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AGDC07: Will Wallace

Not everyone at AGDC is a superstar game designer with twenty triple-A MMOs on his resume. For instance, there's a bunch of guys running around trying to talk to the aforementioned luminaries, frantically jabbing at PDAs or yammering on cell phones. You can assume these guys are either executive assistants or the press. But not both, because the press doesn't get executive assistants.



Actually, the majority of the show is made up of the game industry's rank and file. You know, the other 189 people whose names appear in the credits to Jumbobudget Shineytastic Online 2027, and these folks you never actually hear from. Over a beer or three, I casually broached the subject with William Wallace, one of the younger industry veterans at the conference, and he agreed to be our accomplice in what follows.

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Nice interview.

What you now need to do is follow Will up every 2 years and track how that optimism just gets kicked out of him ;-)

Oh, it was nice to hear that some work has been done on DCU, even if just 12 months ago.

Oh, he's had his optimism jackhammered out of him already. :)  He was on SWG, remember.

Good guy, already has quite a resume despite his youth. His blog is here for stalking purposes: http://wwallace.wordpress.com/

Nah, he still sounded too happy - any industry newb would want to have worked on SWG. I want to see if that attitude can last when he gets to work on (say) EA's Madden Online and no longer has access to the big name people who he could namedrop ;-)

... will Will be popping up on your sekret project Lum? You pulled that resume site out real quick... :-)

This "Will" guy talks too much...can't you edit that down to a few good sound bytes that are more digestable than that mountain of text?   :-)

Semiserious question...

Is there anyone in the MMO industry that has ever worn a suit to a job / industry function?

Concur.

I was one of the most dressed-up people at the conference, and I was wearing slacks, a t-shirt and a clubby dress shirt. You do see a few people in suits. They are mostly either investors or the executives of major, serious companies (EA, Disney).

The more slobally you are dressed, the better you are at your video game work. It's obvious to all that you've given up personal niceties such as clean clothes and washing in order to spend that time developing your sekret project / gaming dev skillset.

It's fun to dress up in a suit sometimes, because everyone immediately is convinced you're going on a job interview.

Fun interview!  I always enjoy your stuff.  Buy this:  (http://www.tieguys.com/images/products/nl-newmoneym.jpg)  for those special occasions.

He's not even thirty and he's worked on SWG and led a successful resistance against the British.

Did you not read the Raph interview?

Some of us think Will has been a star all along... :)

I do think he was overdressed to his interview at SOE-Austin. Didn't you wear a suit for that, Will?

First time I met Will was when he was like 14, and he walked up and invited me to his house for dinner, at a UO player lunch. My first thought was "staaaaalker!" :)

So it does work.  :wink:

Hmm, I thought there was more leading up to it than that, Raph...maybe not.  I guess the plan made sense to me then, and apparently my strategy worked!  Never underestimate the ambitious stalker, for our capacity for scheming is nearly unlimited.

I didn't wear a suit to my interview at SOE...maybe a collar, and a tie is remotely possible.  I think that the "casual" dress for most folks is one of the most important perks, because being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt to work separates us from traditional office work and makes us happy---and if we're comfortable and happy, then we work harder and better, and everyone wins!  I figure someday the rest of the world will catch up to us in that respect, and they'll wonder why they've been wearing ties for all these years.

We ditched the suit+tie back in 2000, now it's khakis and polos even here, and we're like all stuffy and shit.  Yeah it put a big dent in Men's Wearhouse stock but it improved morale a TINY BIT.

Ugg, i wish i could wear a t-shirt..around here its "slacks" and "Button up", not a full suit mind you, ties not required...but still.

I wore a suit when I interviewed at Big Huge Games. While I got the job, my interviewer was in a ratty, possibly unwashed shirt. Also, he slung his feet onto a table and had Birckenstocks on. I'm surprised he wasn't chewing on some sort of hippy root.

While I was there, it was pretty apparent that anyone who is judging you based on your clothes in an industry of the underpaid and overworked has problems. From the first day onward I wore my shittiest clothing.

Which was quite the change from the suit and tie I were every single day for a year while working at Bang & Olufsen.

If I ever decide to throw my hat into the application pool for the gaming industry again, i will probably wear a pedobear shirt or a "I just came from fucking your mother." shirt to the interview. That last one is nice because it has a double meaning. And this industry is full of people who love that sort of high-level philosophical word-play.

I seem to recall this exact scene from pirates of silicon valley, were you that dude from IBM in the pressed white shirt?

Yes.

No.

Will, it was actually you who ran up and invited me, and then your dad came up and started explaining in greater detail (specifically, that he had a friend he thought I should meet who was also coming to dinner -- and that was how I met Bruce Sterling).

I think you did wear a tie...

Holy moley.

So then - job interviews at Raph's place, 3am Saturday? We'll let ourselves in. :evil: