Meet Helga

1) Hi Helga! Can you introduce yourself...

Hey! I'm Helga. I work as a Product Marketing Specialist for Arma Reforger. I'm also involved with Arma 3 a bit too. I've been at Bohemia for two years.

2) What do you do as a Product Marketing Specialist?

I handle part of the communication of Arma Reforger to the public, i.e., updates and other important information regarding development. Communication, handling platforms (Steam, Xbox), visuals, getting information, and moving it to the right place, etc. At the moment, I'm enjoying working on Arma 3 merchandise.

3) What is the most exciting part of your job?

Peeping behind the curtain of game development and being part of the whole machine. Helping to communicate and finding ways to support something that so many people work on and care about while also having the community's best interest in mind is challenging and rewarding.

A snippet from the release of Arma Reforger, what a big thing that was.

4) How does one become a Product Marketing Specialist?

Know your product and audience through and through, be passionate about it, and genuinely wants it to succeed. That is the ideal mindset, then, of course, lots of communication, research, organizing, and brainstorming. Stand up for your ideas/approach but listen to the objections of your colleagues, and find the balance there.

5) What does your usual day look like?

Lots of talking on Slack and face-to-face, collecting and preparing intel, shaping the form and content, brainstorming with colleagues, and writing. It might be vague, but each day calls for different actions, so this is the surface-level summary.

6) What new content are you looking forward to in Arma Reforger?

Milestones updates that will bring new features, stability improvements, and all around push the game closer to 1.0.

7) What are your hobbies outside of playing games?

Reading, writing, a bit of painting, walking, philosophy/sociology. I also love playing DND with my dear colleagues.

8) Can you tell us a random fact about yourself?

I'm a good swimmer.

9) What job did you want to do when you were little?

Pink Power Ranger. Then a lawyer, probably because of Ally McBeal.

10) What's your favorite movie, TV show, and/or book?

Not possible for me to name one favorite, so listing some:

With TV shows, give me Dirk Gently, Twin Peaks, Mad Men, Black Books, and Fleabag.

As for books, I'm currently enjoying the LOTR trilogy (finally), love me some sci-fi (Solaris, Dune, Roadside Picnic, Three-body Problem, Brave New World), the Witcher series, and anything from Hermann Hesse or bell hooks.

Some examples of movies are Annihilation, LOTR, Gattaca, Alien, Swiss Army Man, American Psycho, and The 400 Blows.

11) And your go-to music playlist is...?

Extremely dependent on my mood. But my all-time favorite band is Radiohead, currently enjoying Aphex Twin, Fiona Apple, and PJ Harvey. It ranges from alternative rock, indie, through post-punk to pure pop, folk rock, bluegrass, to electronic. Game soundtracks are also a big thing for me, Disco Elysium OST lately.

12) Cats or dogs?

Both, but dogs a bit more, probably because I grew up with one, a beautiful dachshund named Fidelius, aka Fido.

13) Let's move back to the video games topic. What was your first positive interaction with video games that you can remember?

When I was a little kiddo, my dad bought The Sims and Doom and showed me how to play. The true shining moment, however, came in playing Harry Potter games on PC and a hidden gem called Primal on PS2 not long after that. That's when I knew…

14) And your most memorable video game moment?

The first that comes to mind is when you meet Sovereign for the first time in Mass Effect. I remember the absolute excitement of this reveal. His lines were truly iconic; "You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

15) Who's your all-time favorite video game character, and why?

Garrus from the Mass Effect series is forever my love, Bioware at that time just knew how to write great characters, and Garrus is a prime example of that. He is charming, witty, loyal, and always working on his calibrations. What more do you want?

16) Which game has had the biggest influence on you during your life?

Death Stranding helped me to not go crazy(er) while writing my master's thesis. The Witcher 3 helped me to overcome death in the family. Besides being great games, for these reasons, they will always have a special place in my heart.

Low-cost Sam Bridges from Death Stranding for Halloween - the baby (Lou) being a gift from my dear friends for my 30th birthday.

While playing, I was screenshotting DS relentlessly.

17) You have to pick one game you'd play for the rest of your life.

Probably Divinity Original Sin 2 because there is just too much stuff to do and so many ways to do it. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. A brilliant game though!