The Daily Grind: What would your MMO dream job be?

by Justin Olivetti on Aug 13th 2010 8:00AM

World of Warcraft, Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind

I'll be Frank and you'll be Ernest, and we'll both admit that we as players have the tendency to be armchair game designers. No, no, don't deny it; it just makes you look defensive. If there's a single theme that pervades every official MMO forum out there, it's that the players think they know what's best for the game, even more than the devs themselves, and if they were making the calls, Game X would be mopping the floor with World of Warcraft.

So hey, why not indulge in the daydream -- what if tomorrow you could have any job in the MMO industry? If you could make a very real, very direct impact on the games that are being made or are operating in live mode, what would it be? Would you be a writer, finally free to pen the perfect quest? Would you be a project manager, in charge of the direction and goals of the teams at your disposal? Would you be a big-shot CEO, making the major calls and shaping the future of the company? Or would you settle into a creative role as an artist or composer, helping to contribute to the game's frills?

No, wait, I got it. You'd totally want to be a quality assurance tester. Those guys and gals get all the glory, am I right?

Tags: artist, ceo, composer, dream-job, opinion, project-manager, qa, quality-assurance, tdg, the-daily-grind, world-of-warcraft, wow, writer

Reader Comments (42)

Definitely game designer. With my qualifications and skills I'm probably better suited to being a quest/content creator or community coordinator/representative, but I love to create areas, characters and lore/history (both when I write prose and when I used to be a GM for my pen & paper RPG gaming group), so being the original world designer and having control over the game's ongoing storylines would be my dream job.

If I lived in a country that had a gaming industry then I would probably have tried to get into the gaming industry years ago, even if I had to start as an unpaid intern or work my way up from QA like so many do.

Well the real answer is "none" - I'm with those who like to keep their hobbies as hobbies and work as work, but ... if I had to pick something it would be environmental artist. In particular I would love to design cool little hidden nooks and crannies for explorers to come across. For me the game is at its best when the part of the world that I'm in makes me feel something, whether it be awe or comfort or sadness. I love little moments like actually feeling cozy when you find shelter from rain in the game or feeling peaceful sitting by a lake during sunset within a game. I'd love to try to recreate that for others.

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