Spotlight On: FaTeReLLa

This week we have something a little different for our Friday interview. This week we’re interviewing FaTeReLLa who is the Community Manager over at GameForge who are handling the EU side of OMDU. So without further adue let’s find out about FaTeReLLA herself!

The Basics

• Name: Martina
• Home Town: Udine, Italy (but I live in Germany for the past 4 years.

Questions

• Can you tell us a little about your username? Why FaTeReLLa?

This is a funny story. My nickname is really old and I’ve used it for around 15 years. When I was young (in my 20ies), I was chatting on a website called “Digiland” where I was the mascots of the chat group because I was the youngest member. A friend of mine started calling me “LaFatinaDeiMieiSogni” literally translating to “TheFairyOfMyDreams”. Later on I moved to IRCnet Chat and the character limit for usernames was 9, so I had to find a nickname that fit. Somehow I thought of Faterella (in Italian means something like Little Fairy). The name stuck and I registered the nickname FaTeReLLa with all consonant in caps (I prefer the aesthetics), and never stop using it.

 

• How long have you been working at GameForge?

I’ve been working for Gamforge since January 2010 as employee. Before that I was a volunteer community supporter for 5 years for some browser games such as Ogame.

• Aside from OMD – what others games do you enjoy playing?

Right now the only other game I’m playing is Metin2, but I’ll probably switch to just OMDU since I’m totally falling in love with it.

 

• Outside of gaming what are your hobbies?

I’m a passionate reader; I read an average of 60 books a year. I also love to listen to music while walking and I like to sing, but don’t ask me to sing you something unless you are prepared to bleed from your ears!  And last but not least I love to cook and to try new recipes, Italian food mainly!

 

• What excites you the most about OMDU and managing the EU community?

The thing that excite me the most about OMDU is the fact that the game offers so much. You have a PVP challenge – not my favourite thing but still if I manage to kill someone I smile a bit, strategy – I love to organize the team and manage trap placement in the perfect way to get combos, fun and excitement – so far in each match I played it didn’t matter if I won or lost, I enjoy them so much anyway!

About managing the EU community, well it’s a challenge. There are many differences between the games that I’ve managed before. First of all working with an NA partner is very different to working with a Korean partner. Also we’ve decided to change the board settings, where we usually have one board for each language, instead we decided to have one board with a Multilanguage function that allows people to read posts in every language or just to read the posts in their own language if they prefer. It’s a huge project for me and I can’t wait to see how the community will grow and see what direction it will take.

• What is an average day like for you at GameForge?

Well, that is a really hard question. Put simple, every day is different! Sometime there are calm days (once or twice per year). In general though I arrive at the office between 7 to 9am,  switch on my computer and while it’s loading go to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee (sometime when I feel a bit down, instead of using automatic coffee machine I prepare my Italian one with the Moka Pot – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot).

Then I go back to my desk, check my emails, forum messages and topics, facebook pages and I look for important topics or urgent issues. Also I’m taking care of another game called Animas Online, so I have split my time between OMDU and AO. I have a couple of meetings a day with my team (CMs) or with product teams (team that works on the product, like the OMDU Team or AO Team).

• How was PAX East?

A W E S O M E. First of all it was my first time in the US. I had some problems with Jet Lag, but luckily for me it didn’t affect my time in Pax East. The exposition itself was amazing and I had the possibility to get in touch with many people that wanted to try OMDU. Some of them were really excited whilst others got excited after trying it out. In general the feedback of the audience was surprising and I hope to get the chance to participate in such initiatives again.

• If you could pick one OMDU hero to be your favourite, who would it be and why?

This is a really hard question. From my experience I understand that the hero itself does not make you win, it’s all about team work. Sometime the hero you pick does not fit with the other heroes your teammates choose, so in the end all heroes should be your favourite.

 

• Can you give us a teaser about the kind of things the EU community can expect from GameForge?

I’d like to but right now nothing is written in stone so it’s really too early to say! What I can say as Community Manager is that I will try to be as close to the community as possible, listen to the community needs and do my best to make OMD!Unchained Europe a cool place where everyone can have fun and enjoy themselves!

 

Shout Out

• Is there anything you would like to say to all the OMD fans out there right now?

Play fair, have fun, stay away from Mountain Trolls and feel free to poke me whenever you feel the need!