Two weeks into the release of Season of the Seraph and with the end of the year rapidly approaching, Dylan Gafner—best known by his handle Dmg04—has today announced that he will be stepping down as the Senior Community Manager for Destiny 2 at Bungie.
It comes as a surprise to many fans, with Gafner being a consistent and well loved presence among Destiny’s online circles after taking on the Community Manager role in early 2018. But according to him, it’s time to chase new horizons, which means taking a leap of faith and stepping away from Bungie and community management in general heading into 2023.
“I believe I could write a mega-TWAB blog article about the amazing experiences I’ve had during my time here at Bungie,” Gafner said in the statement announcing his upcoming departure from the developer. “I can’t imagine another position where I’d have the pleasure of working with so many awesome people and so many awesome teams. From my first day on the Destiny Player Support team just before House of Wolves through the latest Season of the Seraph, it’s been an adventure that was never dull.”
Dec. 30 marks his final day at Bungie, ending an almost eight year tenure working on Destiny in various player-facing roles that started in May of 2015. Along with the rest of the community team there, he’s had a hand in a cycle of developer-to-player communication that remains a gold standard for live service titles. Through the This Week At Bungie blogs, the consistent replies to feedback on social media and the rapport shared with Destiny 2‘s notable content creators, Dmg04 has helped to make Bungie a trusted brand with its playerbase.
“It’s hard to think of any words to really encapsulate how much you’ve all impacted my life. So many friendships started here. Some people I consider family were introduced to me through Bungie and Destiny,” Gafner said. “I will forever be thankful for your voices and your time, and I will always look back fondly at my time on the community team thanks to you.”
The mantle now passes to the capable hands waiting in the wings at Bungie, with recent additions like Community Manager Liana “Hippy” Ruppert already the regular author for many of Destiny 2‘s recent TWABs and deep dives on Bungie’s website. It remains to be seen what’s next for Dmg04, and he admits “it’s a scary move” but also expresses that “some of the most amazing opportunities have come during times of drastic change in my life.”
