One of our most veteran staff members, Francis “Draco” Cermak, has decided to step down from his position as a HeavenGames owner due to offline responsibilities. He still will remain a staff member as he has been a valued member of HeavenGames for many years and still will provide HG with assistance whenever possible. I’d like to thank Draco for all of his work on the network and wish him the best of luck in is offline pursuits.
Hey all,
So it’s been a little while since my last update. It’s mostly because we’re still hard at work figuring out the big picture for HeavenGames’ future; it’s a daunting job but I like what’s being hammered out. Anyway, in this article I’m going to discuss the two biggest problems that I’d like to get fixed before any grand scheming…and their solutions. Solutions are good.
Problem 1: HeavenGames current staff system is not what HeavenGames needs
While everyone works as hard as possible, the current staff system is simply not enough for what HeavenGames needs. Becoming staff is a big ordeal at HeavenGames, largely because of the daunting committment on both sides. A prospective staffer may be discouraged because of the considerable time commitment that is often necessary to be staff, while the Seraphs are discouraged by the lack of guarantee that the new staff member won’t act in a manner that could bring many problems to HeavenGames, including legal trouble.
Solution: Reorganize the staff system
Reorganizing the staff system will help our current staff operate more efficiently. First, we will make sure that all of the owners are active at HeavenGames and aware of everything that’s going on. To supplement this, we will create an anonymous complaint/suggestion email for staff. Next, we will create a list of jobs for ever site; Seraphs will be required to heavily advertise job openings to ensure consistent service and organization across the network. Finally, we will work to make a job at HeavenGames more attractive by giving benefits such as possible college credit and aid in getting a job in the gaming industry (Read more).
Solution: Automate HeavenGames’ content contribution
Fully automating HeavenGames’ content contribution will allow everyone to contribute to the community and make sure HeavenGames is the best strategy network online. It will take the load off of the current staff and allow our sites to grow only at the limit of our massive user base’s want to contribute. Under an undefined system, any user would be able to contribute to any aspect of the site: news, articles, screenshots, anything.
Problem 2: No one knows about HeavenGames
Okay, maybe not no one…you’re reading this, right? In HeavenGames’ specific niche we are well known but the rest of the gaming community tends to have no idea what we are. We are simply not able to provide our great services to nearly as many people as we could.
Solution: An aggressive marketing campaign
We need to adopt an aggressive marketing campaign to get HG’s name out into the gaming community. This will include working to get HeavenGames mentioned in press more often (not difficult as that’s already happened). It will also involve guerilla marketing such as popularizing our Facebook group and making our articles Digg-able. Eventually, we even would like to purchase Google adsense space and target our advertisements on gaming websites.
What do you think? If you have any further questions, comments, suggestions or concerns, please email me and let me know. I genuinely mean that, any thoughts would be appreciated and considered.
What’s coming next? Hopefully, a writeup of a cohesive plan for the future of HG. Keep your eyes peeled!
Hey everyone,
My name is Socvazius; I’m the new CEO of HG, but I’ve been around for quite a long time. I started visiting HG in late 1997 (at age 11), joined the staff in 2000 (my first article, a masterpiece by any standard), joined the executive board in 2003 (I have nothing to say here but I wanted to add a parenthesis for consistency), and became owner in 2005 (when I turned 18). Over all that time, I have been webmaster of 6 Heavens and have done about every possible job.
Offline, I go by the name Sergio Prado and I study history at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. I am currently working in marketing at Vivendi Universal on Empire Earth III and World in Conflict. I love philosophy, history, physics and politics among other things, and to compensate for my nerdy tendencies I’ve been known to karate it up as well as do all the other things that college students do. Oh yes.
Anyway, this is my blog! While I will surely use this blog for my narcissistic ramblings, I intend it to be used mostly to keep everyone up to date on what’s going on in HeavenGames, especially the stuff that pertains to my job: management, PR, and all the other fun parts of a gaming website. In fact, I do have some news that you guys might be interested in. For the past couple months the owners have been discussing a major revamp of how HG operates, including its staff management and exactly what services it will provide to the community. We’re zeroing in on a finalized plan, so keep your eyes peeled for a freakin huge article that’ll be way too long to be worth reading!
Until the next post my friends,
Soccy
