SHD Volume 1 Issue 4
FIRST LADY An exclusive interview with the first woman Division cosplayer!
AS THEY SAY IN THE NETHERLANDS… an look bat the work of YouTube content creator MarcoStyleNL
PERFECT DEPLOYMENT: A DREAM JOB FOR A PASSION THAT NEVER FADES a retrospective on the beginnings of The Division in the days leading up to launch!
@variableaus
By the Community For the Community #communitylove
SOMETHING MASSIVE a studio tour of the Ubisoft Massive headquarters
MISSION BRIEF SHD Magazine (volume 1, issue 4) February, 2020
Editorial (by Keelan562)
01
The First Lady
03
A Style All His Own
07
Behind the Scenes: Massive Entertainment
10
Never Fear, the Beard is Here
14
Meet the FireTeam
19
Interested in contributing to future issues? Message any of the editorial team via social media to find out how!
ON THE COVER: photography by https://instagram.com/avaeryau/ http://georgeckwong.com
image copyright of Ubisoft
THE FIRST LADY
An interview with the first woman Division cosplayer, Variable
image source: twitter.com/variableaus
Could you please tell us a little something about yourself? I’m an Australian-born cosplayer, one of Australia’s first cosplay guests, and National Cosplay Ambassador. You may recognise me as The Division’s first fem SHD agent in the Ubisoft Community Roundup, from Tom Clancy’s The Division - Player Stories with Massive during the game’s development, or from events and appearances in person. In my professional life, I’m a cultural ambassador, with popular culture foci.
How did you get started in the world of cosplay? I’ve never known how to answer this question. When I was a little girl - from the day I was born - I spent a lot of time in hospital. In Australian children’s hospitals, we have an activities area called The Starlight Room, which gives patients and their loved ones a break from the clinical day-to-day. When I was old enough, I wanted to help other children the way Starlight Express helped me, and started volunteering as a guest/performer.
It wasn’t until later that I began going to conventions and expos, discovered what I was doing was called “cosplay”, and that there was an entire community of people doing incredible things.
What drew you to The Division? It can be a little strange to cosplay series grounded in reality - a reflection of a reflection, an echo of an echo. But it can also make it more accessible, more tangible, and more immersive. I’d read some of Tom Clancy’s novels through an uncle who was a fan of his work, and I was a fan of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon games. When a friend I knew through that community invited me to join their cosplay group for The Division, I jumped on it. I really enjoy games where I can socialize and co-operate with friends in general, so having great friends through The Division community and being able to play the games together was the cherry on top. It wasn’t until later that we saw where the game had evolved to, and how beautiful and dynamic it truly was. That cemented my decision to want to bring more of The Division’s world to every day life, and share it with others.
What has been the most challenging part of creating a cosplay for you? One of the greatest challenges I face cosplaying is living with invisible chronic illness. It affects every part of my life, from my income stream, to my physical ability to make costumes, and needs to be considered in wearability - in an emergency, can it be taken off quickly? Will that strap apply pressure? Is there a lighter material that will give a similar effect? Can I sit in it? Are there pockets or pouches for carrying medicines, or can I make a matching prop or accessory to carry them inside of? Accepting that hospital staff may need to cut me out of a costume I spent
hundreds of dollars and weeks labouring over can be a difficult thing to reckon with, but it does reinforce the importance of forward planning, and helps keep me grounded. Sometimes it’s helpful to have a reminder that health and safety is more important than a costume. Are there any cosplays that you are eager to create sometime in the future? My cosplay goals list grows faster than I can make them. I hope to bring back more nostalgic costumes from my childhood, especially animated series (does anyone else remember ReBoot?) and stories that shaped who I am today. If I had the resources to achieve it, my pipedream is the Xenomorph Queen from my favourite franchise, Alien.
What projects are you currently working on that we can look forward to seeing? I recently sold a number of prints and costumes to fund-raise for Australian bushfire relief while I’ve been in treatment. At the moment, I have an Abyssian Knights costume to finish, three incomplete My Hero Academia costumes, Angewomon, Westworld’s Dolores, plans for a Care Bears group, more K-pop costumes, a DOOM mash-up, and a new Lola Bunny in progress. MercyKitty and I have been working on more YouTube content, and I hope to return to broadcasting and livestreaming as soon as possible.
What words of advice would you give to beginning cosplayers? We all started somewhere, and we’re all still learning. If you choose to cosplay a character or series you love, no matter what goes unfinished or falls apart on the day, you will still have the experience of cosplaying a something close to your heart, and that’s a wonderful thing. So wear comfy shoes, stay hydrated, and have a blast.
Image source: bandedehoufs.net
For more from this amazing artist, follow her at: twitter.com/variableaus variable.com.au
A STYLE ALL HIS OWN A Look Back at the YouTube Videos of MarcoStyleNL By Keelan562
If you were around during the years before The Division was launched, then the name MarcoStyle needs no explanation. I had the pleasure of meeting the man himself at E3 the first year the Star Player program was launched. Marco, DBDave, Antoine, Yannick and myself all hung out in the Ubisoft Lounge, and the second day we all went out for a quick breakfast in the morning. While Yannick and Antoine had to leave due to work, the rest of us stayed and chatted. We talked about our lives, other games, The Division, and many other things. I had been working on getting a webseries done based on the game at that time, and had a rough cut of the pilot episode (which is, unfortunately, the only episode to be released online, despite having filmed the second episode).
From that 3-and-some-change minutes long video, Marco went into a 40-something minute breakdown, talking about what he liked, what he could see that could be improved, and asking all sorts of questions about where the narrative of the series would go. On a side note, MANY of the aspects that were discussed about what would happen later in the webseries would later become actual features (either in-game or at least in the narrative of the game) within the actual series! It was during this conversation that I realized the person Marco showed himself as in his breakdown videos was very much the person he was. He was objective. He stated the facts of what he could see, and was earnest in his opinions. That was the exact feature about him that made me watch his videos, and I appreciated the man even more after meeting him. Marco was brave even in those early days to call the game out on its flaws. He never did this from a place of bias, he did it from a position of constructive feedback. He has always wanted this game to be the best it could be, from day one. Yes, his frustrations and personal game style would sometimes influence what he would say or how he would play, but he always understood that there are gamers out there who play differently, and he kept that in mind when giving his assessments. He would point out why he felt the way he did or saw things as he did, and why he understood others would disagree with him. With the launch of The Division 2, and in the days after being among the first team to complete Operation: Dark Hours, the content Marco has produced for The Division/The Division 2 has become sparse. This is a natural thing, as it is difficult for content creators to focus solely on one franchise over any others and to make that content meaningful in longevity. And that’s completely okay! He has not abandoned the series, as many Redditors cry out. He has not turned his back. He is simply waiting until there is
something that stands out to report on. In the meanwhile, he has plenty of other current/relevant games with which to occupy his time and content. Marco is among the first social media personalities to make an impact on the community, and a man that I can respect both professionally and personally. He has shown what game journalism should be; an objective display of the facts as present in a game, and a clearly defined opinion with logical reasoning behind it. He doesn’t sugar coat things, he doesn’t say what he thinks developers or gamers want him to say. He calls it like it is. Sometimes what he has to say is pleasant, sometimes it’s a hard truth to hear. I would urge those of you who haven’t checked out his videos on YouTube to give them a look. Even outdated as the earlier videos may be, go back and look at his coverage of The Division, and imagine what the game was like when those videos were made. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Marco, keep up the great work you do, my friend! We can’t wait to see your coverage when The Division 3 is officially announced.
You can follow Marco and his content at the following platforms: Twitter: @MarcoStyleNL YouTube: youtube.com/c/MarcoStyle Twitch: twitch.tv/marcostyle
Behind the Scenes: Massive Entertainment by Agent Mab The “Tom Clancy’s The Division” franchise is the work of several Ubisoft studios located all around the world, and with all sorts of backgrounds when it comes to creating games. In Behind the Scenes, we will have a look at each studio’s history and see how they got involved with the Division franchise. As some of you may know, Massive Entertainment isn’t only known as the Ubisoft studio working on the Tom Clancy franchise this magazine celebrates.
A Massive History
The Massive Entertainment building in Malmö, Sweden – Photo: Mabeobja
Located in the heart of Malmö, Sweden, the studio founded in 1997 was first known for its Sci-Fi real-time tactics game Ground Control, released on PC in 2000. With its highly detailed graphics and rich lore, the game focused on tactical gameplay by entirely ignoring the classic base construction/management aspect found in popular real-time strategy games such as Command & Conquer. Both a critical and popular success, Ground Control was further developed in an expansion in 2001 and a sequel in 2004.
The studio strikes again in the tactical genre in 2007 with World in Conflict, a RTS game set in an alternate universe in which the Cold War turns into a full-fledged World War III after an economically frail Soviet Union invades Western Europe and Seattle, taking the conflict directly to the United States.
A promotional image for the 2009 re-release of World in Conflict including the Soviet Assault expansion
The single-player story focuses on a US army officer controlling US and NATO troops in iconic locations such as New York City and Seattle, as well as the southern French city of Marseille. The game also offers a multiplayer mode in which players also have the option to play as the USSR. Cooperation is crucial in this mode, as each member of a team gets to control one type of unit (infantry, air, support). The mode became so popular that fans took it on themselves to make it playable again after Massive shut down its servers. The game would also spawn one expansion, World in Conflict: Soviet Assault in 2009. Massive Entertainment was acquired by Ubisoft in 2009, collaborating on two major Ubisoft titles, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Far Cry 3, before announcing that it was working on The Division at E3 2013.
Snowdrop As we all know, Massive played a major role in the development of The Division, working on the creation of an entirely new game engine, Snowdrop, as early as in 2009. Snowdrop was created with realism, and the ability to create games efficiently without huge teams in mind. It is based on “graphnodes” that allow very flexible interaction with the assets created. Massive Entertainment was acquired by Ubisoft in 2009, and collaborated on two major Ubisoft titles, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Far Cry 3, before announcing that it was working on The Division at E3 2013.
World in Conflict Easter egg in The Division 2
Snowdrop graphnodes in action – Screencapture from Snowdrop Engine (GDC 2014) on YouTube
Coded from scratch on C++, Snowdrop was created with graphic realism, flexibility, and the ability to create games efficiently without huge teams in mind. It is based on a “node graph” system that allow very flexible interaction with the assets created. The engine has been used by different Ubisoft studios to create titles as varied as the cute tactical strategy game Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, the space action-adventure title Starlink: Battle for Atlas, the game South Park The Fractured Butt Whole and of course, The Division franchise. It is now also used in the development of the Avatar Project, an upcoming game set in the universe of James Cameron’s Avatar, which is due to launch on various Iterations of a NYPD car in Snowdrop - – Screenshots from Snowdrop Engine (GDC 2014) on YouTube platforms in 2021.
A Central Role in The Division Franchise You guessed it, Massive plays a major role in the development of The Division franchise. From game engine creation, to narrative and level design of the main story in The Division 2, to hosting more than 140 episodes of the iconic “State of the Game” live broadcast, this is also where the art magic happens: props and concept art, character design, etc. The studio is also responsible for a variety of non-programming related things that all play a major role in the creation of a game, such as coordinating localization work in many languages, imagining the audio and soundtrack for both games, as well as creating a cohesive expanded universe through comic books, lore books and novels. Massive is now working on the Avatar Project and updating The Division 2 with new adventures. With growing development teams, the studio will soon be moving into a new building in Malmö, Sweden. In the upcoming issues, we will be going behind the scenes of the different Ubisoft studio working on The Division franchise, so be sure to stay tuned!
Division goodies displayed in the studio – Photo: Gabe @gabeelikes
NEVER FEAR THE BEARD IS HERE An interview with Associate Creative Director -Yannick Banchereau by BinaryKitten
Tell us a bit about yourself and how you get into gaming? Hey! My name is Yannick from Orléans, France. Like most gamers, I grew up playing games. First on my Amstrad computer (before the PC era), then on various consoles and PCs. I’d say that my favorite type of games are probably Twitter profile for strategy and management @yannickbch at the games, followed very closely time of this interview by all types of RPGs (Story RPGs, ARPGs, MMORPGs…). The games that I spent the most time on are probably Crusader Kings (1 and 2), Dark Age of Camelot and Diablo (and of course, The Division not far behind some of those). Obviously, working in Video Games has always been a dream for me and I’ve pretty much spent my entire career in this area. I actually studied 3D graphics in the hope of becoming a graphic artist but after getting my first job I realized that I just wasn’t really good at it! That didn’t stop me though and I reoriented my career and started working as a Game Master back in what I remember fondly as a golden age of MMORPGs just after the release of World of Warcraft. Game Mastering was a really unique thing back then as most MMOs were still trying to mix video games and tabletop RPGs, so it was a lot about creating cool unique events to the world feel alive.
What was the 1st game you’d consider being “Passionate” about? I think that would probably be Diablo, back in the late 90s. I really loved the game, but even more importantly, this was my first experience of “online gaming”. Of course, what that meant back then was mostly hanging out on the Battle.net chat, and only occasionally actually jumping into the game to try to get that Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac or wage a PvP guild war. Just the idea of getting “online” back then was quite challenging and I remember spending a couple days just to set up an internet connection at home. And after that, my parents yelling at me as I was constantly monopolizing the phone line for the entire evening and weekends… Although the game and infrastructure offered very little tools, it was amazing to see how we would all form a complex social structure of our own, with Guilds, alliances, friendships and rivalries, competitions, etc… I think in a way this is probably where my passion for online communities was born! How/what drew you to transition to Massive and ultimately to the Division brand? It’s very simple, really. I had been working in Community for a while already when Massive contacted me in 2014. Of course the first thing I did when I heard about the role was googling where Malmö was… What I did know about and got me immediately excited was the game named The Division! I was really interested by it, and the idea of having a chance to work directly at the studio that was making it got me immediately interested! After a few discussions with members of the team I knew that this would be a fantastic place for me to work at. I’ve never had to regret that decision ever since.
What was your earliest memories from the community involvement/engagement? Oh, I remember right from day 1 in the job, realizing how strong and passionate the community already was. I was just amazed at how much content and discussions people could maintain while knowing so little about the game! Working as a Community Developer, this can actually be quite intimidating to jump into. The community is already shaped, and you know you’re going to have an important role as part of it, so you really want to make a good first impression! Luckily, everyone was super welcoming and directly took me in. What’s fantastic is that some of those people are still here today! It’s crazy to think that some of them have actually been such important parts of my life for the past 5 years! Do you have any stories you can share about pain points with/before the launch of the Division and how they were resolved? We all remember the dreaded activation laptop at the launch of Division 1… There are just things like that sometimes that seem so obvious in retrospect, and yet nobody anticipated. We all have good laughs about it today but I can tell you on that day, when we started seeing the queues form up in the Brooklyn safehouse, we all felt pretty stupid
and the entire studio set out to fix this ASAP. I think in a way this was a cornerstone moment for us as a team where we went from the awe and excitement of finally having launched the game, to the realization that we’re now a live game and we need to fix what doesn’t work. It really was a lesson that we all kept with us since. Good thing it’s a rather comical one and we can all remember it with a smile. Did you ever get your Turtleneck sweater? Well, I got all of them in-game, and I also got that IRL turtleneck that Hamish offered me live on stream! Although to be honest, I don’t really wear it that often… (It’s too big and quite uncomfortable. Sorry Hamish.) What is the most prized thing you’ve gotten from the community that you take forward? Every single interaction I’ve had face to face with someone from the community has been a highlight of my career. It’s one thing to interact with each other online and navigate through many conversations, but getting to meet with the people behind the aliases is a complete other experience. I’m always so amazed at how easy it is to just have a chat with anyone from the community irl. That’s the moment where you realize that we’re all just a bunch of passionate video game players and genuinely good people.
On a more personal note, there’s been some quite rough times in the pre-1.4 era that would have been almost impossible to go through without the messages of support that I received privately from some fantastic humans in the community. These meant a lot to me, and still do today. What was the feature of the game you were most excited about when the first Division was about to be released? Not a feature per se, but I remember when the game was in Technical Test on Xbox, before the Closed and Open Beta. That moment where I launched the game for the first time at home felt so unreal! To me the game was still associated with “work”, and that was the first time it dawned on me that this was going to be a video game that many people would be experiencing just like that, at home in front of their TVs. I think from that moment on the thing I was most excited about simply being able to finally play it for real! In past experiences I’ve had a chance to work on games that I was passionate about, and every single time my passion just faded away as soon as I started working on it. It just felt like work. I never had that with The Division. I’ve always been able to enjoy playing it on my private time just as much as I enjoy working on it! Is there any particular feature, that you can speak about, the team had to take out of the final game that you wish made it in? You know, when I interviewed for the role at Massive, the idea of a drone companion app was still a thing. I was so excited about this! I talked about it at length in my interview and how groundbreaking this was. On my first day in the job I was informed that the decision had been recently made that we wouldn’t pursue this feature, and I was tasked to craft the public announcement to inform the community… Of course, the game still had plenty to offer so it didn’t diminish my excitement for it, but what an ironic turn of event! That all feels like a lifetime ago now.
Keep up on all the intel with Yannick by following him on Twitter @yannickbch and tune in regularly to The Division 2’s State of the Game!!
MEET THE FIRETEAM BINARYKITTEN (@BinaryKitten) After rumours of 1st wave agents going rogue, a few agents of the 2nd wave were selected for an Elite Task Force. These agents set about bringing individual knowledge and expertise for the contingency of SHD. Agent BinaryKitten took on the secondary ident: "FelisBinarius“ with the sole purpose of bringing justice and honor to the community. You'll find her manning the Live Vid communication medium as well as on Twitter, as well as developing a new means of running test scenarios of SHD operations at a smaller scale.
AGENT MABEOBJA (@Agent_Mab) After the breakdown of aid and relief worldwide after the pervasive epidemic of Variola Chimera - SHD set out branches in many cities across many countries. Agent Mabeobja, elite translator, is one of many key co-coordinators for these key strategic points. She doesn’t have an easy task, but without her communications within the SHD would come to a crashing halt.
KEELAN562 (@Keelan562) This agent (called “Squirrel” by the agent he is partnered with) patrols the streets near Los Angeles, California. His cover was that of a high school English Language Arts teacher and freelance filmmaker. He was drafted into the SHD by a pair of brothers (both agents he had worked with who saw his potential).
In preparation, it was arranged that he begin training with the JROTC instructor at his campus, who was also an agent. Since the release of Green Poison, he has done what he can locally to maintain not only ease of civilian life but also to continue to ensure that the youths at the settlements he frequents continue to receive an education. Or this could all be made up and you’d never know it. He’s a bit of a smartass like that.
SPECIAL THANKS
@xlowmex @variableaus @Shauna_c_jones @yannickbch @TheDivisionForums @Thermic_Bunny @TheDivisionGame @Ollie_Norris …And all of our friends, family, @BlinkyBunny and other agents who support @WolfOfCherno our little obsession hobby ;3 @DBTheDivision #communitylove @Splintrshield #WeAreTheWolves