#20 - April 21, 2009, 1:02 a.m.
I spend most of my day in meetings. About a third of these are regularly-scheduled (say class, item or UI design meetings) about a third are unique (discuss solving a problem or a new feature) and a third are impromptu (plop down in someone's office ask, "Hey are you at all worried about X?").
Blizzard is actually amazing at keeping email under control, which is awesome. Most of our discussions are face-to-face, which makes them more productive (and fun) overall. I'm in programmer offices constantly, or talking to a designer about achievements or a raid boss, or someone is in my office wanting to give us some class feedback, or we're talking about a game of Diablo 3 we played, or a great Nintendo DS game that somebody found.
The work enviornment is probably less structured than you imagine. People are here working their blank off because they want to make the game epic. They care enormously about getting things right, which is one of the things that makes Blizzard Blizzard. It is very chaotic but a lot of fun. Some days you feel like you are just catching grenads lobbed from across a fence and tossing them back again.
Time not in meetings is spent getting bugs fixed, checking the math on something, writing design docs or meeting notes, and drinking coffee. I don't sleep much (as you probably gathered) so that part is pretty essential.
I usually check the forums, news sites and fan sites often on my own time, typically before other people get in, over lunch, or at home. I play WoW for fun (and a teeny bit of research) in the evenings.
There aren't many "typical" days. You have travel for various reasons. There are offsite meetings. There are interviews (both media and potential employee). Watching raids has been a hoot lately.
