LOTRO Is Opening An Official Discord, But They'd Like Volunteers To Moderate It

If you were surprised that The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) didn't already have an official Discord, you probably aren't alone. The MMORPG is looking to open one up, though, and that, by itself, is a good thing in my book. A place supported by the game's team that allows players to hang out together and a place that devs can work closely with those players is a great thing to have handy.

That said, LOTRO is looking for volunteers to moderate said Discord, and that isn't exactly a great thing in my book.

First, the SUPER easy reason: you're looking to capitalize on fans of your product who want to be involved with the team and be helpful by asking them to essentially do "work" on your behalf. While there's no "schedule" for moderators and no time requirement expected, you are still asking them to do "work" that SHOULD be handled by your community team. If you want to open community things, then pay/hire a community team.

Second, we've seen other games do this and have it end up being a nightmare. There's just a lot that goes into moderation...and vetting the people that are doing it. Signing an NDA is required, so the team will need to make sure the volunteers aren't minors. Giving powers of any type to strangers gets crazy sometimes. It's just risky, and honestly, it shouldn't be. Again, pay or hire a community team to do this for you.

Third, no matter how much you call out to everyone that they are volunteers, there will be players that THINK they are interacting with the MMO's actual team, and anything those moderators do (good or bad) will reflect on the game's team, like it or not.

I get the "appeal" of asking for volunteers, I really do. Players feel like they have a direct line to devs through moderators who also play, volunteers may get free codes here and there, the team gets some help with moderation, it's free...I get it. That said, it isn't a good look and it opens you up to risks you really don't need to be taking. 

The official post also weirdly calls out, "We are required by law to not provide formal compensation for your volunteer service, but you will be helping to make an official Discord happen, you'll have direct communication with us, and we'll do our best to conduct periodic random giveaways for codes for volunteers."

I don't know exactly what "law" the team is trying to reference here, but I think the only reason you are "required" to not provide compensation is because you are asking them to "volunteer" and not be part of the team's staff. I'll defer to you actual lawyers out there if there's something I'm not aware of here.

Remember when The Day Before tried to get cute with the word "volunteer"? Remember when some of DreamWorld's volunteer Discord moderators turned out to be minors?

Yeah, this just isn't a great idea. Pay your community team.

There's no launch date for the Discord at this time.