FreeToPlay.biz

FreeToPlay.biz is looking for an insightful industry commentator to join our team. FreeToPlay.biz covers social games, online games and virtual worlds for industry insiders. For more info on who we are, see the “Who is” section of this site.

Our selected writer will be capable of creating news with analysis, crafting fact-supported feature articles and conducting insightful interviews. The job can be done from your laptop anywhere in the world, but some paid travel (i.e. to cover conferences) may be involved.

Application criteria:

• Please provide only one submission. Must be online game or core game business related, not a game review.
• If you don’t have a submission directly related to the topic, submit your best piece of critical analysis and explain your background/knowledge of the online gaming or core game business.
• Must have passion for business side of the game industry, be professional and articulate and available to post with consistency and meet editorial deadlines.
• Regular online writing rates apply, with performance bonuses.

Please review some our most popular posts (here, here and here) to get an idea of what we’re looking for before applying.

Express your interest by sending the aforementioned materials to:

F2Pwriter@gmail.com

Only qualified applicants will be contacted.

The job market seems as hot as ever. As a result, I’ve had a few interesting free-to-play related jobs flitter through my inbox this week.

David Perry, Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim (in that company’s new, F2P-only format) and Kyra Reppen, SVP of Nickelodeon, send word of very compelling vacancies in their respective companies. Nickelodeon’s posting is based in LA whereas Acclaim seems open to remote-work scenarios. Kudos to Acclaim!

I promised I’d post their opps on freetoplay.biz. Click through for the full text of each posting.

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Been very busy on the consulting front lately… apologies for the lack of content. But I promised Nicolo I would post this job for him, so here goes:

At this year’s GDC, I met Michael Ivvora and Nicolo Laurent from GOA, the videogame subsidiary of France Telecom/Orange. Besides handling the European side of US online games – launch, localization, QA, support etc – for games like Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot, Orange also runs a free to play portal at goa.com. They’ve recently launched localized free to play games in Europe like Gunbound and Pangya, and they’ve got plans to expand their game selection.

Right now they’re looking for an Operational Manager for their free to play business, which is based out of Dublin, Ireland. This is a lead managerial position, which means leading the vision for their free to play business, managing project managers and organizing work flow between game teams. It also means working closely with the marketing team to develop strategies for customer acquisition, conversion, retention and monetization, along with managing the alignment of development and marketing goals.

If this sounds like your dream job, send an email to nicolas.laurent@goa.com.

A full job description after the jump.

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I’ve been a bit remiss in putting general news stuff out there, so let me catch up in a quick and timely manner:

1) I’ll be at GDC next week, Sunday the 17th to Friday the 22nd. I’m giving a talk called “The Power of Free-To-Play” (GDC chose the Anthony Robbins-esque title) at the Worlds in Motion Summit on Monday at 2pm. I’m up for coffee with any interested parties, so email me if you’re one of them.

2) I’ll be at SXSW in Austin, March 8-11. Michael Smith (CEO of Mind Candy) was kind enough to invite me to be on a panel called Casual Multi-Player Online Games: Serious Revenues, along with Nabeel Hyatt (Conduit Labs), Jeremy Liew (Lightspeed Venture Partners) and Joe Hyrkin (Gaia Online).

3) Lastly, I left Relic in early January after three great years with the company. Since then, I’ve been doing some design & production work on a variety of exciting free to play projects. So for the time being, you could call me a hired gun.

I hope to see some familiar faces at GDC and SXSW. Take care!

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Here’s a great opportunity for a Colorado-based (or relocation-willing) Producer to work in the Virtual World/Casual MMO field.

This position is as the lead producer behind a new child-themed casual MMO backed by Barry Diller’s IAC. Diller is one of the last true media moguls, in the vein of Murdoch, Eisner and formerly Martha Stewart and Conrad Black. Sidebar: A salacious read is Autumn of the Moguls by Michael Wolff.

IAC has been on a gaming industry spending spree lately, with their most recent acquisition being Garage Games in Eugene, Oregon. But this particular opportunity is in Boulder, Colorado.

The Game / Virtual World Producer drives the product vision and development of a MMOG and sub games for kids, from concept through release, and is responsible for the definition and execution of future releases. Manage third party developers and migration to, and management of, an internal development team.

• Oversight of the design of MMOG and all games - including interactivity, UI, inventory management, AI, NPCs, social networking and community features, and point systems.
• Maintain an ongoing understanding of youth market trends and emerging technologies in the on-line gaming space. Primary focus is on kid-oriented games.
• Strong desire to make a difference in the lives of children and a passion for games/MMOGs.
• Flexibility for some travel.”

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I don’t imagine we have too many artists reading f2p.biz, but if you are that guy or girl you might want to check out Jagex’s latest job posting. Seems they’re looking for a designer in Cambridge to do the following:

We are looking for a talented web designer to join and help create websites that will be viewed by millions of people each year.

With over 1.1 million paying subscribers to our online game, RuneScape and a further 6 million other active players visiting the website regularly, you will be responsible for designing the site they visit to play our ever-popular game.

Seems like a cool opportunity for a designer who wants to be on the cutting edge. If we had you at hello, go ahead and send your resume here. Tell them F2P sent you.

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US-CA-Glendale-Executive Producer, Neopets

Here’s an opportunity that doesn’t come around every day. Neopets is looking for an EP.

The Neopets Executive Producer reports to a VP and interacts with the longest list of Director types I’ve ever seen included in a job description. I quote:

This position will interact closely with:

-Director, Technical Development

-Director, Multimedia Applications Development

-Director, Casual Game Development

-Director, Marketing and Operations

-Director, Promotions Marketing

-Director, Fraud Management

-Design Director, Neopets Creative Resources

-Director, Consumer Products

-Director, Research Analysis

But as we all know, the market for talent is tight. So I wasn’t surprised to see a relatively light set of prerequisites:

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE:

-BA in a related field or equivalent experience. MA a plus.

-3+ years working as a Product Manager, Producer or Associate Producer on multi-player on-line games or similar position.

-2+ years experience with project budgetary processes.

And after listing off 23 bullet points under the KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS section, I always find it odd when companies throw in a line like this:

-Proficiency in the following software or systems:

-Microsoft Office, Visio, MS Project, Outlook

In any case, it’s late at night and I’m being overly critical. If you’re interested in this opportunity, email Mia Burgess (mia.burgess@mtvstaff.com) or go straight to the top by tracking down Kyra Reppen, SVP & GM of Neopets.

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