Mathew Anderson

For the characters used as Anderson's aliases, see Sparck and Bat Masterson.

Mathew "Berek" Anderson (born July 13) is an American video game community and PR manager and author. He was the Senior Community Manager at KingsIsle Entertainment from July 2018 to December 2024, overseeing the community happenings of both Wizard101 and Pirate101. He went by the aliases of "Sparck" (Wizard101) and "Bat Masterson" (Pirate101) and was formerly the co-host (alongside Leah Ruben) and sometimes main host of KingsIsle Live.

Career[]

1999–2018: EverQuest, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer Online, and other efforts[]

In November 1999, Mathew Anderson became a Game Master for Sony Online Entertainment as part of the volunteer guide program for EverQuest, and he worked with the EverQuest Quests & Events team for several years. In 2004, his responsibilities were expanded with a new program for EverQuest II. Around the same time, he became Community Manager at OGaming Network, and in June 2006 he left his positions with Sony Online Entertainment.

OGaming Network merged with Allakhazam to form the new ZAM Network, and in September 2006 Anderson became Community & PR Manager at the company. There he was a community manager for a Lord of the Rings Online wiki and the game's news portal. He was later promoted to managing the Warhammer Online portal team. He helped to build one of the first wikis for Warhammer Online, and also made a dungeon atlas for Lord of the Rings Online. From July 2007 to June 2008, Anderson was a foreign English teacher for the Center for Teaching and Learning in China. He wrote about his time in China in his 2016 book, China and the High Roads Beyond: Memoirs of a World Traveler.

In December 2008, he was hired at Quest Online as Community & PR Manager. While spending just eight months at the company, Anderson built up a community around the to-be-released MMORPG Alganon, directing the marketing and content strategies for the game, and leading a community team consisting of off-site moderators and volunteers, similar to what he had done himself previously on the EverQuest games.

In July 2009, Anderson was hired full-time as a senior Community Manager at the Las Vegas-based Petroglyph Games. He became the voice for all of the company's marketing and community communications and was generally responsible for all community-related operations for all of Petroglyph's products.

In February 2014, Anderson was hired as Community Manager at the Houston-based SixFoot. One of his first accomplishments at the company was building the community plan for the 2015 RTS game Grey Goo. He managed operations relating to competitive livestreaming, and developed a weekly livestreamer program that would maximize competitive player reach.

In May 2016, he was hired at Portalarium as Senior Community Manager, where he worked with Richard Garriott on the 2018 MMORPG Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a Kickstarter-backed project that was described as a spiritual successor to the Ultima series. He led the company's community needs while also assisting in PR, branding and content marketing efforts.^[1]

2018–2024: KingsIsle era, Hawkules controversy, and firing[]

In July 2018, Anderson was hired at KingsIsle Entertainment as the company's Senior Community Manager, taking over the position from Tom Purdue. He formally announced his hiring on July 20, 2018.^[2]

On November 13, 2024, Associate Community Manager for Pirate101 Chris "Hawkules" Willis abruptly left his position due to reported work stoppage in response and protest to concerns of workplace misconduct.^[3] Willis himself later took to X to clarify his departure, saying that he was fired for not doing his job (the previously reported "work stoppage") and went on to detail multiple grievances against Anderson, his former boss.^[4] He alleged Anderson of inviting a co-worker's known stalker to the office to interview devs and lying about his knowledge of the situation, argued against needing to play Wizard101 or Pirate101 despite his position, and that he was very technically inept, unable to use Discord, social media admin tools, or basic office software.^[5] Willis continued, alleging Anderson of not giving proper professional advice, and claiming to both Willis and former Wizard101 Community Manager Kyle Donahue that the Activision Blizzard sexual misconduct scandal was "blown way out of proportion."^[6] Willis revealed his most common conversation with devs was how they "cope" with Anderson, and finished by sending out a message to the community to demand better, as it's what they deserved.^[7]

In response to the allegations, Anderson disappeared from social media channels and a petition was made by community member Lormcloud demanding his firing.^[8] The petition amassed over 1,000 signatures in just under two days.^[9] On November 22, Willis took to X again to congratulate the community for "winning"^[10] following a KingsIsle Blog post that same day where Kayly Ginsberg re-affirmed the community of KingsIsle's dedication to the community.^[11] By December 6, it was reported by The Atmoplex that Anderson had transferred ownership of the Official Wizard101 Discord server to Ginsberg, and lost all roles indicative of being on the KingsIsle team.^[12]