Tabula Rasa : Illumination - Silona

Hometown
Austin , Texas

Favorite games
City of Heroes, Oddworld, Resident Evil, House of the Dead (I have the guns), Gran Tourismo (I have the vibrating feedback wheel, brakes and everything).

Favorite books
DUNE, Lolita, Firefly, Lord of the Rings (I read them the first time in 4th grade), most popular scifi/fantasy, Ender's Game, Campbell, Anne Rice's stuff, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Stranger in a Strange Land, Primal Leadership, Emotional Intellgence, Kundera, Anais Nin, Henry Miller

Favorite movies
Bladerunner, The Princess Bride, David Lynch's Dune, Blue Velvet, Wille Wonka and the Chocolate factory, The 5th Element, Donnie Darko, Brazil

Favorite websites
livejournal, orkut, fark, Slashdot, thinkgeek, homestarrunner

Favorite bands or songs
Flaming Lips, Passion - Peter Gabriel, Twin Peaks Soundtrack, Milla, Run Lola Run Soundtrack, Gipsy Kings, Ani Defranco, Horsies, Shoulders, Dar Williams, Sting, Tori Amos, Bare Nekkid ladies, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, kd lang, Tracy Chapman, Neil Young, soundtracks of various kinds, Tangerine Dream, Tool. I think I have like 14Gig of MP3s on my computer, all legal, and they are quite varied.

Favorite quote or personal mantra
I've expanded my mind so many times I have lost some of the pieces.

Previous projects
Databases of many flavors, teaching, security consulting, and administration (both computers and people)

Describe your job
I help people to create worlds.

How did you get into the industry?
Friends and family. I have been involved in the periphery for years.

What do you like most about your job?
The people. I adore supporting my creatives.

Who are some of your role models or heroes and why?
My dad, Eleanor Roosevelt, Isadora Duncan, Marie Curie. My dad for humor and balance. Eleanor for wisdom. Marie Curie for intellect and determination. Isadora for courage and the inspiration to dance.

What sources have inspired you?
I find sources everywhere. Seriously nature itself and how people use things are tools constantly learning from. I love people and like to watch how they do things. One glorious aspect of teaching is that I often used my students as Guinea pigs to test my theories of management and learning.

What tools or software do you use most often?
The internet and other's brains. I learn best through intense conversations with intelligent and inspirational people. On the pragmatic side of things. I use Visual Studio .Net with C# and SQL Server 2000.

What is your favorite feature of Tabula Rasa?
My favorite thing is the aesthetic sense that is used throughout the game. My job is to make the designers' and artists' job easier. I like to remove barriers so that they can spend their time doing what they do best, which is create. I organize information and create interfaces that the designers, artists, and writers use.

What evolutionary or revolutionary changes would you like to see in games?
I would like to see more player driven content creation in similar form to MOD's, but more accessible and easier for the advanced player to use and configure. I kinda of have a p2p view as to how virtual worlds will expand. My focus is on creating maintainable, expandable, more universal tools so that this can happen more in the future.

Describe one of your most memorable adventures/encounters in a MMOG you've played previously.
Hmm memorable but not good: fletching arrow after arrow. a constant reminder against annoying treadmills and my inspiration for farming out content creation so that never becomes redundant. Sometimes, though, I am just a girl and I love creating outfits in CoH. I think it's funny when I see people doing things like exercise class and dance parties. You know, I love seeing the little things we never really expected to see people doing inside the constraints of the game.

Describe your current pc and/or tell about your "dream machine."
I have many children (PCs) and I used to tear them apart regularly, but right now I am consolidating my 13 different ones more powerful boxes and giving them away to friends and family members. My next project would involve a projector instead of a monitor and everything - TV, stereo, game boxes, Tivo, etc. - all running though a laptop that has all wireless peripherals. Now, if I could find the time.

What advice would you give to someone with aspirations to do what you do?
Get to know your technology and your people. Both are important. Too often I see people get caught up in one or the other. I see my job as an intermediary between the mysterious inner workings of the game and database and the creatives. To make technology maintainable and accessible to all, you have to have an understanding of how both code and people work, including all of the different personality types.