Meet Randall Wong
Meet members of the team behind the Electronic Arts Playtesting program and find out about what they do.
Meet the Team
Randall Wong - Project Manager
San Francisco, USA
What do you do at EA?
I'm a Project Manager with the Electronic Arts Playtesting team. I handle the operational aspects of internal and external playtests. This is actually my third role within Electronic Arts. All of the roles that I've had have dealt with playtesting and being able to get our development teams info they need so they can make our games better.
As a Project Manager, we work alongside our Researchers to plan out the 5 W's of our playtests: WHO the players are in our playtest, WHEN the playtest is happening, WHERE the playtest is going to take place (remote or in-lab), WHAT components of the game are being played, and most importantly, WHY we are having players play the game.
Much of the work goes into setting all of the playtest aspects up early, ensuring our game builds are ready, and then making sure that our playtesters have the best experience with playing the game and providing their feedback.
How did you start working in the gaming industry?
I've been working in the gaming industry for over 12 years. I started out as a Community Manager for a company that makes premium gaming headsets. From there, I worked as a consultant for several other companies in the gaming hardware and eSports space before having a stint at a game development studio working as a Studio Communications Coordinator. I shifted gears shortly after and joined EA to help with our feedback and playtesting efforts for our Mobile games.
What is your favorite thing about what you do?
It would have to be connecting with fellow gamers and when they're excited about not only playing unreleased content and games, but also their genuine desire to provide feedback.
Why do you think Playtesting is important?
Oftentimes, Developers playtest their own games, but it can be a bit of a bubble. They get used to playing and seeing the same things over and over. When we bring in real players, it's so much more valuable as these are the people who will potentially be playing the games we make when they release. If the Dev Teams don't get things right, we can likely find that out early enough to make changes.
What is your favorite game and why?
That's a really hard question, as there's so many great games that I've played. Currently, my favorite game would have to be Apex Legends. I've been playing it as my "main game" now for 3 years, ever since the launch back in February 2019. (I was able to play a couple rounds a few months before that via an Electronic Arts Playtest!) I was a huge Titanfall fan, so when this came out with lore leading back to Titanfall, it was a no brainer.
