On Wednesday, the Stevens Game Development Club (SGDC) held its second annual Skype Q-and-A with Doug Lombardi, Vice President of Marketing at Valve Corporation and little brother of Stevens’ own Professor Donald Lombardi. Approximately 45 students were in attendance, who asked questions by posting them on a Google Form to be conveyed by SGDC President Adam Gincel. At the end of the event, Gincel said, “Despite a few technical hiccups, the event was a rousing success thanks to everyone who asked questions and Dr. Lombardi’s fantastic participation, behind the scenes and on stage.”
One of the biggest subjects of the night was virtual reality, which many consider to be the frontier of gaming. When asked what his favorite virtual reality experience was, Mr. Lombardi said that he did not have one because, “I don’t know [if] we’ve seen that title yet that everybody said ‘Oh, that’s going to change the way I’m going to game.’” However, he did express confidence in the future of virtual reality. When he was later asked what made virtual reality more than a gimmick, he responded by mentioning that humanity has dreamed of virtual reality since the days of Star Trek’s holodecks.
Guests also asked what Valve is doing to advance gaming and how the company is responding to, what some may perceive as, threats to its influence. While Mr. Lombardi could not tell the crowd anything about the company’s projects beyond what is already public knowledge, he did discuss the creativity-centered culture of Valve and the company’s focus on advancing the world of gaming. He mentioned that Valve doesn’t care about what others are doing – to them, the only thing that matters is doing what customers want.
Several students, in one way or another, asked how they could get a job at Valve, with wording ranging from “If I were interested in working for Valve in the future, how would I prepare my resume?” to “Please hire me, Valve!” Doug’s answer, however, was serious, straightforward, and applies not just to Valve but to companies in all industries: “Work really hard, and eventually you’ll end up in a good place.” He also stressed that for Valve and for many other companies in the industry, “Ultimately, they want to see what you shipped.” Whether it be a hat for Team Fortress 2 or a full-blown indie game, the projects that you work on will show your skill and draw the attention of big companies. Citing himself as an example, Mr. Lombardi said that when his team published Half-Life, he had recruiters from Microsoft, “banging on his door.”
Later in the interview, Donald Lombardi took the microphone. With his signature enthusiasm, Donald called upon members of the audience, asked them where they were from, and let them ask questions themselves. Some of the questions were more comical, such as, “Console or PC?” a choice that Mr. Lombardi (perhaps wisely) straddled the line on. Others were a bit more thoughtful such as, “What makes a good video game advertisement?” One student even managed to ask why Valve has not published its highly-anticipated Half Life 3 yet. This incited a playful laugh from Doug, who said, “You know, three just happens to be this weird number for us.”
In the end, the event was a smash hit. Students asked many insightful and clever questions, and Doug responded in kind. The students and Vice President shared some laughs, and at one point Doug left to come back with an assortment of baseball hats, including one for Stevens Ducks.
