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Scott Grenney |
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Contained here are examples of work I have done over the years.
Guides & Manuals Writing History Throughout my life I have enjoyed helping people. I started to create guides to help bridge the gap between users and what they were trying to use. For example if someone first installs outlook express they won't have a clue on how to use it and will spend days playing with it to learn it's functions, and this will lead to questions along the way. With games comes a bigger problem. Online gaming was shrouded in mystery and this left new gamers having in the past to search for information, and finding things out for themselves (the hard way), before they could even consider playing their chosen game. It seemed madness not to have a online gaming guide, and this started me on the track of creating detailed guides that give the gamer exactly what he/she wants, and more importantly, easy to follow. 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. Due to the popularity of the website it soon became known as the "BarrysWorld Guides" and with BarrysWorld receiving funding later on I was employed full time to carry on my guiding work, along with other duties. The first manual I created was for the popular online game Counter Strike. The game was unlike any other FPS (first person shooter) at the time and new players found it hard to get into. I offered the team creating the game to write the manual, and this was placed with every copy of Counter Strike which is freely downloadable on the internet. As the game grew beta, by beta, I carried on updating the manual, and worked closely with the Counter Strike team. When Counter Strike reached Version 1.0 it became available as a boxed game (previously you could only download it to play), and is now being sold worldwide. The full guide I also created was soon after given the "official" tag by the game creators. Some people ask why I am good at writing guides, and the simple answer is I create them based on how a gamer will want to play the game, and this is due to my experience of knowing the thought process/route someone will take to do it, thereby fulfilling their needs. Other guide writers tend to create guides on how they think a gamer should play the game, therefore not answering all the questions a gamer will need answering. Below you will find details and examples of my guiding and manual work...
Training Prompt Guides New entrants to the Manual Data Entry Centre firstly take a training course and issued with a 100+ page training manual and various prompt sheets. The manual is comprehensive containing many pictorial examples, but to actually perform the job requires learning the different processing keys and when to use them. For the postal service I am employed by, Christmas time is the busiest period of the year. Around an extra 850+ temp agency staff are employed and the training course is compacted into three days. In previous years it had taken new Christmas staff up to two weeks to settle in. During this time they would slow down or stop working to flick through the vast manual for help. During Christmas 2005 I created A4 size prompt guide sheets, one each for the four tasks new entrants will be required to perform. The prompt sheets were designed to be easy to refer to allowing a user to instantly find the information they required. This avoided the need to print hundreds of training manuals and resulted in a decreased learning time (from 1-2 weeks to 2-3 days). The Training Department and Quality Manager have requested the A4 prompt guides to be used in Christmas 2006 and 2007. A version of the prompt guides are set to become part of the standard training materials issued to new entrants.
Coaches Reference
Manual I am currently in the process of compiling a Coaches
Reference Manual for the Data Entry Centre I work in. I have been working closely with management and other
coaches to help develop standard coaching procedures. The final manual
will help develop a 'best practice'
approach to coaching. It will contain
the roles and responsibilities of the
coach, coaching strategies, techniques, including forms and tools required
for the job.
Worksheet Guides I am currently writing a detailed guide on a Utilisation Project, containing details on how utilisation is measured, its impact and how time savings can be made. I have also written guides for two tools including the 'Team Activity Calculator' (measures utilisation by team). The 'Accuracy Analysis Worksheet' (tool to record accuracy issues).
BarrysWorld - Main Web Site
BarrysWorld was one of Europe's largest GSP (Games Service Provider). It provided services for 52,000+ members, and the entire network served over 160 million pages per month. An ongoing project on the main site was making BarrysWorld more user friendly. This involved a radical facelift of the website. My role in the project was the creation of "game pages" and "new gamer & member sections". In addition I was responsible for any new content added, and website changes to ensure ease of use by the public. The game pages I created were carefully planned and I followed a simple formula. After all the user (gamer) wants to do is play the game and enjoy it, not spending hours searching for files, help and information. I ensured a user had all the info he could possibly need displayed in small bite size chunks (as to not overwhelm them) and to ensure there was no confusion. Some examples can be found below: Please note: The Links below are for
local copies of the pages I created. None of the links will work on the Quake3 Games Page | Unreal Tournament Games Page | Tribes Games Page | Half-Life Games Page | Medal Of Honor Games Page | Counter Strike Games Page | Star Trek: Elite Force Games Page | New to online gaming? I also created a number of popups for each game page so if the user needed more detailed information they could get it by simply clicking a link. Examples can be found below:
Please note: The Links below are for local copies of the
pages I created. None of the links will work on the -
Getting Started with Gamespy - Details about the game
server browser, how to install and set up. I also wrote content for a number of pages located around the main web site.
New
Gamer Walkthrough
You can view a
copy here: This walkthrough addressed many questions new gamers ask and formed the foundation of BarrysWorld's new gamer section. Update: The complete New Gamer Walkthrough can now be seen on the FreddysHouse Guides here.
BarrysWorld - Guides Web Site
The website was designed with the user always in mind. Navigation was aided by all links which appeared on the left side, and these changed to reflect the guide a user would be viewing at the time. Individual guides had their own colour schemes and style. This gave each guide it's own feel, making it stand out from the other guides, but also keeping the look so the viewer knew he was still on the guides web site. The guide's structure was such that a reader would be exposed to elements within the game slowly, but steadily avoiding confusion. The guides I write covered a number of games, and internet related topics including:
- Newbie Guide to Online Gaming -
Step by step guide for new players who want to get into playing games
online. Other Small Guides I
created: My guides site was linked and featured in a number of
magazines, and had coverage and exposure on websites all over the world.
Below is one example taken from PC Gamer magazine.
Counter-Strike Official Guide and
Manual
I also created the official manual which is included with every version of Counter Strike, and I keep it up to date when changes made to the game. A copy of the manual can be seen here. (The Counter-Strike team wanted the manual to contain pure text only, which proved an interesting challenge) My Counter-Strike guide received around 8000+ page views / 30000+ hits a day / 23,000 page impressions a month. Update: The complete guide can now be seen on the FreddysHouse Guides here.
FreddysHouse Guides
(Established February 2004) Located at http:/guides.freddyshouse.com, the FreddysHouse Guides contains my current work.
Onlinehelp-uk - Support Guides I created and expanded on a number of support guides in partnership with Alex Stanley to make up the onlinehelp-uk web site (www.onlinehelp-uk.com). The idea for the web site was to give free technical support to people around the time ISPs were offering support at 50p/min. I felt it was unfair for someone to be on a phone to ask generally simple questions and be charged so highly for the help. The guide's included covered: - Connecting to the internet When I answered a support email I made copies and updated the individual troubleshooting areas, as well as filling these with solutions to problems I encountered myself over the years.
Site and Contents Copyright © 2008 Scott Grenney |
After years of
research I created a clear cut walkthrough which enabled complete novices
to ease themselves into online gaming. I used a number of tricks when creating it, like
relating commonly used game terms with everyday objects and sports. This
helped ensure no confusion by the reader.
Since I started work on the BarrysWorld guides in
early 1998, I started the guides site, and the guides it contained quickly
became well know to a vast number of gamers worldwide. Over the years I have become
well known and respected for the work I have put into them. They
received 250,000+ page impressions a month.
My first guide to get "official" status from the
team who actually created the game. Counter-Strike has a huge following
with a vast number of players world wide playing day in, and day out. It
is a game where Counter-Terrorists face Terrorists within a range of
scenarios, and it has won many awards.