Another week. Another Mail Sack. It’s been said that no two days in the life of a Bungie Employee are ever exactly the same. To sustain our sanity in this ever-evolving landscape, we impose some rituals that provide the illusion of a routine. Like the bagels that graced our kitchen island this morning, a conversation with our community is among our favorite of those rituals. To prove that boast, just look at the friendly neighborhood video game makers who joined me in quilting this blanket of oversharing.
Nate Hawbaker, Artist
John Hopson, User Researcher
Pat Jandro, Designer
David Johnson, Engineer
Alex Loret de Mola, Engineer
Jason Minard, Engineer
David Mongan, Writer
Mat Noguchi, Engineer
Eric Osborne, urk
Eric Raab, Writer
Joshua Rubin, Writer
Ben Thompson, Engineer
Tim Williams, Engineer
Ben Wommack, Engineer
It’s time to bask in something familiar, my friends. Let’s open the Sack.
odmichael Based on this tweet, can you confirm that Bungie's next game is in some sort of playable form?
I can confirm that Chris Butcher did not spend his weekend playing an unplayable build.
TopWargamer So how's that game build?
antony X1000 What other games have you been playing recently?
Lots of Minecraft! On the PC. There's a private Bungie server and I have one with some outsider friends as well. Super excited for the 1.3 patch.
Ben Wommack
Diablo 3, Tropico 4, Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013.
Tim Williams
Draw Something, Words With Friends, and daily rounds of fetch with my dog.
Pat Jandro
Tales of the Abyss (PS2), Tales of Graces (PS3), and Diablo III (PC).
David Johnson
Kingdom Rush, Lord of the Rings Online.
John Hopson
I've been playing a bit of Sins of a Solar Empire, Magic: The Gathering (of course!), and a certain secret and awesome project by a certain secretive and awesome company.
Alex Loret de Mola
Diablo III and some other super-secret game DeeJ won't let me talk about.
Ben Thompson
Sorry, Ben. Soon™.
cortana 5 Are you guys scared about how your new game will be received by fans and critics?
To say that we are “scared” implies a lack of confidence. As you can see, that’s not the case. We want to make something that will blow your mind, and it’s always pretty terrifying to let a project go out the door (so I am told). You’ll see. When we get close to launch, we will be very interested to hear your opinion. Pete Parsons says it best when he talks about why he wanted to work at Bungie. It was because we set the bar so high the fall would kill us. Don’t look down.
Halo biggest fan What's your most anticipated game for 2012?
Halo 4.
Jason Minard
Probably Guild Wars 2.
Tim Williams
The 7th Annual Bungie Invitational Golf Tournament.
Pat Jandro
Assassin's Creed III.
David Johnson
Tossup between Guild Wars 2 and Torchlight 2.
John Hopson
Resident Evil 6.
Mat Noguchi
I'm looking forward to Borderlands 2. I jumped on the Borderlands bandwagon so late the first time around that none of my friends played anymore by the time I got into it. I want to get in from day 1 this time around and actually play with some friends.
Alex Loret de Mola
Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm! Barring that one being pushed back, I'd say Halo 4. I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Ben Wommack
Thrasher Fan Do you consider video games art?
I would say that most of us do. There might be a few of us who relate to them as pure science, but even the practice of science can be an art form. Everyone has their own definition of art, and everyone is right.
Xd00999 What was your most emotional moment in any form of media?
Tommy's return to Power Rangers to re-don the Green Ranger armor. You had to be there.
Mat Noguchi
Scrubs season 5, episode 20. Or the recent Batman movie.
Nate Hawbaker
No one mentioned the moment when Red found Andy on the beach of the Pacific (it has no memory), so I am just going to leave this here.
coolmike699 What do you think is the most important part of writing?
Had I tackled your question myself, I would have mentioned of a knack for cutting and pasting together the wisdom of others and peppering the dialogue with agonizing heaps of irony and sarcasm. Since I highly doubt that’s what you want to know about, I approached our coven of writers who toil under the spell of one Joe Staten. They spend their days boiling delicious fiction in their cauldron full of lies. Some of their answers were slightly disturbing, but it takes a twisted mind to conjure the story we are telling…
Killing your babies. I’m talking about ideas. Even if you think you’ve got the best idea for a character/scene/explosion/alien abduction/whatever, don’t get so attached to it that you won’t kill it if a better idea comes along. This goes hand-in-hand with another writing essential: Rewriting. Multiple drafts make everything tighter. And, as with everything other than belts and nooses, tighter is better. Trust me on this.
Dave Mongan
Not to be too much of an ass, but the most important part of writing is to keep writing, reading other writers, and letting people who aren’t your friends and family read your work. Your first 1,000,000 words are most likely going to be trash, but word 1,000,001 could be epic. (note: “could be”).
Eric Raab
One word: Peeing. No, honestly, I find that I can sit at my desk for an hour banging my head against a problem. And only when I walk away to relieve myself and I’m standing there thinking about nothing does the answer suddenly come clearly to me. One of the big secrets of any creative activity is the frequent taking of breaks. Go for a walk, have a snack, take a pee – but don’t bring a magazine along. The trick is to let your mind go to that empty zen place and forget all about what you’re doing. If (and only if) you’ve put in enough time banging your head against the problem, then chances are your subconscious will take over and offer up the prize. So, to be clear, the most important part of writing is: Stay Hydrated.
Joshua Rubin
SharkTooth__ What do the studio artists do for inspiration when they need to come up with something cool and new?
Oh, man. You should see some of the internal emails that fly around this place. Some of it is reference material that blows your mind. Some of it is visual collateral damage from an impromptu Photoshop war that spills out into the streets. Most of it would give away far too much about our creative process, but I can tell you that my Inbox has never been as colorful as it is at Bungie.
Mythical Wolf Can I have blue flames, please?
Please tell me you were kidding. What is this, twitter? Bungie can’t give you blue flames anymore. Bungie can’t claim responsibility for anything that happens in a Halo title anymore – past, present, or future.
beorn What was the most recent thing that made you laugh?
You mean aside from that last question? Sometimes, we laugh so that we won’t cry. And sometimes, a question is better answered by the panel.
Nate Hawbaker
David Johnson
ChorrizoTapatio Hey DeeJ, suppose some of us aspired to be the community manager just like you. What kind of degree do you have that qualifies you to do your job and what made you stand out above the rest of the candidates you were competing against?
You know what? I have no idea how to answer this question. To be honest, I am still not even sure why I am here. Let’s see if my boss is willing to shed some light on this subject.
Urk said: Here’s a version of the job description we posted on Bungie.net:
“Bungie is seeking a witty, self-deprecating wordsmith capable of using more than just soothing vowel sounds to fully engage our polite and passionate Community. In addition to creating and executing the existing editorial calendar for Bungie.net, this individual will be tasked with generating unique, fresh, never-before-seen content that: increases Bungie’s visibility in new and existing channels, aids in recruiting efforts, and challenges the ways we think about community engagement.”
The role breaks down very roughly into three areas of focus: community advocacy, brand evangelism, and content creation. Towards those ends, you could choose to pursue a B.A. in Creative Writing, Public Relations, or Multimedia. That’s by no means a comprehensive or required list, but they’re all comfortably in the wheelhouse.
Brand evangelism is a little more complicated. At times, Bungie’s Community Managers are expected to operate somewhat independently from the rest of the Marketing mix, so we look for people who understand our studio’s culture and heritage, and who are already effectively managing a community of their own. Just like artists, designers, and engineers, if you want a job on the Community Team – now two men strong! – you need to be able to prove you have the chops.
In DeeJ’s case, we knew he understood Bungie through our historical relationship with Halo and TTL, and we could read a few years’ worth of his writing through his blog (although we still gave him a viciously unfair writing test). But even though he was a strong candidate on paper, we also screened and interviewed a bunch of other great candidates, some of whom had more creative writing and multimedia experience. In the final analysis, though, DeeJ had just the right blend of all three facets, and he looked positively regal in his cargo pants and matching, monochromatic polo.
It’s a rare breed to be sure, and nearly every Community Manager has a wildly divergent, but remarkably similar path into the role. They get involved with communities and brands that they love, contribute their own proprietary blend of creative madness to the mix, and they set themselves apart from the masses through dedication, resolve, and a towering mountain of inappropriate jokes.
defnop552 What's your Superhero name? What's your Supervillain name?
Lord Phatrick. Not sure if I'm a hero or a villain though...
Pat Jandro
I know what you are doing. It won't work.
Mat Noguchi
I ZEROC00L I Is your current position at Bungie the same job you wanted while attending school?
Nope! I didn't even know Production Engineer was a thing while in school. To be fair, Bungie hadn't invented the profession yet.
Ben Wommack
Not me, personally. It wasn't until I actually got a taste of doing meaningful web development just after graduating college that I fell in love with the tech and interesting problems related to web development.
Alex Loret de Mola
Not at all. I went to college thinking I was going to be a high school biology teacher, then switched to philosophy (was thinking teaching or law) and then ended up in IT. It's been a strange and fantastic path to where I am now!
Jason Minard
No. Production Engineer is a made up job that only Bungie has and didn't exist when I was in school.
Tim Williams
It's totally better; I'd heard how competitive the games industry was, and there really wasn't any opportunity to get into the industry where I grew up, so I didn't even look into it!
David Johnson
I had no idea that games user researchers existed until Microsoft tried to hire me as one. (Btw, as your forum handle implies, Hackers is the best movie ever.)
John Hopson
Given that I could not even conceive of the idea of what I do right now, it would therefore be impossible for me to have wanted it to begin with. Having said that, the fact that I have stayed so long at Bungie implies that deep down in my subunconcious I crave something that I have been unable to find elsewhere. So insofarasmuch as one can attribute an almost preternatural need to align oneself to the cosmic vibrations of knowledge and learning to harness the fundamental structural fabric of the universe to desire, yes. Also, given your handle, I can only say "RISC is good".
Mat Noguchi
homocidalham Who is your favorite forum goer and why did you pick me?
You are, homocidalham. You are! And the warm barrel of the revolver you are pressing against the side of my head has nothing to do with my proclamation of undying love and devotion. My life for you!
Kalriq If you could meet one celebrity, who would it be?
I already had the pleasure to meet Nathan Fillion. I think I'm good for now...
Ben Thompson
I think I'd have to go with Will Smith. He seems to be one of the few Hollywood stars that seems to find a way to lead a rather "normal" life amidst the seemingly chaotic turbulence within the Hollywood circle, not to mention that he's a huge philanthropist and does some amazing things with some charities that I really support, so I definitely admire him.
David Johnson
Terry Pratchett. Love his stuff and he's by all accounts a swell fella.
Ben Wommack
Celebrities aren't real... They're all just humans like you and me who happened to be put on superficial pedestals.
Pat Jandro
(Editor’s Note: Killjoy!)
CoRaMo What is your go-to brand of sunscreen during this shining summer?
Is the summer shining where you are? We find that the atmosphere that hovers over our fair city does the best job of screening out the sun. When the daystar does manage to punch a hole through the omni-present soup, people crawl from out of the darkness like Vitamin-D-starved groundhogs and bask naked in its rays.
Geegs30 What goes through your mind when you see a Bungie fan in the wild sporting some company apparel?
I usually gawk a little and point them out to anyone I'm with, which is ironic.
Ben Wommack
“When did we start selling that at the store?”
Mat Noguchi
I just get a huge grin on my face about the fact that I get to work here.
Jason Minard
"We shop at the same store."
Pat Jandro
“Is that one of our new hires?”
Tim Williams
Now you gone and done it, Tim!
Community, I know what you are thinking right about now: Those of you who helped yourself to Bungie Day swag have the perfect disguise to infiltrate our secure location. Don’t make that mistake. For your safety and continued survival, read on…
DE4THINC4RN4TE How does Jerome remember who to let by the front desk? Or is there some sort of high tech security system to identify who he should let in?
We have an unbeatable security system, combined with the steely gaze that Jerome and his peers train on the front door during every moment of every day. Remember that scene from Mission Impossible when Tom Cruise was hanging upside down so that the security system surrounding the terminal he was hacking wouldn’t detect his sound, weight, or body temperature? Our security system makes that one look like a bicycle chain tied in knots. Okay?
snipe champpppp SHOW ME YOUR WAR FACE!
xNiGhThAwKx19 What is the most impressive non-career related accomplishment you've done?
Your mom.
Nate Hawbaker
There was a complex World of Warcraft addon I created and put up on Curse Gaming back in 2006 before I started working here. It garnered a few thousand downloads and a bunch of feature requests, then was made obsolete when the game updated. I won't say which because the code is downright embarrassing six years later.
Ben Wommack
Probably a tie between hearing my music played on an international radio station, getting into the Tokyo Times newspaper, or the fact that I survived long enough to see the age of 28.
Pat Jandro
I help to organize the "Cookie Brigade," a group of people who get together every PAX to give out cookies and accept donations to Child's Play. We've raised well over $60,000 for Child's Play since we started in 2008. It's a blast!
Alex Loret de Mola
ALI217 Can you tell if questions are inspired by a thirst for knowledge or a desire to solely enter the mail sack?
It’s hard to tell. Take your question for instance. Are you really curious about what I think about your questions, or did you just discover a clever new way to see your name pixelated on the Bungie Blog? Fortunately, your sinister motives are not as important as your ability to sustain a good conversation, which is why Bungie.net is still a cool place to hang.
WestCoastRonin When did you know that Bungie was the right place for you?
When I stayed up 23 hours working on the Halo 3 Forge / Saved Films vidoc with Jim's team. I was just super impressed how dedicated he and all his guys were to showing the most engaging and exciting presentation possible, and he made me and the other tester feel like an important part of the process. Many of the crazy things you see shown off in that video are straight from the trenches of Test.
Ben Wommack
When I first played Myth: The Fallen Lords, I knew that it would be a place I'd love to work at. However, I never dreamed I'd actually *be able* to work here.
Alex Loret de Mola
During the last loop of my interview process here. My final hour was with Marty and we spent the time talking about horror movies and drum machines.
Pat Jandro
It was during my first week at Bungie. Watching all of the videos describing just what insanity it was that we were working on and realizing what a great challenge it would be convinced me that this was the right spot to be.
David Johnson
After I worked with Bungie on Halo 2 and 3, I took a few years off to work with other studios, particularly Xbox LIVE Arcade stuff. They were fun projects, but working with other teams really drove home to me how special Bungie is.
John Hopson
Well, I haven't been fired yet.
Mat Noguchi
burritosenior Can I have a free Bungie Shirt now?
“Not yet.” You have to win the weekly challenge first. Now all we need is a riddle or some sort of puzzle…
Eco Maiden Know any good riddles?
Yes. Quite a few, actually.
Mat Noguchi
What's in Ben's pocket?
Tim Williams
What's in my pocket? (Tim already knows)
Ben Wommack
Full Time Loser Do you really read this far into the Mail Sack thread?
Yes. All of the letters that are committed to the depths of the Sack provide their own valuable intel about the hearts and minds of our community. Even if I cannot answer them all, I read them all. Even this next one…
ConstantC4RN4GE I gave up on the Mail Sack. It's lame and offers nothing worthwhile.
I am never going to give you up. I am never going to let you down. (No matter how hard you might try to hurt me.)
I will, however, take the weekend off. You should do the same. Happy Friday, Bungie Community. We will see you right back here on Monday, fresh to embrace this routine of inquisition and spin all over again.