1
Greetings!
It is my pleasure to introduce Birdi_Sparrow, another Staff Member from the Wargaming team that will be joining us on the forums! However unlike my other colleagues who I've introduced in the past, this particular staff member is more akin to the Darlok. A staffer shrouded in mystery but who holds many secrets and answers to some of your questions....which ones? Only he knows.
How long have you been in the video game industry?
3 years – prior to that I spent 20 years in the defense industry. Five years as a defense analyst and then 15 years with Sikorsky Aircraft as a project manager for international Black Hawk helicopters.
What was your first video game industry job?
So far just Wargaming!
How long have you been with Wargaming?
3 years (well a little less but close enough)
What do you do at Wargaming?
I was hired for basically two jobs – manage the North American historical research team and project manage transmedia products. For the first I oversee articles written for Warships, aid in tracking down blueprints and other data for various studios, fact check data, help with localization, and so on. We also do generic research for other departments that frees up their time and we then hand over a researched and annotated paper on whatever they requested. Wikipedia is not my friend…
The second has to do with the fact I am not really a video gamer. But for 35+ years I have been an avid analog gamer – board games, RPGs, and miniatures. I have written and helped edit analog game rules (as well as playtest). So I project manage similar products based on my Sikorsky experience. Whether it is a board game, book, Black Hawk engine upgrade and so on the management is virtually identical. I also have a pretty good grasp on analog games as a whole and supply reports on them after play testing on whether they could fit Wargaming’s IPs.
For this forum I will be working for Nyx and others to help answer questions, write articles, and so on for the community. I have also managed the VERY extensive background stories created for the MOO universe but that will fall to Kelsey, our creative writer and “Lore Master”, to divulge over time.
What is your favorite Wargaming memory?
Almost the day after I was hired I had to go out to the Seattle studio for a research summit on a new game. We flew in about 5 PM, get in a car and go right to the studio and worked until 9-ish. We went to leave and someone said “Well we will start early tomorrow”. So I replied did they want me there about 6. I was met with looks of horror so I said “ok – 5:00 AM?” One of them went “Uh no – we were thinking around 10 AM or so”. My turn to look dumbfounded – after 15 years dealing with the military a lot of time was spent in the field and at bases dealing with my birds. I was used to days starting at 5:00 AM or earlier and working until midnight or later every day (sometimes for weeks at a time).
Culture shock does not begin to describe how different the worlds of the military and video game industry are.
Hometown?
Newtown, CT – lived there for 42 out of my 52 years. I now live in Austin, TX but will always be a Newtowner.
What is your favorite Sci-Fi Franchise (movie, game, or literature)?
All - I watch, read and play as much as I can get my hands on. I am a sci-fi geek/nerd hardcore. I cosplay, belong to a lightsaber dueling group, LARP, and, per people who have been in the industry for decades, my office is rivaled by only a handful of others due to the amount of props and prop replicas I have. PAX, Comic Cons, and similar are my vacation destinations.
What was the first video game you ever played?
Pong. Yes – pong with the huge clunky controller. Begged my parents for it and remembered I got it in 1976 for my birthday. I thought “This is it – electronic games can NEVER get better then this!”
