Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Elyza and I played video games for the first time when I was six. Coming from a modest family, the Sega Master System console was given to us in 1997 by the family’s doctor, whose children had acquired more recent gaming devices.

The only game I was willing to play was Alex Kid and I absolutely loved it. Until a misstep made me fall. This map was a huge sky into which I was falling straight into the water. The fear I felt for my little fair haired buddy on screen was so intense that I stopped playing until the year 2000 rolled around and the first PlayStation entered our home. At least, Crash Bandicoot didn’t look human and neither did any of the Tekken three characters. I lost the GameBoy Color I had been given for my outstanding marks at school in the park where I used to play then along with my Pokemon Yellow cartridge.

Then, I kept my gaming activities to a minimum until I was a young adult.

When I finished High School in 2008, I met an upstanding young man. We usually saw each other at his place every week-end. One of such week-ends, he told me that it was impossible for us to see each other for a few days. I was a bit confused, but I accepted, our relationship was young and I’m not a pushy person.

I learned however that he had spent the whole week holed up in his appartment playing the new World of Warcraft expansion. Why hadn’t he told me, I asked him. Well, simply because he felt this was impolite to be focused on a game while I was there. After I assured him I didn’t bother as long as I had something to occupy myself in the meantime, he started to raid on Saturdays when Sacred Priests made themselves scarce.

And I started to grow curious. I was fascinated by the dynamics withi his guild, of his side work as a Healer that required patience, discipline and reflexes. The organisation required to coordinate 25 people… “Wait, did I tell you raids used to gather 40 people in BC?” he asked me.

He showed me the videos, laggy with the amount of people and the recording on his then ancient computer.

This was the very first time I ever heard of social in Gaming and I liked it.

I continued studying Finnish language and culture. My companion and I started gaming more and more. I bought myself a computer and started a World of Warcraft account. It didn’t last, I wasn’t patient enough for leveling all alone while he was having all the late game fun. We waited until another MMO started, Aion, and we delved in it together. He stopped quite early, being very picky on his choice of games thanks to his experience on WoW, but I continued, met guildmates of my own that didn’t call me “Falarya’s girlfriend” and I had a blast. I even posted on the forums, mostly because I sang a silly parody called “Les Dredgions de Minuit”.

This was the first time I ever heard of a job titled “Community Manager”. I was 19 and I was going to Finland, I ended up broke and had to cancel my subscription to the game.

But when I came back, I couldn’t bear to be without a gaming occupation while my sweetheart was playing Diablo II all over again because rumours of Diablo III were running rampant on the web. I tried League of Legends and met several of my best mates in the world there until I gave in and followed Falarya into the depths of Diablo II. I did an Assassin. Not the best choice for a start, but I like the idea of a map that would never be the same. I managed to go quite far, but I’m still a casual at the core and I was really interested in raising my ELO on League of Legends.

I also set up my Twitter account this year because I liked having news about gaming so close at hand. I craved the contact, the experiences and the adventures I could have with people that were sometimes a thousand miles away.

As college years went by, I started to grow bored of linguistics and translation. My multiple trips there and the acquisition of a big computer left quite the hole into my budget, but I didn’t care: I met a lot of people, kept contact on social media, bought the Cataclysm expansion to play with Falarya.We had started to live together by then, so there was no hiding that he was going to binge on sodas and noodles and try for the achievement that crowned the first Archeologist of the server.

The night of release at three in the morning, I went to bed, still so casual (or was I?), and left my sweetheart to his digging. I woke up at ten to see him still on the couch, digging around Khaz Modan.

“Did you feed the cat?”

“Yeah, it would have pissed me off otherwise…”

I went to get myself some breakfast and realised something. I asked again :

“Did YOU eat?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to make you some toasts.”

The way he wimpered a yes like a thirsty man in the middle of the desert melted my heart by its cuteness and brought a laugh to my lips as I fixed us breakfast. At this time we went to the restaurant twice a week, celebrated Valentine’s Day, Anniversaries, Birthdays and even gifted each other with expensive jewellery and articles of clothing… But this, this is the most romantic and defining moment of our relationship. The spreading of jam on a homemade bun and quick cuddle on the couch during cast time.

I grew bored of WoW again and canceled my subscription, but I had so much free time that I connected on Falarya’s account to do his daily quests when he was at work. I also handled crafting and even got bothered by an Orc Warrior on a borrowed Druid on a quest!

This Orc, this man, the fact that he didn’t know I never played Druid past level 20, made me realise that I needed to talk to him. This became my purpose, talk to gamers.

I’m a very passionate kind of person, I can’t do something that I don’t like or at least not for long. I started to play League again and to follow its Community Managers and coordinators on the social media. They had become my favourite hobby: what do they post, what is their content and what is their companies’ ? Which college were they at, which major ?

I followed Community Managers from other kind of brands, since 2011 was the year France started to discover the job. All of them non related to gaming. I stepped into their discussions, asking questions, formulating them so they’d see I was interested in the job, the skills.

It suddenly started to look like a carreer plan.

Diablo III was finally released, I had several exams to take but since Falarya could only take so much holidays, I finally caught up with him when he went back to work, still shaking from the soda sugar rush.

Once I realised that I wouldn’t finish my Finnish Language and Culture degree, I started to search for something else. Something that would get me closer to Community Management. Something that would make me closer to people over the Internet. People that had the same passions as I. I found Sup’Internet, managed to get a proper paper that proved that I had at least managed two years of college studying Finnish and here I was, finally on the tracks that would lead me to a job that mixed my talents and my passion for communication.

A few days ago, GamesIndustry’s job board sent me my daily newletter for jobs. Word of advice for any student with a career plan: check the job descriptions and train in the skills they describe!

The only downside is seeing your dream job come early. And it has. Blizzard is looking for a Community Manager for Diablo III in its Versailles Offices, not very far from the place where my mother and I were both born.

I expect to get a Bachelor’s degree in Webmarketing in 2015, that means that for the moment I am available for an internship or a placement year at the start of September 2014, but not for a full time job. I have no illusions : the position is going to get filled and I will have to find my dream job, the one I worked so hard for the past two years elsewhere.

A few weeks ago, Jean-Baptiste Pennes (a.k.a Aguilar) came for a conference in my school and this was the most enlightening conference of my whole life : we talked about server shutdown and angry players, about the best way to get to know our communities and get them to know each other. About his position at Ubisoft in eSports developement. We shared the passion, and welcomed the newest members of the gamers community as I was welcomed by my gamer boyfriend, now my PACS partner since 2012. Jean-Baptiste strengthened my resolve and my goal to work for a company that always welcomed every player, the good, the bad, the ugly, the shy, the confident, the calm and the angry. A company that proved that it listened to its player base and always shared experiences with them while never asking anything more than passion in return.

That’s why I decided to send you my resume anyway, because I have a passion for gamers and the multiple lives they live. I made it my life goal to make it my job.

Thank you for your time.

Elyza Ngoko,

(Soon to be) Community Manager