Emmanuel Servais (Customer Support) englisch

Emmanuel Servais (Customer Support)

What is your name and what is your field of activity at NCsoft?

My name is Emmanuel Servais and I am the Customer Support Project Lead for Aion. Basically, I am in charge of setting up what will be the European customer support for Aion. This includes quite a lot of different things but to name just a few, I’ll be creating the guidelines to use for the GMs, multiple procedures and any information they might need to excel at supporting our fellow players.

How did you come to NCsoft?

Back in 2005, I had just obtained a diploma in web development and I was helping out a friend managing his customers at his internet café. I always enjoyed dealing with customers but I didn’t really enjoyed coding web pages that much, so I figured I should probably find something in relation to it. Now, I used to play MMOs quite intensively…So I figured: Hey, why not combine the two!? I applied for a GM position at NCsoft because I had always been a big fan of their titles (City of Heroes woo!) and managed to get a position there. And ever since! Just in a different position.

What are you working on presently?

I gather as much information as I can about the game to figure out what will be useful to our GM teams and start drafting up anything they will need to work properly; I am also working closely with some other departments to be informed about any issues they encounter and contribute with finding solutions if need be. Getting to a high degree of familiarity with Aion is also a key part of my work so it involves me playing a lot to the game (lucky me!).

What do you like most at your job?

The contact with people! I get to communicate closely with people from within different departments, it is a very enriching experience! I get to see how things are done on different stages of production of a game and get a chance to give any input I might have to improve processes and the way things are done. I also really like my desk! It is my very own experience table where I put pretty much anything that I can get a hold of as long as it is geeky, funny or simply big enough to enlarge the maze I am creating behind my screens!

What is your favourite NCsoft title and why?

Well, Aion now! But if they have to be released already, then City of Heroes, definitely! It’s the kind of game that you can quit for a few months then come back later on and have the same refreshing feeling that you had when you started the game. Having all kind of crazy costumes for your superhero (or villain!) is absolutely brilliant and allows tons of hours of fun play. The heavy content being in the game also plays a big part in my liking of it, the amount of background story in there is impressive and each storyarc is always a thrilling experience. Not to forget the periodic updates that always bring new stuff in the mix. Oh, and spandex! Not that I would every wear any for real, but at least it doesn’t look as ridiculous as it does in real life, of course.

What other game genres (except MMOs) are you interested in and what are your favourites?

I really like role playing games, first person shooters (those with a good ambiance) and adventure/action games. I’ve spent hours on Bioshock running around to discover each data logs, rooms and secrets because the ambiance was so great (yet scary!). I spent hours on Star Ocean 3 on PS2 when it has been released, probably the best RPG I ever played. Attaching characters, good story, cute graphics…That was great! And of course, any GTA game that I can get my hands on! For these harsh moments where you just want to go and freestyle as much as you can to relax…Haaa, getting to know each streets as much as you can to avoid the cops more easily…Neat!

What is your favourite TV show or series? What are your favourite films?

: Wow. Ehhh…Hmmm…Stargate is definitely my favourite TV show along with X-Files. I really like anything related to science-fiction but these two are the best I think. Story and characters wise. My favourite movies is way easier: Jurassic Park 1, 2 and 3! I’m just going bonkers for any movie that does have dinosaurs (real ones, not fake ones!) in it. I’m always up for any movie that has some kind of über roaring creature chasing out heroes and eating the villains! I really like the “end of the world” movies as well, until the planet get saved by some smart pants who realized that he could push back a meteorite with a shovel if he applied enough force with his little pinky while dancing under the rain howling to the moon (hidden by clouds)…Hum. That would be my favourite movie, if it existed…*start writing script*

Do you like reading? If yes, what kind of books do you have in your bookcase?

I don’t know how to read, I just look at the pictures!…Or so I wished at times, anyway. I’m pretty much into anything that has a fantasy setting to it. My bookcase includes some books from Kelley Armstrong (Bitten, Haunted, etc) because I absolutely love wolves (and werewolves) and the two Jurassic Park books. Although my best reading experience came from Daniel H. Gower’s book: The Orpheus Process. Scary stuff, w00t!

What are you doing in your spare time?

Play, drink, eat, sleep!… I’m usually playing quite a lot, being a gamer at heart. However I’m always up for partying/drinking/eating as long as it involves friends, fun and memorable moments. When you spend most of your time behind a computer screen, the only thing you want to do when you go back home is do something different. At least for a while. So each time I go back home from work, I usually spend 1 or 2 hours in front of the TV half asleep on my couch…Well, I said something different, I never said it didn’t involve screens! But Brighton being a great place, it can vary between home time and beach side pub crawl. My favourite of the lot…? Playing on the beach while pub crawling under the warm sun of summer. Aww…That would be sweet!

McDonald’s or Burger King?

I would have said none of the two but I’d have lied. Back home, we (my friends and me) had a ritual one Friday per month, where we would go to our town’s McDonald, order some food and go eat it on the riverside before going to the cinema watch a good movie that would have been released earlier in the month. But nowadays…Well, let’s just say that my stomach doesn’t really react the same way it used to do in the past.

Coca Cola or Pepsi?

Orange juice or Lemonade. I’ve never been a fan of Coca Cola nor Pepsi. If I can get something giving a vitamin boost instead of stomach aches, I’m all up for it. Hmm…What if one was to mix up Coca Cola, Pepsi, Orange Juice and Lemonade…? How cool that would be!!

If you would have one year free time and enough money: Where would you spend your time and what would you do?

Find a basement comfortable enough somewhere, install some high-spec computers, work on some schematics to create robots that would be programmed to take over the world by reproducing the prairie dog’s scream. Place them in strategic points in each big city of the world and activate them to scream at night! Pointless, yes. But then again, isn’t the goal of free time to have fun? P If I still had money after that…I would probably just give it away to my family so they can accomplish their dreams. I’m still young, I will get my chance later on!

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