Wrangling the Helldivers: What it's like to be the mouthpiece of Super Earth
Helldivers 2 turned out to be one of 2024's surprise hits, partly due to how developer Arrowhead has gently guided an enormous playerbase in the service of Super Earth. Since launch, the game has been under intense community scrutiny and, despite its success, has often found itself at odds with players: Whether that's suffering review bombs or trying to deal with their latest unexpected wheeze.
Part of the whole shebang has been Arrowhead's forward-facing engagement with the Helldivers. CEO Johan Pilestedt isn't afraid to wade-in on controversies and occasionally tease players, the mysterious game master Joel has become a community meme, and community manager Twinbeard, aka Thomas Petersson, has been in the frontlines from the start cajoling and commiserating with the troops.
Petersson's contract with Arrowhead recently ended, and he'll no longer be working on Helldivers 2. We reached out to ask about the experience of managing a community that grew vastly, seemingly overnight, and the challenges of herding Helldivers around the galaxy.
«I joined Arrowhead the week after Helldivers 2 launched,» says Petersson. «I’d seen some trailers on HD2 before applying for the role as Community Manager and thought it looked really promising. I also knew of Arrowhead from my prior work in the industry and that they were a solid developer. That being said, I dare say very few expected it to blow up the way it did. Hindsight is always 20/20, but you rarely plan for a global phenomenon.»
It's fair to say no-one expected Helldivers 2 to be quite as successful as it was: Even publisher Sony seemed taken aback by the rush of players and enthusiasm. That first week of launch was «crazy, mostly in a good way,» says Petersson. «For most people a launch like this is a once in a career experience. February 1st there were 5,000 people on our Discord server. A week later there were 10,000, and ten days later we broke 360,000. A few months later we were close to one million. Every day when the
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