Working at a gaming company often implies wearing multiple hats. Ours is no exception, and Riz is the jack of all trades of the marketing department, with a mastery for words: whether it is putting together a compelling long read about our games characters' lore, sending a call to action via newsletter to our subscribers, Riz is there for you. Also, she’s the most active gamer on the marketing team by a long shot.
Meet Riz, Copywriter, Editor & Proofreader.
— Giorgio ‘Error 404’ Crosali
Hey Riz, can you share a bit about yourself and your career with our community?
Yeah ofc!
I’m Riz, I do a little bit of this and that around here. But mainly do copywriting, editing, and proofreading here. As for my career, I’ve been in the gaming industry for almost a year; before that, I was in the influencer marketing industry for 4 years or so as an International Service Manager, working with multinational brands on getting involved directly with customers through influencers.
What are your favorite aspects of working in marketing?
Getting people engaged. I love when we come up with fun, silly, or interesting things that get the audience excited and engaged in good discussions.
You play a lot of different games; what’s your favourite genre, and which games defined you the most as a person?
Oof, I do play a good variety of games. I’ll go from playing Animal Crossing to Call of Duty. So my range is pretty big.
I can’t really say which genre is my favourite. I love playing simulator games in the spirit of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley or RPG / Puzzle like Jedi Fallen Order, Lara Croft, or BR shooters like Fortnite.
I don’t think I have a game that defines me most as a person, but the games that defined my childhood were Super Mario and Pokémon. I just like certain video games more than others, but I’m always willing to try different games. I have nothing to prove, so I’ll play my story games on the easiest mode and enjoy the story and play BR / Multiplayer games as a means to spend time with long-distance friends and work on our communication skills haha
While I love video games, shooters, and all that, I’m far from being good at them but it doesn’t prevent me from enjoying them.
What would you recommend to someone looking for a career in gaming?
There is much more to the gaming industry than just programming and creating the art of the games. You got marketing, and you got copywriting, narrative designing, community management, and the business aspect of it like, office management or workflow management, just to name a few. I myself have a degree in English Lit and a minor in International Law.
So you don’t have to have a degree in computer science, art, or video editing, and I think many people misunderstand how big the industry is and think that you need to have knowledge of computer science, digital art, art, and whatnot. But you don’t. A lot of your skills could definitely benefit the industry.
My recommendation for looking into a career in gaming is that if you tick in at least 3 of the boxes in the job description, go for it. Send your resume.
Lastly, what are your hobbies outside of gaming?
Oh, I have all kinds of different hobbies outside of gaming. It depends on my mood, but my main hobbies are traveling, hiking, coffee, and photography.
I travel a lot as I have a lot of close friends who live in different countries, but I also just like experiencing new cultures and spending time in new places and taking in all the nature, which usually tries to kill me as I am allergic to pollen and different kinds of flora, but I still like being out in nature when my allergies aren’t killing me. Capturing moments and places with my lil ol camera and sharing them is something I love to do.
As for my coffee hobby, which people actually call addiction or obsession, I used to be a barista, and since then, I have around six ways to make coffee at home. All these different gadgets that take time to brew delicious coffee are so fun to play with.
Another hobby of mine is drawing. I’m not that good at it, imo, but some people might say I’m half decent. Many of my hobbies centre around mindfulness and spending time with myself to centre me and my mind amid the made-up chaos in my life, and I say made-up because often, it’s just my anxiety making me think life is a mess.
Want to know more about the Civitas team? Check our previous Meet the Team issues on our publication page: https://medium.com/playcivitas/tagged/meet-the-team
