lyn Dang (06:09)
So when I applied, I vaguely saw the list of responsibilities as an entry-level role. And I was like, I think I can do this. With my background, I'm a business major. I've done a lot of them. A lot of it was involved communication. I think my involvement, being in the video game dev club, I was also just really, really involved in club leadership in general. And so those kind of skills, I felt, allowed me to really translate that into the role.
But the biggest reason I think that really landed, helped me land the offer was that I played the game. Okay. I was familiar. It was a mobile game and I was like, I actually play this game. I'm obsessed with it. I theory craft. I like look at my account. Like I, I'm pretty, you know, well versed into this. And so that really made me stand out because it wasn't like a big, you know, popular. And so they were impressed with that. And I think that really kind of nudged the needle in them giving me.
the offer, but I do admit I went into it not exactly sure what a community manager did. But I was like, okay, let's give it a go. And so I've been a community manager ever since.
Daniel Lipson (07:19)
I actually did listen to your great conversation with Steve. And so one of the things I thought was interesting, is kind of thinking about community manager, especially for people that aren't necessarily working in it. In the industry,
What's the difference between a community manager, a moderator, and then even I've been working more on the product marketing side. And so it's like, what's kind of the community manager, moderator, product marketing, and how are those roles related but very different?
Lyn Dang (07:47)
Yeah, I would say that's something I quickly learned. Everyone's definition of what a community manager does is different no matter where you work at. you kind of have to, you know, you have your core skill set, but you also have to adjust with each team and each title you work with. I would say at the core of it, a community manager, you're kind of the bridge. You're like the connector or sometimes I say it, the lightning rod, right? If it's like a very tense moment, but.
whether it's feedback from players or whether it's developers, they want to communicate and share something out to the player base, you're there to really ensure that the message lands properly. And it's a back and forth, it's a constant degree of communication. And so at the core of it, I think that's what a community manager does. Likewise, in order to facilitate that, often we're...
handling online communities, making sure people feel safe, making sure people feel comfortable and giving that feedback and having those conversations. And so those are the two things that really go hand in hand together.
Daniel Lipson (08:55)
So what does that really look like in terms of, and especially thinking about when you got started versus what you're working on now? what's the scope of work would you say?
Lyn Dang (09:05)
Yeah, when I started entry level, right, I was taught basically, let's work on social media. So nowadays, like, there are different places social media & community management are separate. But especially if you're on a smaller team and new project things like that, they're often lumped together. So that's how I got my start where they gave me access to certain, you know, official channels. And it's because I handled social media during my club years that I had some experience like with Facebook and Instagram and like.
So I started that and that was kind of my first responsibilities of like learning how to make content, learning to work with creative side and requesting assets and understanding how that fits with branding, but also learning to engage with customers responding, you know, comments, inbox replies. And I think that's a really good foundation, right? To get people into community management.
I would say community management becomes more advanced because especially with Discord, it's like real time messaging. It goes fast, right? And sometimes you have to be very, very responsive with how you craft your replies. So I found social media to be a good, like, okay, it's pretty stable. And then you get time to like understand and reply and then you get rewarded, right? If you make a good post, you see it literally. It's all the reactions and the responsiveness of it. And then from there, I...
got more involved with the Discord and Reddit and then I started doing live streaming and then I started like, my responsibilities just kept growing. And then I did event coordination. And I would say, yeah, it's just a growth of responsibility where ultimately you're there where the players are. You're there to facilitate those events, know, those good experiences. And now as I've reached senior CM, it's more of, I just don't need direction. kind of, you know, do what I need to do and I know what I need to do.
And often I'm the one kind of calling of, okay, this is kind of the strategy. So in addition to all the carrying out tasks, like what an individual contributor would do, I'm also overseeing like the overall strategy and planning in advance and then executing it.
Daniel Lipson (11:14)
you were talking about being a lightning rod. I think comparing it you started with designing games.
so it's looking at the product team versus a community manager and where you sit in between that. and then how you've kind of adapted to that.
Lyn Dang (11:27)
if I'm being honest, one of the tougher aspects of the job, because I'd say on the product side, are facilitating a lot of communication as well, but you're not in front of everyone's faces or your face is not in front of everyone, depending how you look at it, as a community manager is. And so as a lightning rod, that's the, the analogy, I think of when say you have an update go out and people just don't respond well, right. And it's.
very, very charged feelings, lots of feedback. The way people describe their reaction to it is not the best to have to read through because the team worked hard, these developers. No one wants to put out a bad update, but sometimes it happens. And then you're reading all this really, really tough criticism. And as a community manager, you'rethe one to have to channel that. And rather than, you know, look at their feedback on a surface level. You have to look at, what do they really mean? What is the core of their comments? And extract that and then take it to the development team. So it's not just, you know, curse words and poorly put together sentences. This is what I know they mean at the heart of it. Because these players, how I look at it is that they're very passionate. That's why they left this feedback. And I want to be able to make sure like they're representing it accordingly.
Daniel Lipson (12:54)
Well, and I know in the other discussion, your three rules, I don't want to spoil the first one, but I think just talking about like, what does it mean to be a successful CM?
Lyn Dang (13:05)
Yeah, okay, so, for reference, I was on a previous podcast where I talked about the three rules, and I like to go backwards on it. So in any community, if they interact with me enough, even the players will learn my three rules. Yeah, so the third one is that no one ever reads.
When you're handling communications, whether it's making copy for social media, whether it's patch notes, announcements, and things like that, I try to write content in a way where I assume people don't read it. People are going to miss and then they're going to ask questions. They're going to ask things that are right there, what you wrote. But that's okay, because as long as you include the right information for the people who do read, who do pay attention, they can use that and then inform people who don't. So it's kind of like relying on not just yourself but on the help of the community so everyone plays a part in like making sure the information is disseminated so it's very much like a communication flow of like how information goes out when you're
Daniel Lipson (14:11)
I guess the two roles that I got out of it was using content to empower others, whether or not people read it, and then the other one is to advocate for others. Would you say that's an accurate assessment?
Lyn Dang (14:23)
I think it's just these are the rules I have coming from learning of after managing so many [communities]. I think I've managed like nine, I think more than nine titles at this point, which is quite a number. There's some things you'll just notice in every community that's like the same. so number three, no one ever reads. So you kind of have to learn those strategies and realize, you know, people are always going to ask questions. People are always going to ask for the same thing. But as a community manager, you can't let that get to you, right? Even if people say sometimes the dumbest things, you gotta have to just laugh at it and say, okay, well, here's the question. Or maybe I'm answering, like, for example, we would do a campaign where you get a free gift, but you have to sign in to a certain website. And so on that day, I'll have like 20 inbox messages of like, how do I get the gift? And so you kind of just, you know, prepare your message in advance and tell them with a smile, of course. So it's a lot tied to customer support in that regard.
Daniel Lipson (15:21)
Well, one of the follow on questions I had to the three rules was how do you retain your own boundaries and your sense of humor and your sense of curiosity towards your community and even internal too.
Lyn Dang (15:35)
I would say it's kind of just who I am in terms of my personality. I'm always fascinated, more so than my own interests, I am interested in other people's interests. So in my case as a community manager, it's like, wow, I'm so glad there's so many people who care about our game. I'm just so jazzed every day to see people making fan art and having discussions, talking about their builds and stuff like that. It makes me happy, naturally.
You know when hearing people just talk about their passions and so I think that kind of energy really gets me like I'm a cheerleader You know like people are here and you know to talk about the game to nerd out about it And that's what really drives my motivation and that's true for the dev side too, you know on the product site where You have all these experts who put years into honing their craft or discipline and you just want to show that you're like You're looking at it. It's like wow. This is like the greatest animation over or this is such an amazing concept or like, wow, okay. Code is a little harder to translate, but you're talking results, right? Of like, wow, you did this and it led to, you know, optimizing or like this result. And that's really cool. I want to share that, you know, as a CM naturally. that becomes like a dev blog.
Daniel Lipson (16:49)
What are some of your favorite and least favorite parts of it?
Lyn Dang (16:53)
I think it's important because as we mentioned earlier, being a community manager is different at every place. So if I had to say, my day to day is very different. Like one day I'll be focusing on patch notes, the other I'll be triaging bug reports, you know, trying to figure out how much the community values it versus how severe it is. These are like production terms basically.
So I love the variety of it. I love that no matter what I do, it all ties back into making sure players have the best experience possible, whether it's directly in the game or in the official communities that we cover. So the variety of it just keeps me on my toes, and I enjoy that. Also, because nowadays in my career, I work more in the startup space. And so my niche slash specialization is that I like launching shipping games.
And I really enjoy kind of the uncertainty of it. I know it's lot for everyone, right? The startups can be pretty crazy, pretty stressful, right? But I enjoy the aspect of like, it's a blank canvas sometimes. There's no processes, there's no forms. And you really get to own that. You get to control that.
It's great if you're someone with opinions of how things could be improved. But you have to own up to it, right? You have to be like, okay, this is what I think and this is what I'm going to implement and we're gonna see if it works and then it leads to results. That's what I also enjoy. And it's interesting to see myself sort of start off as a CM and then over the years, as I worked on more titles, get a better understanding of like, this is what I wanna specialize in. This is what I enjoy.
And I think that's so important in terms of career advancement to really make yourself stand out, right? Of like, okay, you're not just a CM, but you're like... specifically known as an indie CM or you're specifically known as someone who like really specializes in discord or things like that. That's where it makes you stand out. So those are my favorite aspects. My least favorite parts are, I would say the times where you just know, like this is back to rule two actually. Rule two is like you're, just to repeat it, your career is spent in two phases, right? It's, I'm telling you now,
And then I told you so, because there's going to be many instances where you just know kind of as a CM, I think players are going to react this way. I know players are going to react this way. And you can do your best, but there might be a lot of various factors with any organization why, you know, things can't change. And this is content you're working on and you're just anticipating, okay, it might.
it's not going to be received well, but you have to go through with it. You have to submit it. You have to announce it out. And I kind of think of that scene. I'm not sure if you recall in the Pirates of the Caribbean, right? Like the ship is exploding and he's walking down the stairs and you just know, you can't be surprised because you know this is like, it was going to happen. And that's tough to Reconcile because you wish you could have changed the outcome, right?
You wish you could have had a bit more control, but sometimes it ends up being that way where you have to in advance know you're going to apologize, which is tough, but that is part of the job. And realistically, not everything's going to work out, not everything's going to be the greatest update ever, or like this is purely to improve the game. There are times where things miss and being able to guide the community and your fan base through that is super important as a CM.
Daniel Lipson (20:40)
Who have been some of your mentors and influences through your career and who's helped shape who you are as a community manager?
Lyn Dang (20:49)
I've had an interesting career where, and I realized this more recently, I haven't had that many middle managers. So I spent more time left to my own devices or working in teams where the next report is the director level. I had to learn things the hard way, figuring it out all on my own. I've had some really great managers and I've had some folks who really imparted really important knowledge over the years in my career. But what made me thick skinned and led to me enjoying startup life is that I've had to break out on my own. I had to learn things on my own.
So for example, the other day I was telling someone these terms like ARPU and MAU and CCU and stuff like that, very specific industry terms. I don't think it's really taught anywhere. You kind of have to learn it on the job, right? And for me, what I would do is that I would spend my lunches actually going through our internal analytics and just like reading through and like looking at the numbers, because no one was teaching me this stuff, right? And so I would just kind of learn myself like, okay, is this, this is a number and this, this is another number. Like, what does this mean, right? And then kind of just
going from there, and I would apply the same for the analytics you get for social media. I just figured it out, likewise. And for some titles, because early on I was in charge of mobile games, they're smaller, so they were like, you're going to be the one person assigned to this to represent the global community. You are the global community manager for English. And I was like, So do I need to like...
report to what I'm doing and they're like, as long as you can do whatever you want, just don't burn the community to ground. Like that was kind of the, not phrased exactly that way, but that was essentially the gist of what I was given because these titles were smaller and you know, more like already established. And so I would use that kind of to experiment. I would try different social media strategies, different community events, like really just kind of letting my creativity run and
There were definitely times where I did not have success, but I would have to own up to it because it was all me, right? It was all me coming up with these campaigns. There was no one else I could point to. So there were times where I would mess up and I would have to apologize, right? To that degree. I think that really created a strong foundation of trailblazing my own path, so to speak.
I do feel like because community management is still such an actively, you know, shaping discipline, there weren't that many mentors or like the people I worked with sometimes were figuring it out on their own just as much as I was. Right. So we were learning together and I've kind of reached the point in my career now that I'm the mentor.
What I love to do with my free time is to help people trying to break in, especially if they're interested in community management. And I enjoy that. I enjoy giving back. I think the phrase I like to tell people is that I became the person I didn't get growing up.
Daniel Lipson (24:24)
what are some things that you would say, especially in this climate to people that are looking to get into the industry, looking to get into social media and community management?
Lyn Dang (24:36)
Yeah, so I also can bring up that I was laid off. Like I only recently started my new role. So the experience of the job hunt is fresh to me. And I think to put it realistically, it is incredibly competitive. Very, very much so. And if you're competing with people who've worked on AAA, who've had, you know, 10 years experience already, and it's increasingly like I've seen over the years how the industry is
started to mature, you know? Like it's still so young, right? With video games only being here for a couple of decades, right? And over time, people have become more specialized. They've had skillsets. There's entire degrees and programs now you can get just to work in video games. And so that's the kind of competition there is. And so for the people who are, you know, looking, taking stock of their own, like what's their background, realistically, it's, my best advice is
Pick your dream job and do everything you can to hone yourself, to make yourself stand out. Because the competition is like hundreds, you you're going to get maybe even thousands of applications. What can you do to make yourself be the one to stand out? And so if education is not possible, then you're going to have to make up with it with work experience. And if working directly in the games is not possible at this time, then you have to pivot.
Take any job that aligns as closely as possible to your dream goal and build that, build accomplishments. Say that you've totally owned a campaign, say that you shipped products, right? Maybe not games, but if you've handled consumer product goods or something else, that's equivalent. And that makes you work towards your goal in an active way rather than trying to wait for the dream job to land. You have to grab it, move forward.
Daniel Lipson (26:33)
That reminds me, of your favorite campaigns that you've worked on?
Lyn Dang (26:39)
Oh this is hard, there's so many.
Hmm. I think I can bring up the more recent one that I did with Palia, right? We were launching on Steam. So one of our objectives was, you know, how can we raise Steam wishlists? And I proposed something very, very silly where we kind of did a milestone campaign where for every X number of wishlists, we would grant an item. It's the same item, but the more wishlists we got, we'd just two times the size.
So it was a plushie, like a decorative item in the game. So imagine the base, default of like, okay, we already earned this, but it's a very small plushie. If we can get like this many people to wishlist it, we're going to give you giant one. And so the final size was like huge. It would take up an entire section of your backyard in the game, which is ridiculous, right? It's so silly. But I was like, this is going to work. You know, I feel like this really like...
embodies the spirit of our cozy Palia game. So we went through with it. And it was very, very successful. And it was so fun. And it's moments like that where I'm like, yeah, this is what we can do, especially on the indie level. You can get creative. You can get silly. You can get fun. And it's stuff like that that I enjoy. So that was my most recent fresh campaign that I enjoyed.
Daniel Lipson (27:57)
Zooming out a little bit, what are you excited for about the future of gaming?
Lyn Dang (28:05)
Excited for ? Oh, Okay. I would say it's still true. part of the reason, and I talked about this before, the reason why I enjoy being a community manager is that you are kind of creating an online space where people can really find themselves in. And I think that's increasingly true when, you know, there's all these world events, you know, that are making people feel concerned or unsafe in some regards.
And I think to myself, what can I do? Like, what can I control? Because I can't control everything that happens in the world. And I think about it. And as a community manager, I can at very least control online spaces. I can make little Discord servers. I can make silly social media posts that bring a smile to people's day and gives people something to look forward to. nothing makes me happier than when I'll get a message, I'll get a DM saying, thank you so much for creating this space for
making me realize like I love this game, I've met some friends through this game, I've had cases where people have met their loved ones through the game and that's just so amazing. And so that's what I continue to look for and that's kind of what you know what my my drive as a community manager, I want people to have their their niche, their little enclave so to speak and it and that's what I look for too.
Daniel Lipson (29:27)
What are you hoping to see change or get better in how the industry is evolving?
Lyn Dang (29:36)
I would say there's quite a bit of a challenge right now. This is like a bigger topic, making games is incredibly risky, It costs quite a bit. You don't know if you're going to get a return on it and then to make the kind of profit people are looking for. It's just, that's the business side of things. And it's at odds of the creative side of things of like at your core, you want to make a fun game. You want to make an enjoyable game. You want to make...
an experience that people can take something away from it and remember it and cherish it. So how do you combine these two together? And that's what a lot of studios are figuring out, whether it's AAA, whether it's startup, whether it's indie. that's something to really keep in mind of we're seeing different approaches to that eternal question.
We're looking at all the entries, the games that come out. are the factors? What are the things that really kind of get the results we're trying to look for, what I care about is that I think the future is that more diversity, more international teams, but in order to support international teams, I think remote.
I specifically looked out now when I am applying to jobs, remote is so in demand, right? I try to find places that, I think having that kind of environment really facilitates collaboration and opens opportunities for people from different backgrounds to kind of input. And then as a result, better games.
Daniel Lipson (31:08)
What do you think about some of the advancement in tools and especially, I think, artificial intelligence, both in your own role and in the industry at large?
Lyn Dang (31:19)
I think right now we're at an interesting time because it's so early, right? And that leads to lot of experimentation, but also it leads to a lot of misunderstandings. it's volatile. For me as a community manager and working in the social media space, immediately something that I've seen is that you can, if you're starting to realize,
when a copy, like a written form, is AI generated. So while that might be serviceable at some levels, obviously I'm going to defend my job. I think a real person is going to be able to add their own human touch to it that resonates better with players. mean, and I'm not totally against saying you can, I know people who utilize, know, CHAT GPT, for example, to create a rough draft.
and then they add to it and improve upon it. And I kind of see that being a path forward. Now, I don't know if we're there yet to like, you know, utilize it fully, ethically, but I see that kind of being the future. Cause a lot of the concerns and fears about AI is very much like, well, where's this coming from, right? To train, you know, these models, you have to take data from somewhere. And a lot of the conversations I've seen is that it's taken without permission.
So it's not necessarily the results with the source of like, people being considered? Is there consent involved? And so moving forward, I really think AI is here to stay, but I think there's going to be developments that are accounting for the inputs, the human inputs that make it up.
Daniel Lipson (33:01)
Specifically looking at community management and managing a community at scale. It's like you said, you've have had to manage a global community, have you had opportunities? And I know even Discord has like bots and things like that. Have you had opportunities to actually use those types of tools and what's your idea around and experimentations around those?
Lyn Dang (33:25)
Discord in particular, once your community reaches a certain size, that is a lot of people in a giant chat room, essentially, right? You need to have moderation and having a team of real people on deck is great, but that's not always the case. Sometimes it's a luxury. And so being able to utilize auto-moderation bots and tools to kind of facilitate a...
It's kind of like a virtual amusement park. That's kind of the analogy, right? You know, people love amusement parks and going to it, but it takes a whole team to make sure you have a pleasant, fun, safe experience. And so it's all the behind the scenes work of like setting up bots to catch things, making sure people aren't exposed to not safe for work content, making sure people are on topic, that it doesn't derail and there's arguments all over their place, right? That's a lot of like the...
trust and safety side of things when managing Discord server. And yes, I so I utilize quite a number of tools and setups to make sure those spaces are safe.
Daniel Lipson (34:30)
I'm just thinking about how you would even learn something like that we're suddenly talking about some very technical things. So like, how did you, how did you even tackle like, now we have to deal with AI now how did you figure those things out?
Lyn Dang (34:46)
It's kind of like learning to ride a bike. You just gotta ride the bike. So ideally you don't test, like what's the phrase, don't test in prod? People do anyway, but you kind of learn to experiment in small steps. And so if your goal is to like, need to reorganize the channels as an example, let's try it in a test server or maybe a smaller server. People who trust you.
And say, as long as you communicate it, like, okay, we're going to influence some things because yeah, it's interesting how just where you kind of have to do things real time. Right. And so there's moments where people will see the channels literally move as you reorganize the server, but you tell them in advance and you know, as long as the communication is there, people are willing to help out sometimes. And that's indicative of a healthy community where you're guiding them through of like, okay, we're going to try some stuff. That's okay. We're going to go through it.
Right, that's kind of the vibe.
Daniel Lipson (35:44)
Yeah, well, and think it kind of goes to that sense of what really makes a good community manager, I think, like you were talking about before, is just that communication.
Lyn Dang (35:54)
I would say not getting caught up into too much of the PR business speak, right? People want authenticity and you hear it so often of like, we need more transparency and you're thinking, duh. But being on the other side, sometimes there's so many factors involved, like, okay, we can't say it like this. I wish we could say it like this. Maybe throw a curse word at it. No, we can't do that. there's moments where,
you're kind of caught in the, it's a balance as a community manager, as someone kind of weaving those words where sometimes you're going through just a source of like, okay, can we use this? Can I use this phrase? You know, like, can the players understand what I'm trying to convey? And I, and that's a really important trait of knowing when to toe the line of like, at the end of the day, you're a professional, right? The studio is
handing you, signing the paycheck. You have to like be professional and be the official representative. At the same time, you have to speak and resonate with the players who often all they're asking at the end of the day is like, just tell me the truth, right? Tell me, treating them with respect, treating them, you know, as adults. They're not just like, oh, you don't understand, players don't understand game development, which sometimes that's true, but it's because they don't know. And it's not because like, you know, they're not aware of it or anything. It's because
I think I have to be informed. So that's what I consider a successful CM, to know when to use the right tone, when to use the right words, when to lay off the whole, okay, I got to speak professionally and just really talk to the players. But it's a balance for sure.
Daniel Lipson (37:41)
Is there any last pieces of advice to younger community managers that are working with community managers? I completely different questions.
Lyn Dang (37:50)
okay. First one, if someone is considering being a community manager, I would say, if you can handle answering the same question a hundred times over and still be okay with it, then maybe consider being a CM. second of all, I would say if you enjoy the energy, like I mentioned this earlier in the podcast, right? If you enjoy feeding off the energy of other people, you love being kind of not exactly the center of attention, but like,
seeing the hype of it, seeing the growth, the passion of the community. That's what is really satisfying as a CM. And you're the one in your friend group always organizing the parties, the birthdays, and you're okay with that because at the end of the day, everyone has a good time. So that's something that's really the core of what a CM is. Now, advice to people working with a CM.
sometimes what seems obvious like through your lens might not be true, especially from people who are more casual and not involved with the process. And so that requires extra steps and extra levels to kind of disseminate, especially if it's very technical. Like for you, yes, if you're in the middle of it, if you came up with it, it might seem to make a lot of sense, but from a lay person, right, try explaining this to your grandma. How are they going to understand?
this change you implemented. I, as a CM, I oftentimes I have to take that and understand. So the more context that I'm given, the more I am able to understand things, the better I'm able to convey that because I'm there to help. Right. Like I, I'm not trying to be adverse to the developers, but I'm trying to make sure their intention comes off genuine and also doesn't cause a PR scandal.
Because that's, unfortunately, a well-meaning dev might say something and then players go crazy. They latch on and they're like, what does that mean? You know, this and this? Did you just promise us this and this feature? And you're just like, no. You know, gotta walk it back.
Daniel Lipson (39:53)
Yeah, like you said, lightning rod, it means dispersing the landing. So, what are some things outside of games that you really enjoy and some of your hobbies?
Lyn Dang (40:08)
Well, you just said outside of games and my immediate answer was games. the thing is, I think it's just in my nature. I just love giving back. So even though it might sound like work, I love mentoring. I also love just helping other communities, like even though like I do Community Management full time, sometimes I'm like helping other discord like
interests though, like hobbies and servers. And I'm always volunteering. Like, that's my hobby. Like, it's just helping and giving back. I feel like it's very natural that I ended up being a CM because of who I am as a person. But yeah, that's what I do. I feel very passionate of like, you know, getting people not just interested. I mean, more often than you have so many people who want to work in games, but they don't know the path, the direction to it. So I spend a lot of time
doing mentorships, explaining what I do as a CM, explaining what to get, resume reviews, like that, mock interviews. I actually enjoy it, I really do.
I haven't bought this stuff yet, but something I do, it's still games related, but I'm actually part of IGDA, neurodivergent in games. So it's like a special interest group. like, kind of like clubs, like back in college and high school, but like for professionals. And I really enjoy it. That's another aspect that made me realize like part of the reason why I enjoyed games.
More recently I found out was neurodivergent, like I was diagnosed. And that led me to realize, you the reason why I enjoyed games is because it's kind of like a weight of escape almost. Like, like I didn't really quite understand myself. Other people didn't understand me, but I could like express who I wanted to be through games and be in the worlds that I wanted to be.