: Responsibilities: - Play and intimately understand the Halo universe.
: “Attention to detail” would be putting it lightly for your role
: understanding and communicating everything in Halo games and extended
: fiction.

: I thought I'd be up for this until I remembered the Forerunner Trilogy. I
: loved those books, but I only have a sketchy memory of what went on in
: them, so I'd have a tough time reviewing someone else's manuscript if it
: dealt with those events.

: - Work closely and well with content partners in all forms of media, and
: represent Halo, 343 Industries, and Microsoft as a face for external
: partners and sometimes fans.

: Hmm...

: That would be interesting. Lame response, I know, but I'm actually wondering
: what it would be like to work with the guys who made Forward Unto Dawn.
: Heck what would have been my job?

: Actually, I'd love to have been working with those guys, because then I could
: have gone to the prop master and told him "Congratulations! We need
: to design a new Carbine. Any ideas?"

: - Plan, write, and edit all needed pivots on Halo lore, including (but not
: limited to) articles, scripts, and reference libraries and documentation.
: All of this material must be comprehensive and easy to understand even by
: partners new to Halo.

: I wonder if I could do this.

: I'm a slow writer, but I wonder if that would change because writing becomes
: my job and I've got co-workers to bounce ideas off of. There must be
: something incredibly relaxing about stumbling over to the next guy's
: cubicle and saying "Hey, Alice? This last chapter is bugging the hell
: out of me, and I want to know if I'm doing a good job wrapping it
: up."

: - Demonstrate daily judgment regarding how to balance the history of Halo
: against new opportunities to grow the universe, as well as creative
: problem-solving about how to blend those two needs when necessary.

: You know, I'd probably be pretty good at this.
: There's a sort of retconning that I like to think of as
: "Spackling". Spackling is when you have old and new canon, and
: you write something that fills in the gaps between them rather than
: declaring the old stuff null.

: In my fanfiction career (As much of a career as a hobby can be) I've done
: quite a bit of it.
: For example, why didn't we see more weapon selection in Halo: CE, when the
: Covenant had supposedly come directly from Reach?

: Qualifications: - Know and love the Halo universe to a degree that
: occasionally scares people.

: Probably not me, but I'm probably setting myself up for failure by mentally
: comparing myself to Mr. Loftus.

: - Proven ability (think: samples) to write and edit for many audiences; keep
: it entertaining AND correct.

: Check , Check.

: - Organized, able to work on several tasks simultaneously and prioritize
: schedules and deliverables in a fast-paced, multi-project environment with
: challenging deadlines.

: Oh, that is so not me.

: - Upbeat, positive attitude and ability to work collaboratively with
: opinionated partners and team members and deal with the ambiguity of the
: creative process.

: I can fake the first part. The second part I wouldn't have to fake.

: - Experience writing/editing game content and audio/video scripts is a big
: bonus (+10!).

: Heh. No.

: - Web publishing experience is a medium bonus (like, +7?).

: Web publishing?
: *Casts a glance toward the stack of fanfiction he's written.*

: - Ability to design and create your own polished final documents using tools
: such as Adobe Photoshop/Bridge/InCopy/InDesign and Microsoft Office.

: I've only used half of those...

: - Be excited, but be ready. It’s going to be awesome.

: I think that, two years ago, I would have loved to join up at 343i.
: Now... I don't know. There's nothing particularly compelling about Spartan
: IVs or the Infinity that makes me want to write about them.

: Patenaude's talk about the Covenant gives me hope that the Halo story will go
: somewhere interesting. Here's to the future.

Don't negatively compare yourself to me. I've invested a lot of time into many aspects of Halo but I'm by no means the only candidate with a resume in for this. They've had a lot of interest in this position!