about - games industry experience

past and present

about me | employment | games industry

BarrysWorld Ltd
Nov 1998 - April 2000 (Voluntary),
April 2000 - January 2001 (Employed Full Time)
Electronics Boutique (Now GAME Digital Ltd) 
March 2001 - March 2002 (Employed Full Time)
FreddysHouse 
Feb 2004 - Ongoing... (Voluntary)

Game on...

In late November 1998, after the creation of my first two guides I was asked to join BarrysWorld (voluntary at the time) so I could grow my guides site. To cut a long story short the guides web site soon became known as the "BarrysWorld Guides" and with BarrysWorld receiving funding in early April 2000, I was employed full time to carry on my guiding work along with other duties including: content writing, support, news, community development, service/game tester.

Sadly after a year the .com bubble burst and BarrysWorld future was made uncertain. Luckily Electronic Boutique (EB) bought BarrysWorld in March 2001 and my work on the guides continued, until late March 2002 where due to company restructuring (EB is now GAME DIGITAL LTD) my position was no longer required and I took redundancy...

After some time out (I'd not had a holiday in over 2 years!) I found a new job which is sadly not gaming related, but has allowed me to work in areas I've wanted to take a crack at, in this case management. Although now I am growing restless and I am actively looking at getting back into writing / the games industry.

Why I started writing guides

How many times have you bought something and had to face reading a bible size manual or fiddling with it until you finally get it working, but not fully understanding it and resulting in frustration as you try to work things out?

This is the reason I started to create guides. Over the years I have developed techniques to allow me to guide things in the way you will encounter problems and questions.

When I started guiding, online gaming was shrouded in mystery leaving new gamers having to search for information, finding things out for themselves (the hard way), before they could even consider playing their chosen game. The fun element was non-existent, after all gamers just wanted to buy a game and play it! Many expert gamers offered to help new gamers, but most were irritated with answering the same questions again and again - however much we may have an urge to help, countless calls of "what does this do" can make any sane gamer insane.
It seemed to me like madness not to have a online gaming guide, and this started me on the track of creating detailed guides that gave the gamer exactly what they want and which are easy to follow.

The guides themselves

The guides I create try to ease the gamer in slowly, answering all the questions I know they will ask. I also ask the gamers themselves to pitch in. By sharing their tactics on the guides they not only helped fellow gamers, but also shape the guide to reflect the community it represents.

Now after countless guides and manual work (including the writing of the Counter Strike manual) work is underway on a new look guides site where I am pumping out new fresh guides, with my main goal to making gaming as simple as possible.

Check out my current guide work here on the FreddysHouse Guides: http://guides.freddyshouse.com
- Scott "SAS" Grenney

Games & Software Beta Testing / Consultant 

Over the years I have beta tested a number of games, software and services. I have a detailed knowledge of how games, and understand the needs of the end user which enable me to be a good tester, and trouble shooter. Some of the games I have beta tested for include:

- Counter Strike Beta 5.1 - full release v1.0 : http://www.counter-strike.net
I worked with a number of other beta testers around the world while testing this popular online game. Feedback was given to the counter strike team daily on bugs, exploits and suggestions on ways to improve aspects of the game. I wrote the game manual and maintained it from beta 5.1 to its full release as a boxed game (v1.0).

- The Peoples Game : N/A
My work involved fully testing the game, and providing the creators with detailed feedback and bug reports.

- Internet Football Club (IFC) - http://www.internetfootballclub.com
Having joined the free beta since it started, I contacted the team behind this popular with some ideas. I provided feedback on aspects of the game and gave ideas on ways to improve it.

Throughout the BarrysWorld web site I oversaw users interaction with the site, and ensure minimal fuss. This involved ensuring navigation (a huge problem at the time due to the size of the website) and services were easily to follow, find and use.

 

League Administrator

I ran the BarrysWorld Counter-Strike League (BWCSL) and the Unreal Tournament Capture The Flag League (BWUTL) for 2 seasons (around 6 months each). The work involved setting up and running of the leagues which included setting schedules, organising servers and teams, along with other admins to oversee the games. Also updating the web site with results, news and dealing daily with emails related to the running of the leagues. Each league held over 500 players at anyone time.

On a normal league evening, four online game servers were used where two teams of 8 players would play each other for a set time period. My role involved ensuring passwords and addresses for each server were issued to teams and disputes resolved. Monitoring of games in progress were also undertaken (with four servers that meant 64 players to monitor with the help of game admins). After the games the league website was updated and points awarded to teams.

 

Community Liaison

Whilst at BarrysWorld I got more involved with the communities behind the games I played. I was the liaison for everything to do with Counter Strike at BarrysWorld (since I knew the guys who where creating the game well). This work involved being first point of contact for 1000's of players, ensuring they were happy with the counter strike element on BarrysWorld as well as building up the numbers of players and members BarrysWorld had.


My Gaming History

  • I started gaming on a Atari machine (top of the range at the time!), and slowly moved onto a number of consoles / PCs: C16, C64, Mega Drive, Gameboy, PC, PlayStation 2, Game Cube.
  • As for board games I've played a wide range, including classics like Cludeo, Monoploy, Chess, and more advanced games which require detailed knowledge of the rules. When I was younger I sometimes combined 2 games, and created a brand new game with a new set of rules to make it more enjoyable.
  • I have played numerous Games Workshop games since I was 8. In the past I regularly join in with game nights every Thursday, and at weekends for a period of 3 years at my local store. This gave me close contact with problems gamers faced whilst trying to play games.
  • I've played numerous 'Play by mail' statistical based games, Including games supplied by KJC games over a 3 year period.
  • I have been playing online multiplayer computer games since I was 17.
  • I'm also very good at computer games, especially strategy games.
  • I did a case study on a well know board game, which involved a lot of research into games, rules, e.t.c. for my Technology A-Level course. I also contacted the game creators and throughout the study I gained a detailed knowledge of how board games are created, and the little details that are added to ensure the game works. The study also looked at user interaction with the game.
  • I have set-up and ran small multiplayer LAN games (6 player) for friends, including organising a huge 40 player LAN party.
  • In my spare time I created guides for people and helped the other volunteer staff on BarrysWorld. A year later upon receiving funding, I was offered a job, which I quickly accepted, becoming heavily involved within the games industry.
  • 've beta tested a number of games including: Counter Strike (highly popular online game), Internet Football Club (web based football game), The People's Game (Internet based football game).
  • Upon Electronics boutique buying BarrysWorld and saving it from liquidation, I was reemployed.

    • With also having worked with the well known GSP (games service provider) BarrysWorld (sadly closing after a 10 year reign), and the games retailer Electronics Boutique (now GAME Digital LTD) over the years I have gathered a vast knowledge and experience of gaming and the industry, inside and out. From the design phase right up to playing the final product.

    Although I am currently working for a postal service, I have on request created a board game for the company based on the theme of "diversity". The game's aim is to increase the work force's awareness of diversity, whilst providing enjoyment and raising team morale. Information relating to my diversity game can be found here.

    I am now currently developing content in my spare time for the gaming site www.freddyshouse.com and my new guides site http://guides.freddyshouse.com.