Part 2 of 2, by Jay Watamaniuk

“Shake them like Christmas elves until the missing string references fall out”.

And thus, my final day of my first week began. Every morning we have a quick stand up meeting for the design folks working on Mass Effect 2. We assemble in a big meeting room and go around summarizing, in about three words, what we are working on for the day so the Lead Designer gets an overview of what is going on with the team in detail. Once we have gone around the room, he gives some announcements to the entire team or deals with critical issues. When he is done, we scamper back to our offices and begin tapping on our keyboards.

I have spent my first week chiefly doing four things:

1. Trying to get a handle on all the new software on my computer that involved filing bugs, document security and game engine-related things used by developers. This also included the game itself which is more interesting by far then the the other stuff

2. Giving feedback on my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2. Things like loading screen hints, journal entries and general gameplay. This feedback is valuable because it is impossible to reproduce initial impressions from people that been working on the game for years

3. Wrangling something called ‘string reference numbers’ which didn’t involve colored yarn but are codes that are associated with every piece of text in the game. There are many, they hide and come from nearly all disciplines working on the game

4. Working on the wording of the achievement list

Working on a project right at the very end has its advantages for the new guy. I’m not really expected to know much about what is going on and everyone else has been doing this for years and can answer just about every question with absolute certainly. This disadvantage of coming in at the very end is people spend a lot of time running screaming down the hallway only pausing long enough to be set on fire. This leaves little time for showing the new guy the ropes.

I’ve been here a week and it’s overwhelmingly been about the mechanics of getting writing into the game more than the writing itself. I have a clearer understanding that there is a huge technical side of being a writer at a video game company; certainly far more then one would expect. I see no writers with giant quill pens, and sheets of parchment, breathing through a perfumed handkerchief, reclining on overstuffed chairs, while servants bring peeled grapes, and shade them with palm fronds. I’m O.K. with that because that image is pretty creepy in any case.

I hope the technical stuff can be learned so well it effectively disappears from view. I know I have a lot of learn about writing itself from the veterans here and would rather have anything obscuring my view of that goal removed while I still have the luxury of being an amateur. I suspect it will be a few months of a steep learning curve on technical stuff followed by a few rather nerve-wracking months of…y’know…writing.

I will be sure to record my thoughts along the way if you’re interested in reading how it all turns out. But if you’ll excuse me, I have to see a guy about some delinquent elves.

Part 1 of 2, by Jay Watamaniuk

A few things have changed in the last week that have altered my life at BioWare pretty dramatically. I accepted a position as a writer on Mass Effect 2, which meant that after 8 years I no longer helm the stormy seas of community. I leave that to Mr. Priestly, who has far more aptitude and skill in this; proving his value since his days back in QA when he was basically doing his job now but not getting paid for it. I have no fear for community under his direction. He knows his business and he is passionate about doing right by the fans.

For me… I need to learn a completely new job at a company with which I have grown very comfortable. I need to see up close how games are made. In marketing, we work with the development teams to help tell fans about their work; to spread the message and to show off proudly the work the dev teams do. Marketing BioWare games – though complicated, as the games are complicated – is easy from the perspective that the product is of a world class quality; something that sets a standard. As a marketing guy, you need to ask little more than to feel good about the work you do.

But I never got to peek behind the curtain despite a few family connections. All I knew was that the teams worked incredibly hard, under tremendous pressure, to create these games. Pride in their work keeps them at their desks late into the night and pride in the BioWare legacy of games gets them here early in the morning.

I recall my first few days of being a Community Manager- a job that was very vague and ill-defined at the time- and being somewhat lost among sea of paper and books given to me to help clarify what I should be doing. I feel the same way now. I’m here because somebody in this department gave me a stamp of approval and opened the door despite potentially damaging samples of my writing.

I moved up from the second floor where marketing, the hand held group, administration and HR all make their nests to the mysterious third floor where Mass Effect 2 is being created. Apart from work being done in Montreal, everything Mass Effecty happens on this floor here in Edmonton, Alberta.

Last Friday, I arrived to find my desk, computer and box of office bits had already been moved and, in its place down on the second floor, a dark void. I said my good mornings to my old roommates and walked up the stairs still wearing my coat to see how the new office looked.

I think standing there at the threshold of my new office, with new roommates, it finally hit me: I had made a big career change and there was no turning back to the familiar. No turning back to a job that I had grown into, and helped to shape over nearly a decade.

Nope, I was the new guy and had no idea what I was doing.