Interview with Olga “Ola” Sergeevna

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Source: http://tech.onliner.by/2013/10/17/olga-sergeevna-interview

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I generally ignore interviews, but this is pretty interesting (with emphasis on pretty :P) – a Belarussian portal tech.onliner.bu made an interview with Olga “Ola” Sergeevna.

I absolutely hate literal translations of interviews (boring, they take long time and some phrases are difficult), so I am going to simply put the info from the interview into points the way I do it with the Q&A.

- OS got to Wargaming as a support staff member because of the fact she finished the university, where she studied to become an interpreter, so she speaks English very well.
- she did play videogames before WG, but without any real preference, but she likes car race games, especially Need for Speed, she also tried Sims. She wants to try GTA5, but doesn’t have a console
- she did play on computer consoles only as a child, specifically on Sega and something called “Dendy”
- she got to work for WG as customer support staff member, because at that point WG was operating the customer support service for US and EU from Minsk, that was two years ago – after that she left the support staff and started doing something else, plus the WoWp and WoT:G appeared and other games too
- she liked the young and dynamic team, because every was creative and inventive
- previously, she played a lot of WoT, now it’s less because of work, has around 3000 battles on her RU account.
- she states that WoT:G (“Generals”) are very interesting, but the development is not finished yet
- she learned how to drive a real T-72 tank, when she was going on trips with the cybersports players, she tried at the simulator first, which is just like a real tank, only that you see a computer screen thru the periscope, unfortunately in the army (SS: Belarussian), you can’t be a tank driver when you’re a girl. When she was in the real T-72, she could only be the commander and told others where to go
- the T-72 episode happened when she met people from videomaking department on some corporate event and they were looking for a personality (SS: “leader”) to make the (then) new “video news” concept. That’s how she got to make the news.
- OS was popular in the support department and many departments wanted to pull her over to them, in the end she recieved an offer to become the assistant for the deputy director for global operations, she is still working on that position, along with the news making.
- she often goes to expos and makes reports from them, becoming effectively a “video personality”, this weekend she will be at WCG finals (SS: not sure the time fits)
- she states she didn’t want to be the prototype “pretty girl” news anchor, the videos were made popular by the “what went wrong” shots at the end of the news, she got inspired for that by Jackie Chan movies
- the videos are made with emphasis on making it interesting for people, as all the expos are in the end about the same, with the same companies and same products, they have to gather a lot of material for a three minute video. Her role is to write the words and to read them on camera, but she states the real heroes are the other video makers
- the videomaking is not her main line of work, that’s being the assistant, which consists of various tasks and she had to learn a lot of new stuff
- a whole bunch of people works on the video news: the producer who selects topics, the operators, translators, editors, proofreading the subtitles/voiceovers by native speakers. In total it’s 7-15 people per movie, plus external workers
- the English voice is a guy named “Ruslan Gabidullin”
- the “Wargaming TV” project (the news) started with 4 guys and a producer, first it was the news, then they added video gameplay guides and player movies, now they use crowdsourcing: players send them their replays, cartoons and guides, currently the video department has 40 people
- Russian Youtube account has 1,25 mil subscribers, average video piece gathers 300-500k views, with the really good ones having over one million views
- apparently, video department actually reads the comments under videos, but only constructive ones, most are just trolling though
- she states regarding War Thunder and other competition, that World of Tanks is an unique product that was first in its niche and everything else are just knockoffs. On the other hand, she states the competition makes them improve the game more than when they were alone in the genre and that’s healthy
- hobbies: she likes travelling and figure skating, she was also dancing ever since she was 5 until 18, but can’t anymore, because she has to go on business trips, she’d like to do that again
- she actually rarely meets fans on expos, because few recognize her in real life, despite her “fame”

122 thoughts on “Interview with Olga “Ola” Sergeevna”

        • Well, i think they died to extinction…So why not rape that FAKE Daigensui?
          DONT_RELEASE_THE_LORRAINE_PLS

            • You think that stupid duck can beat the mighty Lorraine?
              You stupidblueprintshit. You cant beat me. Please get it.

            • Food chain.
              First-guy-Donkey-Lorraine

              But. behold me

              113 eats Lorraine from live.

              MADE IN CHINA

            • YOUR LEGENDARY GUN DEPRESSION!!!
              IM DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!111
              Wait…i have autoloader so i am better. Also your name is stupid.
              EVEN TIER X DONT BEAT ME!!!!! MUAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!

            • I will first toast you. from ALIVE. then i make a tasty lorraine-beef and then i bring it for my family and i am happy.

              but it will hard job because my gun depression.

              MADE IN CHINA

            • I will rape the hell out of any 113 with superior depression

              PREPARE YOUR UNDEPRESSABLE ANUS

            • Donkey Lorraine40t
              AMX 40 vs M46 Patton
              113 HT
              KV-1S

              WE CAN DO THIS SHIT LORRAINE, T9 MED BROFIST

          • I am not on your side, Patton. Im not anyone’s side. You all bitches started to mess with me. It was not smart move. Lorraine haves secret powers. So powerful powers. I dont use them in the game. I use them only in monets LIKE THIS!!!!1

            • Never. NEVER. Underestimate Lorraine.
              I am its brother. I know more about it than anyone of you.
              Remember the times when it was tier 8? It was OP. But thats only little view of the
              Lorraine’s massive power. If Lorraine wants, it could destroy the whole WoT. And infect all computers in the world. But it doesnt do it. Then the SerB will nerf it.
              Lorraine’s weakness. SerB already nerfed it once. Lorraine wants to revenge for SerB. It rapes donkeys only because it thinks that Donkeys are SerB.
              Never mess with Lorraine. Never do it. Please

            • I am really emperor of mighty China.
              China never copied others tanks. In fact, they copied our designs.
              We created idea of the IS and T-54 like tanks. Those soviets stealed them.
              I have army of millions, millions of Type 59s.
              Im hiding them. And i am sure that they destroy one bitchy Lorraine.
              They dont use guns. They eat everything from alive.

              MADE IN CHINA MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

            • 113 you appear to be mistaken as to who the real emperor of China is :)

              I have twin 140mm cannons, an engine powered by Nuclear fuel, and you’re forgetting I can literally drive on top of and crush all of you :)

            • Emperor dont need to be strong itself. I dont battle itself.
              I just put my Type 59 army to battle only for me.
              MUAHAHAHHAHAH

              MADE IN CHINA

  3. What does her goodbye actually translate to (literally). How’s the transliteration?

    • “Пока пока”(paka paka) literally translates to “Bye Bye”

      It’s mostly informal.
      “До свиданя”(Da svidanye) means “Goodbye”

        • It may be almost literally translated as “see you later” but it is as formal as “goodbye” or “looking forward to meet again”. Saying it to a friend would be quite awkward. Like a pig or cow may be just animals in one country while in other it may be quite an insults.
          It is probably the most common, formal word to say when leaving / ending conversation. But I can not imagine the face of some professor or CEO when some unknown student / employee would say “see you later” :D

          • 1) it’s “da svidanya” not “da svidanye”
            2) it literally translates to “until we meet again”

  5. I will say it again :P
    Comparing World of Tanks and War Thunder Ground Forces is like comparing Battlefield and Unreal Tournament.
    It. Does. Not. Work.

  6. Dendy is chineese pirate copy of Nintendo NES. Basically, almost noone owned real NES in 90s in CIS, however almost every family had Dendy or other NES copy.

    Word Dendy even became a general name for consoles for some people.

    • Haha ok, I owned one when I was a child. But I thought it was a real Nintendo but just called Dendy. Nice Info thx

  12. “World of Tanks is an unique product that was first in its niche and everything else are just knockoffs.”

    Oh, you. ^_^

    • She’s kinda right, tough. Before WoT there werent many, if any, WW2 themed tank vs tank online games. WoT stuck gold with it and WT followed suit.

      • For pure tanks-vs-tanks, WoT is a pioneer. OTOH, WT is combined-arms game, and those have been around for ages.

        Are there games that could actually be called WoT knockoffs? Criteria: development started after WoT announcement, tanks only, around WW2, online, unlockable vehicles.

          • You should try black ops 2 , fails every second, extremely incompetent developers(can’t nerf the sniper rifle for good even after it got almost every person in the community raging) and no skill based MM too.

        • There WAS one on Facebook which actually had some differences to it (the tier 1 German was the Panzer I, and the tier 10 Soviet medium was the T-55, for example). WGs lawyers sued the guy who made it…and lost in court. So what did they do? They paid Facebook to remove the game from the site.

          Sore losers much?

  13. 1) Girls are not allowed to drive tanks
    2) Girls are allowed to command tanks.

    Human logic, nature’s greatest achievement.

    • I dont want to sound like a misogynist but do you know how wemen drive? Generally I wouldnt let wemen drive cars, not even speaking about tanks.

      On the other hand usually the woman on the right seat is giving direction witch the man follows. I guess its the same in a T-72 ^^

    • Doesn’t (or didn’t) driving a real tank actually require some muscles and was therefore considered unfit for women? I thought I had read about that somewhere.

      Now that I think about it: Are there any articles about the actual physical work that is to be done inside a tank (or certain tanks, eg a Tiger I or a T-54), in accordance to the position in the crew (gunner, driver, etc)?

      *looks at SS with puppy eyes*

      • You’re insinuating that women can’t be physically strong.

        You sir, have clearly never tussled with a terrifyingly butch lesbian club bouncer.

        • ***You’re insinuating that women can’t be physically strong.***

          No. Of course, there are some ‘strong’ women. Just not on average. And instead of going through the trouble of individual screening, in jobs that are physically demanding a simple gender prejudice may be appropriate.

      • It would depend upon the tank really. Some like the Tiger were a lot easier (actual steering wheel) to drive as far as work load. Communication was done with a lot of kicking in the T34 and I wont start on the M4 Sherman. Now if she was trying to drive some WW1 tank I think that might eventually tier her out but something more modern like a Abrams or T72 should be a cake walk for her. Even idiots fresh out of HS are allowed to drive an Abrams so why not her? The Abrams is so simplified to drive that you really have to be an idiot to do it poorly and by idiot I mean not be aware of whats around you that you can accidentally drive into.

      • Pretty sure the question really mostly relates to the exact design of the steering system and the presence or lack of power assist therein (I know KVs were real bastards in this regard…).

        Anyway, due to historical accidents of biology all other things being equal women have less sheer upper-body muscle mass ergo arm strenght than men which would presumably be relevant if the steering system is of the “user unfriendly” sort.
        Hmm.
        A friend of mine did his national service in the armoured forces, I should ask him if the FDF has some rules about this the next time I see him…

      • Not any more. Well…I don’t know about Russian-made tanks, but in the M1 Abrams the controls are closer to those of a Go-Kart.

  16. “proofreading the subtitles/voiceovers by native speakers”

    They have proofreading on other servers? EU shafted again!

  22. Pretty and pretty, shes not “porn” star good looking, but doable of course. I also like that SS said “pretty :P” ahaha so f0nny.