Richard Vogel AGC Keynote Speech Summary

MMORPG.com has posted a summary of the keynote speech given by BioWare Austin's Richard Vogel during this year's Austin Game Conference. Could it be that the company is working on an MMORPG based on an existing IP?
(Who), Richard asked his audience rhetorically, (runs betas?) The answer: a politician: someone who can talk to and handle an excitable and infant community. Community managers need to have thick skins and good attitudes, said Vogel, especially for games based off of IPs (i.e. Star Wars Galaxies) that have rabid, eager fans.

These community managers have tough jobs, and must perform many tasks to keep both development and customers happy. The community manager is one of the most important communication lines between the aforementioned parties, and needs to make sure that everyone is as happy as possible. Vogel mentioned one cardinal rule of this: Never, ever promise something that is not there. (Don't talk to your audience like a PR guy; they're not stupid.)