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PPM Office- part 2
Welcome back to our video. I have vlady here sitting next to me...
Hi.
Please introduce yourself a little bit and tell us what is your task in PPM.
I have been working professionally at PPM since May 2009 when I started as the
translators' supervisor and also I came to help with the development... As time went
by the translation part of the job was becoming more and more marginal and I
started to work more on development. Just recently, only a few months ago I
have been named the head of development, so my task is to decide
what to do next. At least partially because everything must be approved by the
higher management. I also prepare theoretical materials for programmers
who then code various parts of the game based on these materials.
Did you work anywhere else before you started work for PPM?
Yes, before this I worked for a translation agency as a projects manager - my task
was to take care of translation projects and proofreading. I always liked
languages. Even at that time, when I started working there in the second half
of 2007, I first registered at PPM and started working as a volunteer as a
translator and eventually it became my new job.
When you started, did you somehow earn the position of the translators' supervisor,
or did you get it because there weren't enough people involved at that time to fill
all the positions?
In the beginning whet I registered, there wasn't any game, there was only user
account and forums and sometimes they guys would post some news. Ivan needed
a translator for these news, so I applied and I made a good impression right at the
start. I started to organize it there because I didn't like the previous
translations and I wanted to correct them all and then Ivan decided that it would be
better if I took charge of all the translations.
What are you working on right now?
Mainly on new design, of course. That's a project that is close to the finish now,
next week (so it is this week) we would like to launch it. Now we are finishing
some things and it will be really hard to meet our deadline. There are lot of things
connected with the design, because it is not only redesign, but also the
functionality of some of the pages changes. It requires a lot of work, not
only theoretical, but also a lot of coding by the programmers so that everything
works as it should.
Can you show us your scope of work?
Ok,
This is the code of a page where people will be able to upload ice surface
paintings, which we are going to change because ice surfaces will go from 3D to
2D so they will be processed much faster - we will just have to approve them.
You can also see texts in the code - texts are one of the things which I am
responsible for.
So it is hard work...
Yes, I have quite a lot to do.
Actually, all of the texts which you can see on the pages, I had to write and then
translate into English and than other translators translate them into their
languages. We have more than 100 translators and I also have to make sure
every one of them does their job.
So you have quite a lot of work to do...
Yes... and one of the most important things that I do is that I am person
responsible for public relations, so all the mails, questions from the user about the
game or for example when they can't verify their email address etc., all of this
ends up in my mail box and I have to deal with that. I have a ton of mails everyday
which I must take care of and then I also have to do development and texts...
Did you have ever moment when you thought it is too much for you and it's
time to quit this job because, for example, you didn't have time for your family?
Not really, of course there are some periods when it's difficult to handle, but I
never had any tendency to quit this job.
Thank you.
We have some questions for the next member of PPM team.
Hi, could you introduce yourself a little bit?
Hi, I am Peto and my nick on PPM is DevilQoOo. I have been working for PPM
for about a year, and lately I have been working mainly on developing the Tennis
Duel game.
What does the development of the game entail?
It is definitely time consuming, it's necessary to fix all the bugs and tune the
engine.
There are quite a few of those, right? :)
Well, there are both satisfied and dissatisfied players. Now we are drawing
closer the end of beta version and soon we are going to launch the full version.
You could say that we are in the final stage, we are tuning the last pieces of the
engine which will be out in a few days, we are activating the last planned credit
features and in a few weeks we are going to launch the full version.
When do you expect to launch the full version?
The estimated date is in the second half of May, but it depends on several factors
whether we will launch it at that time or not.
The second server was launched at Tennis Duel a few weeks ago...
Yes, we decided to launch a new version because there were a lot of changes, we
improved the engine, tasks - I think we added about 150 new tasks - and many
other improvements. That's why we decided for a new server.
Tennis Duel is, of course, created by the same people as PPM. Will these two
projects have joint forums or will there be some connection between them?
At the moment the main connection is the development team. Currently the forums
are at PPM where people can report bugs, post suggestions and talk about the
game. Later on, Tennis Duel will probably have its own forum.
What does your family think about your job, that you work with computers?
They take is as a regular job.
Can you now show us on your computer what exactly are you doing?
Lately we have mainly been working on a number of new credit features, which
speed the game up or give something useful to the players. For example we
have the automatic deposit feature which automatically deposits sponsor money to
your bank account, so people who spend less time in the game, don't lose so much
money.
Ok, there were many complaints on the forums about losing money...
We regularly read these forums and we always try to come up with innovations to
improve game for the user.
Is this one of the best credit features?
It depends, everyone needs something else.
Thanks for the interview...
Now we are going to interview another member of PPM team. Can you please
introduce yourself?
My name is Adam and my nick on PPM is Frusciante. Right now I am working on
new LIVE broadcast for hockey. You could see one of the plays published in the
news. I have been working on this for about half a year now.
I can see that you have a lot of drawings here...
Yea, this is how it is being done, I have a feeling like I could graduate again in
geometry. :)
This is how the play looks like before it is converted into the system. Someone
draws it up and then its typed into a code, it is quite interesting.
It's pretty demanding this way.
Yes, it is especially time consuming...
It doesn't seem like it, but it is hard to make the players move in a natural way.
It's not hard to draw, but...
Drawing is ok, but when somebody makes a mistake in the drawing, then it's a
problem.
How did you get into this job?
Thats hard question, I came here thanks to Mike22, he recommended me this job
and I have been here for about 2 years.
Have you spent these two years working on the live broadcast?
No, only the last half a year. Before that, I did a little bit of everything, I don't even
remember all of it...
When will you launch the full version of this (live)?
Live will be launched a little later than design. We don't know the exact date, but
it will be in the near future.
Are you working on something else, like arenas for example?
Tomkinss is working on the hockey arena at the moment, we have just put together
something, here is a missing part, but that's not s big problem.
Are there going to be any changes in accessories?
No, I think that there aren't going to be any changes there. It is only about
graphics. You can customize it, choose various colors and add an inscription.
What did you do most of the time apart from live broadcast?
I will take a look, I have it written somewhere...
New design is the priority right now...
Yes.
...I did goalie masks, some graphic things, awards for managers, pucks... a lot of the
graphic elements.
So you mainly worked on graphics before live.
You could say that.
Can you tell us some snippets or something new that is in the works?
I think everything that is planned has already been published. Now we have
these big projects like design and live.
Is there any estimate for the launch of live?
I don't want to tell you any dates, but I think we could make it in June.
More pictures of the new design:
Video created by:
Thanks for watching, we hope that the video brought you interesting footage
from the place where is PPM is being made and that you learned a lot of new
information...