Mirko Gozzo, European General Manager for Riot Games, talks to David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers at GDC Europe in Germany. Mirko has been in the computer games industry for more than 10 years with extensive expertise operating and publishing overseas products (especially from Asian companies) within the European market in multiple languages. He is experienced in both pay-to-play (P2P) and free-to-play (F2P) business models focussing every action on its ROI, PCU, APA, ARPPU / B-ARPU, player acquisition, retention and re-acquisition. He has successfully launched many AAA online games including World of Warcraft, Aion, Lineage II, and other top-selling offline games including Mortal Kombat: Deception, F.E.A.R., Commandos and Empire Earth. His advice to those thinking of applying for a job at Riot Games:

“If I have one suggestion that would be play League of Legends and tell us what you think – all the good things and also the bad things, which are the most important for us because we always want to improve, and having someone passionate about the game who can tell us where we can improve its exactly what we like.”  See the full clip here:

On September 21st Edge Magazine’s feature Get into Games 2010 was published and David Smith again found himself the firts external recruiter to be interviewed in the history of Edge Magazine. You can click through to the full report: Get Into Games 2010: David Smith, Interactive Selection

2 questions about the role of the modern recruiter from the Edge interview are repeated here:

Edge: Thanks to things like forums, modding and trade shows, the game industry gets closer to its audience by the year. How does that affect the job of the recruiter?
David: You haven’t mentioned social networking, which is probably a bigger influence than the other three. Sites like LinkedIn are a godsend for internal recruiters in particular, as well as for people with their own LinkedIn profile who want to talk directly to employers. But in terms of the role of the recruiter – and yes, it’s changing all the time – I’d say that recruiters these days are much less a necessary middleman than a necessary guide or confidante, or even a trusted professional advisor. That can be for employers as well, not just jobseekers. We offer that extra bit of expertise in what is a very fast and changing market.

Edge: But aren’t developers trying to step into that mentor role themselves to an extent?
David: The difference between that and a jobseeker talking to a recruiter is that developers only have the one job to offer, which is with their particular company. Recruiters are paid to have a knowledge of the overall market and don’t just offer a portfolio of potential jobs – they can also talk to jobseekers on a job-by-job basis. If you’ve got a job with Quantic Dream, they’re not going to offer you a job at Ubisoft down the road – they’re interested in their immediate needs, so they’re never going to be able to offer the advice that we give, which is really to look after people over their whole career.

Trust Interactive Selection for your recruiting needs in Ireland.

Thirteen of the companies who responded were located in the greater Dublin area, with nine of these stating they were located in Dublin city centre. A further five were located in Munster, with three in Ulster. When asked why they were located in Ireland, the companies provided an interesting mix of responses. While availability of skilled labour was the most significant reason for almost half of respondents, this was followed closely by an ability to attract talent, even if it wasn’t available locally, i.e., access to Europe and an English speaking workforce. In addition, four companies cited grants and financial incentives, and one identified links to universities.

Interactive Selection has several big clients in Ireland and is always looking for experienced development talent who is working in or happy to relocate to Ireland.