Following on from our birthday announcement on Thursday and interviews with members of the 1001-Up.com team, it’s now Kim’s turn to be interrogated under the spotlight. The bossy one of the group, she’s always moaning at the lads to meet their deadlines – but she does have a softer side too. Somewhere.
Kim is the sort of person who’s always asking ‘why’ and likes to get to the bottom of things (even when the answer is pretty obvious). She loves a good adventure or RPG – but cover your ears if you’re playing horror games with her because she’s prone to screaming.
Here are her answers to our questions…
Describe yourself in five words.
“Headstrong, quick, complicated, laugher, perfectionist.”
What do you do in ‘real life’?
“I’m a Service Delivery Manager, so I look after best practice, trend analysis and communications in an IT department. Unless you enjoy process diagrams, databases and spreadsheets it’s probably not that interesting!”
What do you do in your spare time?
“Spare time… what’s that? If I’m not writing for the site I’m either having dinner with friends, going for walks by the sea (I live near the coast), taking on another adventure game or getting roped into cooking for Craig and Phil again.”
Where did you grow up and what were you like as a kid?
“I grew up in Essex in the south of England. But far from being a stereotypical Essex girl, I preferred hanging around with the boys and playing video games when I was a kid – so pretty much the same as I am now. I guess I’ve just got more confidence in myself as an adult.”
How did you get into gaming?
“We had a Commodore 64 when I was young and I used to play with my Dad and brother, but I really got into gaming when my parents gave me my first Amiga for Christmas when I was nine. I looked at all the discs that came with the hardware and finally decided to give The Secret of Monkey Island a try; and since then I’ve been hooked.”
What’s your favourite video game and why?
“The Monkey Island series is on the list for the reason above, but I also love The Longest Journey because the storyline is just so well written. Last year I found To The Moon and Cognition and I’d now consider them to be more recent favourites. The original Fable game also holds a special place in my heart… but I’ll be writing about the near future so more about that soon!”
Yep, that pretty much sums her up.
How did you get into blogging?
“To be honest, I’d never considered it until I came across the 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die book. And after a conversation with the lads about how it would be kind of cool to try, Phil came up with the idea of a blog.”
Do you think it has changed you in any way?
“I think so. I’ve always found it extremely difficult to talk about myself personally and, it may have taken a hell of a long time, but I’ve started feel more comfortable revealing bits of information or talking about my opinions on certain subjects.
“One thing I can say for sure though is that I’ve made some amazing new friends from blogging, and I hope they realise how special they are.”
Which of your articles are you most proud of?
“It’s probably the series on the brony fandom. It took an awful amount of work over two months and at one point I thought I was going to break, but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I’ve had a couple of ideas for further ‘in-depth’ series and just need to decide on the next subject – suggestions welcome!
“There’s also a piece called ‘She is afraid of this’ which I recently contributed to The Mental Attic. It was my first solo contribution and I wouldn’t usually write something so personal, and found it extremely hard to do so; but the fact I had to put a little bit of myself into it means that it will always be special to me.”
What has been your favourite moment in your blogging career so far?
“That’s easy – meeting Ragnar Tørnquist at last year’s Rezzed expo! I adore the man’s creativity and it was an absolute honour to spend some time with him and the rest of the Red Thread Games team. I can’t wait to get my hands on Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey in September and you may not see me around the site for a few days…”
What are you most looking forward to over the coming year?
“We’ve got the Gameblast event coming up at the end of the month, where we’ll be gaming for twenty-four hours whilst trying to raise as as possible for SpecialEffect. Then we’re hoping to meet up with Jay from Nostalgia and Gaming in March, and will hopefully get the chance to meet Kevin in person later this year.
“Other than that, there’s something that I’m completely looking forward too – if we’re fortunate enough to pull it off. I’ll have to keep you in suspense for a little while longer…”
Describe each member of the 1001-Up.com team… and you don’t have to be nice. Really.
“Ben: A man of many interesting opinions. We may have only known him for several months but it already feels like he’s been a part of our group for ages – he has fitted right in, and anyone who can put up with our sense of humour is a hero!
“Craig: Able to make a joke out of anything. He’s the member of the team who reminds us that we don’t have to take everything seriously all the time, and if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have done some of the crazy stuff we have.
“Kevin: Curious and mildly evil. He’s one of the most intelligent and creative people I’ve ever met and when we’re debating video games he always makes me see something in a title I hadn’t before. Kevin may be halfway around the world, but he’s a very good friend.
“Phil: Lover of cat memes. He always knows exactly what to say or do to make me laugh and I’m sure if anyone else heard our conversations, they wouldn’t have a clue what we were on about most of the time!”
We bet it’s not only Ragnar’s creativity she loves…
Tomorrow it’s the turn of the final original member of the 1001-Up.com team: Phil! Prepare yourselves because things could take a little turn for the strange – expect plenty of cat memes.
