Rob Lee is a General Content Editor at Wargaming’s Paris office. His main stable of games is the mobile title World of Tanks Blitz and the upcoming online tactical card combat game World of Tanks Generals. Along with these titles, Rob also lends a hand in many other areas, from Business Development, Marketing, to many of Wargaming’s other titles.
Hey Rob, tell us a little bit about your job.
My job is “general”, as the name suggests. That means that I deal with articles and content for World of Tanks Blitz and World of Tanks Generals, and anything that can fall in between. That can be Special Projects, announcements of things we are doing with partner companies, and merchandizing with Biz Dev.
I’ve written and edited texts for projects like the successful Fury partnership with Sony Pictures for World of Tanks and World of Tanks Blitz. Also, pamphlets that go inside DVD cases. I’ve also worked on the Italeri modelling projects, which ranges from proofreading the text on the box to writing guides to the tanks themselves.
How long have you been at Wargaming?
It’s coming up to a year and a half now, and that makes me reasonably senior. Time goes by really quickly here, and there are always lots of fresh faces joining the team.
Before joining Wargaming, I always wanted to work with words. I have a media background, in terms of work experience. I’ve worked at newspapers as an intern at different desks covering topics from art to current affairs. I’ve also worked as a freelance writer for an agency.
Tell us about your Russian-centric work and experience.
I have a degree in English and Russian, which seems like an unusual combination of subjects. But I’ve always loved Russian culture and history. I think that feeds into the work I do at Wargaming quite well. I lived in Moscow for a year, as part of my degree. When I visited Russia recently, it was interesting to see just how much of a cultural phenomenon Wargaming is, compared to when I was there in 2011–12.
I saw the proliferation of merchandising, the fact that tourist shops, say, on the Arbat in Moscow now stock T-shirts, not just with icons like Cheburashka, or the logo for the 1980 Olympics, but World of Tanks T-shirts alongside Lenin ones.
What has been your most memorable/proud moment at the company?
My most memorable moment, I think, is seeing an article that I pitched go up on the website, and then seeing the player reactions via the forums. It was a big deal for me because, for the first time in my life, something that I had written had been read by an enormous audience.
One of my most proud moments would be being part of the World of Tanks Blitz team. Being with the game from near the start and involved in testing and the launch of the game, as well as writing articles for the portal was huge. I played an important role in the support of the project, and was part of a team that made the game do so well in the EU region.
You were also involved in a creative writing project at work. What was that like?
Something like our creative writing piece—Times of War—had never really been done in Wargaming before, at least in EU region on an official level. Around the same time, you had something similar come out by the guys from Total War (Creative Assembly). It was fun to provide the World of Tanks portal readers with something that they might not have expected, and something that we aim to deliver more of in the future. It was a collaboration between myself, and two German and Polish content specialists.
Coordinating this project was something that our team had to adapt to, so it took a while. It also gave us the opportunity to work with the art department for some original art work, which was fun.
What is a typical day at Wargaming like?
It involves strong black coffee and a croissant—because it’s Paris. And that’s how you start the day. Typically, a lot of writing and the condensing of a lot of information in English and Russian into a format that people can understand and be entertained by.
What challenges do you face?
As with any company that has expanded at the rate Wargaming has, there are, occasionally, challenges with communication. But these can be overcome through understanding and trying to maintain a sense of humor at all times—which isn’t difficult with the funny colleagues that we have around.
What skills are needed?
Adaptability—the understanding that your job will not be the same every day. That’s something not to be afraid of, but to be celebrated. While it is, principally, a job that involves the use of languages, you have to constantly fill gaps to help things run smoothly. This can include editing and manipulating imagery.
You need creative spark because, in a general role, as well as having a lot of tasks bundled on you from lots of different places, you also have more of a platform to push your own ideas through for brand-new article series. This I did with “Cards of the Week” for World of Tanks Generals and also for an upcoming historical quiz for World of Tanks Blitz, which involves Richard “The Challenger” Cutland. It’s called “The Challenger’s Challenge”, and it will be a series of questions that will test the historical knowledge of the Word of Tanks Blitz community. They can ask questions over social media, which will then be answered by Richard.
We’d just like fans of Blitz who are, perhaps, curious about tanks for the first time, or would like to expand their knowledge of fighting vehicles, to have a way of communicating with Wargaming’s military specialists, because they’re a fantastic bunch to work with, with a huge knowledge base.
Who do you interact with on a daily basis?
Being an editor involves working very closely with a team of content specialists. These are the people that localize and proof the articles that content editors write, and who ensure that they appear on the webpages in the right places. It also involves referring to integration managers in HQ, whose job it is to distribute information to us accurately and on time. It’s a job that involves a lot of communicating.
How did you get the job?
When I first joined Wargaming a year and a half ago, I was a Content Specialist. I got the job through a combination of personal and professional skills, as well as timing, which was very fortunate. The company needed someone to fulfill the general role and help push Blitz to CBT and soft launch, and I was there to fill that gap.
What advice would you give for people interested in your position?
I’d mainly refer to what I’d said earlier about constantly developing new skills. I’d encourage people to read as much as possible and to definitely, when they get the chance, play some of our titles. As general specialists, you need to know a lot of things about a lot of subjects. The more passionate you can make yourself about what we do, the more passionate you can make your content.
You should follow our community contributors on YouTube, too. Use your down time to get into the stuff that they do. We have fanatic YouTubers and streamers out there. Through them, I have learnt as much about the game as I have by playing it.
What’s your favorite tank?
I’m really fond of the British Tier II Premium light tank, the Light VIC that was given as a gift to players. I hope that anyone didn’t sell their tank because I think there are few things more fun in our game than zipping about with a machine gun.
Finally, and perhaps the most important question: what animal are you?
That’s a really annoying question, but also a good one. Some kind of terrier, because I tenaciously tear my way through mountains of work.