If you wonder why I'm barricaded behind this desk, I think the pictures will show you. I found it safer to do the interview from the opposite end of where our
Glipster (Nick Parkinson), has pointed out the "enemy target." Other than that, it was a quiet day in the office.
For those who say Glip is gone, read on, my friends! He's far from it and having a ball!
***
Q: Sooo....Production Team now, eh? Little guy being a big shot? How do you like your desk now?
I’m actually back in the same desk I was in before I became Community Manager. Overall it’s a nice desk. It’s at a corner so I don’t get a lot of traffic and it has more space for all my rad gnomish accessories, so that’s a pretty big plus. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it an A.
Q: In Carlsbad, or SD??
Carlsbad, its where all the cool kids hang out!
Q: Any particular phase of the game that you're working on?
A little bit of everything, really. I’m mainly involved with planning, scheduling and then making sure the plans and schedules actually get followed through on – so I’ve got my fingers in about a dozen things at any given time – which is not easy to do when you only have ten fingers (and short ones, at that).
Q: Who are your cube buddies now? Anyone we know.....besides the garden gnomes, of course!
In a cruel twist of fates I have been seated directly across from my arch-nemesis
Jansan. The war we bring upon each other is ongoing and devastating. At the time of this writing, we are locked in an icy standoff. I have managed to dock several warheads next to his cube and he has retreated into the safety of his shanty-like bunker.
This uneasy peace will not last though, as soon he will need to venture from his solitary fortress.
Also involved in this eternal conflict are row-mates
Andrew Krausnick, who allies himself with the side of evil; Lenny Gullo, who fights for peace and justice;
Myka Kairs, who switches sides as it suits him and
Michael Mann, who allies himself with no one but will attack any who come near.
*I flinch as I hear a "ZING" and turn to see a dead fly and a rubber band laying beside me. DANG, they're good!! Must continue quickly....
Q: Give us some good ol' Glip encouragement about what is going on to the world of Telon now!
As I write this, it’s the morning of our first day of server merges – so hopefully nothing too catastrophic at the moment. Aside of that, despite a lot of the stuff that’s said on the various message boards, Vanguard has improved immensely in a lot of ways since release. We still take some (well-earned) heat on a couple issues but with few exceptions, we’re headed in the right direction.
The changes folks see to the actual game aren’t the only changes happening. Its been well documented that our dev team was scrambling near the end of production to get the game in a playable state and as a result a lot of stuff that probably should have been happening (documentation, standard setting, processes, etc) kind of got overlooked. That’s changed now and what should result is more consistent and tied together content.
I think Ancient Port Warehouse is going to take a lot of people by surprise with how cool it is. After that, I know most current players probably hadn’t planned on playing through what we’ve dubbed “Trial Island” once it’s released – but this gnome would highly recommend checking it out. Trial Island will represent the first brand new area that we’ve used our “new” processes on and should be the standard by which new content that comes after it should be judged.
That isn’t to say the “new” way we’re doing things is the magical cure for everything, because its not – but it is helping us get there.
Q: (Have you found your pants yet??)
(Pants are for people with something to hide!)
Q: I know the Community misses you a lot. Do you miss your Community Mgr position at all?
Yes and no. I definitely miss all the cool people I got to talk to everyday and getting the opportunity to meet everyone at the conventions. However, I can’t say that I miss moderating forums all that much. It is kind of weird not waking up in the middle of the night with the feeling that something bad is happening in Off Topic!
All in all though, I was ready to move on. I’d been in community in some form or another for a long time and I think just kind of ended up where the natural progression for my job and skill set took me – at least that’s what I’ve managed to make management believe. Mwahaha.
Q: Give us your current version of, "A Day in the Life of Glip the Gnome"
My daily life is a glamorous mix of action, adventure, intrigue and bug reports. To help illustrate this, I have included a brief timeline:
8:00am: First alarm goes off, another half hour of wonderful, wonderful sleep.
8:45am: crap crap crap, gotta get to work
9:13am: stroll into work, act like I’ve been there all morning
9:14am: read/answer e-mail
10:00am: Meet with various design/producer teams for daily updates
Noon: read forums, make it look like I’m working really hard
1:00pm: follow up on various bugs
3:00pm: meetings and follow up on whatever the “Issue of the Day” is
6:00pm: more e-mail. Begin the process of trying to go home
6:01pm: get sidetracked
6:30pm: almost make it to the door
7:00pm: get outside, fight through hordes of unyielding fans and paparazzi to my car
7:15pm: arrive at home, realize I forgot something at work
8:00pm: read forums
10:00pm: fortify and barricade all entrances to my house, incase zombies attack during the night
11:00pm: watch/read news
Midnight: videogame/movie until I fall into my beauty sleep
Q: Is there anything you'd like to tell all of your adoring fans, now that it's only me (and a few hundred others)?
Thanks for sticking around! By the end of the year we should have a game on our hands that you can be proud to bring all your friends to. Aside of that, if everyone could pray that
David Lee Roth and [b]Van Halen ]/b]stay together long enough to make it to San Diego this time, that’d be way awesome too.
Thanks!
Q: Anything else in the gaming world that you would like to do? You have done writing, Community, now Production....what's next?
Vanguard: The Musical, coming to an off Broadway theatre near you! After that I’ve always thought it would be kind of cool to be an Iron Chef. I don’t really like cooking though so I’ll need to find a way around that part. Also I would like to be the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears, an astronaut and a secret agent.
***
*uhhhh-huh! Why didn't this answer surprise me??*
Thanks, Glip, and I haven't forgotten I still owe ya 2 pair of trousers! Next time, lunch is on me, ok? It's been fun and I believe everyone will agree.
See ya on the "Glip" side!!
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