S4 · Episode 6

Every Community Manager has a different way of doing things

with Danreb Victorio

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Today’s guest is Danreb Victorio, Community Coordinator at Gamers Outreach — a nonprofit that brings video game entertainment to children in hospitals through their signature GO Kart kiosks. Danreb has over ten years in community management, starting as a volunteer moderator on GameSpot at just fourteen years old, co-founding the games media site Smashpad, and spending seven years at Glu Mobile on the Tap Sports Baseball series, including through the company’s acquisition by EA.

We talk about what it’s like to build a community around a game you’re not personally a superfan of, and why Danreb insists on genuine one-on-one human interaction. Danreb shares how going through thirty interviews and not landing a role affected his mental health, what helped him through it, and what he’d tell anyone today who wants to get into community management.

Games mentioned in this episode:

Find Danreb on:

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Transcription

Steve McLeod
Today I’m joined by Danreb Victorio. Danreb is currently community coordinator at an organization called Gamers Outreach. Welcome to the show, Danreb.

Danreb Victorio
Thank you so much, Steve. Happy to be here.

Steve McLeod
First question is what is gamers outreach and what does a community coordinator do in that organization?

Danreb Victorio
Yeah, Gamers Outreach is a nonprofit organization and one of the main things that we do is we bring entertainment to kids in hospitals via video games. We are most known for our go-kart, GO, Gamers Outreach, and what that is is it’s a medically graded kiosk with a console outfitted inside of it so that kids can play with them in hospitals and, you know, have a much better time in what’s usually gonna be a stressful situation. these consoles are current gen, so it would be Switch, Xbox Series S or X, PS5.

So, you they’re outfitted with all the latest stuff. And yeah, whatever they want to play, normally it’s there as long as it’s a game within the unit. So yeah, it’s just a way to bring back that sense of normalcy. And as for what a community coordinator does, it’s very much, you know, what the title says. So, you know, I work a lot with our community, you know, I’m on Discord a lot, making sure that I’m answering questions. I am the main person for any sort of external communication, just part of the marketing team.

I handle all of our emails. I already mentioned Discord. I write all of our blogs. So if you’ve been on gamersoutreach.org and you’ve seen any of the communication there, I’m normally ahead of that. And we’re also at a lot of events throughout America. We’ve been to things like Evo, PAX West, Child Life Conference, which I’m actually going to later this week. So if you’ve ever seen the Gamers Outreach booth, I help, you know, build that and I stay there and talk about our our organization. It’s been a wonderful experience.

Steve McLeod
Okay, it’s quite similar to a community management role, but we called a coordinator, but you’re actually hands on interacting with people. The people is it like the sponsors, is it the children, is it the parents, is it the hospitals, or all of that that you interact with as community coordinator?

Danreb Victorio
Yeah, it’s really a mix of everything. I wanna say the people that I talk to the most are our donors who can be just about anybody. Like you can go on the website right now and donate however much you want and that’ll pretty much put you on our mailing list and I handle everything from there. I also talk to partners, you know, we’re partnered with various companies, both in gaming and in healthcare. as I mentioned, I’m going to the Child Life Conference later on this week in Chicago.

And that’s a chance for me to talk to a lot of the child life specialists and the partners that we’re in around the world. So yeah, it’s definitely a pretty cool and humbling experience for me, especially me being Filipino American. We’re known for having like quite a platoon of nurses throughout the world. So it’s definitely an atmosphere that I’m, you know, already aware of and ready to be in.

Steve McLeod
This is pretty fantastic. I took a look at the Games Outreach website before the call started and I saw the sick children you were talking about and I didn’t quite understand exactly what you guys were. So if I understood correctly, it’s this modified, adapted user interface for the console so that it works well in the hospital setting. Did I get that right?

Danreb Victorio
It’s really more of the hardware. We don’t really do much to modify the user interface. Like it’s pretty much, you know, your typical Xbox or PlayStation or Switch dashboard, maybe with some like Gamers Outreach branding on it and new settings to make sure that they don’t use the internet and things like that. But really the thing that the hospitals really enjoy is the fact that it does look like hospital equipment.

And then you the console’s in there, it’s easy for them to use. You just use one plug and everything’s plugged in and there isn’t really much to do from there because we already set it up with our settings to make sure that’s appropriate for kids.

Steve McLeod
That explains what I saw then. Yes, it does look like hospital equipment with a really cool screen and and so on. That’s wonderful. I also saw on your website that this is not just local to where you live. These are these are all over the place, lots of the US, but also in UK and some places in Europe. That’s fantastic. And you’ve been working there for long?

Danreb Victorio
It’s gonna be two years and it’s coming up September. So it’s definitely been a fun time.

Steve McLeod
Okay. Now tell me then let’s go a little bit back to how it began for you. So I’m assuming this is part of your story at work in a community, but is this where it began or were there were there was there a path beforehand that you got and took to get to the world of community management?

Danreb Victorio
There is definitely a long path beforehand. I have been doing community management for over ten years and this isn’t only my second year with Gamers Outreach, so it goes back quite a bit.

Steve McLeod
Tell us, tell us how it began. In as much detail as you’d like.

Danreb Victorio
No worries. this is actually my favourite interview question whenever I have been interviewed for roles. But yeah, basically I have always been passionate about gaming. My mom likes to say that Mario was my babysitter. Like she would leave me there with the controller and I as soon as I pressed A, seeing him jump. Like that was some of the most amazing stuff in the world to me. So I always knew that I wanted to be involved in gaming through some way. and that honestly started when I was in middle school.

I was a community moderator for GameSpot, you know, one of the top games media sites right now. And I was fourteen years old when I was a moderator. And what they did basically was they took care of the forums. You know, they made sure that there was no bad or illegal discussions happening and at the same time they were interacting with the various members of the forum just to make sure that all the discussion is good. And, you know, from there I met a lot of cool people. I actually started my own website called smashpad.com.

And basically, when all of our founders were former GameSpot moderators. Who like, you know, we were in GameSpot for a while. We were there for like maybe eight years before we decided to do our own thing. And yeah, like I’m somebody who is involved in the industry with the games media side. I still do it. I, you know, write reviews, write previews, I go to events to actually cover the games on top of, you know, what I for Gamers Outreach now because I have that kind of flexibility and I absolutely love it.

Steve McLeod
Yeah.

Danreb Victorio
But yeah, I didn’t actually get a paid role until about 2016. So, you know, like I’m in middle school, sixteen years old, and then all of a sudden, you know, it’s like what, four years after college before getting my first paid role in the industry, and I became the community agent for a mobile games company called Glu Mobile. And I was assigned to work on the Tap Sports Baseball series. And I was there for about seven years. So from 2016 to 2024.

In 2021, we were actually acquired by EA. So that was a pretty cool connection there. Mainly because, you know, our game made was really successful. We broke records as far as like revenue every year. We had a license with the MLB. at the time we were like one of the most profitable video games for MLB and Glu.

And anyway, as I’m sure you’ve heard from a lot of other community magic we’ve had on the show, I got laid off in 2024 along with like, you know, everybody else. Our studio was shut down. And it was a rough time. I spent six months unemployed and I again I am somebody who was employed since he was sixteen. I had an internship at IBM when I was sixteen and that’s how I started working. And you know…

Steve McLeod
You had an internship at IBM, the big like, the big computer company.

Danreb Victorio
The big the big computer comp yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Steve McLeod
Whoa that’s that’s that’s something you glossed over. That’s quite, wow…

Danreb Victorio
Yeah. It’s like honestly, it’s something it that I’m both proud of and not proud of, mainly because I think that opportunity overqualified me for everything that I wanted to do. You know, I was sixteen years old, you know, I was being paid like eighteen out eighteen dollars an hour, which was really, really high at around that time.

Steve McLeod
Gotcha.

Danreb Victorio
And you know, that helped help me help pay for my senior year of high school, it paid for prom and all that, it helped pay for my first few years of college. But, you know, that was only limited internship. And when it came to like getting quote unquote regular jobs for people my people my age to have, nobody would hire me. it wasn’t until H&M the clothing company, gave me a chance. And I’m not gonna lie, like I sounded quite desperate in my interview. I was like give me a chance, I’ll give you, you know, the the best I can possibly give you.

And I lasted five years there. So, you know, a lot of the roles that I’ve had, if you looked at my LinkedIn or my resume, I’ve had for more than a few years ’cause I really believe in company devotion. And you know, that’s something that I still think is rewarding despite like what we’re seeing in the current marketplace. So yeah.

Steve McLeod
I’d like to hear more about that I’d like to hear more about that unemployment story, but first just a couple of details I wanna fill in. So the MLB game was acquired by EA. Did that make you an EA employee for a little while? Is that what happened? And was it EA was it EA who closed down the the studio?

Danreb Victorio
Yes, yes. Both. so what happened was EA actually acquired the whole company. So they with that they also took our entire portfolio of games, one of them being in Tap Sports Baseball.

Steve McLeod
Okay, and how was that?

Danreb Victorio
And the cool thing along with that is… So it’s a mixed reaction, to tell you the truth. I was excited. You know, when I was at Glu I was the longest tenured community manager there. there really wasn’t much of a path up for me at that time. And then when EA acquired us you know, all of a sudden there were people who have been working on games for more than ten years.

And I like, cool, I get to learn from these folks and, you know, whatever it may be and yeah, I was excited about it. But of course at the same time, like they have a bit of a reputation, amongst various people in the industry for whatever reasons that they have. And the only real negative that I had a aside from my layoff was I felt that the period of acquisition could have gone better.

I didn’t feel like we were, we didn’t we I didn’t feel like we were really merged into the EA culture all that much. Like they gave us a shirt, announced that they’re that they’d absorb our tenure, which was, you know, great when I was laid off. But at the end of the day, like I didn’t really feel like I was a part of EA until I joined one of their employee resource groups.

And that one was called Aspire and basically it was one that was geared towards Asian American people. And it’s funny because my first meeting with that employee resource group was a meeting that I led because I was talking about Filipino American History Month and you know, my culture is really, really important to me. So having that experience was definitely an interesting thing.

Steve McLeod
That’s wonderful. I think I’ve never had that process of having a job at a small company and then suddenly finally the job has become a job at a much bigger company. But I can imagine that that there is quite a lot of culture shift that happens around you, yeah, either in the short term or the long term.

Danreb Victorio
Yes. Mm-hmm. Gotcha. Sorry, it’s called the onboarding process. There, I felt like the onboarding process wasn’t

Steve McLeod
And then and then so EA yeah, you kinda got lucky that it was EA you did the layoff because they had the resources to maybe pay you longer, pay give you a better payout, or is that something you think was accurate?

Danreb Victorio
I do remember getting a slight bump in pay. And at the at the time I was also like on according to Glassdoor, I was being paid on the upper echelon of people in my position. But the cool thing about being acquired by EA was they also absorbed our tenure. So I was at Glu already for six years at that point, and at the time I was laid off I was there for seven, which looks better in certain ways I don’t really I don’t really want to talk about.

Steve McLeod
Okay, yeah. So you mentioned that that you did have to then endure unemployment for a while, like many people, 2024 was not a good year for you, and 2025 wasn’t a great year for many people in the industry too. But if you’re willing to tell me about how unemployment was for you. Let’s hear this because this is the type of real thing in the industry that we tend not to talk about too much. And if you’re willing, I’d love to hear how that was for you.

Danreb Victorio
Yeah, it’s it was it was a rough process, especially since it was already happening throughout the industry and I’m somebody who’s very plugged into it. I remember going to the Game Awards a few months before I was laid off and getting to meet Amir Satvat, who’s, you know, helped pioneer like this movement to find new homes for people who were displaced in the gaming industry. And I joined his community and luckily by the time that I was, you know, let go, I was already a part of his community.

I was helping people with their resumes and whatever it may be. And yeah, it was it was a rough experience. Not b n not just because of how frustrating it was for everybody, but because of how you felt. And I had a lot of the that I forget what it’s called, but the word that comes to mind or term that comes to mind is survivor’s guilt, where it’s like, okay, everybody around me is like being chopped up and I’m just here in my white tower. And then eventually when it came to me, I was like…

It’s funny, it was it was both a sigh of relief, like just to show that I wasn’t all that different, but at the same time, like someone who loses their job who has never really taken a break is a really traumatic experience, and that was tough to go through. So, you know, I went on LinkedIn like immediately and you know, applied to as many jobs as I could, and I got interviews like pretty much right away. And, you know, that definitely added to my confidence.

But what quickly took all of that away was the fact that I in that course of six months I had over thirty interviews with different companies. And I didn’t get my yes until Gamers Outreach gave me theirs. And that was tough. You know, I’m somebody who really prepares for everything that he does. there were a couple roles that I was really, really excited for that I think I got into the last round for. And, you know, just getting a no from there just made me feel weird.

And being a community manager, I don’t know what kind of message you got from everybody else that you’ve talked to, but a lot of studios only have one. And my myself included. So that means I know a lot of people in the industry who have my same title. So a lot of them are my friends and at the same time a lot of them end up being my competition, or if that’s the word you want to use, and it’s a rough situation because when it’s a no and it’s not you, you wonder who it is, because you know who there’s a lot of qualified people for that role as well.

And if you see that none of them are hired, it’s kind of like seeing, okay, we’d rather have nobody than some of the best community managers in the industry. And that’s definitely something that ate up my mental health.

Steve McLeod
Thank you for sharing this. You did say it was tough, but in in what ways can you give some very specific ways about how it’s tough? Like did it get hard to get out of bed or did it affect your personal life or and so on.

Danreb Victorio
Mm-hmm. It definitely affected different facets of my life in different ways. You know, one thing that I keep mentioning is the fact that I’ve been working since I was sixteen. You know, if you’ve never really taken a break aside from vacations and you’ve worked throughout that entire time, having that steady stream of income is something that gives you a lot of like, you know, warmth or comfort. Those are the words. And, you know, I lost that and that definitely affected me. You know.

I live in the Bay Area. It is not very it is not affordable here. In fact I live with my parents and I, you know, that’s a pride thing that I don’t really like talk about all that much just because, you know, I come off as this super professional person, but at the same time it’s like, you know, he lives with his parents. It is what it is. But at the same time it’s like…

Steve McLeod
To be fair, as soon as he said this said you lived in the Bay Area, I thought, surely he must live with his parents because yeah.

Danreb Victorio
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that’s funny ’cause like here it’s normal. Everywhere else it’s not really much of a thing anymore. So, you know, I’ve definitely been fortunate to have that happen for me, but I also have, you know, quite a bit of support in various places in the industry. You know, I mentioned the Amir Satvat’s community before. I met a lot of friends there. we help each other in different ways, and one of them is just making sure that, you know, we’re not alone and whatever it may be. So that that definitely helps.

The hard part is again, like just going through the processes over and over and getting that rejection. And at the same time, it’s like the things that you were doing in life, you know, you have to be able to like cut some certain things and just find comfort and all of that in any way that you can. I am somebody that, you know, really enjoyed my gym memberships.

I have to cut those as a result, like, you know, gain some weight here and there. Of course you have you have stress eating at some times. And it’s just yeah, not a really fun way to live. But at the same time, finding that extra spark to help you get through the day definitely helps.

Steve McLeod
Were you tempted to start looking outside of the games industry and move on to a different career? Yeah.

Danreb Victorio
I did. Yeah. There was never a point where I was like really trying to hone in on any single part. It just happened to be where it happened to be a situation where I have seven years in gaming for one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. So, you know, people are going to want you as a result of that. But at the same time it’s like we’re still going through it. We don’t know when this will end or if it’ll ever end.

And we have to be flexible in that regard. And like that’s one thing that I always talk about in regards to being into community management. Like I noticed that in one of the first questions you asked me, it’s like you do stuff that a regular community manager does. And like that’s something I slightly d disagree with because I feel like every community manager has a different way of doing things. And it’s really changed throughout the years.

Steve McLeod
Yeah, good point. Do you like baseball? Are you a big fan of baseball?

Danreb Victorio
I do like baseball. I do like baseball, but it is my last priority amongst all the sports that I’m interested in. I’m a huge sports fan, but baseball is the one that I’m least interested in and the only time I really pay attention is if one I’m working on it or two, the SF Giants are doing well and they are not right now.

Steve McLeod
Haha. Do you do you know where I’m going with this question? Any suspicion? Where do you think I’m going with this question?

Danreb Victorio
Yes, I do know where you’re going with this question. Yeah. I am going to assume that you’re going to ask about, you know, working on primary projects that you don’t really have a passion for. Yeah.

Steve McLeod
That’s exactly what I was getting at. Yes. I’m really curious because I think this is a common thing in the games industry, especially for community people. Maybe half the people, a third of the people get to work on a game they’re passionate about. But what is it like being the community person on a game that’s not really your thing?

Danreb Victorio
Yeah. I mean I think the main thing here was that I was a big sports fan and I play a lot of sports video games. So, you know, you can definitely apply those skills in that way. that was def that was definitely a knock on me when I was first interviewing for this role. But again, I really hammered down the fact that I was a sports fan. And, you know, the funny thing about this is I said that I was working on Tap Sports Baseball, and a lot of the preparation that I went through in order to get this role was playing a game called Tap Sports Football, which they also which they also published and developed.

And the funny thing about that is when I was gloating about that game, they told me they sunseted it. So I was like, cool, I’m talking about a cancelled game. But you know it had a lot of the same DNA. And in regards to things like sports and sports video games, a lot of what you’ll see on social media is the same. So, you know, as long as I know how to relate with those people, and you know, speak to those people in such a manner that’s both understanding and, you know, trying to be on their side, then I definitely had that for me.

The other thing that really worked for me was the fact that I was writing about video games for more than ten years at that point. They’re so they’re like, okay, Danreb’s a gamer. And like the funny thing is when I eventually got that role, there wasn’t really anybody in the studio who played console video games as much as I did. Like there were some people who with a League of Legends on their screens and like Grand Theft Auto, but they didn’t play like, you know, the various RPGs or Nintendo games that I did. So that was definitely a culture shock to me.

Steve McLeod
And once you’re actually working in the game and trying to relate to the community, was it did you sometimes feel like you had to pretend to be something you weren’t? I mean, football and baseball, yes, they’re both sports, but they’re different sports, right? Did was it like uncomfortable at times or you just found that, as you said, you did find the similarities between something else and you tried to embrace that more?

Danreb Victorio
Mm-hmm. Honestly, there wasn’t really a lack of comfort when it came to talking about the game, just because like those are resources I already I already had at my disposal. And even though like, you know, baseball was my last watch sport, you know, it doesn’t mean I didn’t watch it. So there were points where I definitely understood the conversation. But when you got more granular in the, you know, sports lounge talk, that’s where I tended to, you know, shy away. But at the same time, like my job’s to talk about the game, my job’s to promote the game.

So that definitely helps in that regard. but honestly, like the easy part was the fact that I was a gamer, but the hard part was the fact that when it comes to mobile games, you know, we’re talking about microtransactions, we’re talking about things that go wrong when you make your purchase. And the hard part for me was the fact that I had to build what was called our VIP program. And to be part of our VIP program, you had to have at least spent X amount on our game.

So basically I was talking to people that were spending big money. That was where I was like a little where I felt a little discomfort. And I eventually like got over it by well in my job previous to that, I was working in international real estate. So I was already talking to people with money. So I had to like pull that side of me along with the gamer side of me. And I just sort of marry things and at the same time it’s just, you know.

Putting myself in their shoes, if something I paid for wasn’t working, yeah, I’m gonna complain too. So I’m gonna, I just wanna make sure like that works in that regard.

Steve McLeod
So in the very first episode of the very first season of this podcast, I talked to James Croucher, whose first job as a community manager was for a train simulator. And he had no interest in trains at the time. And he found that the community like there’s no way you could pretend with that community because they were like these are people who knew exactly how many bolts are on the side of a particular model of train and so on.

Danreb Victorio
Wow. The engineering and everything, wow.

Steve McLeod
So yeah, at least I at least you yeah, exactly. At least you understood the basic sport. okay, let’s move on. I have another question for you. How do you learn to do your job better as a community coordinator or when you’re a a community manager? What were the resources or the go to places you looked to to do your job better?

Danreb Victorio
Honestly, when I first started, I just did things on the fly based on what I knew. when I was doing the volunteer moderating at GameSpot, I already had a taste of what quote unquote toxicity looked like. Not to mention I was somebody who was already on social media and like when you’re when you’re a fan of a sports team, there’s a lot of debates online. sometimes a lot of course language is gonna be used as well. So it’s stuff that I was already used to.

I think being online frequently was definitely a resource if anything, because especially when you’re doing community management that involves a lot of social media, you have to be on top of the memes, you know? So when it comes to being hilarious or if for example, when a fire happened back at Glu, that involved, you know, the game not loading, you’re like I had to be able to like make fun of ourselves in a tasteful way.

So I like to use the Donald Glover bringing pizza to a party and the party’s on fire, kind of meme. Just ways to really make fun of yourself and take a lot of the gravity out of the situation. And the number one thing was me making sure that when you’re talking to me, like you’re talking to a quasi-dev and not really someone in customer service. Because unfortunately, sometimes in the industry we have people in customer service who like really just sound like they’re in customer service.

Like, I never liked using canned responses or things like that. I’m someone that really specialized in actual one-on-one interactions with the community or even specific people. So yeah, it was really important for me to come off as human. And I think as long as you have like the basic social human skills, like it all really helps in that regard. I’m somebody who can come off really professional or I am somebody who can be a complete jokester. It just depends on the energy that I’m given. And, you know, I just try to be visible in that regard. And luckily I’ve had management that have agreed with that side because you know at the end of the day it’s not fun to always come to a situation where everyone’s mad at you.

And with community management, that is oftentimes the case, whether it be because the game, the gamers aren’t getting what they want or the developers aren’t really aren’t really able to deliver what’s being asked for. Because oftentimes when it comes to gacha style games, all of the feedback is going to be ways to make the game cheaper, which doesn’t make studio money. So yeah.

Steve McLeod
We had a big mobile game, look at my using my product, my company’s product feature upvote. And they made the point that it was gonna tell them that the number one piece of feedback they were gonna get is that they didn’t want to have to pay for the premium stuff and they needed to charge for the premium stuff to make the game work. So yeah, and unfortunately as the community person, you’re you are the one having to relay that message. I can understand your conundrum.

I really like what you said about not using canned responses. I think that’s so nice. Of course, it’s easy to use a canned response. You don’t have to think for yourself. But I think people see right through them. They know what their canned response is and don’t feel listened to. So I really like that. So if I if I recap, so you said that having been online a lot, like we all are these days, and that helps you do your job as a community manager better, but also being willing to be a person.

Danreb Victorio
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Steve McLeod
A real person and not just a machine that spits out canned responses. And being willing to joke around a bit and actually accept that acknowledge that things are wrong when they are wrong. And yeah, I guess you.

Danreb Victorio
Mm. Absolutely. Yeah. I think like transparency in ways that, you know, only you know are possible are great.

Steve McLeod
Yeah. I guess you don’t want to be coming in too lighthearted in a situation where people are angry. Maybe if they’ve paid for something and the server’s down. That would be a challenge, right? How would you go about that situation if you needed to start interacting with the community in a situation which the server was down and they couldn’t play the game they had played paid for?

Danreb Victorio
Yeah, the number one thing for me is just realizing that it is okay to step away sometimes. I don’t mean, you know, totally run away from the situation. I mean that sometimes silence is golden. at the same time it’s a reality that I fight with because I believe in responding to everybody, but at the same time it’s you’re gonna encounter so many trolls online who are just trying to get any sort of negative response from you that they can use against you. So, you know.

You know, having been used to that attitude and all of a sudden coming to Gamers’ Outreach where all of my social media is very positive has been, you know, enlightening for me. So there’s that. But at the same time it’s like, yeah, when it when it comes to dealing with somebody who’s difficult because they’re having an actual difficult situation, you know, it’s always best to put the put yourself in their shoes. And if it’s something that’s not solvable at the moment, you know, rest assured knowing that it’s something that we will fix and just you know, I had the flexibility of giving them in game items to help, you know, to help reassure them.

But at the same time, that’s not always going to work. And the number one thing there is just being like, Okay, like we don’t have the situation right now, but we’re gonna fix it. Trust us, we’re on it. And aside from that, like one of my biggest hurdles was, you know, getting these messages on Discord or email on my off hours, you know, and you know.

We’re always encouraged to like not do anything there. But again, I am somebody who thinks empathetically a lot. If I was spending my time and my money playing a game and something wasn’t working, yeah, I’m gonna be upset about it. So it’s always good to know that, you know, there’s somebody who’s willing to help in whatever small way possible, whether that’s be whether that’s giving them a freebie or at least, you know, giving them the quality of a response, then that would be that would be my way of going about it. But at the end of the day, as long as they’re being respectful, it’s fine. But if it gets to a point where you’re being unreasonable.

That’s where I usually draw the line.

Steve McLeod
Nice answer. It’s a question I want to ask you that’s just come to my mind. I haven’t asked anybody this on the podcast. Given your was it about six months of unemployment and seeing really good friends who are also I mean, really good community managers who are friends of yours also struggle in that time. If someone young came to you today and said, I want to be a community manager, what would you advise that person? Would you advise them to actually go look elsewhere or would you encourage them to get into the CM role?

Danreb Victorio
It really depends. You know, if you were to ask me two years ago, I would have just flat out said no. I said that a lot when I was at GDC when I was looking for a job myself a couple of years ago. I go to GDC every year, by the way, it’s a wonderful event getting to meet younger people who, you know, want to get into what you do or get in the industry at least. But yeah, like I just like tell them, first of all, this is how it’s going right now. It’s not going well for anybody. So, you know, don’t be offended if X happens or Y happens and whatever it may be.

I tell them to keep an open mind of things, and that’s what I tell anybody, even if they’re already in community management, you have to keep an open mind. Like I am someone who you know, admittedly does not do too well with analytics. You know, I do know like, you know, my A’s and my B’s, but you know, when it comes to the really granular stuff, it’s something that I definitely can get better at. And that’s something that community managers should always know. There is always something they can be better at.

Whether it’s social media, whether it’s analytics, whether it’s actually talking to a player. There is always something in you something in your toolkit that you can sharpen. And the only way you can really do that is by putting yourself in that situation and actually dealing with it. And if you’re happy with the result, then that means you did it well. If you’re not happy, it doesn’t mean you did it well, it just means you can do it better next time.

Steve McLeod
Nice, thank you. Now we are getting short of time, but there is one final I would think the most important question to ask. What game have you been playing lately?

Danreb Victorio
Okay. That is a complicated question to ask someone in games media because there are games that I can’t talk about yet. Luckily we’re not gonna be on for a few weeks, right? So there’s that. so right now, I have just finished Bluey4D. Or no not blue, sorry, I just combined the games. I just finished Bubsy4D. And the funny thing is Bubsy is sort of a punchline in the industry because all of the Bubsy games are bad. This one is good. I’m not gonna tell you how good, we’ll wait for those reviews. So I really enjoyed what I played.

The other game I’m I’ve been playing is Bluey and the Quest for the Gold Pen. I’m sure a lot of parents are very familiar with Bluey. Bluey is a BBC Disney cartoon who is like geared towards kids. And yeah, the it’s a bit of an action adventure game where you just look for different items and find them and whatever it may be. And basically it’s about the little dog who’s father dog was sort of mean to her by hiding a gold pen and you have to go find it.

And the way you find it is you go through a whole bunch of adventures in these various pieces of the world. So that that’s really nice. As for games that are actually out, I am really, really enjoying Forza Horizon 6. that one’s on the Xbox Series X. I’m not even that big of a car or driving fan, but I just got to a point where I was racing with a Gundam and I was like, wow, this is awesome.

Like the whole pull with Forza Horizon 6 is that you’re in Japan and this series has lasted for quite a while and the five the fact that we’re finally in Japan and I love Japanese culture and I’ve never been to Japan, like it all worked for me. So yeah, that’s what I’m playing.

Steve McLeod
Wow. I have to add that Bluey is Australian. Yes, the BBC sells distributes it worldwide. It’s from Queensland. In case anybody from Australia is listening, it’s very important we got that detail right. I played the Bluey game on the Xbox with my daughter a lot, but I did not realise there was a new one coming. The game that exists is one of those games that they basically create using the IP for children. You know, it’s nothing special, but this game you’ve described sounds really good. Bluey and the golden pen, did you call it?

Danreb Victorio
Bluey and the Quest for the Gold Pen. and it’s funny because I’m not reviewing this game or anything. Actually a colleague of mine is reviewing it, but the reason why I’m playing it, aside from the fact that we got a second code, is because I love getting the achievements, and this is a game that where it’s really easy to get them.

Steve McLeod
Cool. Now as we record on eighteenth of May, Forza Horizon 6. I am a big fan of the Forza Horizon series. Forza Horizon 6 is one day from becoming until it’s available on the game Xbox Game Pass. So I will be playing that game tomorrow. I’ve just been looking for it for it for a long time. So it’s good to hear you’re somebody got to play it a bit earlier, but it’s good. yeah. Great. Did we d were they the games you said? Bubsy?

Danreb Victorio
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Great.

Steve McLeod
Okay, fantastic. Okay, let’s finish up. it’s been great having you on the show, Danreb. where can people get in touch if they’d like to know more about what you do?

Danreb Victorio
Yeah. I mean if you want to know more about what I do, you can go ahead and go on gamersoutreach.org. That is the foundation that I work for. Love working for them. It’s just it’s been it’s been a complete pleasure. You can also follow me on my LinkedIn as well as my Bluesky. Both of my handles there are Danreb. And yeah, basically I post a lot about what I’m doing in the games industry from an industry side or not from an industry side, from a media side.

So I’ll talk about games I’ve reviewed, talks about talk about things I’ve edited, or just talk about the various happenings. I also do my own podcast for Smashpad called the Day Zero Update. We do that every Sunday and we talk about news in the industry. Granted, a lot of it these days is layoffs, but at the same time we do like to mix in some, you know, popular releases and good news too, so yeah.

Steve McLeod
Okay. And the media site is smashpad.com where I saw you actually one of your colleagues recently did a review of Mixtape, right? yes.

Danreb Victorio
Yes. I know. I yeah, actually that was me. I reviewed Mixtape. Yep.

Steve McLeod
Aha, great, great. I’m yeah, it’s another game I’m looking forward to play when I find time. Okay, thanks again, Danreb. Bye.

Danreb Victorio
Thank you, Steve. Yeah.

Steve McLeod
Bye everyone.