What is it you do on a daily basis?
I supervise an elite team of troubleshooters. Currently that team consists of Chris Skarp,
Jessica Batschelet, Corrie Treadway, Jerry Spencer, and Carrie Gouskos. They’re all brilliant
and at least slightly insane. This crew is as dedicated as they come, and it’s an honor to
work with them. We play through all newly implemented quests and encounters, putting a fine
polish on it before delivering it to our in house QA team. After delivering it to QA we fix
any bugs with quests or encounters that slip through, as well as adjusting existing content
based on beta tester feedback. In military terms we are first in, and last out. We also
retrofit all existing content with updated art effects and code functionality as it comes
online. Yep, we do all that. We’re badass.
What is your background? Has it helped with the job?
My first real job out of college was as an Infantry Paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.
Fortunately, the premise of our game is that war is everywhere. This made the transition from
my eight years of soldiering to working on this project natural and easy.
What other positions have you held? In what capacity?
Before coming to the WAR project I worked as a quest developer on the Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs expansion.
Before that I worked as a team lead in Mythic's legendary customer service department under the
equally
legendary Rob Dibiano.
What was your "welcome to the game industry" moment when it hit you that you were really
making
games for a living?
The day I was able to persuade my wife to buy me a computer game on the basis that it was
for work
related research. My wife rocks.
What excites you about the Warhammer property? What makes it perfect for an MMO? What cool
things in the Warhammer universe do you hope to bring to life?
Warhammer takes the stale and boring standard fantasy genre and stomps it into the dirt with a
bloodied Orc boot. Such is the darkness and peril of this world that it cries out for players to
rise up and become champions in the epic struggle against their enemies. The Warhammer world’s
roots, as a tabletop war game, also make it perfect for a Realm versus Realm MMO. The setting is
pre-built to facilitate conflict between ancient and bitter enemy factions, and 25 years of
Warhammer gives us endless background material for our initial launch as well as for
expansions.
What experience do you have with Warhammer and the Warhammer IP?
I’ve run pencil and paper style role-playing campaigns of both editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
over the years. As for the fantasy battles miniatures game I had the pleasure of running a map based
campaign with some of our die hard tabletop gamers here at EA Mythic. Players in the campaign
maneuvered their armies on the grand scale of the map and resolved the battles as they were generated
by playing tabletop battles against each other. It was a blast, and despite treachery and shifting
alliances (bloody ogre mercenaries!) almost no blood was spilled in real life.
What are your hopes/goals for the game?
That WAR will set a new standard by which all future MMOs will be judged. That it will provide
gamers tired of current MMO fare a new home where we don’t waste your time, and there’s so much to
do that there is always a fresh adventure to be had.
What are your key influences when making the game? Anything besides Warhammer?
Three things come to mind: First would be twenty years of pen and paper role-playing games, too
numerous to list here. Second would be the best RvR game to date: Dark Age of Camelot. Third would
be my time in customer support, which really helped me see game development from the player’s
perspective. We have applied a lot of lessons learned from Dark Age of Camelot to
Warhammer,
and I think you'll like the result.
What are your favorite video/computer games of all time? What games are you playing right now?
My favorite computer game of all time is XCom UFO Defense. My favorite video game of all time is
Final Fantasy VII. More recent games on my favorites list include Battlefield 1942, Civilization 4,
Sims 2, Oblivion, Zelda: The Wind Waker, Company of Heroes, Silent Hunter 3,
Hearts of Iron 2,
World of Warcraft, EVE Online and Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. There are so many great games out
these days, no matter your gaming tastes there’s something out there for you.
What music are you listening to right now?
Rage Against the Machine. Yeah! Other CDs in my lineup (yeah, yeah I still use CDs I’m so retro)
include Enigma, Deep Forest, Enya, Nine Inch Nails, They Might Be Giants, and Bob Marley.
Is there a recent movie you’ve seen or book/comic you read that you’d recommend to others?
Book: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. This guy breaks down
the history of conflict between cultures, drawing on a wide range of scientific disciplines.
Not fiction or game related, but it’s a damned good read nonetheless, and pertinent to human
beings everywhere.
Anything else you want to add?
Everything we are we owe to our parents. Much love, mom and dad.
