User:Bobby Stein

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This person is an employee of or a staff member at ArenaNet.


Hi there. I'm the writing team lead. Our "pod" is a subdivision of the design team. Our group works with gameplay and world designers to create compelling characters, interesting (and hopefully entertaining) NPC dialogue, and fun quests and missions. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Bear in mind I am not a Web designer or wiki guru, so until I leech someone else's template this page will likely be text heavy and rather dull to look at.

Drop me a line on my user talk page if so inclined. Questions, feedback, and other ramblings are all welcome.

Contents

[edit] Who We Are

The ArenaNet writing team is part of the design team and is currently comprised of five writer/editors of various backgrounds. I am team lead. Will McDermott, Sean Ferguson, Brian Campbell, Angel McCoy, and I are primarily responsible for in-game text, user manuals, and various bits of marketing and packaging copy. (New Community Relations Manager Regina Buenaobra has assumed much of the web and marketing writing we previously generated. Yay, Regina!)

We all have published works ranging from Web and magazine articles to strategy guides, licensed books, video games, and pen-and-paper RPGs. There are also two "embedded" writers on the design team: Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee. They take turns crafting the world setting and story arc for each Guild Wars campaign, write all the cinematic dialogue, and flesh out the various cultures and factions in the games with the lead gameplay designer. Both Jeff and Ree have extensive experience in paper-based RPGs and card games, and have written numerous licensed novels.

[edit] What We Do

Some of our responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Editing, rewriting, or creating new dialogue for various non-player Guild Wars characters (NPCs), including scenes
  • Polishing quest and mission dialogue with the gameplay designers
  • Polishing skill names and titles, user interface (UI) text, and item names
  • Writing and editing marketing materials
  • Writing and editing user manuals, strategy guides, and magazine content
  • Working with localization to translate in-game text from American English into many other languages

Though we each claim a specialty, we all get our hands dirty writing and editing in-game text of one form or another. Without our touch, the game would read *very* differently.

[edit] What I Do

Meetings. Meetings. And more meetings. Every once in awhile I attempt to write something funny that usually gets censored by the ESRB, Jeff Grubb, or James Phinney (a.k.a. the "Destroyer of Fun"). Then I waste a good hour or two in the executive washroom playing DOOM RPG on my cell phone while drinking copious amounts of free Talking Rain from the break room fridge. Life is good.

No, really.

Actually, I do spend far too many hours in meetings, but they're usually productive, informative, and dare I say...exciting? A lot of being team lead encompasses cooperation and communication between all the various departments. I meet with gameplay designers, tools programmers, localization personnel, and the business team practically on a daily basis. When we're not hashing out details of our current projects, I'm usually at my desk documenting new features and processes, keeping tabs of our work schedule, helping various designers prototyping new systems that involve text in some form or fashion, or fixing bugs with Mike Z.'s QA team. Sometimes I even get to write!

[edit] How We Work

ArenaNet is a rather large company compared to most game development studios. We have over 100 full-time staffers working on the Guild Wars series. That means we have an abundance of designers, writers, and artists (the content producers) in addition to our large contingent of programmers responsible for the underlying technology that powers the game. Even though we are a big studio, we are nimble. Employees are given the opportunity to contribute beyond their official roles. We are encouraged to submit gameplay and story ideas, give each other feedback on the development process, and work with other teams to accomplish our goals.

As writers, we don't simply write. Instead, we work together with the members of the design and programming teams to craft content including missions, quests, events, and scenes. A typical Guild Wars 2 brainstorming session might begin with Jeff Grubb or Ree Soesbee laying out a particular section of the world with Eric Flannum, Colin Johanson, and other members of the content design and writing teams. They brainstorm ideas that are consistent with lore. Separate discussions are then held with level artists, who "art" the maps that our level designers create. From there, the designers lay out the basic gameplay mechanics, who the principal characters are, and their initial lines of dialogue. Writers then build off these templates and add new NPCs, scenes, and dialogue to add flavor and substance.

After that, the programmers hook up various bits of design into code, and then the designers can "spawn" the quest and get it working in the game. We playtest, taking into account feedback from QA, and then further revise as necessary until the final product is as you see it onscreen. It's a collaborative effort from beginning to end, and one that's flexible enough to be adjusted to fit the needs of the people involved. If something doesn't work, we change it and try something else. The process is always evolving.

[edit] My Contributions

Here are some samples of recent projects I've worked on:

Writing and Editing

Design and Writing

[edit] Game Credits

These are the games I've worked on (from most recent to oldest):

[edit] About Me

I graduated from Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) with a degree in film. During college I held many jobs ranging from the mundane (shoe sales) to the somewhat bizarre (quality assurance testing for an edutainment game company). After graduation I worked in television for a bit, crewing on various commercials and television shows as a production assistant, lighting and grip truck monkey, cameraman, and audio guy. I made the switch to finance in 1998 and worked on Wall St. for about five years doing technical and trade support for institutional equity derivatives (options), online trading, and market data applications. I switched gears and began writing about my lifelong passion, video games, in 2002. The bulk of my work was with Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox.com, and Nintendo Power. I've been with ArenaNet since December of 2005, first as a writer/editor on the Guild Wars Factions strategy guide, and then writing in-game text. I took over as team lead in December of 2007.

I was an active musician throughout college. My primary band, Boss Jim Gettys, released two full-length albums, an EP, a split 7" single (with the Stuntcocks), and contributed various songs to multiple indie compilations. We signed to now-defunct Childlike Records in 1998 and released our swan song, Tigrebeat, in winter of 1999. After the group disbanded, I played bass for Hoboken indie band Bobfields for about a year. The group released one record, Head So Full. I also played a few sessions at the Pigeon Club with Lanky, though none of those tracks made it onto the final release.

[edit] What I'm Playing

Aside from Guild Wars? A lot, actually.

Playing a lot of GTA IV with some other ANet folks. Multiplayer is 100 kinds of awesome. The single player story is amazing. Great writing and voice acting. DOOM RPG is surprisingly great. Just bought a Wii and a few games the other day. Boom Blox is a riot.

[edit] News, Updates, and Other Stuff

  • The QA team has been on a bug squashing rampage. I'll updateAndrew Patrick has been updating the text bugs page soon since his recent transition. Thanks, Andrew! Bobby Stein 17:15, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
  • Working with the core systems designers on some very cool new features for GW2. Bobby Stein 06:02, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
  • Fellow writer/editor Will McDermott has joined the wiki community! Go bother him with text bugs. ;) Bobby Stein 07:04, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • The position has been filled. Thanks to all the applicants who sent us their work. ArenaNet is looking for an experienced writer/editor! Details are available on the jobs page of the official website. Bobby Stein 03:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC) Bobby Stein 23:22, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
  • The Bonus Mission Pack is out! Feel free to post any feedback related to story and dialogue on my User talk page. I'll be sure to relay it to the rest of the team. Bobby Stein 10:06, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Almost finished polishing up the Bonus Mission Pack with the designers. Just squashing a few remaining bugs and making sure the text is as tight as can be. Once that's out the door I'll get back to those text bugs. Thanks for your patience. Bobby Stein 00:52, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
  • The Inside ArenaNet panel went well. Check out the summary at the Guild Wars official site for more details. Podcast to be posted at the PAX site soon. Bobby Stein 17:22, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Links

Some other ANet folks on the wiki you should check out:

[edit] Contact Us

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