Reaching out and fostering a positive relationship with a community of players has been made easier with the help of social media, but it can often feel impersonal. How can a community manager navigate online spaces to create a unique, working relationship with their community? Ubisoft’s Gabe Graziani recommends turning to the unconventional. 

In this 2015 GDC session, Graziani examines how traditionally counterintuitive practices can help developers define and nurture a passionate community.

The talk goes over the ways Graziani initially interacted with fans during his time working on Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, like taking questions players posted to Ubisoft’s social channels and answering them for a Q&A video which was uploaded to YouTube. “They key thing for these is that we were constantly refining our approach,” explains Graziani. “We wanted to know from our community how we could service them the best.” 

Community managers interested to see if these counterintuitive practices could work for their projects can now watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!

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In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.