Asherons Call: Turbine's New Director of Community Relations Announced

Introduction from our Director of Community Relations

My name is Jonathan Hanna (aka, Calandryll) and I am the Director of Community Relations for Turbine, Inc. Before I get into what that means, let me tell you a little about myself. I've been in the games industry for over 7 years now as a Community Relations representative and game designer for a variety of MMOGs. Before getting into games I was in Marketing for products such as blank audio tape and home alarm systems. But I left the "glamorous" life of selling 10-packs of audio tape and infra-red motion detectors behind when I took an opportunity to work in the marketing department for a start-up gaming company. Needless to say, I've never looked back.

I've been a gamer all my life, starting with pen-and-paper games and then moving to computer games when I got my first Commodore 64. I still joke with my dad who used to tell me to do my homework instead of play games all day. "You can't get a job with the high score in Asteroids!" Of course, now he tells all of his friends how he's the one who bought me my first computer and started me on my way in the gaming industry. Funny how that all worked out.

So what does a Director of Community Relations do? Basically it means I'm responsible for the Community Teams for all of Turbine's games and will be helping to set policies and start initiatives that will make our communication with all of you even better. Much of my work will be behind the scenes (I get to go to lots and lots of meetings and read endless reports) although I do hope to post sometimes. Either way, I can promise you I do spend a lot of time reading the boards. Keep in mind that I am responsible for four MMOGs, so the Community Managers for each game will still be your main source of contact since they will always know the games (and all of you) better than I can.

I've been with Turbine for a week now so I am still getting up to speed. Plus, having lived in Texas for the past six years I have to get used to all of this white stuff falling from the sky. Thankfully I already have an amazing OCR team here and I'm very excited about the opportunity to work with all of you to continue to create the best MMOG communities on the internet! As we start working on new community initiatives (newsletters, fansite kits, etc.) I'll probably post updates from time to time as well.

Oh, for those of you still in school...do your homework.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Director of Community Relations
Turbine, Inc.

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