Moving from gavels to ban hammers, Matt is our featured team member of the week!
What did you do before coming to Blue Frog Gaming?
I had been working in law firms for over six years. I did a lot of tasks such as new case intake, initial file work-up, preparing documents and briefs for filing with the Court, and interfacing with clients to make sure we stayed up to date on their cases. But, my primary job during the last three years was brief writing. This included briefing cases at all levels of the Ohio Court System. In 2011 alone my briefing helped to obtain two positive opinions from the Ohio Supreme Court and numerous other positive opinions from various Ohio Appellate Courts. I’m pretty proud of that!
How did you first hear about Blue Frog Gaming and the job opening?
Surprisingly, from my mom. My dad had just retired and she was looking for some new work for him when she came across the job posting from Blue Frog Gaming. She sent it to me as a joke as her way of trying to tell me I spend too much time on the computer. Unfortunately, for her and my wife, I didn’t see it that way and applied for the position.
What is your position at Blue Frog Gaming and what does that position entail?
I am the Community Manager. My duties mainly include moderating the wikis, interacting with our users via our social media accounts and the forums (both Starfleet Commander and Stardrift Empires), and acting as a conduit for information and feedback between the player community and the development team. I also oversee support and assist in answering tickets if there is a backlog or issue that can not otherwise be resolved.
How was the transition from the legal field to Blue Frog Gaming and what is in your future?
I had about 6 years of experience maintaining communities as a personal business before coming in to Blue Frog Gaming. That experience helped make things easy and it has been a nice change of pace so far. As for my future, I’ve got one semester of law school left and I should take the bar exam next February. However, I have no plans to leave Blue Frog Gaming.
What comprises a typical day for you?
The only absolute about my day is that there will be a meeting at 11:50. Other than that, I generally start my day at home by checking all of the social media accounts, skimming the forums and anything that has appeared in Google Alerts, and reading through the backlogs in the Skype player chats that I watch.
Once I get to the office I’ll continue looping through those tasks, while also working on new blog entries, scheduling new sales, reaching out to sites that mention us, and trying to find ways to bring new people into the community. Of course, I also work to solve support requests and bug related issues if they arise.
And after the office closes and on weekends, I’ll generally continue to keep an eye on the forums, the social media accounts, Skype player chats, and my e-mail in case an emergency arises. My wife hates it, but I can essentially do my job from my phone if I have to.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve been faced with at Blue Frog Gaming?
Keeping up with the community. I love our players and many of them have a lot to say. I want to make sure I’m hearing as much of what they have to say as possible and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the incoming feedback.
Anything else you want to share?
Sure! A few other random facts about me include:
- • I am a licensed minister in the State of Ohio and I have performed one marriage to date with another ceremony scheduled for August.
- • I wore duct tape to my prom.
- • And I love to catch up with all of our users on Skype (MattH_BFG), Twitter (@MattHirschfelt), and Facebook! Don’t be afraid to message me.
