Q: Was Electric Playground your first foray into the video game world?

A: No, it wasn't. When I was in high school, I was always in the computer lab messing around. I enrolled in the

Computer Science Faculty at university, and after two years of dabbling in obsolete programming languages, I left to take a one-year p

DigiPen U.

rogram at a little school called DigiPen. The program covered 3D animation, and as I was finishing the course, Nintendo began a games programming course. I was taking an optional C++ programming course at the time and considered enrolling into the Nintendo program. However, I was offered a job at an animation studio before I graduated and decided to enter the real world for a while. Games were a big part of the school atmosphere at DigiPen as they tied directly to the studies at hand. While at the animation studio--a mixture of traditional and computer artists--we did some contract work on a video game for Radical Entertainment. This was my first look at how video games were made, and I was intrigued, to say the least.

At this time, the internet phenomenon was just coming into existence, and I started exploring the world of web design. I started to notice a frightening pattern as I jumped from one area of interest to another. I was a nightmare for studios and companies that hired me as I would quickly outgrow what I was hired to do and start poking around other people's work areas looking to learn something else. I never liked being under someone else's rules either and I soon set out to work for myself in the web design world. At this time, I started playing more and more games with the free time I had as a freelancer. A little game called Quake entered my life and the world of online play and the culture surrounding it fascinated me. A year later, I opened one of the first ever Network Arcades with my fiancée (now husband), a Local Area Network of eight killer PCs with the best games.

Being young and naive, I had no idea what a niche market I was catering to and the arcade acted as more of a hangout for a core group of gamers than anything else. Sometimes I wondered if there was more to life than deathmatch tournaments and calibrating joysticks for customers. I attended my first E3 during this time, and it changed my life. When I came home, I was so full of enthusiasm for the games industry. I had met many designers who started to send me their latest products and discuss the world of game development. It was fascinating.

The face of Electric Playground.

At the same time, the Electric Playground television series was just entering its inaugural season. A small group of independent guys had a dream to create a video game show that would go behind the scenes of the industry and show gamers where their favorite titles came from. I watched the pilot with complete envy of the hosts who ran around game development studios and shows like E3 interviewing all the best designers, playing all the new games. I was sitting in my shop day in and day out, with minimal sleep and bills pouring in over my head. Victor Lucas, Executive Producer of Electric Playground, approached me about using the store as a set for the TV show. I thought it was a great idea and a way for us to generate some income (because TV must mean big cash...boy was I wrong!). Having a television crew around gave me something new to learn. Unfortunately, I had a major phobia of being in front of a camera, and any time the director tried to incorporate me into a shot, I would freeze and turn a dazzling shade of purple.

While I had no interest in being on camera, I was fascinated with the behind the scenes work from production to editing and output. I started hanging around the team more and when they realized I would also be at E3, they asked me to do some work for them. Wearing a PRESS badge opened up a whole new world for me. Instant access, people answering all your questions, invites to parties, and the like. Unfortunately, I had no idea how I would pull off being a television correspondent with such a fear of the camera. However, through the team's patience and training, I slowly learned to overcome the fear and develop a sense of comfort on camera. It was interesting that the reaction from people in the industry was that, because I was a young blonde female, I must be an actress hired to be on the show and couldn't possibly be a gamer. It was the greatest experience to win over these people.

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