Mathew "Berek" Anderson
Lead Community Manager

  • Manager and moderator of online communities for over seven years
  • Technical support experience of over ten years
  • Founder of Events For Gamers game event website
  • Advisor for the LOGIN Conference
  • PR representative for the IMGDC Conference

    • EXPERIENCE:

    Petroglyph Games                                                                                                             July 2009 – Current
    Petroglyph Games was formed from Westwood Studios developers. Petroglyph is primarily known for their strong experience in RTS game development.
    Lead Community Manager - Multiple titles                                   

    Quest Online                                                                                                        December 2008 – July 2009
    Quest Online is a startup company created by David Allen, developer of the game Horizons. In January 2006, David began development of the game Alganon.
    Community & PR Manager - Alganon                                   

    • Lead the community and public relations teams
      • Developed the Quest Online PR policies and documentation for these policies
      • Built the community team and managed the weekly milestone and timeline processes
      • Directed team meetings to ensure all staff were aware of the public view of Alganon
    • Fostered strong public relations
      • Coordinated with dozens of media and fan sites to spread awareness of Alganon
      • Brought developers closer to the community through blogs and other editorial tools
      • Created various community features to help promote the community and Alganon
    • Fostered the Alganon community
      • Worked with the web development team to overhaul the forums and website layout
      • Conducted community team meetings to discuss the latest community feedback
      • Engaged the community of their interest in Alganon through community leadership
    • Marketing and customer service support
      • Worked with the marketing team to develop beta and release strategies
      • Developed forum, e-mail and other customer service procedures
      • Attended conferences and other events to promote the awareness of Alganon

    Allakhazam.com                                                                                               April 2006 – December 2008
    Originally started as an information site for the game Everquest, Allakhazam now covers all of the major MMORPG’s. There are over a million registered users and 5 million page views daily.
    Sr. Community Mgr - Warhammer Online & LotRO            

    • Directed and advised other community managers and project team members
      • Disseminated weekly tasks such as game guide development, wiki and database build priorities, and forum discussion focuses
      • Worked with network managers to scope out future key objectives based on network visitor statistics, general community feedback and game research
    • Advised programmers on database build infrastructure needs
      • Detailed all in-game elements such as quest and geography information, item lists and other game details for programmers to create database tables for item input
      • Updated developers on adjustments to the database structure based on game research
    • Manage news updates
      • Daily server status, patch notes and developer commentary as they were released
      • Posted updates on site changes, feature additions and future project plans
      • Worked with the community to develop community related articles
    • Moderated the community forums
      • Lead discussions related to news about the game, especially time sensitive topics
      • Interacted with all members in the forums to establish a strong community
      • Responded to player questions related to the game and their computer systems

    Alchemic Dream                                                                                       March 2007 – November 2007
    Alchemic Dream is a third party company providing official support for MMORPG gamers.
    Game Master - Lord of the Rings Online

    • Customer service management
      • Responded to player questions and concerns regarding gameplay elements
      • Prioritized queue items, announcing to the team emergency action queue items
      • Prioritized and report daily queue information to senior managers
      • Assisted players in finding the events, how to participate, etc.
    • Developed documents and procedures
      • Assisted in developing policies and guidelines policies for the team’s conduct, as well as policies & procedures in handling community needs
      • Organized daily and weekly reports on critical issues and concerns received from the players and other team members.
    • Provided general technical support
      • Monitored forums and responded to any needs for assistance
      • Organized daily player statistics for better response and procedure development
      • Lead for the team’s own technical support needs
    • In-game and forum community activities
      • Assisted in the promotion of events and contests
      • Managed in-game issues, concerns, and events

    OGaming Network                                                                                        Feb. 2004 – April 2006
    Community Manager

    • Producer of GuildWizard 2.0 guild hosting service
      • Assisted in building a team that researched and began development of GuildWizard 2.0
      • Built design documents for the GuildWizard 2.0 structure and concepts
      • Assisted in organizing research documents on marketing and future growth potential
    • Managed GuildWizard guild hosting service
      • Worked with programmers to resolve technical issues with servers and service
      • Kept the guild community informed of service updates, issues, and new features
      • Attended key events such as E3 to promote GuildWizard and the OGaming Network

    SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE:

    • Visio 2003, Project 2003, Alien Brain, Bugzilla, Remote Desktop Management, Norton Ghost, Norton Antivirus, Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash, MS Office Suite, Photoshop
    • Extensive PC and console community game testing experience spanning over seven years

    RELATED PROJECTS:

    • Technical Support -  Allakhazam support forum moderation, team advise on computer system performance and weekly performance guide announced every Sunday (May 2008 - December 2008)
    • Technical, Quest & Events Coordinator, Trainer - EverQuest Guide Program (2001-2005)

    EDUCATION:

    Oshkosh University - Oshkosh, WI                                                                                2004 – 2007
    BA in Organizational Administration

    ITT Technical College - Green Bay, WI                                                                         2006 - 2007
    Introduction to Game Technology, Game Management
                   
    Peking University - Beijing, China                                                                                   Summer 2007
    Chinese Speaking & Writing

    Fox Valley Technical College - Appleton, WI                                                                 1999 - 2002
    Associates Degree, CIS – Microcomputer Specialist