The Cure for the Common Game Company
by Scapes.
I've had the good fortune to work at a couple of amazing game companies during my career. And while I might not have agreed with every company policy or decision, I did really enjoy the people I worked with. When it came to what made my experiences special at those companies, the most influencing factor was definitely my fellow employees. But the truth is, we don't usually get to pick who we work with, so we're at the mercy of the people around us to a certain extent. This is why, in our building of En Masse Entertainment, it has been critical we find people who share specific values. The result has been the formation of a different kind of game company.
We are gamers at heart. We preorder games we are excited about, we compare achievements and gamer scores, and we even compete at games with each other in the office. That passion for games drives everything we do here at En Masse, from communicating with our community to suggesting new features to our developer to improving the overall experience players have with our product or service. Although we have only been around for a little over a year, we have already hosted two live community events where we mixed it up with our fans in person. We do, however, play favorites—we focus on the core gamer community first, and then expand out to the larger gaming audience. But we wouldn't want it any other way!
En Masse Entertainment is small. Relative to other publishers and MMO companies, we employ only a fraction of the people. Despite our size, we can handle any situation—every employee is experienced, effective, battle-tested, and quick; we are kind of like the game company version of the Navy Seals. We work in a coordinated fashion as a team with people lending help, suggesting solutions, and offering support. It's a rare environment where we have done away with unnecessary policy, committees, and bureaucracy. This allows us to be creative and nimble, and produce significant results that aren't watered down.
Our office is a fun place. We have people from all over the world working in a single open environment. It's an eclectic mix of personalities having open-minded conversations. There is a lot of energy flowing throughout the office, and a constant hum of activity. We are located high up in an office tower in downtown Seattle (yes there is a Starbucks in the lobby) near Pike Place Market, and we have amazing unobstructed views of the Puget Sound. But even more impressive, we have really great people here. If you add it all up, it's our cure for the common game company.