Pete Hines Interview

TGR took the opportunity on their recent viewing of Fallout 3 to interview Pete Hines about his job.

THE GAME REVIEWS: So basically it is good to have the skills to understand a little bit about the business flow and being able to work with highly technical people, or just highly creative people.

PETE: Yes.

THE GAME REVIEWS: Those are very rare talents. What would you suggest to somebody who is looking to get into the industry either in PR or marketing?

PETE: I think the biggest thing is to know how the system works, and get games. When I am looking through resumes or applications, I look at where they went to school and job experience. I interview many folks who are interested in doing this, and they don’t seem to know much about games. If you really want to do this for a living, then it better be something that you enjoy and take seriously on some level so that you can participate, have knowledge and make an effort at it. If you are going to talk to me, you better know what we publish, what we make and have made an effort to play those or have an understanding of them.

There are lots of people trying to get in this industry, so I am looking for somebody who not only has the skills and abilities to do whatever the position is, but also someone who has an understanding of what is going on in the industry. A person interested should know which games are good, and which games are not. I have talked to people and I appreciate finding out which games they like of ours that they have played, and also what they did not like about them. At least it shows me that they get it – if they have valid points, which is better than always agreeing, which drives me crazy.

I am not looking for someone to just tell me how great our stuff is. Everyone has an opinion, so I like people to show me that they have some understanding about what makes a game good or what does not. I think that is the biggest thing for me that I have found. Anyone can go to college and get a degree, which is very important. Whatever internships and things that you can do to improve your skill base is important, but you need to have a really good knowledge of the subject matter or you are just wasting time.