The Five Rules of Live Service Comms | Bob Holtzman

Bob Holtzman is Director of Franchise Marketing at ArenaNet, where he leads content, community and brand marketing for the Guild Wars franchise. He manages work across social media, creators, influencers and player communications, with a focus on growing and retaining the Guild Wars community.Before ArenaNet, Bob led global brand, public relations and communications work for TiMi Studio Group and Tencent, and previously managed North American publishing communications for League of Legends at Riot Games. His earlier career includes communications roles at Nexon, directing marketing and public relations for Kerbal Space Program, and founding the consultancy Co-op Mode Communications. Bob also spent more than two decades as a sports journalist and college football analyst, experience that shapes how he helps studios tell clear stories to players, creators and the media.Chapters:00:00 Who Bob Holtzman is, and the sports crossover04:00 Storytelling and the framework behind a patch note08:05 When the CEO had to carry the bad news11:03 The five rules of live service comms13:26 Why trust decides whether players forgive you16:42 Working with devs who see the world differently19:33 Player trust behaves like a stock price22:27 What Riot understood before everyone else24:52 You own the game, but the community owns you27:45 Blue posts, red posts and real dev replies32:20 Why you never win a fight with your community35:57 What AI cannot replace in comms38:37 Speaking the community's language41:07 The layers of PR inside a game studio43:41 How creators became part of the comms mix47:51 An influencer strategy across three tiers51:36 Is the "all boats rising" era over?54:53 From WoW to Old School RuneScape57:29 Launching a Discord before announcing Guild Wars 31:02:17 The one habit that fixes most comms1:04:50 Advice if you are trying to break in right nowhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bobholtzman/