Medal of Honor

I ride a scooter.

Seriously. Don’t laugh. It helps me get around the office quicker. It’s a Razor, it’s lightning blue, and sometimes I even ride it while eating a bagel.

The third floor of EA Los Angeles is a magical place where cool things happen on a daily basis.

The space is basically divided up into four major quadrants with wide, scooter friendly pathways winding throughout the building.

If you exit directly out of the elevators and turn left at the gun case (where an M4 rifle, a SIG SAUER P226, a M60E4 belt-fed machine gun and a Bulgarian manufactured AK-47 are proudly displayed) you’ll head directly into the Marketing area. They’ve got a pretty cool space draped in camouflage netting and all of the war spoils of Medal of Honor games gone by. If you back out of that space, you’ll pass the Human Resources and Finance teams located near the windows of the North East corner. Two kicks on the Razor and you'll soon find yourself heading directly into the main heart of the Medal of Honor development team.

I sit in a corner space with Rich Farrelly (our Senior Creative Director) and Kevin Hendrickson. Many would agree that Kevin is the most important person on the planet. You’ll never see his name in interviews, nor will he ever be paraded around to the press, but believe me when I tell you, he is the heartbeat of Medal of Honor. He is our Senior Development Director. Meaning, he holds the purse strings, tasks individual team members, and basically gets shit done. If you miss the mark, you’ll hear from Kevin. If you hit the mark, you’ll hear from Kevin. You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Chiefs run the Navy”… Well, Kevin runs Medal of Honor. The good news is that he doesn’t have time to read the news or visit this website, so he’ll never know I’m telling you all of these things. Nor does he ever pick up the telephone, so the recruiters don't even bother. But if you visit our office you will see the many trophies that he has purchased himself to celebrate his own excellence. Yes, he is that petty.

Anyhow, in the main area lies a large part of the art and design team. Most of the guts of Medal of Honor are built here. Around the edges are offices filled with programmers and some of the sound designers. Moving past this area, into the kitchen and beyond are two more areas occupied with our animators, modelers, cinematics and character crew. They’ve got a nice spot on the Western most end of the floor with a great view of the Pacific Ocean. However, the afternoon sun requires the blinds to remain closed. There is a small lip on the carpet entering this room and if you hit it properly you can get some pretty good air on a well maintained scooter.

At the end of this large room is a very special office where the magic happens. This is where the secret sauce is applied to every part of our game. I would tell you the name of the individual who runs this group, but our competitors would snatch him up in a heartbeat. So this highly capable and talented individual will remain nameless for now. He is also the person who gave me the blue Razor when I first arrived at EA. This is probably the reason why I just used the words "highly capable" and "talented". Yes, I am that petty.

If you continue in a circle running counterclockwise you’ll swing by Sean Decker’s office for a quick hello and down a long hallway towards our video editor. His office is huge, has a locking door, and is pretty much the envy of everyone on the team. He claims he needs this office because of all the expensive equipment he uses. However, it is simply a ruse to protect the hundreds upon hundreds of action figures he has on display. Unbeknownst to him, I actually have a key to his office and routinely place his prized figures into compromising positions when he isn’t around. He also has a scooter and sometimes we ride in formation around the office and whistle the theme song to the 80’s TV show CHiPs.

Continuing down the hallway will return you to the elevators where the tour started.

So there you have it. A scooter tour of the Medal of Honor Team in Los Angeles. Perhaps one day I’ll hook up a helmet camera so you can see exactly what I’m talking about.

Oh yeah, the HR team wants me to tell you that the guns near the elevators are not real.

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