Today on the TOROCast forum, it was rumored that Community Manager Sean Dahlberg had left BioWare. Members of the SWTOR community did believe it odd that he did not show up to PAX, which was supposed to be the biggest event of the year for SWTOR. He even tweeted to the Jedi Archive on Saturday: "Nope, I'm back in Austin but Brian is there! Granted, part of me wants to just drive there but I'd be late." That gave everyone the impression that he had a lot of work to do. However, today he updated his twitter page so that it no longer reflected his BioWare title nor a link to swtor.com.
Although there has yet to be word from Dahlberg himself, Joanne Laroche, the Senior Community Coordinator, recently posted this on the official Old Republic website: "Sean Dahlberg has recently left BioWare. We would like to thank Sean for doing a great job building the TOR Community and we wish him well in his future endeavors!" This confirms that Dahlberg has left BioWare, but it still does not answer why this has happened.
Massively will keep an eye on this story and on Dahlberg's personal site for new developments. Until then, we wish the best for Sean and for the game.
[Nice catch, "fo diddy" at TOROcast!]
Update: Sean posted on his personal blog and wanted to let everyone know that he did not fall off the end of the earth. As for what's next for Mr. Dahlberg, he had this to say, "What's in the next chapter in the life of Sean... well, that would be giving out information and we all know I don't do that. I'd say just kidding but I actually can't talk too much about that at this point. Soon™ but not yet."
Reader Comments (35)
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 2:29AM Unverfied B said
I'm pretty sure "soon(tm)" was started by Vavle devs, but maybe i'm just halucinating :)
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Posted: Sep 7th 2010 11:41PM (Unverified) said
I take it he was offered a position at Blizzard and jumped ship immediately.
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 2:30AM Unverfied B said
"...Bioware's forums must be a real shithole if their community managers are jumping over to help run Blizzard's."
You win +1 internet!
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You win +1 internet!
Posted: Sep 7th 2010 11:52PM TheJackman said
He did not get fired he quit! does not impact the game at all! Sorry to see him go however goto give it to him he was a good guy!
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 12:13AM SwobyJ said
Best of luck to him.
Sidenote - Gotta give my daily shoutout to Rift. Their CMs are really nice and I hope those ladies stick around til release and beyond :)
Sidenote - Gotta give my daily shoutout to Rift. Their CMs are really nice and I hope those ladies stick around til release and beyond :)
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 1:55AM (Unverified) said
Sean got promoted to customer.
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 2:13AM (Unverified) said
I guess even even people like him get fed up with all the fake hype and utopian and cynical "our game will be best evar!~" remarks from devs.
If leaked beta screenshots are any indication, I expect many devs from this game to leave before release as to not sully their own reputation.
If leaked beta screenshots are any indication, I expect many devs from this game to leave before release as to not sully their own reputation.
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 7:50AM Salaryn said
Don't forget LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez and LucasArts developer Haden Blackman have also fallen by the SWTOR wayside recently.
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 10:14AM Vrazule said
I am not at all surprised that the haters are running with this like a dog eating his own feces. Might seem like a good idea at first, but you'll pay for it in the end. Aside from the fact that it paints you as the trolls you really are, it also provides insight into your limited intellects and your mental / social insecurities.
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 10:20AM (Unverified) said
Why should we really care?
The staff may change over time, but as long as we get the promised product we (the consumers) shouldn't really be bothered with what is clearly a staff issue.
To be caught up in the developers internal problems is never a healthy thing.
The staff may change over time, but as long as we get the promised product we (the consumers) shouldn't really be bothered with what is clearly a staff issue.
To be caught up in the developers internal problems is never a healthy thing.
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 11:49AM willflynne said
Well, as far as the "promised product" goes, that's a tricky area to navigate. There's been plenty of instances where players claim a developer promised something when the developers never did anything of the sort. Those people never seem to be in short supply and probably contribute a bit to some of the rougher days CMs have to endure.
As far as the departure itself, I won't go as far as to say it spells doom and gloom for TOR. That's a bit of a leap to make right now. Even so, having the intermediary between the devs and the players decide it's time to move along before the game launches does at least raise an eyebrow.
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As far as the departure itself, I won't go as far as to say it spells doom and gloom for TOR. That's a bit of a leap to make right now. Even so, having the intermediary between the devs and the players decide it's time to move along before the game launches does at least raise an eyebrow.
Posted: Sep 8th 2010 11:57AM (Unverified) said
Well.. as a former "Community Manager" for a police officer magazine that had it's own website for it's readers (I did it for part time work), I can wholeheartedly confirm that it is indeed nothing more than a glorified forum moderator... all they do is ensure smooth operation of the forum and implement the features the owners want into the forum itself.
When I left the position, nobody really noticed or cared (nor should they have) and it certainly had no effect on the magazine - the guy who replaced me just took over and carried on as I was doing beforehand.
Community Managers have no say or influence in the company or it's content that they work for.... this guy's leaving of Bioware is 100% irrelevant to the game (as was my leaving as community manager for the police magazine). Sooo.. y'know... don't make such a big deal of it or read into this when there's nothing to read into... yeesh.
When I left the position, nobody really noticed or cared (nor should they have) and it certainly had no effect on the magazine - the guy who replaced me just took over and carried on as I was doing beforehand.
Community Managers have no say or influence in the company or it's content that they work for.... this guy's leaving of Bioware is 100% irrelevant to the game (as was my leaving as community manager for the police magazine). Sooo.. y'know... don't make such a big deal of it or read into this when there's nothing to read into... yeesh.









