Behind the Scenes — eSports and Gaming with Adanas of Hi-Rez Studios
We got the unique opportunity to talk with Adanas, ex-competitive gamer and now community manager for Hi-Rez Studios, about what exciting new games they’re working on, what a day in the life of working in a gaming studio is like, and how a company like Stanza can help not only help a studio like them, but benefit the world of esports, gaming and Twitch as a whole.
After I finished hyperventilating from all my fanboying, we were able to go through just who Adanas is, and the real story of what working at Hi-Rez Studios is like!
So Kevin, excuse me — Adanas, who are you? Why Adanas?
I’m the Community Manager for Hand of the Gods at Hi-Rez Studios!The origin of the name Adanas, it was a World of Warcraft randomly generated name, i didn’t even it know it was a name of a god at the time…but I just kinda adopted it.
Stanza: So you were unaware of Adonis?
Adanas: Nah, I didn’t even know about the god, just one of those things that stuck
Where are you from?
I’m a Florida native personally. But in regards to work, I live just north of Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve always been a gamer but, when I was working for a grocery store and going to school,I was also a competitive gamer for Smite. I got the opportunity to play in an invitational tournament at PAX Prime in 2013, and met some of the Hi-Rez Staff from that event. From there, I was contracted to help production of 2014 SMITE Launch Tournament in Atlanta…and then things kind of just rolled from there…
When did you know this was the future for you?
It was just something I stumbled upon, I went to school for business but esports wasn’t a viable career path for me back then.. I just kind of started playing competitively in college and very glad that I stumbled into the gaming world …because I initially wanted to be a lawyer for some reason. But then I got into broadcast production, casting, and then became an esports manager!
But found I really wanted to be a part of the game development and design process and moved over to Community Management to work towards those goals.
Stanza: Not just easy to jump into the gaming industry, eh?
Adanas: Yea, It takes a lot time and effort, you can’t just jump right into it. But a lot of people think you can wake up one day, and start making games.
What do you do at Hi-Rez studios?
I am the community manager, were a small team, so I wear many hats. But from my previous eSports experience, I was able to spearhead work within Hand of the Gods competitive circuits, some casting, article write ups, work with our marketing teams, and get the community involved in anyway with what are we working on, while making some fun events.
As a Community Manager, what’s some good & harsh feedback you’ve received?
The Good: We usually launch games early in a closed beta and really listen to the feedback we get from the community about it, and bring whatever they say into the discussion of what direction the game should go in. It’s kind of fun to be the bridge of the public and developers. So we do hear a lot of great ideas, and problems we hadn’t thought about ourselves. That’s the good.
The Bad: Since we like to introduce games asap in closed Beta. We’re willing to make major changes throughout that process. We make changes that we are confident in, and to listen to the public…But it’s the nature of change to be averse to it at first. Because we would make very rapid development changes, we could really alter the overall feel and general game play of the game that some people had grown accustomed too… and sometimes we would experiment with the wrong things. So dealing with the community that isn’t always receptive to some of our rapid changes can be rough. But we always try to get the message out about what changes we’re trying to make, and why we’re making them.
What’s your favorite part about your day-to-day?
Working with games in general is awesome, but really it’s the constant learning. Everyday I’ve learned something new. No one can be the best at everything, but being able to interact with everyone and just learn a lot of new things about the game development process is so cool. There really is a lot to learn, and there’s never a point it will stop.
Stanza: The gaming scene is always changed, that’s good you guys continue to push forward
Adanas: Yea, we always wanna take a look at what we’re doing now, and what advancements can we make and do in the future, but there are many steps along the way. I mean, we look back at the stuff we were doing 2–3 years ago and think “WHAT THE HECK WERE WE DOING?!” But, it just shows how far we’ve come.
What are some of your goals at Hi-Rez?
With Hand Of The Gods, it started off as a passion project, something to expand the SMITE universe is a new direction.The Game’s original title was actually SMITE Tactics, and as the game came along, people really started liking it and being more receptive. The cool thing was, that it wasn’t all Smite players that adopted it, but other card and tactical game players. That changed the scope of what we originally intended the game to be. It’s really fun starting something, and seeing what great thing you can turn it into. The goal is to continue pushing frequent updates and look to improve the game with each patch during the Open Beta, like we do with all our games.
What has been your experience using Twitch.tv?
I love Twitch, Hi-Rez was actually one of the first companies to champion a 24/7 stream channel with SMITE. The developers themselves would stream and talk about the game. It made me, personally, more invested in the game and the company itself when I was just a player. We’ve done various things with Twitch and always looking to do more — like a mix of streams from developers and community managers, and also a program for helping new streamers get involved, giving them advice to grow their channel. Our official HOTG channel would bring players on who were just starting out streaming. It’d be the the first thing a lot of viewers would see when browsing HotG on Twitch. Some of those players have gone on to start their own channels and be successful in their own regard!
What problems do you see facing the world of eSports? Streaming? Gaming in general?
Consistency. In sports, things are fairly regular. Fans are committed to teams, athletes, cities.
Stanza: Like how people are life-long fans of the Steelers…through the good and the bad?
Adanas: Exactly, but in esports, players change teams, and move often. So it’s hard for fans to really follow one team or group. I think with a little bit more structure and consistency it’d help, but esports has come a long way already, and I think we’re already getting to that point.
What are your thoughts on VR/AR and the future of gaming?
I think there’s a whole lot of interest it in, but it’s not super user friendly currently. I think VR and AR arcades would be the first business opportunity for it to go mainstream. Personally I’d much rather go to an Augmented Reality theme park, like in a warehouse that would transform within AR. At home, is just not really easy to operate compared to traditional gaming machines.
What do you think the competitive/pro scene for Hand of the Gods will look like?
It’s looking real good. October 28th is a big competitive tournament, then there is the founders tournament at Hi-Rez Expo on Jan 4th -7th. And, “not sure if I should share this,” but we want the winner to be honored in the game someway — some kind of reference, character, etc. And looking to the future, we will continue to grow our competitive scenes with the players!
Is there anything that Stanza can do to help you?
I got the idea to use Stanza for Hand of the Gods Tournaments from our esports team, so we could use it for our broadcast, and link our streamers schedules together. If I’m someone who wants to be invested and follow what’s going on, without having to research things, I can just click add-to-calendar and get notifications on my phone, computer, and keep me involved without having to look up all this stuff online or do research. So I wanted our players have that one ‘thing’ that they could follow, and see what tournaments and events are happening in our Community, all in one place.
Last Question:
What’s something new and exciting that you’re allowed to share with us?…..or hint at something you can’t yet say?
Nothing that I can tell you now. The developers could maybe drop some hints, but we can revisit that later ; )
And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, a inside track into the mind that is a community manager (Adanas) from Hi-Rez studios. With our (Stanza) big push into the realm of eSports, we’re very excited about the potential of helping fans follow their favorite games, teams, and tournaments easier!
So naturally, the next step is to go out and pick up (or download) your copy of Hand Of The Gods, and of course subscribe to their calendar to keep up-to-date with all of their announcements and exciting competitions coming up!
Thanks again Adanas! It was a real pleasure speaking with you, and really excited to see what amazing things Hi-Rez will bring us in the future!
We’re hiring! Do you love sports, data and building products that help people make the most of their time? Apply now: http://bit.ly/2Ef22sU
