00 — Background
Magic: Legends was an action RPG set in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment. First revealed in 2017, the game entered closed alpha in June 2020 and open beta on March 23, 2021. I joined the community team as Senior Community Manager in the run-up to open beta.
01 — Project details
Earlier positioning had framed Magic: Legends as an MMORPG, but by the time I came on, the experience heading to players looked different — tighter sessions, a more focused class system, and combat closer to an action RPG. Active press coverage still reflected the older framing. My core task was to align public expectations with the product players would actually encounter at open beta, grow the community ahead of launch, and build content that helped new players make sense of the systems at a glance.
02 — The process
Press reconciliation. Audited existing coverage across gaming outlets and worked with writers and editors to update articles ahead of open beta so that what readers found matched what they'd play.
System explainer content. Produced written breakdowns and short-form video covering the game's core systems — classes, realms, combat, progression — coordinating with QA to capture the screenshots and gameplay footage each piece needed.
Discord community. Grew and moderated the official Discord community through the pre-launch window, managing daily engagement, surfacing player questions, and feeding community sentiment back into the communications work.
Launch-week readiness. Prepared FAQ and onboarding material so players arriving for open beta had the context they needed without digging through a year of stale articles.
03 — Results
By open beta on March 23, 2021, the gap between public expectations and the live product had narrowed substantially — outdated articles had been updated across major outlets, the Discord community was active and informed, and new players had onboarding content that matched what they'd actually encounter in game.
04 — More info
Working on Magic: Legends taught me how much of a launch is actually translation — between product and press, product and player, internal teams and external audiences.