Meet the Pride: Olga Madurska

Travel to Warsaw to meet Lionbridge Games’ Global Program Manager, Olga Madurska. Olga is an avid gamer and manages our global base of crowd testers, community managers and player support agents. When she’s not working, she enjoys rock climbing and being active.

Tell us a little about your role at Lionbridge Games. What does a typical workday look like for you?

I am the Global Program Manager for Player Experience at Lionbridge Games. My day-to-day work focuses on keeping track of projects for our customers and ensuring we are delivering the highest quality services in crowd testing, player support, and community management. Now that games developers are cultivating their communities and continuously updating games, there has been a trend in companies investing in player experience services. We are quite busy with all the new crowd testing projects we have coming in. We also have stable, regular projects in player support and community management that we’ve been working on for years now. My role is to satisfy the client and deliver what they need.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I really enjoy the diversity of projects I work on. Every new project is a new challenge: You need to think it through, plan and build it.  Every day is a different challenge for me, and I am never bored in my role.

At Lionbridge Games, I also love that I feel like my opinion is always valued. When people reach out to me for advice, I can see they really think it’s valuable. I love that I have a real impact on the projects I’m working on.

How long have you been at Lionbridge Games? In that time, how have you seen the interests of our clients change?

I started almost four years ago in localization and community management—I was a Global Business Partner for Gaming. In that role, I was the bridge between the operations team delivering localization to our customers and our community management team working with our pool of freelancers. I ensured we had specialized translators for gaming localization.

I moved into Community and Crowd Services because I saw that there was an increased interest from game producers and developers towards their communities. I enjoy still working with people and with our global crowd, but I also enjoy showing our customers that taking care of their gaming communities brings a lot of benefits.

In the last few years, there has been a shift in how games are made. It’s not only about developing the game and releasing it. It’s also about meeting the expectation of the game’s community. More and more games are moving away from creating three or four different titles. Instead, games are being continuously updated. As a player, you don’t need to buy anything new because developers update existing games and create new events. That’s why it’s crucial to listen to the community. Game developers need these players to stay in the game, so they need to listen to what the players want to see there.

How do Lionbridge Games crowd testing services help strengthen a game?

There are three main ways our services improve games. By using crowd testing services and having players test a game, you pique these players’ interest and give them a glimpse of what they can expect. If the players enjoy the game, they’ll tell their friends that it is a good title, and they will promote the game for you. Secondly, players provide great feedback. If 2,000 gamers are playing a game to test its servers, you have 2,000 different points of view on what needs to be changed or added. Finally, players want to know more about game developers and how production and game releases work. Crowd testing offers this insight—it involves the players in actually developing the game. It helps the players feel like they are part of the team, so they’ll enjoy the game even more.

What is your favorite video game to play?

Currently I am playing Forza Horizon because I am mastering my driving skills. I have a challenge with my friend, and I need to beat him.

Where do you live, and what do you enjoy most about living there?

I live in Warsaw, and I enjoy that it’s a very global city—like in any other European capital, it feels very open. In comparison to smaller cities in Poland, Warsaw is very tolerant, well-developed and open to foreigners and other people. I was born here, and it’s great to see how the city has grown up with me.

What’s something a tourist visiting your area shouldn’t miss?

There are some typical historical places, but I think tourists shouldn’t miss the Vistula riverbank, especially in the summer. When it starts to get warmer in Poland, everyone goes outside and enjoys sitting on the bank. On a hot Friday evening, you wouldn’t be able get a spot because of all the people there. One side of the riverbank is more regulated, and the other side is wilder, with forests and beaches. You can choose whether you want to be on the more formal side or if you want to chill with your friends on the other side.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I enjoy mostly physical activities. I love different types of sports—especially climbing. And I like going to the gym, because I like feeling like I have control over my body. Mostly, I’m trying to be as active as possible. I’m sitting for at least eight hours a day at work, so afterwards I like to be more active.