We Want Your Job! – GamesMaster Issue #213

We Want Your Job!

Pestering the jammiest jobsmiths in the business

The games industry machine has many cogs in its inner workings. Fancy working in the public relations sector? Roxana Etemad of Eidos gives us her advice:

GM: Hiya Roxy, tell us about your job and what it involves.

Roxy: I am UK PR Manager at Eidos which means I always have loads going on and it’s also a lot of fun. My day to day work changes all the time but mainly consists of planning coverage and speaking to journalists, organising press events, managing my PR agency and, of course, the less fun stuff…PR planning, scanning coverage and reporting.

GM: How many people do you deal with on a daily basis? Is it hard keeping everyone happy?

Roxy: Eidos is a great place as everyone is always ready to help each other out, so there is a lot of support when you need it. The great thing about my role is that I get to deal with everyone in the company whether it’s with Marketing, Sales, Brand or even QA and development. It’s great because you see all aspects of different roles in gaming and gives you a brilliant insight into what everyone does.

GM: What qualifications did you need for the job? University education? Good people skills?

Roxy: I have a degree in Communications and Audio/Visual Production. Coming up with PR stunts and ideas was my favourite aspect of the degree and helped me decide what kind of career path I wanted to follow. A tip for any budding PR peeps – you have to love the field you are handling PR for. You can’t do games PR if you don’t have a love for games. A career in videogames made complete sense to me – I have been hooked on gaming since I was 7 years old playing on my Atari 2600 with my dad…in fact things haven’t changed much as now I play on Xbox Live with him!

GM: Are you into games yourself? How much do you have to learn about each product before presenting it to the media?

Roxy: The great thing about my job it seeing how games develop over time, and playing early versions of our games to present them to press. Once you have mastered the level you want to show, you are ready to rock-and-roll, ‘til you realise you have to be able to speak and play at the same time which takes a little practise. At home I try to play as much as I can but unfortunately it involves having to boot my husband off a controller, which is a challenge!

GM: Finally, any tips on getting into gaming public relations?

Roxy: Although a degree isn’t essential it will provide you with the tools you will need to start out with, which I found very helpful. You need a lot of drive and have to be an outgoing person. Great communication skills are essential, both written and verbal and, of course, you must have a passion for whatever field you choose to get into. Last thing – a PR person is only as good as their contacts, you must always be building and maintaining relationships with people. You never know when you can help each other out!

CAPTION: Battleships? During the interview, Roxy couldn’t help but level an entire fleet of ships with one well-placed shot. Yowza!

TOOLS OF THE TRADE:

1) My Blackberry – I can’t survive without it! I tend to be out of the office often so it’s the only way I can keep tabs on what’s going on.

2) Business cards – I have three different versions each with different game artwork on the back which is so cool – at the moment I am on the Tomb Raider Underworld variety.

3) Magazines – I receive magazines on a daily basis and I love going through them to see what juicy coverage we have within the pages!

4) Deadlines sheet – The sheet helps me plan in asset drops, exclusives and when we can announce exciting news!

5) Rolodeck – I have had the same one since starting in the industry. I have the same info replicated on my PC but I always end up using the rolodeck, I guess for sentimental reasons!