My farewell post

It is now more than ten months since I started to report on news about T5 as the official reporter. My final week here before I move to Vienna for my master studies has now begun. I have had so many great experiences and I think it’s time for a quick recap of the last few months.

It all started in December last year. I then joined Travian as a former and current player in order to keep the players informed about all news regarding Travian, the company itself and its employees. Initially it all wasn’t very well planned or organized. But I had fun writing my texts from the get-go. I inherited the blog from Dario and I also took the Tea at Three series from him. It was a great opportunity to get to know the people within the company, whom I would be working with for the next months. Interviewing strangers on the spot wasn’t so easy, but as everyone was really kind to me I got off to a good start. Around Christmas time Travian then had the first bigger event involving the chieftain statues. Shortly after, I left for my Christmas holidays. The next year was welcomed with good news. We introduced the first details of T5 to our players. A couple of days later we then had my introductory video post. Shooting the video was the beginning of something that would become a regular occurrence, since we shot many videos afterwards. The introduction of T4.4 was my first mammoth task. We only had a very short period of time during which we had to tell our players about all the changes. February was all about the mobile version. Not only did we publish a teaser for the ‘Travian 5’ app, but we also made a video in which I showed our players how easy it now was to play the T4 version on the iPad, too.

In March we started to post more and more T5 news as well as publishing a video series with Gerhard. In the episodes of the series, he spoke about T5, the company, the Travian Meeting and other things. April was very busy. Not only were many servers not available for many days and I experienced the anger of a community first-hand for the first time, but with Stefan Matern I was also presented with a new boss, who has lots of experience in editing and who always made sure that I was working on the things I should be working on. Furthermore Jessica joined the content production team. In her weekly column “From the scrolls” she wrote about everything and anything one could possibly relate to Travian. At the same time our first internal test version of T5 started. I was allowed to take part and with that gained a first impression of the upcoming version. In May, Stefan, Michael and me started the video series ‘Travian Late Night’, in which we discussed lots of topics regarding Travian in the weekly shows. At the end of May we then had the announcement of this year’s summer special Ancient Europe. This has been Brian’s brainchild and as he continued to develop the idea he regularly asked me about my opinion. Additionally we started our first blog competition, of which I am particularly proud. June was characterized by alternating between news about Ancient Europe and T5. We literally bombarded our players with relevant information. Towards the end of the month our ‘Amulet Hide & Seek’ world tour started.

In July we then added a new version of Tea at Three, in which players introduced themselves to the community, rather than TG employees. On top of that we had the start of the T5 Alpha, in which, for the first time, selected players were able to participate. In relation to that we published my diary series detailing my Alpha experiences. The Gamescom in August was my personal highlight, since I was able to get an even closer insight into the gaming industry. The 10th birthday of Travian at the start of September really topped off my time at the company. Not only was I able to meet all those guys who work for Travian outside of Munich, but I was also able to meet many players from many different countries.

All in all, I had a great time and learned a lot. I was able to closely work with my direct neighbor Michael, who is responsible for our social media channels. Thanks to Michael and Sascha, we always had good fun at the office, since both of them are a good laugh together. I enjoyed working with my direct line manager Stefan, who taught me a lot about editorial work and his life experiences and of course Brian, who I could always chat with about the game and different strategies and ideas. Also I would like to say thanks to Bridgette, our community boss, who always provided me with loads of cupcakes and cookies and who was always there to listen to personal problems. I’m going to miss all my colleagues and the great working atmosphere as well as all of our readers, who have made the months in this job such a pleasant experience. A very special thanks to all of you, who have showed me again and again that you are closely following my blog entries and that you excused one or two mistakes. I will miss you and my time here.

But don’t crow too soon. You won’t get rid of me that easy. I will be publishing one blog entry a month in the future, as a guest author. What the topic will be and when these entries will be posted, you will find out soon enough.

 

So long! I wish you loads of fun on this blog with my successor and of course also in-game!

Yours, Maxi

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