| |
 |  |
|
8 Players Online
Take me to the game |
|
| Zone Rise of Rome Champion Becomes Age of Empires 2 Expansion Tester | |||||
Maimin_Matty: As I am constantly reminded, I am Canadian born and raised (often Zoners are amazed to hear that I am not American. But more recently the people at Microsoft love to tease me about being Canadian). I live in a small town (100k) outside of Toronto(2000k), called Guelph. I was born and raised there, and at some point during my 24 years of life, I fell in love with the town. Currently, I am attending the University of Guelph, which every year swells the size of the town by about 10,000 people. I am going in to my 3rd year of computer science, but I see school as more of a means to an end. Hopefully, my school career will catapult me into a successful business career with either a game developer or producer. I have pretty much always loved video games so the chance I was given this summer with Microsoft was like a dream come true. A couple years back, I didn't think things could get any better when I was flown out to Italy for a free vacation with my girlfriend, all because of a video game competition. Apparently I was wrong, life has been getting better and better! Zone: Maimin, tell us about your summer. How did you get an internship with the Microsoft Games group? Tell us about some of the work you've been doing on Age II. Maimin_Matty: My summer here is not what I expected at all. I arrived at a critical point in the product shipping cycle so there was a lot of work to be done. Unfortunately, I did not get to spend as much time playing games as I would have liked. However, I did spend quite a bit of time testing games, more specifically, the Conquerors Expansion. For the last couple of years I have kept in contact with a number of people that work here at Microsoft. A couple of them informed me of the Microsoft Intern Program. So after a lot of begging and pleading they flew me out to Seattle for an interview, this was late February. Apparently I must have done something that impressed them because within a week I was offered a position for the summer. When I flew out, I expected I was going to be doing more play testing then I did in the end. This is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that I have spent most of my time learning testing techniques and furthering my knowledge. The curse is that I didn't get to play games all summer like I had originally intended! Zone: How has your gaming experience helped you with your job here at Microsoft? Maimin_Matty: Being familiar with the product I was going to be testing, was a huge asset. I was able to quickly see holes in the project where the end user would be able to abuse the game so as to give them an edge (also called cheating!). Once or twice when I was talking with my boss I asked him why they hadn't fixed a certain bug. The problem was that I assumed everyone must know about the bug I was talking about. The conversation went a little like this: Matty: So Mr. Boss why haven't we fixed this bug that people are using on the Zone to cheat? Boss: What!!?? I didn't know about this. Matty: Oh?..I thought everyone knew about that bug?. Boss: #$(#*$&#%#$ Thankfully, this did not happen very often. I guess I didn't realize right away that having played the game for millions of hours has given me some privileged information that possibly only a few other top Zoners (if even that!) know about. Perhaps you had to be there to enjoy the full humor of the situation. They still tease me about that conversation today! Zone: What has been the greatest challenge or most unique experience for you when working with the Age II team here at Microsoft? Is it what you expected? Maimin_Matty: The greatest challenge had to be making the Americans understand my Canadian accent. It is hard to demonstrate on paper the subtle differences between Canadian and American accents but you can bet that every time I spoke, an American giggled. Of course, a few Americans made teaching me the lyrics to some South Park Songs their sole cause for living. I suppose we had a friendly rivalry going. We had a great time down here! Zone: What are some of your favorite features in Age II Expansion? Did you have any input with the game designers as to what you'd like to see added? Maimin_Matty: Unfortunately I started fairly late in the cycle so there wasn't much opportunity for me to have design input. However, I think Ensemble does a great job with their games. They have so many great ideas they pack in to their games already, it would be hard for me to improve the design content which is already present. It is hard to say what my favorite new feature is. There are so many cool new things. I especially notice this when I go back to play some regular AoK and I am forced to ask myself how I could have ever played without the new features! If I had to pick a favorite it probably has to be the user's ability to garrison rams. Nothing is more fun then loading up your rams like kids on a school bus and sending your soldiers off to war! Zone: What is your favorite new civilization and why? Maimin_Matty: Probably the Huns. They are both an impressively strong civilization but they have weaknesses. I really like the balance created within the Hun civilization. The fact that they don't need houses is just plain cool. It took me a couple games before I really got used to them. For a while I would spend the first minute of the game clicking 'B' then 'E' (the hotkeys for building a house). Then I realized I didn't have to build any houses. COOL! Their Tarkans can be extremely useful as well. And, as Kevin Holme (The Sheriff) says, you have to love a unit carrying a torch! Zone: Can you share with us your current strategies for this game? Did you develop any new strategies in Age II Expansion? Maimin_Matty: There are a few key differences between the way AoK is currently played and the way the Xpac plays. Because of the change to Towncenters, the strategy of painting the map with them is much less effective. This will push the players to create a better balance between economy and military. But that's really all I should say. Part of the beauty of a new game is figuring out its nuances. Far be it from me to spoil those magical first few weeks on the Zone. I can tell you this however, I will likely be on the Zone quite a bit during those first few weeks -- so if a couple players wanted to learn some new strategies first hand (i.e. dying by my sword!) then I would be happy to oblige! Zone: Is there anything you wish you could add or change about this game? Maimin_Matty: There will always be more units and features that I would want to add to a game. I haven't seen a game created yet where I haven't thought "Wouldn't it be nice if I could..." or "I wish they created 50 missions just like that one...". Ensemble is well aware of those thought patterns and because of that they try to jam as much goodness in to their product as they possibly can. I am definitely satisfied with what they have done with the Xpack. So to sum up the things I would like to see added....more...more!...MORE!!! Zone: What advice would you give to fellow gamers out there who'd like to have a job like yours? Maimin_Matty: Get connected! The most important thing is to get noticed. You can do this in a variety of ways, Web sites, Zone events, writing strategy, or, even, getting involved in tournaments. Find out about the jobs that are available out there. Go to the Web pages and check out what kind of jobs they have to offer. Don't be afraid to e-mail the company to ask them about job opportunities. Remember that some of these companies are huge and sometimes your e-mail might get lost, so be patient, but if you don't get a response after 1-2 weeks, e-mail them again. Don't pester them, but, also, don't let them forget about you! The last thing people should remember, is that just playing video games generally isn't enough to get a job in video games. It is also important to have some experience under your belt as well. This can include work experience, taking the proper courses at school, doing things like coding in your spare time or even just sitting down and planning out your own video game or changes you would want to make to an existing game. Another great way to get involved is hands-on experience. Many gaming companies are constantly looking for players to help beta test their products. Although you won't get paid, this is a great place to start and it doesn't look too bad on a resume. There are lots of jobs waiting to be filled in the gaming industry. All we need are motivated people to fill those positions! |
|||||
