Interviews
Dec. 19th, 2004 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkay1. If you want to be interviewed, leave a comment, saying so.
2. I will respond, asking you five questions.
3. You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed
1) Tell me something about your childhood. Where did you grow up, what was it like, and how do you see influences of the how and/where you grew up on the adult you are today?
I grew up in Worcester, which thinks it is a city, but is more of an oversized town, where they roll up the streets at night. Very little 'culture' or diversity. I feel much more comfortable in Boston.
As an only, gifted child, I had no real peers for the first decade-and-a-half or so, and most of my actual friends were adults. I'd spend time with the neighborhood kids, but we never really connected. Early schooling was mostly nightmarish. I might have understood my situation better if I had read Lord of the Flies, but that didn't happen until I was safely out of that situation. My parents moved me into a private school in 9th grade, and possibly saved my life -- certainly, my soul. It was by no means a *perfect* environment, but it was ever-so-much better. A place that caters mostly to wealthy families at least has a healthy tolerance for "eccentricity". There was also positive value placed on intelligence and academic achievement, so I learned a lot there. It was also the first place where I was able to make real friendships with people close to my own age. I still tend to be very shy around 'untested' people, but put a lot of emotional investment into the friends I do manage to make.
My parents, while not perfect, were considerably cooler than average. I recall complaining at one point during my (early) teenage years that I didn't have anything to rebel against! (Later, continuing adolescent insanity solved *that* 'problem'.) My folks took me to Boskone and a few other cons, and that was one of the few non-home places which felt like "my people". In those days, I was one of very few small children at the con, and there was no "children's programming" as such. But the con was full of "grown-ups" who talked to me as if I was a valuable human being, and capable of participating in adult discussions. It was a very small amount of the *time* of my childhood, but it loomed at least as large as Christmas in my mental landscape. So that's why, even during the whole teenage-rebellion phase, I never remotely considered not being fannish.
I could go on for hours, but that should do for a start...
2) One of the few industries I have no professional experience in is the game industry. How does it compare, in terms of its corporate cultures, to other tech industries or artistic industries? Could you talk about the work culture in terms of what is similar and what is different?
These are generalizations, and exceptions to all of them exist. But I think they're reasonably accurate.
The dress code, while rarely formalized, pretty much tops out where businesses that have "casual Fridays" bottom out. People are *allowed* to wear button-down shirts, but they will get teased. Ties are Right Out.
Corporate culture, generally was originally formed by obsessive gamer/programmer geeks with no lives. Long stretches of 60+ hour work weeks are par. Burnout is high, but there's always a new crop of eager, fresh young meat for the grinder. This is slowly starting to change, but is still endemic -- see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ea_spouse for some current horror stories. [I will no longer stand for this -- luckily I work at a company that is fairly rational in this area.] During periods that are *not* excessively crunch-time driven, most companies have flex time to a degree that would seem ludicrous in other industries. Where I work now, you're expected to put in 8 hours a day, but the only requirement about *which* hours is that you be there from 1 to 5, so that there's at least some overlap between the morning people and the night people.
Because of the "coolness" of working in this industry, competition for entry-level jobs is *ferocious*. Standard supply/demand laws mean that salaries are really low, especially at the lower levels. But even at the higher levels, an equivalent job in the corporate world would get at least 50% more money. One positive side effect of this is that the people who stick around are (mostly) very passionate about what they do. I think over 50% of current mid-to-high-level workers "came up the ranks" from a QA job.
The environment is overwhelmingly male. Roughly a 15:1 ratio at most places. If you eliminate HR and office manager type positions, the ratio gets even grimmer. This has all sorts of side-effects on standards of language and behavior, not to mention the content of the games themselves. Sexist people can obtain high management positions without their sexism being perceived as a problem, because they almost never *have* to interact with women.
The dominat publication and distribution systems for games are more corrupt than those for the music industry. Few start-ups survive for more than five years without failing or being absorbed by a corporate monolithic entity.
One similarity to many other industries is that Marketers are universally viewed as being incompetent weasels. A few of them aren't, but it's a mostly-true generalization.
3) What are your aspirations? If you have professional, artistic, or other aims, I haven't heard them, I don't think. Do you have acheivements you are (or would like to be) working towards in your life?
I used to aspire to be a writer. But I eventually realized that I was not able to consistently follow Rule One ("Write."), so I gave that up. There are still some individual writing projects I hope to accomplish, but I no longer have any expectation of Being A Writer.
There are some specific games I'd like to make. When I am in my most far-seeing mode, I want to make games that say (and teach) important things about the Human Condition. But mostly, I just want to make fun games.
I aspire to helpkestrell reach *her* aspirations.
Mostly, I get by on a day-to-day basis, without much thought of 'aspirations' per se. Which is kinda sad.
4) How did you get involved in storytelling? Why storytelling? You tend to be a kind of retiring person; why an art which is so informal and personal?
When I was small, my mom read to me. When I started going to a private school (see above), my mom would drive me to school every day. I decided that it would make the trops more fun (and, to some extent, repay her) to read to her during those trips. I discovered that I enjoyed entertaining, doing hammy voices, varying timing so I could always end on a cliffhanger...
Worcester Academy has a 4-times-a-year event called The Dexter Prize Public Speaking Contest. During assembly, entrants get up, recite a prepared piece, and get judged by a panel of teachers. There are cash prizes, three of them for the first three contests, and four larger ones for the big contest at year-end. The first time I saw this contest, there were exactly three entrants. One of them panicked in mid-piece, ran crying off the stage, and only emerged to finish it after five minutes of backstage soothing by the coach (and dead air). For which she received $25. I was a mercenary little git in those days, and *quite* willing to embarrass myself publically for ready cash :-) As it happened, when I first entered I *wasn't* particularly embarrassed, got a lot of laughs, and took First Prize. I continued participating in the contest until I graduated, and while I never again took First, I also never failed to place high enough to get a cash prize. And I think I helped revive the relatively moribund contest itself. There were a *lot* more entries by my senior year than their had been when I started.
So, when shortly after I found the SCA, Mustapha started forming what became the Storytellers Guild, it seemed like a natural fit for me.
It still remains difficult for me to *initiate* storytelling, outside of a formal storytelling venue. As you correctly observe, I'm "retiring", and am terrified of the risk of boring people. On the flip side, when I successfully *entertain* people, it's a high that I can't get any other way.
5) Thanks muchly for Finder: Dream Sequence; I enjoyed it bunches. For those of us on limited budgets of recreational-reading time, what are your favorite discoveries of 2004 for SF/F fans? What do they have to commend them?
You're welcome! I kept meaning to ask what you thought of it, but getting distracted by other conversation :-)
My latest faves are Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. Both are prose authors, generally classified as SF (but with some F/H as well). They have distinct styles, but tend to treat similar subjects and themes, and even collaborate from time to time. Both tend to throw more wacky ideas into a short story than most SF authors can fit in a novel. And they each have an immense optimism about/enjoyment of our ever-more-SF world and oncoming future.
Cory Doctorow is easiest to sample, as he's released most of his works to date under a Creative Commons license on his website (if link is broken, google for "craphound"). I especially enjoyed his second novel "Eastern Standard Tribe", and the short stories "A Place So Foreign" and "0wnz0red".
For a Charles Stross sample, I recommend the short story Lobsters. This is the first part of a sequence of stories that form the novel Accelerando, which should be out next year some time. He has less stuff on-line than Cory, but is certainly well worth buying in print. I particularly like the novels "Singularity Sky" (which I think just hit paperback -- A world whose government is structured on Tsarist Russia gets a visit from a post-singularity Information Economy; hijinks ensue) and "The Atrocity Archives" (Lovecraftian spy thriller, with hacker/geek protagonist).
2. I will respond, asking you five questions.
3. You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed
1) Tell me something about your childhood. Where did you grow up, what was it like, and how do you see influences of the how and/where you grew up on the adult you are today?
I grew up in Worcester, which thinks it is a city, but is more of an oversized town, where they roll up the streets at night. Very little 'culture' or diversity. I feel much more comfortable in Boston.
As an only, gifted child, I had no real peers for the first decade-and-a-half or so, and most of my actual friends were adults. I'd spend time with the neighborhood kids, but we never really connected. Early schooling was mostly nightmarish. I might have understood my situation better if I had read Lord of the Flies, but that didn't happen until I was safely out of that situation. My parents moved me into a private school in 9th grade, and possibly saved my life -- certainly, my soul. It was by no means a *perfect* environment, but it was ever-so-much better. A place that caters mostly to wealthy families at least has a healthy tolerance for "eccentricity". There was also positive value placed on intelligence and academic achievement, so I learned a lot there. It was also the first place where I was able to make real friendships with people close to my own age. I still tend to be very shy around 'untested' people, but put a lot of emotional investment into the friends I do manage to make.
My parents, while not perfect, were considerably cooler than average. I recall complaining at one point during my (early) teenage years that I didn't have anything to rebel against! (Later, continuing adolescent insanity solved *that* 'problem'.) My folks took me to Boskone and a few other cons, and that was one of the few non-home places which felt like "my people". In those days, I was one of very few small children at the con, and there was no "children's programming" as such. But the con was full of "grown-ups" who talked to me as if I was a valuable human being, and capable of participating in adult discussions. It was a very small amount of the *time* of my childhood, but it loomed at least as large as Christmas in my mental landscape. So that's why, even during the whole teenage-rebellion phase, I never remotely considered not being fannish.
I could go on for hours, but that should do for a start...
2) One of the few industries I have no professional experience in is the game industry. How does it compare, in terms of its corporate cultures, to other tech industries or artistic industries? Could you talk about the work culture in terms of what is similar and what is different?
These are generalizations, and exceptions to all of them exist. But I think they're reasonably accurate.
The dress code, while rarely formalized, pretty much tops out where businesses that have "casual Fridays" bottom out. People are *allowed* to wear button-down shirts, but they will get teased. Ties are Right Out.
Corporate culture, generally was originally formed by obsessive gamer/programmer geeks with no lives. Long stretches of 60+ hour work weeks are par. Burnout is high, but there's always a new crop of eager, fresh young meat for the grinder. This is slowly starting to change, but is still endemic -- see
ea_spouse for some current horror stories. [I will no longer stand for this -- luckily I work at a company that is fairly rational in this area.] During periods that are *not* excessively crunch-time driven, most companies have flex time to a degree that would seem ludicrous in other industries. Where I work now, you're expected to put in 8 hours a day, but the only requirement about *which* hours is that you be there from 1 to 5, so that there's at least some overlap between the morning people and the night people.Because of the "coolness" of working in this industry, competition for entry-level jobs is *ferocious*. Standard supply/demand laws mean that salaries are really low, especially at the lower levels. But even at the higher levels, an equivalent job in the corporate world would get at least 50% more money. One positive side effect of this is that the people who stick around are (mostly) very passionate about what they do. I think over 50% of current mid-to-high-level workers "came up the ranks" from a QA job.
The environment is overwhelmingly male. Roughly a 15:1 ratio at most places. If you eliminate HR and office manager type positions, the ratio gets even grimmer. This has all sorts of side-effects on standards of language and behavior, not to mention the content of the games themselves. Sexist people can obtain high management positions without their sexism being perceived as a problem, because they almost never *have* to interact with women.
The dominat publication and distribution systems for games are more corrupt than those for the music industry. Few start-ups survive for more than five years without failing or being absorbed by a corporate monolithic entity.
One similarity to many other industries is that Marketers are universally viewed as being incompetent weasels. A few of them aren't, but it's a mostly-true generalization.
3) What are your aspirations? If you have professional, artistic, or other aims, I haven't heard them, I don't think. Do you have acheivements you are (or would like to be) working towards in your life?
I used to aspire to be a writer. But I eventually realized that I was not able to consistently follow Rule One ("Write."), so I gave that up. There are still some individual writing projects I hope to accomplish, but I no longer have any expectation of Being A Writer.
There are some specific games I'd like to make. When I am in my most far-seeing mode, I want to make games that say (and teach) important things about the Human Condition. But mostly, I just want to make fun games.
I aspire to help
kestrell reach *her* aspirations.Mostly, I get by on a day-to-day basis, without much thought of 'aspirations' per se. Which is kinda sad.
4) How did you get involved in storytelling? Why storytelling? You tend to be a kind of retiring person; why an art which is so informal and personal?
When I was small, my mom read to me. When I started going to a private school (see above), my mom would drive me to school every day. I decided that it would make the trops more fun (and, to some extent, repay her) to read to her during those trips. I discovered that I enjoyed entertaining, doing hammy voices, varying timing so I could always end on a cliffhanger...
Worcester Academy has a 4-times-a-year event called The Dexter Prize Public Speaking Contest. During assembly, entrants get up, recite a prepared piece, and get judged by a panel of teachers. There are cash prizes, three of them for the first three contests, and four larger ones for the big contest at year-end. The first time I saw this contest, there were exactly three entrants. One of them panicked in mid-piece, ran crying off the stage, and only emerged to finish it after five minutes of backstage soothing by the coach (and dead air). For which she received $25. I was a mercenary little git in those days, and *quite* willing to embarrass myself publically for ready cash :-) As it happened, when I first entered I *wasn't* particularly embarrassed, got a lot of laughs, and took First Prize. I continued participating in the contest until I graduated, and while I never again took First, I also never failed to place high enough to get a cash prize. And I think I helped revive the relatively moribund contest itself. There were a *lot* more entries by my senior year than their had been when I started.
So, when shortly after I found the SCA, Mustapha started forming what became the Storytellers Guild, it seemed like a natural fit for me.
It still remains difficult for me to *initiate* storytelling, outside of a formal storytelling venue. As you correctly observe, I'm "retiring", and am terrified of the risk of boring people. On the flip side, when I successfully *entertain* people, it's a high that I can't get any other way.
5) Thanks muchly for Finder: Dream Sequence; I enjoyed it bunches. For those of us on limited budgets of recreational-reading time, what are your favorite discoveries of 2004 for SF/F fans? What do they have to commend them?
You're welcome! I kept meaning to ask what you thought of it, but getting distracted by other conversation :-)
My latest faves are Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. Both are prose authors, generally classified as SF (but with some F/H as well). They have distinct styles, but tend to treat similar subjects and themes, and even collaborate from time to time. Both tend to throw more wacky ideas into a short story than most SF authors can fit in a novel. And they each have an immense optimism about/enjoyment of our ever-more-SF world and oncoming future.
Cory Doctorow is easiest to sample, as he's released most of his works to date under a Creative Commons license on his website (if link is broken, google for "craphound"). I especially enjoyed his second novel "Eastern Standard Tribe", and the short stories "A Place So Foreign" and "0wnz0red".
For a Charles Stross sample, I recommend the short story Lobsters. This is the first part of a sequence of stories that form the novel Accelerando, which should be out next year some time. He has less stuff on-line than Cory, but is certainly well worth buying in print. I particularly like the novels "Singularity Sky" (which I think just hit paperback -- A world whose government is structured on Tsarist Russia gets a visit from a post-singularity Information Economy; hijinks ensue) and "The Atrocity Archives" (Lovecraftian spy thriller, with hacker/geek protagonist).