Caryn "Hellchick" Law has been involved in the gaming community for
quite a long time, with writing articles for GameSpy to her current job
of PR work for hardcore games for Activision. Unlike most game PR rep,
Caryn also is interested in game modding and is currently co-developing
a Quake III Arena mod. HomeLAN got a chance to chat with Law about her
work for Activision, her Q3A mod and more.
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HomeLAN - Most people know of your work writing for GameSpy.
Now that you have been away from them for a bit, how do you remember the
experience of working there?
Caryn Law - I remember it very
fondly. Working for GameSpy was one of the best experiences of my life
-- I made a lot of friends there, people that I still hang out with.
From a professional standpoint I really learned so much working for
them. I didn't just write articles for GameSpy; I also went from running
PlanetQuake to running the whole action genre of the network while I was
also writing, so I learned a lot of skills that help me in my job at
Activision today. I came to GameSpy from a completely different job in
academia so it was different and new to me. And of course, very fun. It
was a tough decision to leave, but it was the right thing to do when
Activision offered me this position.
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HomeLAN - How did the job of working for Activision come
about?
Caryn Law - I happened to be
talking to someone at id Software, a company I'd developed a good
relationship with over the two years I worked for GameSpy. They
mentioned that they were interested in having someone be their point
man, so to speak, for online promotion and work with the fan community,
and that Activision was interested in hiring such a person. They thought
I'd be the best person for the job given the kind of work with the game
community they'd seen me do with PlanetQuake and GameSpy, so they put me
in touch with the right people at Activision. I chatted with them and a
couple of weeks later I got an offer -- that was about two weeks before
QuakeCon 2001. Then I had the agonizing job of telling my boss and
friends at GameSpy I was leaving them. There hasn't been a more tearful
moment since Aeris' death in Final Fantasy VII, I swear it.
Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.
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HomeLAN - What specifically are your responsibilities at the
company and what games are you in charge of in terms of PR?
Caryn Law - My responsbilities
are all over the place, which is pretty cool. I can't say I'm in charge
of any game -- I work with a team of people, with my job specifically
being in the online promotional area. I work with what's considered the
hardcore games: first-person shooters primarily, with id's games and
Raven's games being my main focus. I've also worked with Medieval: Total
War, Minority Report for consoles, the DOOM GBA ports, and of course
some stuff we haven't announced.
My responsibilities cover a lot of areas. My main focus is in being
the point of contact for the online gaming community -- fan sites, game
coverage sites, and things like that. They love to cover our games and
need screenshots, interviews, and more, so they come to me. The fan
community is so big that that's essentially why I got hired for the job
-- it was too much for one person to handle, so they brought someone on
board so these sites wouldn't go ignored.
I also work on online promotion. I help decide what sort of
promotional plans we'll use online, and that can include everything from
sponsoring tournaments to contests to just making sure fan sites get the
interviews and screenshots they ask for.
And finally, I get to work with studio quite a bit,
which is fun of course because that's where some of the game dev is
happening. I play test our games with the dev and QA crews, and I work
with the studio side of things to make sure patches get released to
sites and mirrored.
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HomeLAN - Can you describe a typical day on the job at
Activision?
Caryn Law - Every day on the job
is different, but here's what a typical day might look like. I usually
have a lot of sponsorship requests for things like LAN parties, big LAN
events, expos, so I try to take care of those right away and determine
how we can sponsor their event. Then I work on things like screenshot
requests, or requests for interviews -- I see who on the team is
available and take care of getting the requests filled.
After that, I usually spend the day working on bigger projects. I
might work on a media plan for a particular game I'm working with,
coming up with some ideas on what we can do with the gaming community
(maybe try to organize and sponsor a big tournament just after a game's
release, for instance). Or I might work on something to do with our
official game sites (say, designing and adding a new section for more
game information). If it's a patch release day, then I'll work with the
developers and our producers to make sure the patch gets out to mirrors
and sites and that we make the patch available on our own official
sites.
And then there is a lot of other stuff in between those that I do.
The great thing about my job is how varied it is. One day I might be
drafting a complete online promotional plan for a game, and the next I
might be playtesting one of our other titles or working on the game
manual. It means I'm never bored.
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HomeLAN - Can you briefly give us an update on Return to
Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and the Wolfenstein games for the
PS2 and Xbox?
Caryn Law - Enemy Territory is
coming along quite nicely. I've been playtesting it with the crew and
there have been some great improvements and additions made. The console
versions are also coming along great -- no real updates yet, but keep an
eye on
castlewolfenstein.com.
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HomeLAN - Of course, the big game that you will have a part in
promoting is Doom III. When can we expect to see news on that game?
Caryn Law - Soon, very soon, my
friend. DOOM III is, as you know, a game so shrouded in mystery that
only John Carmack and the Freemasons really know anything about it.
Also, Elvis is alive.
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HomeLAN - How has it been working with id Software and the
other developers that you are in charge of?
Caryn Law - Working with id,
Raven, and other developers has been great. It's such an interesting
road for me, going from GameSpy, where I was on the outside of the fence
peeking over, to Activision, where I'm just on the inside of the fence.
Game development has always been fascinating to me, and my job allows me
a vantage point I wouldn't give up easily. It's also terrific to work
with id, a developer I admired way back when I was just a college
student, and actually work with them now so many years later. In fact,
Return to Castle Wolfenstein was the first game I got to work with at
Activision. Years ago, it was Wolfenstein 3D that got me hooked on
gaming. Now how cool is that?
So in short, I blame id for tearing me away from a noble life in
science and causing a gaming obsession that would stagnate my social
life and actually make me move to CALIFORNIA. Hey, I gotta blame
someone.
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HomeLAN - You aren't just a PR person; you also are a mod
maker as well. Can you give us a head-up on your current mod plans?
Caryn Law - I'm currently working
on a Quake III Arena mod called Detonator that I started a few months
ago. I'm designing it, coding it, mapping for it, and probably doing a
few textures as well, while my friend Allaya "SnuggleBunny" Diep does
the models (she's a much better artist than I, so she can pick up my
slack!). The mod is a very simple concept: there are three "pulsar"
fragments on the map; pick up all three and you get a nuke-like weapon
(the pulsar) that will deal some serious carnage. The trick is that once
you get the pulsar, you can't fire any other weapon, and when you DO
fire it, you go out with it. It's just a simple concept that I thought
would be a fun way to learn a little game programming. Programming has
always been a hobby of mine and I haven't done much of it since I left
science.
I'm not sure when the mod will be done (like all mod makers, I'm
doing it in my spare time), but once we finish this, my partner in crime
Allaya and I have plans for a second, team-based mod with a different
concept. And of course, like all mod makers, since we're planning on a
second mod we have a name for our little mod-making operation: Team Zoot
(Monty Python fans will recognize the reference). "Welcome to the Castle
Anthrax, good sir Knight!"
It's probably a bit weird for me to be working on a Q3A mod so many
years after the game's release. I spent so many years involved
marginally in the mod community by running PlanetQuake, and I'd always
wanted to make a mod myself but like most people I never had the time.
After contributing voice work to other people's mods I decided it was
time to stop being an idea woman and actually do my own project instead
of talking about it.
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HomeLAN - Do you feel that making mods for games helps you
understand how game developers work for your PR job?
Caryn Law - I think it can, sure.
I'm always careful to say that making a mod doesn't mean you can run out
and make a best-selling game, but it definitely gets you closer to
understanding the work that goes into it. Mod-making can teach you about
the discipline required to stick to a project and not let it peter out
as you get further along, and it can teach you about developing game
concepts that will work (or won't work, depending on what you come up
with -- sometimes making mistakes is how you learn). What it probably
won't teach you are things like the publisher-developer relationship,
sticking to development time schedules, and other things that are really
something you have to learn by being a game developer in the industry.
But of course as we've all seen over the years, making mods is a big leg
up if you'd like to become a professional game developer. It's good
experience all around.
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HomeLAN - You also have contributed to an upcoming game
modding book. What can you tell us about this project?
Caryn Law - I was a contributing
author on "The gmax Bible" being published by Wiley Publishing. The
author wanted someone well-versed in the game community who knew a bit
about mod development. I contributed a couple of chapters to the book.
I'm not sure just yet when it comes out, but I'm sure I'll mention it on
my personal site.
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HomeLAN - Are there any more side jobs that you will be
working on in the near-future?
Caryn Law - Yeah, I'm supposed to
mow Rick Johnson's lawn and wash his car. He can be a total slave
driver.
Side projects aren't something I really look for -- the gmax book
sort of came along and seemed appropriate and something interesting to
be involved in. I'm pretty busy with my job at Activision, and I have a
LOT of hobbies that range from mod making to writing to music (I'm a
bass player) to knitting and spinning my own yarn.
Probably the only other side project of note is a continuing fiction
project I work on occasionally, again in my spare time. This is just
something I started working on when writer's block hit me; it's a
fictional ongoing journal, sort of "live fiction". I plan to expand on
the idea a bit -- hopefully that will pan out.
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HomeLAN - Would you like to work as a game designer full time
someday or do you want to continue writing and doing PR work?
Caryn Law -I really love my job
-- I get to do so much stuff that I'm never bored. I think everyone
involved in game development on a level like mine probably has that itch
to be an actual game designer. It requires experience I don't have right
now, but I think that if years from now I'd acquired the experience and
the right opportunity came along, sure, I'd probably jump at that. But
for right now, I'm content doing what I'm doing now.
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HomeLAN - Finally is there anything else you wish to say
before we wrap this up?
Caryn Law - Keep an eye on
castlewolfenstein.com as we gear up for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory!
And if you're into Wolfenstein multiplayer, come check out the Hellchick
server at id (http://web.archive.org/web/20030202045032/http://underworld.idsoftware.com/forums/)
-- we run community maps on the server in the hopes of showcasing some
of the fine work community mappers are doing. And I suppose I could plug
my personal site, hellchick.net, for anyone interested in checking it
out. Thanks for the opportunity to chat!
