Community Worldwide #4: Battlefieldcommunities

Just in from EA's Battlefield Blog

Community Worldwide #4: Battlefieldcommunities

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/200x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/eurogamres.png@BFCommunities on Twitter.

For this week, I've chosen to highlight Paul, aka Phyrefli, from Eurogamers and Battlefieldcommunities. Originally from Great Britain, he now lives in sunny Spain and puts down a lot of time in supplying the community with news, as well as running a website showcasing communities from all over the world.

When did you start to play online games?

-- I've been gaming for more than 25 years, but started gaming online back in 1997. The MechWarrior series was my first real online love, after that I moved on to BF2142. Played that game from the day the first demo came out to when BC2 was released. Even now I sometimes play it with clan-mates just for the sheer exhilaration.

How come you decided to switch over to Battlefield?

-- Walkers The idea of piloting huge mecha over large battlegrounds was just too much toresist. Coming from a gaming background where 16 players in a game was considered a lot, into a game which allowed 64 players, was nirvana. That, plus I’ve always been a fan of science fiction meant that BF2142 (the first game I seriously played in the BF franchise) was something I was hooked on from day one.

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/Walker.jpg.jpg Gotta love them.

-- In fact the only break of more than a couple of weeks I took was when Ibroke my back and couldn’t play for 2 months. When BC2 came it was anatural shift into that game, and although it is a “Bad Company” game, ratherthan a “Battlefield” game, I’ve still logged close on 400 hours on it. Like most of the community though I’m waiting with bated breath and crossedfingers for BF3 to come

What communities are you involved with?

-- I run a clan called Eurogamers, which plays BC2, MOH,BF2142 and SC2. I also run the Battlefield website Battlefieldcommunitieswhich aims to be a central point for clan information, news, interviewsetc. We produce a lot of original articles, especially interviews andCommunity Spotlights, and pride ourselves on helping to focus the limelight onclans or communities that otherwise may not have the chance to become wellknown. Battlefield Communities is also the home of the Who's Who ofBattlefield which aims to highlight the best people, communities and mods forthe Battlefield series.

What has the response been like?

-- I’ve been lucky in that pretty much every community I’ve approached has been receptive. I’ll give you one really good example: Rush TV. I’ve always had a thing aboutlive casting, there’s just something incredible about being able to watch a live match taking place over the internet. Rush TV do all the live casting for BF2 games in ESL. I’d been to Rush TV’s site and always thought it was well done and that it would be great one day to have a community site half as good as that one.

When Battlefield Communities was finished I thought I’d be a bit cheekyand contacted sT0n3r from Rush TV. To my complete surprise he agreed toan interview AND he mentioned the site in several live casts. I find itincredible that people are willing to take the time to help out a new site suchas Battlefield Communities. There are several others; TeamTang, ForgottenHonor, MrGarak from Forum User Battles to name but a few. If you spend alot of time in the forums you can easily come away with the impression the BFcommunity is a very negative one. That’s just not true, and I’m verylucky to have been the recipient of some of that generosity.

"Even now I sometimes play Battlefield 2142 with clan-mates just for the sheer exhilaration"

What is your goal working with communities in this way?

-- With Eurogamers, it is simply to make itthe best clan possible. It is only a year old, yet has a solid core ofgreat players. We are expanding into Medal of Honor and already have ourserver ordered. With Battlefieldcommunities I want to create a site which large and small clans and communities can gettheir news out. Where we interview, and feature, not just theheavyweights but also the smaller communities, the ones you may not have heardof but who can really enhance your enjoyment of the community as a whole. The Who's Who of Battlefield is a part of this - the inaugural #1, MrGarak, isnot a well-known figure around the community, but he spends many hours workinghard to make the Forum User Battles great fun for everyone. That's thekind of person or community we want to help promote and give recognition to.

Why do you think the communities need a central place like Battlefield Communities?

-- It offers the chance for all communities, not just the large heavy weights, to have their voice heard and their news broadcast. We accept original news from other community sites, clan sites, mod sites and any site connected to the BF universe.We also have a directory where you can add your community for free. Looking to join a clan in Australia? Check the directory. Looking for the latest BF news in Hungary? Yep, we have a site that does that. Want to get your clan’s details out for free to potential new recruits? Just sign up and add your details to the directory.

-- We also have a group system which allows our users to setup their owngroups and invite friends in. So, for example, if you want to start aclan but don’t want to setup a website just yet, you can start a group on thesite so that you and your friends have an immediate place to congregate andorganise. You can add videos to the site so that others can view them – Ioccasionally go through the video and photos sections and tweet out links tointeresting ones. There are so many things you can do at BattlefieldCommunities it would take several pages just to get through them all

-- As well as taking in news from other communities and disseminating that, we also generate our own news and articles. The Battlefield Who’s Who is one example. The #1 in the first Battlefield Who’s Who was not a personality who’s in the news a lot or who everyone knows. It was a guy who works his butt off to provide a fun, weekly event that members of the EA BC2 community can join. MrGarak is emblematic of the kind of person we look to reward and highlight in the Who’s Who. The 2nd edition of the Who’sWho will include clans, and I’m currently actively looking for clans to be inthere. Again, they don’t need to be the biggest or most well known, butthey do need to be active, interesting and preferably give something back tothe community.

-- I’m also looking for blog, news and article writers. If you’veever wanted to try writing articles, or blog pieces, then send some in to thesite. If they’re well-written and original they’ll be put on the site forall the community to see. Personally I believe there is a latent pool oftalented writers in the BF community; with Battlefield Communities they have aplatform to air their articles, news and blog posts.

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