Welcome to another edition of Meet the Team! In this edition, we meet Liudmila or Ameno as she is more commonly referred to in the Travian world. She’s your Senior Community Manager and has been playing travian for over 10 years! Thankfully, she was kind of enough to give us a short interview so that we can get to know her and her background a bit better. Enjoy!
Hi Ameno, thank you for letting us interview you! So, let’s start with the usual question, where are you from and for how long have you been working for Travian Games?
Hi! Well, Surprisingly, that’s not an easy question. I was born in a small town near the Polar Circle, currently live in Moscow, Russia, though for the past 20 years I lived in Saint-Petersburg which I still miss a lot. I’ve been working for Travian Games for almost 10 years already.
How did you discover Travian?
Well, it was 10+ years ago, I just moved to a new flat with my (now) ex-boyfriend and our neighbor once came to our place fully excited about the game she found on the internet and gave us referral-links. So, she earned 20 gold (it was 20 then) for each of us, we started playing and got lost immediately. I am now saying that she sold our soul to Travian for 20 gold back then.
What kind of player are you? What are your best memories as a player?
I used to play both offensive (Teutons) and defensive (Gauls) and was also an Ally leader for pretty big meta-alliances back in my days. Best memories – well, I guess when we first won the World Wonder. I lost my very first server with my alliance, but surprisingly we managed to build really good relations not only within our team but also with some of our rivals, so, all our operations were more or less just a game for us, and well, someone should have lost? In the end, we agreed that we’ll come to the new round together and we won this round. It was a cool thing to see that your WW lvl 99 and 100 are already set, no serious incoming attacks on it, and that means we won (and we can finally stop feeding it – it was before trade routes appeared in the game and all feeding was a manual task)! Also, despite being an offensive player then, I also played the role of defense coordinator, and the feeling when you figure out correctly where the real attack goes – it’s incomparable to any satisfaction from even most successful offensive operation (to be honest, I am quite sensitive, and playing from defense gives me more positive emotions than playing offence).
What is your role at Travian Games? Why did you choose this career?
I am Senior Community Manager, that means that I am responsible for managing the pool of Community Managers and well, writing texts for the contests. All contests provided by the office for the past year were more or less written by me.
It sometimes happens that you don’t choose your career, but the career chooses you. I used to work as Project Manager of quite a big construction company, and as part of my job I had to communicate with many people from different countries who took part in the construction of certain objects and perform translations of some technical texts. I was already a player and a supporter by then. When I saw the position of a translator in job offers on the Travian Games site, I applied for it and got this position. After some time I realized that I like my small moonlight job way more than my normal job, and then there was another opening for Community Manager there, and I made a life-changing decision of focusing more on this part than on the previous. Lots of my friends and my parents thought I was crazy for “changing a solid profession into some game” but I still think it was the best decision in my life. The games industry is certainly one of the most interesting areas where I’d like to work.
What would you say is the greatest challenge for you as a SCM?
I think the greatest challenge for me is to keep patience and being my usual self in crisis situations when suddenly something (or everything) goes down in the middle of the night, you don’t really have much information yet of what happened. Nevertheless, you have to talk with lots of upset players on all channels and at the same time gather bits of information to give an update of the situation (both ways – for players and for technical specialists) and help sort it out within shortest possible time.
What keeps you motivated to manage a unique and special community like Travian’s?
I like my work, love talking to different people of all nationalities and getting to know them better each day. I love seeing engagement and motivation of our Travian community. The highest reward for me is when players notice what I am doing and write something like: “Hey, bro, that was so cool!” This is what keeps me motivated.
Can you share a particular highlight for you during your role as a SCM for Travian?
I really like the storytelling aspect of my work. I guess my particular highlights are Hero Adventures quest series and New Year Special introduction.
Lastly, do you have a message for our players and community?
I’d like to thank the community for your support, creativity, and enthusiasm. The friendship that is forged in-game that then goes to real life and the empathy you have towards each other – all this makes our Travian community so unique and special. I hardly ever met a game community that has the same sense of belonging. I really like how creative and diverse our community is. I wish you all the best in-game and in real life! Keep being yourselves!
Thank you all for reading our interview with Ameno, we hope you enjoyed it. If you have any question for her, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments below! Until next time, happy raiding!
thnx for sharing interview with ameno, its been amazing to see her comments & views!