Words with Johan

Hey everyone,

Here is the newest edition of my #WordsWithBaun Q&A this time with Johan (@JohanLnh). He is a Community Manager for Ubisoft with a focus on The Division and Atomega. I am excited to have Johan with us today and hope you enjoy his answers as I did. Here we go!

What is your interest/relationship with aviation?

My interest actually stems from my childhood. I happened to grow up close to one of the major Swedish Air Force bases and saw their fighter aircraft a lot. Most notably in more rural/wooded areas where they flew low. It really sticks with you when you see a couple of jets roar above your head at tree top height, close to the speed of sound. Deafening and scary, but yet so awesome!

What do you think your younger self would think of your current job?

I think that the younger self would think “Cool! Playing games all day and get paid for it”. Now of course, that isn’t how it works at all. I almost never play the game on office hours outside streams. The job is just as great as my younger self would think though, just great in ways I appreciate more now than I did back then.

What is one place/location/country you’d love to visit one day? Why?

I had to think long and hard about this one, as I love traveling and there being many places I would love to go to. If I had to pick one, I would probably say somewhere in the US as I never been across the pond.

What is your favorite non-work/game related thing to do?

This might surprise some people, but I actually love to go to flea markets and collect various things including scale models, books, pins and various other collectibles. I’ve also had a life-long interest in history, in particular military history of the 19th and 20th century. It’s not uncommon that i find myself reading declassified intelligence reports from various wars and strategic analysis reports that would cause most people to fall asleep from boredom.

What activity/music/or game is a guilty pleasure for you?

I’d say the fact that I am a metalhead and love that type of music but sometimes I just want to listen to some mellow pop music.

What is your personal favorite game of all time? Why?

It is extremely hard to just pick one as someone that has played video games for over 20 years now. Super Mario 64, Command & Conquer Generals, Silent Hunter III, Half-life and F.E.A.R are all prime candidates. If I had to pick one, I would have to go with Super Mario 64, as I spent an absurd amount of time collecting all the stars in that game and I would still consider playing it today. It holds up well where many games of that era do not and it is just as fun as it ever was.

What is your favorite part about being a Community Manager? Least favorite?

It might sound cliche, but I love working together with the community to try and help improve the game in the long run. It’s a great feeling to see your work with the community having a direct impact on the game, may it be a bug fix, a balance change or a community suggestion being implemented.

Least favorite part has to be when we give bad news to the community, for example delays to bug fixes, events, and updates. Delays are always done for good reasons, but as a gamer I can relate to the desire to get hands-on on an update as soon as possible and I understand that the wait can be frustrating.

What road lead you to becoming a Community Manager for Ubisoft?

I always loved video games and I knew from an early age that was what I wanted to work with, it just made sense for me. I have been involved in gaming for almost my entire life in various forms — as a player, modding, running communities, making videos and everything else under the sun.

What are you most proud of when it comes to The Division community as a whole?

I love the passion of our community in general. How in-depth people are while creating their builds, guides that go into the nitty-gritty of the games underlying math, various community initiatives such as your own, cosplays and much more. We are blessed to have a community that is truly engaged with the game and care for its future.

And last, if you could add anyone from the community/dev team to the game who would it be and what would they do?

I would add Petter as a NPC selling books in the Base of Operations, helping people escape the reality of post-apocalyptic New York for a moment through his passion for reading.

I want to thank Johan, all of the previous participants, and everyone in the community for being a part of this series. It really has been a joy to get to know these people a little more. It’s so important to me to realize that people who we deal with in one way or another are much more than their role.

Until the next one.