The Fierce Kitten (or The Ferocious Attack Kitten... whichever sounds cooler on paper!)
What is it you do on a daily basis?
My job primarily deals with the implementation of server-side
community systems for guilds and social networking. I am an
extremely social player and refuse to play a game unless I am
in a very active and chatty guild. So the work I do is a very
good fit with how I enjoy my MMOs. I've also been known to do
a little bit of user interface work whenever they let me out
of my server hole. I think this frightens and confuses people,
so I keep it quiet.
What is your background? College? Degree? 1st job out of
school? 1st game industry job? How long have you been with Mythic?
Ironically enough, I actually have an undergraduate degree in
French with a strong minor in Computer Science. This throws
people off, so I am now working on a degree associated with my
profession. Last year, I started my graduate degree in Software
Engineering. I should have my Masters sometime next winter if 20
page research papers do not drown me in the meantime. My first
job out of school was with a software development shop in Raleigh,
NC called Infinite Technology. Sadly, the company is no more.
I used to run the Drunken Friar website and filled the role of "Friar Team Lead" for EA Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot when the game was first released. The Drunken Friar website caught the eyes of some people at EA Mythic and I was brought in for an interview shortly after Infinite Technology’s demise. I still remember the day Jeff Hickman called me to make the offer (roughly 12 hours after I left the interview). I picked up the phone, listened to the offer, told him I needed time to consider the offer, hung up, and started to scream at the top of my lungs. Needless to say, I called him back shortly after calming down and immediately accepted the offer. One moving truck, a pizza, and a few beers later, and I had moved to Fairfax, VA.
This is my first gaming industry job and hopefully my last. I've been with Mythic 5 years now and the people grow on you and have become my extended family. I've done a lot of growing up here, as many can attest to. I even met my husband through EA Mythic, and we now work together on WAR.
What was your "welcome to the game industry" moment when it hit
you that you were really making games for a living?
Oh man, where to begin! Let's see... the first few months at work
were typical software development without the strict blouse and
skirt dressing requirements. Believe me, I was relieved to be able
to wear jeans and sweatshirts to work! It was when I was allowed to
attend E3 that first year that I really got my first dose of the
gaming industry as an employee. In my awkward teenage years,
I used to rush to the store to pick up the special E3 editions
of my favorite gaming magazines to see what was going on.
I remember feeling like I was on the outside looking in. It
was when I actually attended the event that I realized I was
now on the inside and had a really special job.
What excites you about the Warhammer property? What makes
it perfect for an MMO? What cool things in the Warhammer universe
do you hope to bring to life?
Warhammer is just an all-around fun IP to be a part of. The
existence of so many warring races is a wonderful background for
the Realm versus Realm (RvR) system. As an avid player of
Dark Age of Camelot, I was heavily involved in RvR gameplay and
really look forward to it being more entrenched in the game
world of Warhammer Online. WAR is about battles and armies, and
I hope that the guild functionality I'm working on will bring
players together to crush their enemies.
What are your hopes/goals for the game?
It is my greatest hope that the guild and social mechanics of our
game will fit a variety of play styles, and provide players the
means to network and prepare for battles. MMOs are nothing without
the players. It is my belief that if players are able to effectively
communicate, then the MMO will thrive. The Community Systems team is
really striving to create the functionality needed to make a living,
breathing community in our game.
What your key influences when making the game? Anything besides
Warhammer?
Believe it or not, by my family is a big influence on my work.
My mother is a die-hard DAOC fan and very involved in RvR on her
server. With roughly 15 max level characters now, she is a big
influence on how I make guilds and alliances function. After all,
it's hard to communicate battle plans and raids with your guild if
the functionality is half-baked!
What is the biggest problem with current MMO’s you hope to fix
with WAR?
I think the current, active MMOs drop the ball when it comes to
guild and community support. There are so many things that have
changed in the past 5+ years that influence how players interact
with each other. Guilds have gone from just a large group with a
persistent chat room to conglomerations making money, winning loot,
and controlling vast areas of land in a fantasy setting. It is so
sad to see the lack of support for the community backbone in many
of the current MMOs available to us today.
What are your favorite video/computer games of all time? What games
are you playing right now? What game should the reader be playing if
he’s not?
My absolute top game would be Earthbound (known as Mother 2 in Japan).
That game was awesome, and I was deeply saddened to see that Nintendo
wouldn't localize the Nintendo DS version for North America.
Fuzzy Pickles! Right now I'm playing a little bit of
World of Warcraft, Everquest2, and Team Fortress 2. It depends
on my mood and how much graduate schoolwork I have on hold. I
think my professors secretly hate me, hence all of the work.
If you're not playing Team Fortress 2, go pick it up! It's
one of the few FPS games I've played in 10 years that doesn't
make me go completely crazy and trash talk whenever I die.
What music are you listening to right now?
A mixture of Trance and JPop... yeah, I have funky taste.
Is there a recent movie you’ve seen or book/comic you read that
you’d recommend to others?
I was pleasantly surprised by 28 Weeks Later. I wasn't too impressed
with the first movie (28 Days Later), but we rented 28 Weeks Later
this past weekend, and I really got a kick out of it. I like
gore-filled zombie movies, so the lineup this month was very
delicious. It sounds sadistic, I know, but I really do like the gore.
Planet Terror is actually another good zombie movie with a swanky
70's feel to it.
Anything else you want to add?
I'd like to give a shout-out to my mother, without whom I would never
have endless amusement at RvR drama on my old DAOC server (not to
mention, it was hilarious spending the first few months getting crazy
phone calls from her asking about how to play the game). To my family,
for not chastising me when I said I was moving five hours away to
make video games for a living. To the wonderful people I work with
on the community systems team: without you, I wouldn't be able to
get half of the work done on these big features.
Game development is fun, but it's a tough kind of fun. You have to put more than just your hours in. You need to give it your soul. Making games is a very creative job, so without an abundance of patience, good ideas, and fervor, you can't possibly get the job done.
