I’ve had a few e-mails and messages on this subject, so I thought I’d go ahead and throw this out there.
Yes, we have a staff slot open on the Dragon*Con MMO team. If you want to know what volunteers do at Dragon*Con, you can read this. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg for the MMO team.
Being in the MMO group is a year-round gig. We start planning next year’s convention about 2 weeks after the end of Dragon*Con each year. What will you be doing?
Do you blog? Can you write well? That’s a start. You’re going to be participating in discussions on forums and blogs all over the Internet.
Obviously, you’ll need to be up-to-date on the latest and greatest MMO’s out there. If you “play WoW sometimes”, that’s not going to cut it… Ideally, you will have played 4 or 5 MMO’s and know enough about others to carry on a conversation without sounding like a total noob. We are especially looking for folks who play Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, or Guild Wars.
Do you know people in the gaming industry? If I told you to get in touch with a Community Relations rep at Flying Lab, would you have the foggiest idea who to call, or what game I’m referring to?
Oh yeah, you’ll also need to work your 20 hours at the convention. None of the year round stuff counts towards your 20 hours of time at the convention itself. (We had one staff member who worked over 60, that’s why we’re looking for more help.) We’re going to need you to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed, even if you get scheduled for a 10:00 AM panel the night after working a party until 4:00 AM. What’s more, you’re going to be dealing with game industry professionals, so you are going to have to be able to act like a professional yourself.
Here are some of the other skills that would come in handy in our group.
- Photoshoppery
- Designing your own graphics
- Familiarity with Youtube and Flickr (You’ll be searching for videos and pictures a lot)
- Public speaking (yeah, you might have to work a crowd…)
- Willing to bring (and use) your own laptop to Dragon*Con
If you’re just looking for a place to work 20 easy hours in order to get a free badge, we’re sorry, but we can’t use you. We do most of our meetings throughout the year in Ventrilo, so you don’t have to be local to the Atlanta area. If you don’t have all of the things I listed above, but are willing to work like hell to learn how to do those things, that’ll work too. It’s a fun job, but it’s definitely a job. If you’re interested in working with us, drop us a line with your name and contact information and we’ll be in touch. Ideally, we’d like to have the last spot filled by the time the staff meeting rolls around in March.
-Grim
