Being Laid Off

In June of 2007, I was working as a materials buyer for an orthodontic manufacturer in Southern California. I was also writing freelance for tabletop RPGs, and I'd had some success in that arena. I'd always talked about moving over to computer games, MMOs, but I didn't really think it would ever happen.

Then, one day, I saw a job posting for the upcoming Warhammer MMO. Given that I'd contributed to a couple of Warhammer Fantasy RPG books, I thought that maybe there was a chance they'd be interested in me. I knew a couple of people who worked at Mythic (or who soon would be), so I sent my resume along to them and asked them to put in a kind word for me.

To my surprise, I had a phone interview, followed up by an on-site interview. After the interview, they made me an offer.

I saw this as my ticket out of my relatively low-paying white collar job and into the exciting world of computer game design. I snapped it up, put in my two weeks' notice, and then went about the process of moving my wife, my 2 year-old son, and 4 month-old daughter across the country.

In my time with Mythic, I saw Warhammer Online evolve into a game I was proud to be a part of. I witnessed the game's launch, and then sat in suspense as the numbers were tallied. I did my work, wrote some good material, and kept on keeping on. I worked alongside gifted and creative people, made friends with many of them, and I looked at the future with a mixture of hope and anticipation.

On November 9th, I, along with a number of my co-workers, was let go. I saw the signs of my impending unemployment long before it was actually confirmed to me. I was worried, frightened. Here I am, with my family, thousands of miles from home, and about to become one of the nation's many unemployed workers.

When the hammer finally struck, I'd gotten my sorrow out of the way. I knew what I had to do; failing that, I'd try to get back to California. I joke, "I'll get back if I have to sell a kidney to do it." I'm not sure that the market for kidneys is particularly good here in the States, but even if it is, I'd prefer to keep my internal organs all to myself.

It's day two since my official termination. I've sent out resumes, had friends send my resume to folks at other companies, and browsed job sites looking for positions that I might fit. Is it too early to expect anything back? Probably. The silence is deafening, though. I've just got to be patient, positive, and proactive. The three P's. I've got a little bit of time to find something new -- 2 months, on the outside -- and while that seems like a long time now, I know it's going to fly by.

As far as my experience at Mythic, I'm not bitter. Sad, maybe. I don't necessarily regret the opportunity I had to get a leg up in an industry that I love, but I do regret that things didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped they would. I don't imagine that the game was perfect, but it's a tough market. It's either sink or swim.

Two years, four months, almost to the day. I was proud to be where I was, to work for Mythic and Electronic Arts, along with so many bright and shining folks. I never gave up on Mythic, either; I always looked towards a better day, when things would turn around. If it ever comes to pass now, I won't be there to see it from the inside. No, I'll be somewhere else, focusing my skill, dedication, and optimism on something else.

WAR Tradeskills Feature: Part 1

There's a new feature on the WAR Herald about trade skills, written by myself and Phil Chan, one of the guys on the Character Systems team at Mythic.

You can read all about it by following this link.

Enjoy!

Warhammer Online Grab Bag #6

Over at Mythic, I've been working in conjunction with the Community team to create some blurbs that inform players about the dungeons in Warhammer Online. The first four of these blurbs appear in the latest Grab Bag, which you can read here.


There will be more to come in the next few weeks, of course. Enjoy!

Launch Day

Yesterday, we officially launched WAR. There was a gathering outside, complete with bubbly and beer. We toasted our success, picked up our Collector's Editions of our game, and went back to work.

Warhammer Online Collector's Edition
Work. Yeah, right.

The fact that WAR is an MMO means that our work has only just begun. Not counting any additional products that we might release in support of the game, there's always going to be a continued polish of systems, quests, code. Patches will come and go.

I'm on a new team. We've spent much of our time brainstorming and coming up with new ideas for top secret stuff. It's fun. The rest of the time, we've been playing our game.

I always sort of figured that WAR would be the last thing I'd want to play when I got home from work. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been playing the game way too much. Amy loves it. My friends that have tried it have professed that they, too, enjoy it.

So there it is: my first launched computer game title. This is why I uprooted my wife and kids, left all our friends and family behind, and moved across the country. I've made plenty of other sacrifices (some of them by mistake) in the intervening 14 months.

The majority of my team is likely out today. I hear they were out late, drinking in celebration of our game's launch. They're probably laying comatose in bed, or gurgling in pools of grain alcohol-flavored vomit. Good for them. They deserve it.

Me? I'd probably be playing WAR right now, except that the servers are down for maintenance. Instead, I'll brew coffee and turn on a movie.

Nope, I ain't diggin' ditches.

WAR Launch Date Announced

Mythic has announced the official launch date for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning as September 18th. You can read the official press release here.

Also, they've posted my Developer Bio on the Warhammer web site. Take a read, if you're curious!

WAR is Coming

So I work at EA Mythic, and I create content for the up-coming MMO Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (or simply "WAR" as we call it around here). Back in January, I was asked to write a zone overview for the High Elf land of Saphery, which would appear in the February Warhammer Online Newsletter.

The guy who normally writes the overviews was swamped with other tasks, and he felt that I might be interested in taking a stab at it. I figured, yeah, what the heck? I've got a little bit of spare time, and I don't mind hammering out a few hundred words. Plus, something like 500,000 people read the newsletter. How's that for exposure?

Well, exposure wasn't really in the cards, as the zone overviews are printed without a by-line. As it is, those of you who frequent this blog will probably be the only folks who know that I was the one who penned the following prose. Now that the February Newsletter is in the Warhammer Online archives, I feel safe in posting the link so that interested parties may take a gander at it.

Go here and check it out. You can peruse the rest of the February newsletter here, and if you're really interested, you can check the entire archive by following this link.

MMO Marketing on a Budget

What not to do:


I think we'll be lucky if some concerned citizen doesn't call the police...

The Big News

Okay, so I reckon I'll post this now, since it's more or less official.

EA Mythic (formerly Mythic Entertainment) has offered me a Content Developer position on their up-coming Warhammer MMO, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. This means that my family and I will be relocating 2,690 miles, from San Diego, California to Fairfax, Virginia, within the next month.

To say I am happy about this is something of an understatement. I love being an RPG freelancer, but it doesn't pay all the bills. Working for EA Mythic, I'll be contributing to a product/IP that I believe in. Things will never be the same for me, or my family.

In order to follow this dream of mine, Amy and I will be leaving a lot of friends and loved ones in California. It's probably going to be the most painful part of the transition. We may end up coming back to California someday; heck, we plan on it. There's no telling when that will be, though.

So that's that. Wish us luck. We intend to be in our new place by the end of the month.