For some, the path into the gaming industry requires years of perseverance and career-building in another field before networking and passion land them in gaming. This month we feature the stories of Xbox employees who started their careers in retail and examine how they transitioned into their current roles at Xbox. Last time we met Albert Dankwa III, Content Program Manager for Xbox Support. Today we’re excited to share the journey of Chris Douglas, a Business Program Manager for Xbox Game Studios (XGS) Game Camp.
backstory
Chris grew up playing video games with his family and was fascinated by their way of working from a young age. He remembers playing his first video game and thinking, “I don’t understand what’s happening. When I move these arrows or press this button, the character moves around the screen and jumps, but how? What happens between the controller and the system? and the screen to make all these things possible? That started my journey and got me excited about technology and gaming.”
As he began talking to counselors and teachers about his plans after high school, Chris recalls being told, “There’s no money in technology and video games, you can’t do that.” When he was about to graduate approached, Chris told his parents that he wanted to be part of the gaming industry, be it in development or marketing or some other role. He remembers them telling him, “I don’t think this is for you. We don’t see a lot of people of color, especially black men, in these jobs.” Chris knows his parents weren’t trying to kill his dreams, they were trying to save him from failure. Raised in a black household, Chris says, “You don’t have the ability to fail. You don’t have the same privileges as other people and you only get one chance.” Now that he’s learned more about the importance of a growth mindset, Chris understands the benefits and opportunities that come from learning from your mistakes. Still, he acknowledges that the experiences of other black people often match his parents’ expectations.
After high school, Chris began attending Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, the only historically black Catholic university in the United States. Still, many of the computer science professors were white men. Chris continued to meet adversity, but with the recent launch of Xbox from his dream employer, Microsoft, he was determined to continue his career in gaming. Shortly thereafter, Chris’ personal life took a turn when his mother found out she had breast cancer. Chris realized he couldn’t work two jobs, support his family and go to school.
After a series of warehouse and retail jobs, Chris became a store manager at GameStop, where he was promoted several times. While he enjoyed learning about new gaming features, particularly the Xbox 360, Chris realized that brick-and-mortar stores were not the future of retail. He left GameStop for AT&T and after 5 years there almost gave up his dream of playing and working for Microsoft. Then Microsoft started opening retail stores.
As soon as they announced the New Orleans store, Chris applied and became a learning specialist working with schools. Working with K-12 schools, he found that many of the students had never seen a computer, so he began working with community development specialists and other groups at Microsoft to bring Surfaces, Minecraft education, and coding workshops to local schools bring.
Chris says: “The best moment of my whole life was when I walked into a school and I was wearing my colorful Microsoft shirt, jeans and Jordans and this boy said he had never seen anyone from Microsoft – he hadn’t I think Jordans and working at Microsoft might even go together. That’s when I realized these kids were seeing themselves in me, and it was incredibly humbling. I have a great responsibility to the children in my community to help them get where they want to be. ”
Chris started bringing gaming into the outreach programs and invited streamers and others to speak about gaming, marketing and esports. Word has gotten around town that if you want to get involved with gaming, you should speak to Microsoft’s Chris.
Just before the pandemic began, Chris was asked to help with a new project called XGS Game Camp, which focused on finding new ways to reach underserved communities interested in game development. His managers were very supportive and let him split his time between retail and volunteering at XGS Game Camp, and when Microsoft decided to permanently close the retail stores, Chris was offered the position of production assistant at inXile Studios, one of the local XGS Game Camp partners. offered .
Chris spent a year learning about production, which includes everything from audio to animation to engineering, and gained great experience in his first real gaming role. But he felt something was missing without the ability to give back to his community on a regular basis. When Xbox Game Studios decided to continue investing in XGS Game Camp and wanted Chris to join the team full-time from his home base in New Orleans, he knew it was a perfect fit.
Big Dreams: Basketball or Gaming?
Around the age of 12, Chris began playing basketball, soccer, and track and field. As he focused more on athletics, he discovered a real talent for basketball and his family and friends encouraged him to pursue a career in the NBA. Chris says, “There are 15,000 NCAA men’s Division 1 athletes in the United States, but only 60 people get drafted into the NBA. That’s a 0.004% chance, but my family believed I had a better chance of making it into the NBA than into the NBA in the gambling industry!” Chris wasn’t convinced that a basketball career was realistic and kept it His other goals, chef or game designer, in mind when he went to high school, he mowed grass and washed cars to pay for subscriptions to games and game magazines, and read everything he could about emerging industry and technology trends. Despite this, his family and friends urged him to continue playing basketball through high school and college, believing that a career in the NBA was more attainable than a job in gaming.
Chris says, “I love basketball more than anything, I really do. It’s one of the most exciting things to watch or play. When I used to play basketball, everything else stopped. There’s that poetry when it happens. But there’s something even more magical about being able to connect with a character in a game, walking through that world and feeling connected to the narrative, the music, and the setting. It’s a surreal experience. If you allow yourself to be open, games will take you somewhere else. You can experience another reality and forget everything that happened for a while and focus on that other moment. For me it is therapeutic.”
Despite pressure from his community to quit gaming, Chris says, “Growing up I found that sometimes even the people who love you the most don’t support you because they’re trying to protect you, not because they are do. I do not love you. You can’t let anything stop your dream.”
What a Business Program Manager does
Chris says, “Xbox Game Studios Game Camp is a program designed to prove that exceptional talent is everywhere. We try to meet people and talent where they are and help all aspiring game developers from traditional and non-traditional backgrounds. We want to add diverse voices to gaming – people of color, women, people from underrepresented communities and from difficult socio-economic backgrounds. Our goal is to reach everyone interested in game development, demystify the gaming industry and help them with tools and resources. We want to help them achieve their dreams by building a network of subject matter experts within Xbox to learn from.”
As the Business Program Manager for XGS Game Camp, Chris’ role is to plan the delivery of tools and resources to campers while also building a relationship and getting to know them on a personal level. He maintains relationships with marketing, media, brand management, legal, mentors, engineering, nonprofits and more to stay current on creation tools, engine advancements and knowledge sharing to empower campers to achieve their vision.
Chris says: “I really have the ability to change people’s lives. I can be the person I wanted in my life, believe in her and her dreams when others don’t. I’m grateful that I can be that encouragement to keep people from giving up their dream.”
history of the game
Chris grew up playing games and clearly remembers the first Nintendo his parents bought. “I was 7 or 8 and we had just got back from a family vacation to Disney World, which was a really big deal. When we got home I wanted to play with my friends I hadn’t seen in a week but my dad told me to come in and spend more time with the family.” I went to my room and lay down excitedly on my bed and he came in and put a Nintendo on my bed and suddenly it was the best day again. We plugged it in right away and started playing together.”
Chris is playing now destiny 2, death loop, surveillance 2, lunar scars, traitorand Halo infinity.
Xbox Game Studios Game Camp is a two to four month program hosted in various cities around the world. Learn more at Xbox Game Studios game camp.
