Those developers and designers that bring us fantastic online worlds - such as that of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - do their jobs well. Perhaps too well - it's easy to forget that these fantasy worlds are indeed, fantasies created by real, flesh-and-blood men and women.

Sigil Games, the company behind Vanguard is now featuring interviews with the people who work there. Today, Vanguard fans get to meet Rob Metzker, one of Sigil's webmasters and tool makers.

What do you do, Rob?

I’m [a] web developer, build master and tools guy.  I work with Sean Hamilton to create and maintain our web presence while also keeping the game’s build tools updated. When I am not spinning the web, I play keys in a San Diego rock-n-roll jam band called "Moontucky Risin'."

How did you get your start at Sigil?

It began when I was accepted into EverQuest Beta - Phase 3.  I fell in love with the style of game play and the awesome 3D worlds that Brad and his team created.  After the March 1999 release date, I played the game almost non-stop and eventually joined the guide program... it was there where I met many cool people including Michelle Butler, whom wanted me to come out and be a Game Master on her team at Verant Interactive.

In January 2000, I moved from my home town of St. Louis, Missouri to San Diego where I helped the original EverQuest customer service department get their tools together while acting as a game server technician during off-peak hours. When Sony Online Entertainment acquired Verant, I moved over to a System Programmer position. I continued to work on various CS, QA and game hosting tools.  Then in 2005, the opportunity came knocking to join the Sigil family and I could not pass it up. It’s great to be working with a lot of the friends I met back when EQ was born!

Check out the Full Article for the rest of the interview!