14 Questions With Chad “Shishka” Armstrong
Article Written by: Conor "SolidSmoke" McClain


Recently, I had the good fortune to attain an interview with Bungie graphic artist and forum moderator Chad Armstrong over Bungie’s Private Messaging system. I originally had no idea that he was more than just your average moderator, so most of the questions revolve around his duties as such. A few at the end, however, are directed solely at his role as a graphic artist. I hope you enjoy it.



GotFrag: “First off, would you mind telling us your name and a little bit about yourself and how you came to work for Bungie? Also, what is the scope of what you do there?”

Chad Armstrong: “Certainly. My real name (slave name?) is Chad Armstrong. I work as a contract graphic designer at Bungie, working directly under Lorraine McLees. My work covers a wide breadth of Halo 2 related intellectual properties. Examples include the screenshots you see in magazines, and the 3d screenshots being released on our own Bungie.Net. I also do things like pick colors for the action figures, design art for merchandise and a ton more.

How I got to Bungie was a little unorthodox. I’m the latest in one of Bungie’s lesser known traditions - the community hire! Basically, as a stroke of mutual luck, I found myself moving to Seattle while Lorraine was coming up on a massive deadline. Zoe (known, among other things, for her awesome “Desert Brigade” desktop) was gone, Sketch was off celebrating his marriage, and Frankie was going across the globe demonstrating the game for localization, which pretty much left Lorraine on her own to fill out an order for a metric ton of screenshots. When I heard about the situation, I volunteered to help, and she took up my offer. She was so pleased with my work that I was offered a job.

Before anyone gets any crazy ideas and starts offering THEIR services taking screenshots, I should point out that the reason I was even considered was because I’ve been a member of the community for a long time, and had established trust between myself and several of the employees here long before I ever decided to move to Seattle. Lorraine was a friend before she was an employee.

That’s not to dissuade you from checking out any of the available jobs (listed on Bungie.Net), and applying. I’m just saying you’ll go through a moderately different hiring process than I had to. ;)”

GotFrag: “Wow, you have a lot more responsibility than I had anticipated. I’ll have a few questions to ask about that later. But first, how do you juggle all of your graphical responsibilities with moderating the forums at Bungie.net?”

CA: “My workstation here at Bungie is set up with two monitors, so I have twice the desktop real estate the average user has. When I don’t need my secondary monitor for any particular purpose, I’ll put a window to the forums there.

I also dedicate some time every day right after lunch, and before I leave for home.”

GotFrag: “I imagine moderating can get stressful at times, how do you deal with all complaints and demands you receive?”

CA: “I throw children. With a catapult. Into orbit.

Actually, I handle it fairly well. I’ve gotten pretty frustrated before, sure. But there’s always someone out in the community that reminds me why I agreed to moderate in the first place. The fan community is full of brilliant and talented people, and they make it all worth it.

I have the unfortunate position of playing Bungie’s bad cop. And with the title comes the general loathing of a large group of people that don’t understand that they can’t say whatever they want when they want to. Combine that with the fact that I’m the only person that works at Bungie that a lot of forumites are familiar with, and you can imagine I get a lot of aggression coming my way on a regular basis. In fact, Matt Soell himself sent me an e-mail not too long ago, calling me the “New Man in the Online Asbestos Suit.” Feels a bit like there are people looking out for me (thanks for the encouraging words, Matt!).

Generally, when the community frustrates me, I turn to the community. It’s funny how that works, but anyone who’s been around for a couple years can understand the sentiment.”

GotFrag: “I can certainly understand the frustration, but it is good that you dont have to turn on the community to deal with it. With the sheer amount of threads posted daily on the forums, what percentage do you believe yourself and other moderators actually see? How do you decide which to read through and which to skip past? “

CA: “Good question. Depending on time of day and happenings in the Bungieverse, it can be near impossible to keep up with the forums. Back when I was first given moderator status, I read every thread that was posted. Even back then, that was a lot of threads. Now there’s really now way for me to catch every thread.

Luckily, there are nine other moderators on the job as well. We don’t have moderator schedules (in other words, we don’t have shifts), but we manage to cover for each other very well.

However, 10 moderators vs 10,000 users means we’re still going to miss a lot. This is where the users come in. Users have learned that if a thread is inappropriate, they can send a private message to a BungieNet mod who’ll follow the link they provide and give the much needed moderatoring (my new word!). These days we’ve come to rely heavily on reports from users who are trying to help out, and even if we don’t thank em for the effort, we are very grateful.”

GotFrag: “I’m sure you and other moderators have had to ban people from the forums. Other than using excessive abrasive obscenity and the like, what gets people banned?”

CA: “A very popular question. There’s a long list of things that can get you blacklisted from Bungie.net. Further, your blacklisting is up to the temperment of the mod on patrol. There’s no question that I’m the strictest of the 10, but even our “nice guys” will blacklist without warning, given reason.

The following is a list of things that can get you blacklisted:

Excessive Spam (This includes cross posting)
Flaming (If all you ever do is call other people names, you’re out of here)
Calling other users a “noob” or any variant of the word “newbie.” (Since people take it too personally, we’ve banned the word entirely)
Racism
Illegal activities and discussion thereof (Piracy, drugs, threatening other users. This, like racism, is a permaban)
Impersonating a Bungie Employee
Political discussion (“Your president sucks,” and/or “my country is better than yours”)
Cheating on Halo 2.

It’s worth noting that we don’t play around with the blacklist. To us, seven days is a short blacklisting. It’s also important to consider that you cannot view your Halo 2 stats if you are blacklisted from the website. The stats and the forums go hand in hand as aspects of the service we provide, so it’s wise to think of them as being connected.”

GotFrag: “Does Bungie ever take forum polls and player feedback into consideration when making decisions on Halo 2 gameplay and mechanics, or do the decisions come mostly, if not wholly, from Bungie testing and analysis?”

CA: “All of that, really. The auto update is the result of fan suggestions, testers, and Bungie employees themselves. The maps were our own ideas, as we do not solicit fan ideas for game assets, due to obvious liabilities (sorry to any of you that thought you could or should get credit for thinking of a level with a trench in it).

It’s important to note, though, that there’s a way to make suggestions, and several ways not to. And some things, no matter how badly you want it, will simply not happen. So flying into an impotent rage won’t accomplish anything. Well, unless you consider zero respect and attention from us to be an accomplishment. Being a jerk and acting like you know better than we do won’t grant you much of an audience.”

GotFrag: “That’s just what I have been trying to tell people, acting a fool wont get you nowhere. Do you happen to know how involved the lead programmers and concept people are in the Halo 2 community? Do they play often, or interact on the forums and/or xbox live? What about yourself (other than forums of course)?”

CA: “The entire team is quite interested in the community, and so goings-on are always being observed. For example, when the first four maps were released, the entire environment team spent the better part of the day browsing the bungie.net forums, reading user’s commentary and feedback.

Others will often drop by my desk or stop me in the hallway to see what the community thinks of this or that aspect of various topics.

The guys don’t just make the game, too, they play it. Think of it; you could’ve run into someone from Bungie on Matchmaking, and not have ever known it!”

GotFrag: “Before I move on and ask some questions about your graphical design work, is there anything else you would like to relate to GotFrag readers about moderating for Bungie that we do not know about?”

CA: “The rules at Bungie.Net are more strict that other websites, but it helps keep a modicum of civility. The moderators depend heavily on our small piece of the community to help us keep track of general behavior. The community doesn’t often realize it, but they basically moderate themselves, using the moderators as instruments.”

GotFrag: “Working as a graphical artist for Bungie has to be cool. How demanding is the job, and what sort of perks make it pay off? (other than the fat stash of cash)”

CA: “It’s a very hectic job with violent schedule changes and deadlines like carpet bombs, and I love it.”

GotFrag: “What is your favorite piece of design work you have done for Bungie?”

CA: “I had a part in the creation of the cover of the multiplayer map pack. I can’t say I did all or even most of the work- credit is mostly deserved by Lorraine and Eddie- but I had my part in it and I’m pretty excited to see all the reactions from fans.”

GotFrag: “The 3d screenshots are innovative and pretty awesome. How much time and effort goes into producing one of those and could a layman like myself learn to do it?”

CA: “The time it takes to produce a good 3d screenshot is pretty much based on luck. Those aren’t pre-posed shots you’re looking at- it’s actual gameplay, frozen in time. Essentially, the person taking the shot (me, these days) has to wait for a moment of intense action to occur. Then it’s a matter of freezing the game (a technique passed down from Halo), and picking a camera angle.

From there, the process is pretty simple. Aaron Liebermen made it so easy even a fool such as myself can do it.”

GotFrag: “How much of a load of graphic work do you have to deal with on a week by week basis?”

CA: “Hmm. I’m not entirely sure how to answer that question. It’s basically all I do around here. Let’s just say for every item you DO see of mine (screenshots, 3d screenshots, wallpaper, etc), there’s easily 20 things you may never see.”

GotFrag: “If someone wanted to work for Bungie, what sort of credentials would be required and what would be the best route to take?”

CA: “If I was given a dime every time someone asked me how to get a job at Bungie, I wouldn’t need to work at Bungie. ;)

I think it’s safe to say the thing anyone here will want to see is your portfolio. You need a strong portfolio that shows a variety of strengths and abilities. I say “variety,” because just because you are trying for a certain position, that doesn’t mean you won’t be handed tasks from other positions. If you’re looking to be an artist, include figure drawing in your portfolio regardless of the position you’re applying for. Stuff like that goes a long way to helping your application. After all, if you can render the human form, what can’t you do?”

GotFrag: “Last, and probably least...Spartan or Elite? ;)”

CA: “Boxers. Oh wait, that’s not what you asked. I play as a Spartan. Steel with blue, and a blue Subnova logo to represent my boys (and Meg) at Subnova.com.”