Perks of the job

One of the great things about working here at Microsoft is that I have the opportunity
to get involved with lots of cool stuff beyond my own project. I don't know if there
is anywhere else where I could be working on speech technology, but then be able to
take a couple of hours of an afternoon out to go and help play test a game....

... which is exactly what I did yesterday. The guys in the games group needed a bunch
of non-gamers to play test the multiplayer aspects of an upcoming XBox title. I went
over there with Harry, one of my team and we had a great time playing and then were
able to give some constructive feedback on ways to improve the experience. I'm happy
to say that I didn't completely embarrass myself with my poor gaming abilities and
I am so looking forward to seeing this game hit the shelves later this year.