I shared the news on the Discord, but yes it is true 
.
I am leaving Fatshark to go back to University in a few weeks to study Games Design & Development 
and unfortunately that means I have to leave you all 
22 Likes
15 Likes
o7
4 Likes
I think this is the second fastest we’ve seen a CM leave.
Best of luck to you in university.
14 Likes
3 Likes
??? fix your game
17 Likes
This is like a parody of community management. I mean that in the nicest possible way. I couldn’t do better if I tried.
But assuming you were trying to bill this straight for a second: Any site with a Darktide community is full of negativity about a perceived lack of productivity, missed deadlines, an exodus of talent, and poor communication. This feels like an insult.
Anyway, good luck at uni and in your career. May you always work on fresh product and never on a remaster of someone else’s vision.
17 Likes
It’s sad to see you go.
Wishing you all the best as you take this next step, building on your valuable experience at Fatshark
3 Likes
Got the 1-2 whammy of ‘we’ve done no work, shut up and look at our pets’ and ‘ah yes our new CM is fleeing the company and we haven’t tapped a replacement’.
It’s almost comical.
16 Likes
So is this a post about dogs or is it a post about how the CM is leaving - again - disguised as a post about dogs?
Fatshark, what are you doing that your CMs get burnt through so quickly?
9 Likes
what a waste of time post lmao
8 Likes
CMs are the lightning rod of the community and Fatshark is running around calling Zeus a p*ssy in the middle of a thunderstorm.
10 Likes
Its like joke on community
Bad one.
7 Likes
Cute … Not the news i was expecting but cute !
Also You are leaving already ? Are we the baddies or Fatshark has that much trouble with transparency and chained down too much their CM ?
2 Likes
I had really chalked it up to FS employees genuinely being too busy with other projects or personally divested from this one to see the state of the community. It happens in this industry a lot; not everyone is a gamer for life and working on a product - especially within an established IP, probably doubly so for a GW IP - can burn you out on it pretty easily. I never anticipated that the proprietary forums here would reflect the wider internet’s commentary. You guys actually see this stuff every day and don’t change course. Since that’s the case, what exactly are your performance metrics?
Because in the absence of crystal clear evidence to the contrary, I’m not really sure how I would take any pride in the initial appearance of your performance over such a long period of time. The retention looks abysmal at first glance, though admittedly you do bring numbers back on the rare substantial update. Yet the vibes and ratio of comments is extremely discouraging and deflates any potential liberal definition of conversion rates you’re working with.
I guess I’d just find it a bit grating to be eating off the back of lifers who would play any AA entry in their chosen addiction. I wouldn’t care but the skeleton of the game feels like a set of great minds are at work, it truly is unparalleled in certain places - sound, feel, and utilization of Stingray, and I really wonder why it feels like they’re constantly swimming uphill to deliver it to fans.
I really had hoped it was just that you guys never read about the game.
Totally unrelated: Your forum tech is really nice. These tools have come a long way since I last created an account to brool with devs.
7 Likes
It’s leadership. It’s always leadership. Companies that develop projects hold meetings, and decisions are made on how to proceed not just with what direction to take the project, but also including how to communicate with players.
Someone with a Boss-hat on has no care for real game development or community management. This is all put through the lens of satisfying investors by maximizing profits with as little development (read: paying as few developers salaries) as possible, and the two ideas (development+community management vs maximizing profit) are taken by this person to be intrinsically in conflict with zero or neglible overlap.
They see a game like Space Marine 2 and think “they just got lucky”, not “they cared for the project”.
20 Likes
In reality, the role of a CM at Fatshark feels less like a true community manager and more like a mere figurehead. They simply post announcements and news, once it’s allowed to be made public—on the forums or Discord.
Many CMs have worked there over the years, but I don’t think any of them have actually acted as a “bridge” between the dev team and the players. It’s impossible to accommodate every player’s requests, of course, but even when feedback and issues are repeatedly brought up on the forums, I can hardly recall any instance where they actually responded to them.
5 Likes
Poor leaders can only be leaders when allowed by a complacent (and therefore complicit) body. There are culturally established processes in the West for delivering a finding of incompetence to more senior management or to the investors directly. Enough talent can’t be replaced quickly enough to be ignored. It is complicated and exhausting, but this isn’t something that’s only been going on for a few months. They’ve churned through community managers at a rate that would make Blizzard’s head spin and lost a few lead technical talents besides. Unless the Tencent emissaries themselves are the chokepoint, in which case I don’t know enough about Chinese corporate culture to comment (though I imagine there’s still a culturally-endorsed practice since oppressive leadership is a seemingly universal sociological problem.) There is probably something to be done even in that case.
3 Likes