Finally we’ve got some news from Tübingen – Promotion Software and Sixteen Tons Entertainment introduced the new community manager today! Serbay Sönmez, better known as Turk_SeSo in our community, is responsible for the community support from now on. In his position he will serve as the communicator between the EMERGENCY community and the developers in Tübingen.
Prior to this announcement, we’ve asked some questions to Serbay, read more to see what we've asked.
How was your start into the game business? How did you get to Sixteen Tons Entertainment?
I had my first contact with gaming communities with the game „Battlefield 2142“ in 2006. I joined a clan and got into an international tournament community. I took over the administration for two years, followed by the work as team leader at the company 4PL GmbH. In addition I’ve started my own event project. This project brought me to Sixteen Tons Entertainment last year. I wanted to turn my hobby into a career – by giving the community the opportunity to contribute in the production process and make the best out of the game. That’s why I am here.
Which experience could you already gather with EMERGENCY?
I’ve read some articles about it in game magazines and gaming sites in the internet some time ago. But at that time, my focus in gaming was on FPS and the FIFA-series.
During the recent years, this view changed. My behavior in gaming is more placid now. Shooter aren’t as much fun as in the past. I’m playing more and more strategy games at the moment. In November 2013 I decided to combine my passion with my career – the job offer at Sixteen Tons Entertainment was right on cue.
Now I spend several hours per week with EMERGENCY. Even if I’m still not able to extinguish all fires fast enough and therefore some buildings and cars getting a bit more wrecked than others. 
Which games are you playing in your spare time?
Even if shooters don’t catch my interest in the same manner as in the past, I’m still running around in “Battlefield 4” from time to time. Since shortly I started as a pilot in “Titanfall”.
The biggest part of my gaming dedicated time is spent on the world map of “Europa Universalis 4”. I slowly but surely pave my way to world domination
Of course EMERGENCY cannot be missing. Although I’m limiting myself to the 2012 version in my spare time. I don’t want to leave too much people without a house above their heads and with environmental disasters you can always reject any responsibility. 
Let’s talk about your actual work. Which difficulties are connected to your daily tasks?
To be honest, my work isn‘t very difficult. Only the constant sitting around and reading posts that could have the length and structure of a novel by G.R.R. Martin is consuming a lot of energy. Another thing is the constant replying on mails, the hour-long phone calls and the colleagues who shoot you down with ”Nerfguns”…
Who am I kidding? My work is great fun. Your posts - no matter how long they are – give me new stuff to jar on the nerves of my colleagues. What can I wish more?
Well there is one wish…getting a better “Nerfgun” would be a good one. Maybe some fan wishes could pass through a bit faster then.
Where you able to integrate ideas of the community in the ongoing development?
Of course I have read your posts quite eagerly. Above all, the bug-report at the Deep Silver forum contained a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately I cannot make any comment about the wishes that actually made it into the game.
Let yourself be surprised! But be sure, it has some advantages to sit next to the programmers and level designers while throwing the one or other idea right in front of their feet. … Where did my Nerfgun go again?
What are your goals? What do you want to achieve for both the fans and Sixteen Tons Entertainment as a community manager?
My goal is to ensure optimal communication between the studio and the players. The community has great ideas, which should not stay unheard. My job, with your support, is to make sure that we, as developers of EMERGENCY, do not develop over your wishes.
At this point, it also has to be said, that I would like to deliver you a better insight in the development of EMERGENCY games. I am aiming to make the decision for or against certain features explainable and communicate those with the fans.
You can see me as lawyer of both sides. With a small deference: I didn’t need to study law for this and, I hope, this will still be spared to me in the future.
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I just hope that with the next Emergency I won't have to set up thirty routers in four different languages that I don't speak. So, people can play the game. 
