Meet Liz Bales

Liz Bales - Associate Project Manager

Orlando, USA

What do you do at EA?

I'm an Associate Project Manager with the EA Playtesting team! Within my work, I help our Research team prepare studies by covering the more operational focused tasks. This can include study planning, making sure we have the required tech., collaboration with other teams to ensure we have everything ready, and working directly with our Playtesters throughout their Playtesting experience!

Through my role, I also get opportunities to help improve Playtester quality of life. It's been really fun with on-site Playtests coming back, as it’s become more and more important to improve our Playtesting labs to make the overall experience better. While I'm still very new to this role, I'm excited to get to learn more to help our game teams and Playtesters as best as I can.

How did you start working in the gaming industry?

I'm very new to the gaming industry and this role. I've been in both for just over a year now and it's been such an amazing experience. I grew up with video games being a crucial part of my life, starting with watching my parents play the original Legend of Zelda as a kid.

I was able to get into the industry thanks to a referral from a friend who recognized my passion and capabilities for this role. I'm extremely thankful, as entering the gaming industry really is a dream come true!

What is your favorite thing about what you do?

I love getting to work with our Playtesters. Getting the chance to work and communicate with others who love video games is such a rewarding experience. Our Playtesters constantly inspire me to want to make our program better and more fun for anyone joining a Playtest. It's also awesome to see how their feedback during Playtests actually impacts our games, especially since these are games I share love for!

Why do you think Playtesting is important?

When creating anything, you need as many viewpoints on it as possible. This helps us drive innovation and encourage our teams to see the games in ways we never would have without Playtests. To create games that resonate with our players, having player feedback is crucial and offers the opportunity to gain unique outlooks into the content being made. It's also a great way to stay in touch with the gaming community, as it's always fun to see how excited our players are to be a part of this process with us.

What is your favorite game and why?

There are a lot of games that I love for such different reasons, but if I had to pick I'd have to say the Dragon Age Series (sorry, can't actually pick just a single game). The first game in the series was very influential to me, as it helped develop my love for story-heavy games. I quickly fell in love with the world they created and the story that players were able to help create through their choices. Also, the fact that your choices can be seen across the entire game series is so cool to me!