Of working in Blizzard and CM hate

Not news but helpful to some. A common question game developers usually get from fans goes like this: ” What kind of college classes should you take if you want to work at Blizzard? Like as a game designer, or whatever other positions there are. Help please!”

Phrix asked that in the World of Warcraft forums recently. What’s noteworthy about this case though, aside from the expected comedic response from the community (they suggested Zoology, Fermentation, and Distillation) is the apt response by Blizzard Community Manager, Nethaera. More importantly, the community’s responses to Nethaera’s answer. Anyhow, Nethaera said the following:

It depends on the department you want to work in. Take a look at the jobopp page here- http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/ and read up on the various positions then, start asking around. There are quite a few schools that offer game design specific courses, art courses, server technology, etc. It just depends on what you want to do. Some positions are a bit more ambiguous in nature in the game field and don’t necessarily require one particular background in school, but more experience in your chosen field in one way or another.

Good luck!

This response, of course, was met with some dissent, as some folks have decided to craftily “translate” the requirements of becoming a Blizzard employee, and implied that it doesn’t take much. Of course, others have discarded that as just plain general trolling. Still, it does seem indicative that some folks really just don’t like the Community Managers (ah, that whole Tseric fiasco comes to mind).

To Nethaera’s credit, the quick responses to the questions about whether or not one’s credentials is enough to make it (there was this one guy who was curious about being a web designer) into Blizzard, won over other folks, and caused the thread to grow.

Aside from noting the usual, and prevailing “we don’t like the CMs” sentiment on WoW Forums, we suggest you check out Phrix’s job  thread yourself. If you’re curious about being part of Blizzard that is. Of course, if that recent Penny-Arcade StarCraft 2 strip was accurate, if you do get in, you may have to learn to how to keep secrets.

Not news but helpful to some. A common question game developers usually get from fans goes like this: ” What kind of college classes should you take if you want to work at Blizzard? Like as a game designer, or whatever other positions there are. Help please!”

Phrix asked that in the World of Warcraft forums recently. What’s noteworthy about this case though, aside from the expected comedic response from the community (they suggested Zoology, Fermentation, and Distillation) is the apt response by Blizzard Community Manager, Nethaera. More importantly, the community’s responses to Nethaera’s answer. Anyhow, Nethaera said the following:

It depends on the department you want to work in. Take a look at the jobopp page here- http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/ and read up on the various positions then, start asking around. There are quite a few schools that offer game design specific courses, art courses, server technology, etc. It just depends on what you want to do. Some positions are a bit more ambiguous in nature in the game field and don’t necessarily require one particular background in school, but more experience in your chosen field in one way or another.

Good luck!

This response, of course, was met with some dissent, as some folks have decided to craftily “translate” the requirements of becoming a Blizzard employee, and implied that it doesn’t take much. Of course, others have discarded that as just plain general trolling. Still, it does seem indicative that some folks really just don’t like the Community Managers (ah, that whole Tseric fiasco comes to mind).

To Nethaera’s credit, the quick responses to the questions about whether or not one’s credentials is enough to make it (there was this one guy who was curious about being a web designer) into Blizzard, won over other folks, and caused the thread to grow.

Aside from noting the usual, and prevailing “we don’t like the CMs” sentiment on WoW Forums, we suggest you check out Phrix’s job  thread yourself. If you’re curious about being part of Blizzard that is. Of course, if that recent Penny-Arcade StarCraft 2 strip was accurate, if you do get in, you may have to learn to how to keep secrets.