S4 · Episode 2

We’re all really creators in some way

with Milissa Maxin

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Today’s guest is Milissa Maxin, Senior Community Manager at Singularity 6, makers of Palia. Milissa’s path into games is anything but conventional. She began her career studying tuba performance at Berklee College of Music before discovering her passion for community building through online roleplay servers and virtual worlds.

We chat about how growing up in early online communities like Toontown, Neopets, RuneScape, and Habbo Hotel shaped her instincts as a community leader, and how her experience organising roleplay servers in games like Grand Theft Auto V became an unexpected foundation for a career in community management. Milissa shares her journey from volunteer moderator to customer support at Linden Lab, and eventually into community leadership roles working on Second Life and Sansar.

She also reflects on the unique power of virtual spaces—especially during the pandemic—including stories of friendships, live events, and even marriages that began inside online communities. Along the way, we discuss the importance of continuous learning, empowering player creativity, and why community building is ultimately about fostering meaningful human connections across the globe.

Games mentioned in this episode:

Find Milissa on:

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Transcription

Steve McLeod
Today I’m joined by Milissa Maxin. Milissa is currently Senior Community Manager at Singularity Six, makers of cozy MMO Palia, or as I would pronounce it in my accent, “Pah-lia”. She has one of the more unusual paths into the industry. She studied music, specifically tuba performance, but today she is a community manager. Welcome to the show, Milissa.

Milissa Maxin
Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure.

Steve McLeod
Shall we start with your path into community management? Should we go with the music angle or the game angle? How would you like to tell us how you got to be where you are today?

Milissa Maxin
I mean, I think they really have to have a little bit of both to understand how I kinda got to the place that I am, but happy to touch on either one first.

Steve McLeod
Do you get to use tuba performance very much in your day-to-day life as a community manager?

Milissa Maxin
You know, you wouldn’t think so, but it comes up more often than you think.

Steve McLeod
Really? Tell me how.

Milissa Maxin
I’ve played virtual shows before with the tuba, although I usually stick to guitar and singing in like virtual worlds and such. And you know, I’d say using music more often than tuba, but you know, I’ve even composed a few things for games and put that music degree to good use.

Steve McLeod
So this is specifically as a community manager or just with other activities outside of that?

Milissa Maxin
I’d say mostly just as in the video game industry in general, but yeah, I still like to keep fresh and play my tuba every so often and I’ve played in a few video game orchestras for fun.

Steve McLeod
That’s cool. That’s cool. Let’s go back to the very beginning. Where did you get your interest in being in the games industry?

Milissa Maxin
I was, I like to say I grew up online very early. I was on the computer at about age four and I jumped into online communities at about age nine, so sorry about that.

Steve McLeod
Is that appropriate? Hahaha.

Milissa Maxin
Haha, I don’t know! I was very interested in, you know, gaming and as soon as I could get one of those very old like gosh, Tan computers. I can’t even remember what they were called, I was just hopping on there and I played games, my games of choice at the time were like Toontown. I was really into Toontown and Neopets, RuneScape, Habbo Hotel, just some very early 2000’s games that were popular at the time. And yeah.

Steve McLeod
You’re not the first guest I’ve had in the show’s to mention RuneScape. I think that game was really, really influential on a whole generation of gamers.

Milissa Maxin
I believe it. I know many people from that era that were just absolutely enamored by RuneScape and a lot of people say that was a really happening time for RuneScape.

Steve McLeod
So did you already then have an idea that you wanted to work in the games industry, even though you were going down the music path?

Milissa Maxin
Absolutely zero idea. I didn’t even consider it an option, honestly.

Steve McLeod
So how did that happen? You then finished high school and started went to I guess a music conservatory or…

Milissa Maxin
Yeah. Yeah, no, I grew up in a, at the time smaller Texas town. It’s bigger now, but I ended up going to Berkeley College of Music and moved from Texas to Boston into the big city and you know, I was always kinda creative. I got into text role play as I was a teen and I was very, it was the early ages of when they were mixing like text role play and video games. And so I was… yeah!

Steve McLeod
Sorry, fill me in there, what’s text role play? This is new concept for me.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, like people kind of writing a collaborative storybook together, you know, playing a character. I think the best way to describe it is really just a giant story that everybody kind of contributes to individually and it continues on.

So you know, you’ll type out what your character says, what they do. It’s pretty fun. It’s pretty fun. It’s very creative, collaborative creation.

Steve McLeod
Okay, kind of inspired a little bit by Mad Libs and role playing that go together.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah. Like Dungeons and Dragons, but online and texting.

Steve McLeod
Okay. Okay. So that’s what you’re doing as a hobby, but you’re actually studying music and I’m still trying to work out how you did the switch from music to games. How did that work?

Milissa Maxin
Well, I was playing tuba by day. I was you know, tootin’ around on that tuba and then, you know, during the times between classes and that I wasn’t, you know, doing other on-campus things, I would be on these role play servers and I, you know, became an administrator. I would help out, I would make events on these gaming servers and you know, sorry to my professors, I should have been practising, but you know, it was kind of Hannah Montana, a little bit of best of both worlds there.

Steve McLeod
Uh-huh. And you said you were an administrator in a forum, but this was a voluntary role or this was something you were getting paid for? Or just with your own forums?

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, initially it was a volunteer. and yeah, it was actually on the game, so you’d be typing into kind of a chat interface on top of the game, whether it was there was one on Minecraft than there was one on San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto. And that was the one that really I stuck to for about nine years.

Steve McLeod
Wow. Well, and then how did that turn into a job?

Milissa Maxin
So one day somebody from that community approached me and this is after Grand Theft Auto V had launched. It was like, Hey, we should do this for Grand Theft Auto V. And this was a couple of folks, international folks, like about three folks that I had. I said folks a lot, but three friends that I had that were over in Europe and they were like, Yeah, we’ve like what we’ve been doing here. Let’s take it over to Grand Theft Auto V. And it was one of the very first servers on Grand Theft Auto V.

And around the same time, Grand Theft Auto V roleplay really took off on Twitch. And so it was just kind of like a rocket at that point after we established this area. And I was you know, kind of leading up the community. I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t know that’s what a, you know, what I was doing kind of fell in the community management umbrella, but it was something I enjoyed doing and bringing people together to write this crazy wacky story book together.

Steve McLeod
And that was paid or this was still voluntary work?

Milissa Maxin
This was a little bit a mix of both. You know, we got perks, but I wouldn’t say a full time kind of position. but you know, we got to a point where we were you know, getting perks from it, I should say.

Steve McLeod
Types of perks. Can you say?

Milissa Maxin
It’s been so long, I think, you know, we get a DoorDash credit every now and then or something like that. It was a long time ago, but yeah, I’d say it’s a solid mix.

Steve McLeod
Uh-huh. And how did that lead into a community management role?

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, so I graduated from Berkeley. I had you know, done a lot of things kind of video game adjacent, particularly playing in the video game orchestras and kind of playing these kind of backing tracks to video games at the time at Berkeley. And I graduated, I was like, I love playing music, but this is like a really difficult career to continue on with. It’s very cutthroat. I’m sure you know there’s usually like one tuba per orchestra as well.

So, you know, it was like, I really like doing this, but I really love, like, doing this in games as well. And I hadn’t really I’d never heard of community management as a like an official job title at the time. But yeah, no, I during this time I like revisited a platform called Second Life that I had kind of like noodled around on before and they have these like live open mics there.

It’s like a virtual world that you can hop into. It opened in the early 2000’s and you can hop into this virtual world and do virtually anything. There was some like live open mic shows and occasionally for fun I would just go in and either play the guitar or play the tuba. I did a few times. They knew me as tuba girl for a little bit. And I would just play for people and other people would come up too and play their instruments. And it was a really neat time.

Steve McLeod
Second Life was kind of what the metaverse tried to be, right? When the metaverse was proclaimed as this new thing, like a lot of people were saying, No, this is just Second Life, it already exists

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, yeah. I know there’s a lot of traction at the time as well that I ended up, I ended up joining Second Life. So I’ll kind of get a little rewind here a little bit. I hopped in and I found out about this platform they had called Sansar. And I hopped in and I met a few people that were on there, including one of the people that actually worked on the platform. And I hopped on there.

I played a little bit of tuba as well, and we just got started talking and then one of the people that worked there was like, “Hey, by the way, they opened up a customer support role. You should absolutely apply. You know, this is what you’ve been doing anyway.”

After, you know, I explained a little bit of my background. And I was like, I, can I? Is that like a thing you can do? So I ended up applying and you know, I was, I feel very incredibly lucky that, you know, I got an interview and I was a little bit terrified, honestly.

So it was exciting. I ended up interviewing and they were like, Yeah, you’re in. and so I moved to Georgia to start. So another big move there. And I worked on both Sansar and Second Life at the time.

Steve McLeod
What was Sansar exactly?

Milissa Maxin
Sansar was like it was Linden Labs product. It was I the only way I can describe it is kind of like Second Life, but newer like VR integrated, especially. There was a heavy focus on VR. But it was still a virtual world where everybody can contribute and make in these worlds, make their own games and experiences within it. Very much a UGC platform.

Steve McLeod
Okay. So you got in there as customer support. Often customer support does get conflated with community management. In fact, I think there was a time before community manager was a well-known role. In fact, you were often just called customer support. Was that the case for you?

Milissa Maxin
You know, we had a dedicated community manager and I always appreciated being able to kind of go into that space and that’s where I really learned what a community manager was. You know, I hadn’t really… It was around the time that I actually entered the video game industry at that point that I was like, Whoa, that’s yeah, that’s where I want to be.

Steve McLeod
Yep. Tell me more.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, no, you know, I spent time there. I continued to help work on, you know, different community programs putting together you know, these little events. I remember we did like a cybersecurity day event where we all hopped into the virtual Taj Mahal. That was a fun one. And I was, I had a great time helping put those on for people. And eventually the community manager position opened up, actually.

And that same friend was like, “You should email the CEO and tell them that you should be the new community manager.” And in retrospect, absolutely bold move. But I was like, you know what? I should. And I did. And they sent me an email back and were like, Hey, we want you to come out to San Francisco to interview. And I you know, it was a very, very bold move. That CEO is a great person. but yeah, I ended up flying out interviewing and while I didn’t get the role then, I actually was invited to kind of transition over to a marketing specialist.

And that’s where I really built out the virtual events team and like an ambassador team and worked pretty directly with the community team at the time. So it was a pretty big leap of faith there, but it paid off, I feel like, eventually.

Steve McLeod
Leap of faith for them or for you? And when we start we’re still talking we’re still talking about Linden Labs here, right? This is Second Life.

Milissa Maxin
Maybe both! Yes, yes. Second life – Sansar.

Steve McLeod
So you started as customer support, you’re now in a marketing role, but you’re still not a community manager. This is quite a long path to get there. Often a community manager is an entry role for a lot of people, but you’ve built your way there. So yeah, tell me, keep going on with the story there.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah. And so, you know, eventually the community manager role also opens up again. And, you know, I had always said, you know, this is where my interest is. And they ended up kind of transitioning me to that role. And that’s where I really kind of took the reins officially.

I got to meet so many wonderful people. Just absolutely, you know, this was like around 2019-2020. and so, you know, I had already been interacting with a lot of these people and they’re phenomenal, you know, they’re international people from ages eighteen to eighty-nine, like, you know, like it’s just such a diverse group of people from all over the world.

And you know, during this time I was also learning from these people who were, you know, creators, they were developers, they were just a vast collection of talented people. you know, and I was learning how to do 3D modelling. I was learning how to, you know, play virtual DJ shows and stuff at the time, kind of putting my music skills back to work.

And you know, I still got to blend in music at the time. So it was really fun. And you know, we did a lot of integrations with different events. You know, I met some really memorable people like the granddad that did VR DJ shows. Like I said, they taught me how to DJ in VR. We would do like dual shows. They’d invite the community manager to come to an open mic night. And so I still got do that and you know met an Italian fashion designer. I got to explain what Olive Garden was to them and that was a funny time. So they’d never heard of the American restaurant. and yeah there’s so many…

Steve McLeod
Wait, you said Olive Garden?

Milissa Maxin
Yes.

Steve McLeod
See, I only know of this from television shows. I don’t live in America. It’s I don’t think it’s a thing outside of the States.

Milissa Maxin
I don’t think it is and I if you ask the person I introduced it to, they said it shouldn’t be either. They were appalled. But it was a fun time and you know, it was a really unique time because everybody you know, was inside and so a lot of people just turned to the virtual worlds to interact and you know, you really you started to meet people you ever you wouldn’t have ever otherwise come into contact with. And you know, these, we…

It helped because you had a lot of new people coming in. We were hosting these big events with people like the, we had like the Star Trek folks like Rod Roddenberry and their foundation. They were hosting Star Trek events, you know, Monster Cat, the folks at Glastonbury even came in and hosted virtual concerts, you know, Splinter in the Grass, San Rio, Smithsonian, and so many other wonderful folks that just came in and hosted these virtual events where, you know, you had people from almost every country in the world coming to these from all different backgrounds. Yeah!

Steve McLeod
Yeah. Now your time at Second Life eventually came to an end. Is Second Life still running and active?

Milissa Maxin
Absolutely. Absolutely. You never know what you’re gonna find.

Steve McLeod
I kind of get some perverse pleasure out of the fact that the metaverse came with a flash and then died. I think they’ve closed it down recently. And the Second Life has just steadily been going all this time. I don’t know why it is, but I really like this.

Milissa Maxin
It’s really cool and there’s so many amazing creations that have built up over the years that you could still go explore to this very day. It’s really cool that it’s still kicking and that it’s I would say even thriving in many areas.

Steve McLeod
So listeners, I don’t just throw people into these interviews. I do give them an idea of what questions they’re gonna ask, and I give them a chance to create some notes that I can read while we’re we’re talking. And I have to say that Milissa has given me the most detailed set of notes I’ve ever seen from anybody. And so much that I’m struggling to work out what exactly I want to ask next, but there is something I do want to hear.

Tell me about the marriages. So this is normally where I give people a chance to tell me about a memorable, positive moment you’ve experienced as a community manager. But in this case, I’m choosing for you. Tell me about the marriages.

Milissa Maxin
Yes. No, there was especially during the time where all these events were happening, you know, there was all sorts of people that were meeting each other, especially with these events. Like for example we had this-

Steve McLeod
This was during COVID, right? Or I think.

Milissa Maxin
Yes.

Steve McLeod
Right. Yeah. So this is why a lot of stuff’s happening online that would normally happen in real life.

Milissa Maxin
Yes, absolutely.

Steve McLeod
Sorry for interrupting.

Milissa Maxin
So no, no, that’s great context. You know, we had this event called the Comedy Gladiators with Steve Hofstetter, and he would invite different comedians in and we had kind of an area like a live studio audience that we would invite community members from, especially for moderation purposes that we knew probably wouldn’t be trolling, you know, and it causing disruptions to the live show.

Everybody was invited, but these this was kind of like the recording area. So we had our live studio audience. And I invited a couple of community members to come to the first show. one was from the UK, one was from America, and was like, you guys should be part of the live studio audience. And so they came in and they were like, This is our first date, and it was so cute. They were in VR together and they went on their first little VR date together.

And gosh, it was like a year later and they’re like, “Hey, by the way, we’re getting married.”, and so it was so cute to see!

Steve McLeod
That is so cool. Did they invite you to their wedding?

Milissa Maxin
I think it was especially during the pandemic times, like they said they wish they could’ve but yeah, no, it was very difficult to do the transportation at the time.

Steve McLeod
They met each other because you invited both of them into the live audience of this online event.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, I think they had been like you know, they had met known of each other, but this was kind of their first date together. And yeah, it was they were both really awesome community members.

Steve McLeod
Folks, if Milissa invites you into a life studio audience, be careful. It might take you in a direction, your life in a direction you weren’t expecting.

Milissa Maxin
You never know.

Steve McLeod
Let’s go to the the darker equivalent of that question. What’s a story of a challenge you faced as a community manager that stands out in your memory? Because it’s not always easy this job.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, no, it’s not always easy. I could say there’s a really, a story that stands out in my mind. So to give a bit of context, we had hosted, you know, like these events in the virtual world. One of them was where we put together this kind of virtual TV set of a cheesy 70s dating show called Be By Boo. And it was, you know, everything you would expect from a cheesy dating show. And we invited on people that had these like robot avatars, just goofy little silly avatars.

And one of the things that we did was that we did this Star Trek themed version of the dating show. And you know, we had been working with the Roddenberry folks and they invited on Wil Wheaton. And for those that don’t know Wil Wheaton, he’s a famous actor, does a lot of really great stuff and had a role in Star Trek actually. And one of our community members actually made their avatar the from that role in there.

So we invited them on and this was in VR as well. So you could see everybody’s like hand movements, Eye, well, not eye movements, but head movements. And I remember we were preparing for the show, you know, doing backstage like mic checks and stuff like that. And this was in 2020, and you know, we had sent over a VR headset to them. And, you know, part of what I had done or what my responsibility was as community manager at the time was to help kind of host these events. I think I was actually the MC for this one.

But it was also to make sure that the talent was prepped, ready to go. They felt comfortable because this was like kind of a really new time for VR, you know. It previously kind of been a gimmick. You know, I wouldn’t say gimmick, but you know, it was it was something that was very niche before this time. And now it was like everybody was getting into VR. It was a very big boom for the time. And Wil was having some trouble with their VR headset.

And this wasn’t a time where you could exactly just go drive over to somebody’s house and be like, “Hey, like here’s how you fix it.” And so there was some troubleshooting and, you know, you’re talking to Wil Wheaton, you know, like it’s from your bedroom, you know, like or from your office, you know, it’s wild. And so I had to help troubleshoot from miles away.

From somebody who I greatly think is a great actor. And, you know, it was very stressful because you’re like, gosh, I’ve never seen the VR headset they’re working on. Let’s see what we can do. You know, very high, very nerve wracking. Probably just a Tuesday for them, but you know, it was definitely something I will always remember, just trying to make sure that we got it right for Wil.

Steve McLeod
How was he? Was he very, very accepting of the situation? Was he a bit of a prima donna?

Milissa Maxin
I mean, anytime you’re dealing with tech, it’s like troubleshooting a printer. You know. He’s very good sport about it. But yeah, it’s never something you’re like, Man, I really want to troubleshoot this, you know. It’s just like, how do I fix this and get it going?

Steve McLeod
Let’s move on to practical stuff. So one of the reasons I’ve created this podcast is that it’s really hard to find places to learn the skills to be a community manager. There’s very few practical guides for this. Actually there are now a couple of books, but I really like to hear from people how they learn to develop the skills they need in their job. So I’m gonna ask you that. Where do you learn how to do your job as a community manager better?

Milissa Maxin
You know, I like to learn from the other community professionals and I’ve have a couple of those books you mentioned there. Some great stuff. And you know, like there’s a lot of really great community professionals out there, many that have been on this podcast and I think it’s important to never stop learning.

Steve McLeod
Shall we do a name call there? Should we do a name call?

Milissa Maxin
Well, I have Victoria Trans’ book. I think it’s great. And yeah, I’d say that’s the book that I was referencing there.

It’s important to never stop learning. And you know, I also learn by being a part of these communities as well. Whether it’s like online video game communities or real world communities, you know, and the creators from them, you know, you learn a lot from your community members as well. You know, lots of different situations you’re placed into and you wanna make sure that you’re, you know, you’re doing the right thing. So I think it’s really excellent that we have so many great community members and, you know, creators and champions that come with them.

And, you know, I think I think we’re all really creators in some way, you know, is as long as you’re doing anything that is not just consuming, if you’re you know, if you’re even just like making cool things in the game, like a cool in-game house or I’ve seen a bounce house of fish in Second Life before. You know, that’s something as well that you could do.

Or, you know people that write steamy fan fiction about your game about one of the people or multiple characters in your game. You know, it’s you know, even if something as simple as creating a Discord emoji or participating in a conversation, you know, you’re creating. So I think that’s one of the things that’s really rewarding about community is just empowering people that are making anything a big or small related to whatever you’re community managing. you know.

There’s something about the games that gives us this, you know, shared connection. you know, I think that’s really special. I mean, you know, in no other time of history have we had these abilities to meet people from all over the world from all different backgrounds and share in this one love, you know. And when a community thrives, it’s not just something that you’re building as a community lead, you know, your community starts creating with you. And that’s so cool. You know, it’s not just good for business, but it’s so cool.

And you know, being able to do this with an international audience is something that we’ve never been able to do before. Our ancestors, you know, it’s such a cool concept to me and it’s something I’m really passionate about and I, you know, love to keep learning about and love to keep interacting with. You know, it’s what makes leading and being part of these communities so special.

Steve McLeod
Yeah, it’s good thought. I hadn’t thought about that before, but really it’s become so normal now that we can just meet people from around the world, everything games and communities, that one forgets that this is actually not normal, not typical.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, my best friend. I met video gaming, you know, and I’ve had friends from all over the world. I even went to London for the first time because of some of the people that I met in these communities back early on in 2013.

Steve McLeod
Do you stay at their house?

Milissa Maxin
No, no, no. don’t have that much of leap of fait, but hahaha.

Steve McLeod
I’m going to London next week and had to book a hotel. I was just stunned. Like I always am when I’m going to London. I’m just stunned at the prices there. Which is why I was just thinking, how great it would be to have someone to stay with in London. That’s why I asked that question. It says more about me than it does about you.

Milissa Maxin
No, no, not for the first time meeting them. No.

Steve McLeod
And you mentioned like, that you learn from communities. Now I assume you mean the gaming communities, the communities of players, but do you also have any involvement in communities of game professionals or communities of other community managers?

Milissa Maxin
Yeah. I mean, I definitely try to keep up with a lot of the different kind of video game professionals. I mean, I’m part of Women In Games as well. And I think that you can learn from a lot of other excellent folks in that group. And, you know, learning from, you know, especially not even just other community managers, although that’s a great resource, but people in other roles, you know, even at your own company, you know, I think that you really can pick up a lot and learn a lot from them, as you learn kind of their perspective as well as like, you know, what kind of information would be helpful to give to them as a community manager?

You know, what kind of things can I help empower them with? You know, whether it’s engineering, production, you know, any of the different kinds of roles that, you know, it’s good to be able to learn their perspective and how you can continue to help them as the community manager.

Steve McLeod
That’s a great segue into my next question. What tips do you have for people wanting to become a community manager?

Milissa Maxin
Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, keep doing what you’re doing and what you’re passionate about. And, you know, make sure you keep the lights on. You know, this industry could be tough. So, you know, it’s definitely something you’re going through a little bit of a difficult time. But you know, keep making and building those communities. If it’s something you’re passionate about, like, you know, I am/was, especially before I even knew what a community manager was. But keep doing it, even if it’s just your favourite video game community.

Steve McLeod
And by just keep doing it, you mean keep doing what?

Milissa Maxin
Making those communities like the guy did the virtual events or, you know, meeting up, creating events around them or creating a Discord, you know, whatever it is, you know, it just kinda depends on different games, you know. So whatever it is that you’re passionate about, just keep at it. But you know, keep the lights on.

Steve McLeod
Yeah, you keep the lights on. You mentioned that it is a tough industry. And I have to say earlier in our conversation when you said that tuba performance was a tough gig, tough industry. And that you went to games instead. I was thinking, I’m not sure that’s much easier for a lot of people, right? No. It’s not like you pick banking or finance or something where there is just this huge industry. You seem to like to pick the industries that are a bit hard. That have far more people trying to get in than there are places.

Milissa Maxin
No, absolutely. It’s definitely an industry where it helps to have passion for what you’re doing and be interested in it yourself. You know, it’s not a requirement, but it definitely helps.

Steve McLeod
Yeah. Look, we’re running out of time, but I still have one really important question. Some would say the most important question. What game have you been playing lately?

Milissa Maxin
Gotta say, I gotta split it between a few. I’m still occasionally writing stories with others in Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve recently played Grounded. I’ve gone back to-

Steve McLeod
Sorry, sorry, go back to that, what does it mean to be writing stories with others in Red Dead Redemption 2? I think it’s given that I’ve only played like the intro of the game, the first couple of hours, so I’m a little bit of uneducated as to what’s involved in the game.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, I mean they have a roleplay functionality or you know, a created one called RedM and they have roleplay servers. So occasionally I’ll hop in and be a cowgirl for a few days.

Steve McLeod
Okay, I had no idea. Okay. So there’s Red Dead Redemption 2 role playing, making stories inside of it. And what else have you been playing? You said there are some others there.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah. Grounded, which is a fun game. I’ve returned to my roots and I play the game called Toontown Rewritten, which is kind of a fan hosted version of the original game. And Parkitect!

Steve McLeod
Tell me about the Toontown rewritten. Is it have they done a good job? Is it true to the original?

Milissa Maxin
Yeah. I think it’s really nifty. They, it’s very true to the original, but they’ve added a few things that kind of bring it into the modern day and you know, but try to stay pretty true to the original vision.

Steve McLeod
Occasionally I’ll get some really old game I played in my childhood or my twenties and f out of nostalgia I’ll try it. I’m usually really, really disappointed. Usually I find the games are not as good as I remember them being. Now GoldenEye is a classic, but just recently I went and tried that again and it’s like, Wow, this game is like the worst graphics. I can’t believe this was cutting edge in the day.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, you always remember it as like being this like, whoa, innovative thing at the time too, you know, and you look back and you’re like, Whoa, this was you know…

Steve McLeod
I remember the past games as if they had today’s standard of graphics and design and artwork.

Milissa Maxin
Absolutely, absolutely.

Steve McLeod
Milissa, that’s all we have time for today. So thanks again for being on the show.

Milissa Maxin
Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Steve McLeod
We can listeners get in touch if they’d like to know more about what we’ve discussed today.

Milissa Maxin
Yeah, you can of course find me on the Palia Discord. But you can also find me on my LinkedIn, Milissa Maxin.

Steve McLeod
Okay, we’ll have links both to your LinkedIn profile and to the Palia Discord. Thanks again. Bye Milissa.

Milissa Maxin
Thanks so much. Take care.

Steve McLeod
Bye everyone.