interview Voices of the Community ft. Marcus

[Person_Random 4,991]

As you might already know, Cedric stepped down from his Community Manager position a few months ago, leaving the spot open for our well-known then J-CM @Marcus. Our reporter has managed to catch a few words with our current CM. Enjoy!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Hello, Marcus! Welcome to the interview. Could you introduce yourself?

Hey, my name is Marcus and I am 24 years old. I work for Tanki Online in the position of Community Manager of the EN locale. I also work on the position of CEO in my own company in the music industry. Tanki has always been my hobby and I am very happy that a few months ago it also became my job. I also enjoy coding and skateboarding (to be honest, I can't skateboard that well but I like it).

 

Very few people start out as players and become helpers, let alone become the Community Manager. When did your Tanki journey begin?

I started playing Tanki in 2011. I left and came back a few times but I do not remember when it was. From the start, I always wanted to be a helper. Throughout the years, I served in my positions, the first being a Contest organizer in the Russian locale. Following that, I was also a forum moderator, an eSports referee, an eSports admin, a head of Spectators, a head of RU Creative league, a tester candidate, and maybe some other positions which I do not remember. During that time, I have also been active in the eSports scene during my Tanki career. I have participated in eSports for a few years. I have had many great experiences in eSports, such as playing a training match against General Tanks before StarLadder and playing in PRO league during StarLadder.

 

Wow, that is a very eventful nine years in Tanki Online. You mentioned how you were a helper in various groups, but you currently are also an eSports administrator as well as CM. How did you make it to this current administrator position?

Well, I became an eSports admin due to these few reasons: I was very active and had a lot of initiative. I created an eSports anti-cheat tool and an eSports website and also devised a few cool ideas which were later implemented.

 

It was definitely surprising to me that Cedric appointed a J-CM to the community as I had never heard of one. How did that happen?

Oh, easy one. In August, Cedric wrote to me: “I'd like to discuss something with you. Got a moment for a quick call? Ostrica is leaving and I'm gonna be looking for someone to step into her shoes. I've got a number of people in mind, and you're one of them.” We had a call or a chat later and a week later his choice was made.

 

Well, soon enough, you were promoted to CM when Cedric left his position. Who do you usually work with as CM? Are there any specific helper groups that you work with personally?

I usually work with the Lead CM and other CMs as we all are a small fam. Sometimes I work with other colleagues like Hazel, devs, or analytics guys.

As for helpers, any helper may write me in Discord. But it's always better to ask your admins or head admins first because I really have too many DMs to respond to.

 

During the past wave of updates (augments, Crisis, etc.), I have seen a good amount of angry comments and upset players. As a visible figure and a representative of Tanki Online, are you the target of hate comments and PMs? If so, how do you deal with it?

Eh, I remember 2-3 PMs with insults and there are less than 5 players who didn't like my decisions and started hating me. I guess there are not so many players who do not like me as a Community Manager. The last few weeks, I have not been so active on the forum and chats due  to some real life problems. I was also busy creating the Recruitment website and other mechanisms to automate the helper groups workflow. However, in the near future, I will be more active now and players will see me and my comments more often.

 

Ah, it would be great to see more players interact with the CM over these updates. Speaking of which, do you plan on doing live-streams as a fun interaction between you and the community? Perhaps something like the "Dev Briefing" they were doing in Tanki X - holding mini-contests, battling together with viewers and sharing bits of news here and there.

Well, I am afraid that there will be too many comments about my bad English. It's true, despite the fact that I was born in the UK and spent half of my life here, another half was spent in Russia. After those years in Russia, it's so hard to speak English. Even after coming back to the UK, I speak Russian more often than English. My parents and my brother often speak Russian, half of my employees also speak Russian.

I want to do a livestream but I am a bit afraid of these difficulties. I may invite Greg (GG_Reg), Jay, Goges and other guys who I talk to often to join me and help me feel more confident during these streams, so stay tuned. 

 

Awesome. I hope you will have a chance to really bond with players in the community. Have you ever had a chance to meet the Tanki staff/devs in person?

Not yet, but I may have a chance to get to interact with them after this recent crisis.

 

Wll, I hope you meet them soon. Ah, let's backtrack a bit here. You have held so many positions in your lengthy Tanki career, but currently you also are an eSports administrator. Certainly, that must have been a journey of its own, and it had to begin somewhere. So why did you want to help out in eSports?

Well, I was a big fan of the StarLadder and ESL productions, so I wanted to be a part of eSports organizers. I applied for the position right after StarLadder left Tanki and soon became an eSports organizer. The position was always fun; I have never thought about leaving it.

 

Earlier, you mentioned creating the eSports Checker. That must have been a huge accomplishment? What was the inspiration behind this project?

After StarLadder left, we started organizing tournaments. Referees spent a lot of hours checking each player, capturing videos and sending them to Battle Moderators. And even with Battle Moderators helping, we weren't able to catch all the cheaters, so a random idea came to my mind: What if we could make an easy anti-cheat tool? We then asked the Lead CM and Hazel for permission to create such a tool and received approval. About a week later, the first version of the eSports checker was published.

 

Wow, that was fast! I cannot imagine anything being programmed so quickly, well at least given that I’m terrible at computer science. How was the process of creating this eSports checker? Were there any difficulties you faced along the way?

One of the main problems was trying to make the program compatible for Linux users, which was not possible at the moment. We have some players who play on Linux OS, and it was hard to tell them that we cannot make an eSports checker for their OS. Another challenge was to do the same thing for Mac OS. Though we ended up making a version for the Mac OS, I had to rewrite the code of the Windows tool and make it work on Mac. I spent more than a month on this endeavor as I had never made Mac OS apps before.

 

Ah, wow, that’s amazing. Managing to code a widely used application for all eSports players to use - now, that’s an accomplishment right there. I have also heard that you were the founder behind all of the eSports content team. Was that your main project?

Yep, I created the team of eSports content helpers at the end of 2018. We started as a small team with Jade, Spy and other guys. We had Video Editors and Reporters firstly, then began to expand with time.

 

Awesome, that must have been an amazing experience. What sort of content did you produce in the early days?

In the early days of esports content helpers team?)

 

That was breathtaking. And to think it was made only a tad bit after the helper team was established, that’s amazing. Now, the eSports content helper team is really thriving. What brought the team from a small group of helpers to one of the biggest helper groups in the EN Community.

As you see, now we have about 40-50 helpers in the team. The system of "Team leaders" helped me a lot. The eSports content helpers team consists of multiple groups: Spectators, Video editors, Reporters, Broadcasters, etc. I cannot imagine managing all teams without having middlemen. Each team leader manages a team and eSports admins manage team leaders. Without them, it would be hard to manage the team and take care of other tasks at the same time.

Another important asset was the system of unofficial helpers. 30-50% of eSports content helpers are or were unofficial helpers for a few months. We weren't able to accept them as official helpers due to their karma or chat logs but gave them a chance to prove that they deserve to be helpers. There are some official helpers who previously were those guys who enter a battle and start to "beef" with everyone. After becoming unofficial helpers, they changed their behaviour and even view of life. Now, they are good helpers who even help other players to walk the straight and narrow.

 

Wow, for a relatively new team of helpers, the eSports Content team is really thriving. This leads me to my next question: In your opinion, what would be the best moment for you as a helper?

In the abstract, the best moment as a helper is when you come up with an idea and it is implemented.

 

Agreed, I couldn’t think of a more rewarding moment. As a reporter for the EN and eSports community, at times, I am constantly busy with helper and real life duties. I imagine it must be a lot busier for you, seeing that you hold two very important positions: EN community manager and eSports Administrator. How do you manage your work in Tanki with real life?

It’s not a big deal, to be honest. You do something once, you do it again, you find out how long it takes to do it, you think about how you can optimize your workflow and decrease the time you spend on it. And you delegate, delegate and delegate. The more routine tasks you delegate, the more time you have to spend on watching the community and talking to players and on real life 

 

Ah, so our dear CM is a very efficient and smart worker who ends up giving all his tasks to his minions. Based on what you said earlier, you’re probably left with a decent amount of free time. What do you like to do during your time off? (Maybe Tanki? )

Tanki? I wish that I could but during the last 4 months, I had a very slow internet connection, so I can only play Tanki at night. Thus the time I spent in Tanki decreased significantly. Maybe in August, I will spend more nights playing

Any favorite combos? Parkour, perhaps?

I have a few favorite combos: Viking + Vulcan, Viking + Gauss, Hornet + Shaft. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of Parkour

Any other games and hobbies you enjoy? Hazel listen up

I also play a few other games, such as CS:GO and the new Valorant game. In the future, I wanna try Last of Us (both parts).

Hobbies? https://helper.tankionline.com/ is my hobby #1 during corona time.

 

Wow, those are very interesting hobbies. Definitely would like to try out a few games that you listed above. Moving on, do you have any areas in the game or Tanki community that you believe deserve more recognition?

I remember we had a special website for the Newspaper years ago. It was really cool and I remember how everyone waited for each new issue of the newspaper. Wanna return to those days.

 

Wow, I feel honored. It would definitely be great to have something of the sort return once more. Once last question: our newspaper enthusiasts want to know if you read the newspaper regularly. Do you?

Don't blame me but I don't :c 

*sad trombone music* no kais dont get out the guillotine

Trust me, I will start doing it after this interview.

 

Alright then, we hope to see you drop a like or even a comment here. Thanks for accepting my interview request!

It's right here in plain sight: TNK00-00000-03MBE-SLKHE-DAT?U Enjoy!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yeap, and that’s it for our exclusive interview with our Community Manager, Marcus. I hope you enjoyed the read; keep an eye out for other exciting articles!

 

[Person_Random 4,991]

We at the Newspaper bring you an exclusive interview with the Community Manager himself, Marcus! Check it out right now - you'll get a personal insight into the life of a Tanki CM!

[Flexoo 6,980]

On 7/31/2020 at 12:12 AM, Person_Random said:

 Once last question: our newspaper enthusiasts want to know if you read the newspaper regularly. Do you?

Don't blame me but I don't :c

*starts sharpening a pitchfork

[Sabrytoun_Superman 677]

I loved this article

[AV-Gamers 1,251]

I really like to read this article and yeah i appreciate to his hardwork and long journey and i was really happy for him when he became CM, he is really a nice guy and always respond to DM's. For me he is the best CM till now. Good luck @Marcus

Edit - i hope i will get a chance to play valorant with you

Edited December 11, 2020 by AV-Gamers

[Venerable 2,967]

Wow, so this is finally out! (You didn't ask him why his avatar has a halo, PR :c)

What a great personality, Marcus!

You make it all sound so easy... (if only I did that something once...)

Overall, excellent interview, PR, and wonderfully answered Le Komyooniti Manajer! 

P.S. that MotS Promo was truly amazing!

[DarkOperative 5,580]

Indulging interview. Was hooked to the end. Very insightful to see what Marcus is upto besides managing his 100 DMs in awe. Very cool to know Marcus has CEO level taste in music. Great job!

[brahaha 3]

Hey, I got the promo, but it doesn't work.... Any explanation?

[Tokamak 1,021]

7 minutes ago, brahaha said:

Hey, I got the promo, but it doesn't work.... Any explanation?

1/ It has been found already, first to find it first to use it. It is a one time use and you are quite late. You can be sure taht within the 5 minute sit is published someone already redeemed it.

2/ Also did you try to replace the "?" with all the letter of the alphabet and all the number from 0 - 9?  TNK00-00000-03MBE-SLKHE-DAT?U 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Tokamak

[Sabrytoun_Superman 677]

25 minutes ago, DarkOperative said:

Indulging interview. Was hooked to the end. Very insightful to see what Marcus is upto besides managing his 100 DMs in awe. Very cool to know Marcus has CEO level taste in music. Great job!

Music manager too  it seems like

[brahaha 3]

ok, thank you! I'll be fast next time!

 

[Iron_Man 2,376]

So where does Marcus get his Halo from? What does it mean?

 

So apart from that halo stuff, Marcus, if you are the man behind the esport checker please make one for Linux too. There is no hurry but it is very much necessary for Linux users like me. If possible also tell developers to come with a downloadable client for Linux cuz that is very much necessary.