Commando Archive
Thread: There and Back Again
Page 1 of 18
Marforce
Thu Jul 10, 2003 1:11 pm
#1
Glad to have you on the team TH, I remember those posts a long time ago in a galaxy far away of yours.
Good jobDevs.
Thunderheart
Mon Oct 13, 2003 3:54 pm
#2
There and Back Again...
Wow. Where do I even begin?
I'll start at the beginning as I know it...
Sometime around April or May of 2001, my buddy Scott tells me, "Hey, you gotta check out this new game that Sony is making about Star Wars. He tells me "it's called Star Wars Galaxies and it looks really cool." Now, Scott and I used to MUD a lot so it made me curious. He sent me a link to the site and I checked it out and I was interested. I was a young lad of 10 when Star Wars unfolded before my eyes and its been my favorite Sci-Fi setting ever since, so the idea of a Star Wars MMO seemed fantastic, but I was NOT prepared to sit around and wait for a game for two years. Or so I thought.
I figured that was that and I wouldn't think about it until the game hit the shelves. Things didn't work out that way. I was so curious; I couldn't stop thinking about it. Then, for the first time in my life, I started logging onto an internet forum. I knew what forums were and how they worked and I've done mailing lists and all that before, but I was never that interested in the content to spend a lot of time posting and getting involved. Then this whole SWG thing took off like crazy and before I knew it, I was posting 6, 8, 10, 12 hours a day. For two years, I lived on the boards and it was the place that made me happy, sad, angry and a whole bunch of feelings. No matter what happened, it was what I loved to do.
The next thing I knew, they chose me for the beta and into the game I went. After 2 years of posting, I was in the beta, writing bug reports, monster posts, exploring and doing all the Star Wars geek stuff there was to do. I made the fan site (gone now...), maintained the link library, argued, laughed, joked and filled my days with your company and it kept me coming back every day.
I have to admit that after the beta was over, I had a *serious* case of what I call "beta rash" and I had to take some time off and clear my head. I did that but when I came back to the boards, I felt a little lost...a sort of disconnection. Since the game went retail, I kind of lost my purpose on the boards and it made me feel sad. Then, something happened.
At that moment, I knew that was what I wanted to do. Being part of this community and staying involved is something that made me feel happy and satisfied and the very best way to do that would be to apply for the Assistant Community Manager position. I sent Q a quick e-mail to see if the team would be interested and the next thing I knew, I was emailing him my resume. I had a couple of phone interviews and then the Dev Team flew me to Austin (they all have jet packs...
) and boy what an interview it was.
I arrived early and I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for the team to come in and then a little Saturn pulled into the parking lot and Holo got out of his car. My heart skipped a beat and I knew this was it - - it was now or never. I went in a few minutes early and the security guy brought me to Holo's office. I tried to play it off real cool, but I was as nervous as a high school freshman on his first date with the prom queen! You see, the thing is that I'm an outsider. I mean, sure, I love video games, love to play video games and I've worked very hard to learn everything about them (really none of it prepared me for what this is all really like), but being a fan and even being an uber-geek isn't the same as actually working in the industry. As they say, it's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know and when it comes to video games, it's BOTH. And like I said, there I was sitting across from Raph chatting about the SWG. I started to feel a little bit star struck (being a geek and all), but I shrugged it off and put my attention back where it needed to be: The interview.
It started with Raph, John Donham and J . Brack They grilled me for about an hour and a half about everything! They asked me stuff about the game, my opinions on all kinds of things, stuff about the boards and even personal questions. Probably the toughest question in the interview was when J . turned and looked at me and asked, "So, what do you think your meanest post was?" (I think I may have blushed and stuttered a bit, but I tried not to...) It was important that they learned all about me in 4 hours because it's a really tight team and they needed to find someone that was going to mesh with the group and deeply care about the community. Then they led my into the library and 6 more dev team members came in and then THEY grilled me. Everything from what I thought about all sorts of game issues to my favorite movie, to what I was reading. Let me tell you, these guys came at me hard because they know how important this position is. After another hour and a half, I went to lunch with the original group (Holo, John and J . ). We had some yummy pizza and got to chat about game design and that was really cool because whereas *I* love to talk about boring game design, not many of my friends back home are really interested in all of that, so to sit there and just chat about game design stuff was fantastic!
We wrapped up lunch and headed back to the office and BAM! There I was sitting with these 3 guys and Rich Vogel. (btw, ever hear the phrase, "he who dies with the most toys, wins?" Rich is gonna win) I actually felt more embarrassed than nervous because remember when I told you that J . asked me what my meanest post was? The answer was when I found out that SWG was going to have Single-Character-Servers. I wrote a monster post and it was actually a little too mean, but Rich is a great guy and he didn't hold it against me. In any event, I learned an important lesson about mean posts and the real people on the other side of the screen. 20 minutes later, the interview was over and John was giving me a tour of the office and then I was off and racing to the airport to catch a plane home.
John was kind enough to call me the next day and give me the great news that the team was going to offer me the position and for the last few weeks, I've been packing and moving...
Ironically, I think my house in SWG has gone *poof* while I've been scurrying about the country...
So here I am in the Sony Offices in Austin with the SWG team and man I can't tell you how excited I am! After 15 years of trying, I finally made it into the videogame industry and you know what? I couldn't have picked a cooler team, a cooler game or a cooler community. I've made so many friends and really we are all part of the same community - - a community I am proud to be part of.
We LOTS of work ahead of us, you and I and the devs, so please be patient. As it has always been, I WILL interact with all of you and address all the issues as fast as I possibly can.
Looking ahead, I will be spending lots of time on the boards, but now I can't just read the boards and move on. I have to read, catalogue and investigate everything and it will take some time to get everything balanced. As it is right now, I don't have internet access at home at the moment, but when I do, I'll be even more accessible.
I will be available on the boards, on the test center, in the game and I hope to pop into the chat room every now and again.
It seems I've babbled on a little too long. Still have lots to do today.
Be well.
Wow. Where do I even begin?
I'll start at the beginning as I know it...
Sometime around April or May of 2001, my buddy Scott tells me, "Hey, you gotta check out this new game that Sony is making about Star Wars. He tells me "it's called Star Wars Galaxies and it looks really cool." Now, Scott and I used to MUD a lot so it made me curious. He sent me a link to the site and I checked it out and I was interested. I was a young lad of 10 when Star Wars unfolded before my eyes and its been my favorite Sci-Fi setting ever since, so the idea of a Star Wars MMO seemed fantastic, but I was NOT prepared to sit around and wait for a game for two years. Or so I thought.
I figured that was that and I wouldn't think about it until the game hit the shelves. Things didn't work out that way. I was so curious; I couldn't stop thinking about it. Then, for the first time in my life, I started logging onto an internet forum. I knew what forums were and how they worked and I've done mailing lists and all that before, but I was never that interested in the content to spend a lot of time posting and getting involved. Then this whole SWG thing took off like crazy and before I knew it, I was posting 6, 8, 10, 12 hours a day. For two years, I lived on the boards and it was the place that made me happy, sad, angry and a whole bunch of feelings. No matter what happened, it was what I loved to do.
The next thing I knew, they chose me for the beta and into the game I went. After 2 years of posting, I was in the beta, writing bug reports, monster posts, exploring and doing all the Star Wars geek stuff there was to do. I made the fan site (gone now...), maintained the link library, argued, laughed, joked and filled my days with your company and it kept me coming back every day.
I have to admit that after the beta was over, I had a *serious* case of what I call "beta rash" and I had to take some time off and clear my head. I did that but when I came back to the boards, I felt a little lost...a sort of disconnection. Since the game went retail, I kind of lost my purpose on the boards and it made me feel sad. Then, something happened.
At that moment, I knew that was what I wanted to do. Being part of this community and staying involved is something that made me feel happy and satisfied and the very best way to do that would be to apply for the Assistant Community Manager position. I sent Q a quick e-mail to see if the team would be interested and the next thing I knew, I was emailing him my resume. I had a couple of phone interviews and then the Dev Team flew me to Austin (they all have jet packs...
) and boy what an interview it was. I arrived early and I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for the team to come in and then a little Saturn pulled into the parking lot and Holo got out of his car. My heart skipped a beat and I knew this was it - - it was now or never. I went in a few minutes early and the security guy brought me to Holo's office. I tried to play it off real cool, but I was as nervous as a high school freshman on his first date with the prom queen! You see, the thing is that I'm an outsider. I mean, sure, I love video games, love to play video games and I've worked very hard to learn everything about them (really none of it prepared me for what this is all really like), but being a fan and even being an uber-geek isn't the same as actually working in the industry. As they say, it's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know and when it comes to video games, it's BOTH. And like I said, there I was sitting across from Raph chatting about the SWG. I started to feel a little bit star struck (being a geek and all), but I shrugged it off and put my attention back where it needed to be: The interview.
It started with Raph, John Donham and J . Brack They grilled me for about an hour and a half about everything! They asked me stuff about the game, my opinions on all kinds of things, stuff about the boards and even personal questions. Probably the toughest question in the interview was when J . turned and looked at me and asked, "So, what do you think your meanest post was?" (I think I may have blushed and stuttered a bit, but I tried not to...) It was important that they learned all about me in 4 hours because it's a really tight team and they needed to find someone that was going to mesh with the group and deeply care about the community. Then they led my into the library and 6 more dev team members came in and then THEY grilled me. Everything from what I thought about all sorts of game issues to my favorite movie, to what I was reading. Let me tell you, these guys came at me hard because they know how important this position is. After another hour and a half, I went to lunch with the original group (Holo, John and J . ). We had some yummy pizza and got to chat about game design and that was really cool because whereas *I* love to talk about boring game design, not many of my friends back home are really interested in all of that, so to sit there and just chat about game design stuff was fantastic!
We wrapped up lunch and headed back to the office and BAM! There I was sitting with these 3 guys and Rich Vogel. (btw, ever hear the phrase, "he who dies with the most toys, wins?" Rich is gonna win
) I actually felt more embarrassed than nervous because remember when I told you that J . asked me what my meanest post was? The answer was when I found out that SWG was going to have Single-Character-Servers. I wrote a monster post and it was actually a little too mean, but Rich is a great guy and he didn't hold it against me. In any event, I learned an important lesson about mean posts and the real people on the other side of the screen. 20 minutes later, the interview was over and John was giving me a tour of the office and then I was off and racing to the airport to catch a plane home.John was kind enough to call me the next day and give me the great news that the team was going to offer me the position and for the last few weeks, I've been packing and moving...
Ironically, I think my house in SWG has gone *poof* while I've been scurrying about the country...
So here I am in the Sony Offices in Austin with the SWG team and man I can't tell you how excited I am! After 15 years of trying, I finally made it into the videogame industry and you know what? I couldn't have picked a cooler team, a cooler game or a cooler community. I've made so many friends and really we are all part of the same community - - a community I am proud to be part of.
We LOTS of work ahead of us, you and I and the devs, so please be patient. As it has always been, I WILL interact with all of you and address all the issues as fast as I possibly can.
Looking ahead, I will be spending lots of time on the boards, but now I can't just read the boards and move on. I have to read, catalogue and investigate everything and it will take some time to get everything balanced. As it is right now, I don't have internet access at home at the moment, but when I do, I'll be even more accessible.
I will be available on the boards, on the test center, in the game and I hope to pop into the chat room every now and again.
It seems I've babbled on a little too long. Still have lots to do today.
Be well.
roysterer
Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:01 pm
#5
I knew the name was familiar somehow...
It's like beta tester makes good
Sharpshoota
Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:04 pm
#6
There and back again,A Hobbits tale by Bilbo Thunderheart.( i couldnt resist)
Finally a dev that spends time on the boards and gets ideas from the people, not just what they thing or want
DarthRoe
Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:04 pm
#7
I think this is the greatest thing that has happened to SWG since Beta. Good luck, TH, and may the Force be with you.
Skedoozy
Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:06 pm
#8
Great story. Glad to have you on our side. 
I saw that you used to call Chilastra your home. If your house went poof there and you need another one just let me know. I can give you a great deal!!
WedgeFan
Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:06 pm
#9
Awesome. Simply awesome TH.
I'm glad you got this opportunity. I don't think they could have chosen a better person.
Reading some of what you wrote was a trip down memory lane. I remember that post after the SCS announcement. That was a "fun" time on the old boards.
I think now I'm going to have to go back to some of those threads I saved, just to remember what a great time we all had.
Again, congrats TH
FURY_Chaser
Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:07 pm
#10
this is more exciting that the post that Q made on the jedi boards last week
congrads ThunderHeart
BlindTyldak
Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:10 pm
#13
*sniff* I would have sent out my resume too if I hadn't just dragged the whole family halfway across the country to the Dakotas recently . . . .
Congrats again, man.
~~Shabhaii, Mayor of Tombra, Naboo
www.cityoftombra.com
The REAL BT
"Gentlemen, gentlemen! Please, rest your sphincters!"
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