by GuilroHauopa, Tibians!
This month we bring a very special interview with Liamas, one of Cipsoft’s Community Manager! The announcement of his joining the team was on September 15, 2022.
Portal Tibia: Hauopa, Liamas! We would like to thank you for for taking the time to participate in this interview! You recently joined Cipsoft and play an important role in the community, especially in the auditorium. Firstly, we would like to know you a little better, according to your presentation in the auditorium, we already know that you like gaming, sports, movies and music making. But we would like you to introduce yourself and talk a little bit more about you. Tell us about your life outside CipSoft, do you have any kind of hobbies?
Liamas: Hauopa, Portal Tibia! Thanks for having me.
One very special passion of mine is indeed creating music. I am especially into creating Ambient Music. The slower, darker stuff. I love to play around with my synthesizers or go outside and record some interesting nature sounds. Besides that I do some weightlifting and running or play football with my kids.
Portal Tibia: Thinking that you’re into gaming, and listed ‘The Last of Us I+II’ as one of your favourite games, have you watched the series yet? If so, how do you like the adaptation?
Liamas: No, I haven’t watched the series yet. My plan is to watch it after the series is completely over. Now this may take some patience, but I have made the best experiences when watching stuff in a short timeframe end-to-end from the first to the last episode.
Portal Tibia: On a daily basis, what is your working routine like? As an example: do you work presentially from the Cipsoft headquarters or do you home-office? It would be great if you could send us a picture of your desk!
Liamas: At the moment I only work in the office. Which is not difficult for me. The coffee is good, the colleagues are cool and the view from the window is nice.
Portal Tibia: How did you choose the name Liamas? What was the process of choosing like? What about Haviz? You may already know, but your name in Portuguese is pronounced like “llamas”, that might be one of the reasons why the Brazilian community commented so much on you name, how do you like that?
Liamas: I was searching for something that sounds right to me. I guess it was more of an unconscious decision, as I like the British name Liam for a long time. Maybe it has something to do with that. Well, llamas have not really been one of my favourite animals so far, but I took a closer look at them after I was pointed out that my name is related and I actually find them quite likeable. Maybe one day I’ll get one as a pet.
Portal Tibia: When you first started working with customer and community support at CipSoft, in your introduction last September, you mentioned that you are a veteran in the field, could you tell us a little bit about your journey in this area, how did you start working with community support and how was the process of joining Cipsoft?
Liamas: I worked for a big company for about 17 years before. My main tasks were customer support and staff management. I also looked after the customer forums for a few years. However, those were completely different subjects and none of them had anything to do with games.
About joining Cipsoft: After I quit my old job, a former colleague of mine told me about his new position and that the company he now works for is looking for a Community Manager. So I applied and got an interview. They thought I would be quite a good fit and here I am.
Portal Tibia: We already know that you haven’t played Tibia before you got your position as a CM, but since CipSoft is a big company in Germany, have you had any other kind of contact with Tibia before that?
Liamas: No. I didn’t even know that CipSoft exists, to be honest.
Portal Tibia: You have mentioned before that you have gone through an intensive playing of Tibia once you got your position. Can you share some of your thoughts on the game and a little about your that experience? Do you think it brings back a nostalgic feel of ultima 6? Are you still with your Sorcerer, or have you switched to other vocations? Do you remember your first dragon? How did you first die?
Liamas: I can’t remember my first death, but I’m still mad about the last one. But I’m well aware that the death penalty is an important part of Tibia. Makes it more exciting, sometimes frustrating. So I respect the omnipresent death threat.
The game itself was somewhat different from the games I’ve played over the years. And indeed, certain memories of the first online games I’ve played came up.
I have actually changed vocations several times and am currently stuck with an Elite Knight. The sorcerer didn’t seem so suitable for solo play to me as a beginner.
Portal Tibia: You mentioned that you played Ultima Online for about 25 years, tell us a little about your experience as a player. Tibia players know well what it’s like to play a game for so long. I remember that one of the first RPG games I had contact with before Tibia was Ultima 8, I can still remember the sober laugh that was activated when we found a secret place in the game full of hidden weapons, lol.
Liamas: I didn’t play Ultima Online for 25 years. I guess, I wrote something like “I played UO 25 years ago”. Anyway, I have been into RPGs for a long time. The first RPG I remember was Bard’s Tale 2 on my Commodore 64. I played it about 300 hours and then I was stuck at one point and found out, that there was a bug with the version I had and it was impossible to move on. No patches back then, just a not working floppy disk. Good old days…
World of Warcraft would be the game I played for the longest time. Maybe about 6 or 7 years. I absolutely loved it. Especially the first 2 years.
Portal Tibia: Could you tell us how do you deal with problems in the community that are beyond your control? Do you have any method to work on controversial situations where there is no practical solution?
Liamas: It’s always not that easy when you face a problem, and a solution is not feasible or a long way off. And there are certainly nicer tasks than having to officially announce such things in a gamer forum. But that’s part of my job. There is no special approach for me. Every problem, every situation is slightly different.
Portal Tibia: Was working with the tibia community too different from your previous experiences? What do you think about the Brazilian community?
Liamas: Yes, the Tibia community is actually very special and I actually had to adapt my approach to the job. But that wasn’t and isn’t a big problem for me. Despite my many years of experience in the working world, I have no problem considering myself an apprentice when it comes to new tasks. On the contrary, that’s what makes it really exciting.
Brazilians are cool. Very demanding, very playful, but never resentful. At least that’s my experience from the forums so far.
Portal Tibia: Tibia forum have the same pattern for years. Do you believe that the forum is the best format to work on the demands of the community? Do you think that the site needs any kind of update, or maybe some new resources and/or tools available to the community, or who knows how to invest in other platforms?
Liamas: Yes, the forum stands on a fairly old foundation. The internet and communication channels are constantly changing. See Discord or similar channels. I can well imagine that one day we too will take other paths of community communication. But until then, I think a forum is still a good way to connect with one another.
Portal Tibia: The Tibian community is huge, including on social media and streaming channels. Do you usually follow any streamers of tibia games, or videos of gameplay compilations?
Liamas: I don’t have any particular favourite streamers. But in the course of my training I watched tons of streaming videos about Tibia. Some were really useful and also entertaining.
Portal Tibia: Currently we have a bunch of stuff on the game’s store, there are many outfits, mounts, useful things for making your character better and the list goes on. Do you think that having weekends of sales could be useful for having more people interested in buying cosmetics and useful things?
Liamas: Wow, that’s a good question. We may have some second-hand clothing in stock that we could then sell for a special price. Hmm… just joking. I’m not in a position to make a decision about sales campaigns, I’m afraid. In my personal opinion, I’d say: why not.
Portal Tibia: Talking about real life events, Cipsoft doesn’t usually do events for players, but encourages the fansites they organize. In Brazil we have a great gaming event called BGS (Brasil Game Show), which had 326 thousand participants in 2022, in this event Tibia gained prominence in the main panel, when a well-known player made a stream playing live Tibia which drew attention to several players from other games for Tibia. How do you see Tibia’s face-to-face events, do you think it’s necessary? Do you think it would be interesting for Cipsoft or the fansites to participate in this event?
Liamas: The Brasil Game Show sounds like a very cool event. It is indeed quite a big event, and as I was told, CipSoft representatives have visited this event at one point in the past. That is really cool, considering how far away Brasil is from Germany. From my innocent and fresh point of view as a newcomer to the gaming industry, I would say that visits to such events are a good idea, but probably difficult on a regular basis. It is difficult to organise, and apart from travelling costs, it costs quite some working time, too. I can even think of further factors apart from costs that would be important for a company to take into consideration before making such a decision. Especially when it comes to smaller meetings, or privately organised conventions.
As it currently looks, I doubt that we would organise a face-to-face meeting with Tibia players ourselves. I think that supporting fansites in doing something like this is a good compromise.
Portal Tibia: Is there any priority in sending community reports to the responsible areas, such as economy, hunting grounds, balancing vocations, bugs, suggestions, among others?
Liamas: What is clear is this: The more drastic a problem for the gamer, the faster it should and will be dealt with. Also, error reports that result from updates that have just been carried out do usually have a higher priority. You might have noticed this already during winter or summer updates when there are new features and content.
Portal Tibia: One of the big problems of tibia in the past were the Bots, today with battlEye this problem is practically over, however the mouse macros are used by practically all high level players, for functions such as high loot, or healing in case of druid, in addition to other functions. What ends up becoming a disadvantage for players who choose not to use macros, do you believe that we may have implementations in the future, such as high loot, for example, in order to balance the players’ sides? Can such an update become a reality, only with the manifestation of players in the forum, or these kinds of functions need some specific requests from the community?
Liamas: Of course I noticed that the topic of looting at Tibia is a bigger issue and is discussed controversially. As was mentioned in our communication on the forum several times already, is that there is currently no plan to implement something like autoloot, which several players bring up from time to time. Channels for proposals are the forums, the feedback forms, basically all areas in which you can give feedback. We read you and collect your ideas. The decision about a feature then is made internally, however.
I can’t say whether there will be any in-game changes in this regard in the future. In general, however, I like it when games and their content are hotly debated. It shows that the community is alive and passionate about the game they are playing.
Portal Tibia: Tibia is one of the MMORPG games that has been active for the longest time. Over the years, one of the reasons for this was Cipsoft and the community managers knowing how to differentiate what could be beneficial for the game, as well as the right moment to listen or not to listen to the players’ opinion. An example of this was the implementation of the proposal “Promote party hunting with all vocations” (threadid=4162182) which revolutionized the game and the way of playing Tibia in a team. We know that the CM’S always have an eye on the Forum, as well as many player suggestions are absorbed during the test servers. How to know how to differentiate what can be useful or not for Tibia, as well as about a criticism that can be constructive, or just based on personal interests?
Liamas: Sometimes this is indeed not so easy. A great idea can be hidden in a very badly written post and vice versa, a rather bad idea can be explained in a perfectly structured proposal, but it’s only smoke and mirrors.
In the announcements on the proposal board you can find a template that helps with structuring your proposal nicely. Using that template makes it easier and more comfortable for us CMs to read player proposals. We CMs read proposals and feedback and forward ideas we consider promising to the product management. In our judgement on what we consider promising we of course try to be neutral and to put aside our own preferences.
Collecting proposals is a periodic process. As mentioned before, the product management then makes the final decisions about features, according to their vision of Tibia.
Portal Tibia: Tibia has an RPG format, where players are free to interact with the community, with NPCs, go on quests, solve mysteries, hunt in groups, among other things that strengthen friendship, and several ties between people have been created over the years, making Tibia have a reasonable amount of loyal players, but with the passage of time and the development of the community, the game became very focused on the “Farming”, becoming a source of income for several players, who explore the most advantageous places, more profitable quests, making many items have astronomical values, including with the forge, there is the possibility of making items with the value of cars or even a house, do you believe that this is beneficial for the community, the exploration of the real investment in the game? And about RPG in Tibia, do you think there is still room for new mysteries?
Liamas: For me, it was actually a bit strange at the beginning when I heard players improve their monthly salary through Tibia or even make their full livelihood with it. The incredible value of some objects seemed almost surreal for me. How can a few pixels that are not even touchable cost so much?
Overall, I believe that there is enough space for all preferences of the players in the world of Tibia. Regardless of whether you are after achievements, want to chill out, or like good stories. There is something for everyone. And legends and mysteries never die out.
Portal Tibia: Tibia actually seems to be facing problems with balancing hunting grounds and correcting the inflation caused by different reasons. How do you think the most recents changes made on the Market Fee Rates, on the hunting grounds and on the vocations through the Wheel of Destiny impacts the playing community? As an example: do you believe that players losin different level ranges are affected the same way?
Liamas: I think it’s actually a bit like in real life. Players of different levels are influenced by the events and changes within Tibia in different ways. For some, changes are interesting for others, they sometimes also might be a bit frustrating. We strive to provide a playing field on which every player can find what he or she is looking for. We want to make as many players happy as possible, in the long run. Of course, this is not always easy.
Portal Tibia: Currently there are plenty of players who reached astronomic levels, such as 1500 and even 2000. How do you think having many players with high levels impact tibian community and economy? Do you think that a level limit, or mana/HP Limit for each vocation is an solution?
Liamas: I think the missing level cap is one of the reasons why players like to stay in Tibia. There are no restrictions. So if you invest a lot in the game, you also get a lot. That sounds fair to me.
Portal Tibia: Nowadays Tibia have a great focus on team playing, as an example the most recent quests have an aspect where you need a group of players to help each other in order to solve some steps. How do you think this can impact the interest of part of the community which are more likely to “solo play” the game? Do you think this aspect of the game is something that would help CipSoft reaching for new players for the community?
Liamas: Well, Tibia is an MMORPG. The focus is therefore on the aspect of playing with others. I personally prefer a healthy mix. I like to set off on my own and explore the world frequently, but I also often play with others to achieve goals or to blame them for failure. So I’ve always valued online games that provide both aspects. And Tibia is doing well to create content for solo gamers and team players, in my opinion.
Portal Tibia: Cipsoft adopted a posture of little intervention in the community, in history it intervened a few times, as when an entire guild was deleted for power abuse. Currently, virtually all servers have a dominant guild, which dominate the best hunting grounds in the game and predominate in some quests, in addition to charging each player a fee for participating in the guild. Can you share your thoughts on how these people are impacting the so called “neutral” players experience on the game?
Liamas: We are aware of this situation, several players have given us feedback concerning the situation on their game worlds. On some game worlds it really doesn’t seem that easy to survive without being part of a guild or an alliance. I think that, in addition to the possible frustration that lies within this situation, there is also a certain attraction to this.
Portal Tibia: Thank you very much for the interview, know that the role of the CM for the community is very important for its growth and development, so we are grateful for your role in this team being the bridge between players and Cipsoft.
Liamas: Thanks for your kind words and thanks for having me.
