Companies realize the importance of having teams in place for massively multiplayer titles in order to deal with incidents that take place in the game and to deal with the various issues surrounding the game. These intermediaries are broken into two categories – the GMs (game managers) and the overlord of them all, the community liaison manager.

What exactly do these individuals do?

Almost any one who has played in a massively multiplayer game knows that GMs are the folks you pester with petitions, stemming from “help, I’m stuck in this rock!” to a variety of other bugs and issues. They are in-game helpers. Some titles, like Anarchy Online, have elevated that role to a select class within the game, wearing unique uniforms. In other games, the GMs are just a voice that bursts into your private messaging system, asks what’s wrong and tries – when possible – to make it right.

But before all that is put into place, before GMs are selected and run through their paces, a great deal of the work for getting the communities ready to receive the game falls to the Community Liaison Manager.

Over at Codemasters, Peter Tyson was the CLM for Dragon Empires, an MMO title slated for release later this year. Recently Peter stepped down, deciding to live on a beach in New Zealand instead, and the job was awarded to Samantha “Satine” Russell. GameZone talked with Samantha about the role of the CLM.