CV
aka Where You Might have Seen Me
Books
- Sword of Fire and Sea, Pyr Books, June 2011
- Lance of Earth and Sky, Pyr Books, forthcoming April 2012
- Shield of Sea and Space, Pyr Books, forthcoming 2013
- Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds (nonfiction)
Game credits
- FrontierVille; 2011; Lead Systems Designer (live team)
- Kung Fu Panda World; March 2010; Lead Designer, HumaNature Studios
- PuzzleSmash: Book of Secrets; November 2008; Creative Director
- GoPets: Vacation Island; March 2008; Lead Designer
- Cabbage Patch Kids: Patch Puppy Rescue; Gameboy Advance; Assistant Game Designer, Writer;
- Nick Jr voted Best Beginner Gameboy Advance Game 2006
- iParenting Media Outstanding Video Game Award, 2006
- GoPets; online social networking / virtual pet game; Director of Online Communities
- Shadowbane: The Lost Kingdom; MMORPG; Game Designer
- Black9 (unreleased); nanotech action RPG; Game Designer
- Simutronics’ DragonRealms; Assistant Game Designer, Races Assistant, World Builder, 1999-2004
Fiction
- “Sightwolf”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 72
- “City of Shadow and Glass”, Bull Spec, Issue 4 [order]
- “Regal Achievement”, Eleftherotypia: Ennea (9 Magazine), May 2010
- “Stormchaser, Stormshaper”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 14
- “Impress of the Hills”, Spacesuits & Sixguns, forthcoming
- “Darkest Amber”, Electric Velocipede, Issue 19
- “Root and Vein”, Clockwork Phoenix, July 2008
- “Whatever Shall Grow There, Dear”, Lone Star Stories, June 2008
- “A Matter of Scale”, Renard’s Menagerie, March 2008
- “The Bearer”, Deep Magic, April 2006
- “The Unicorn’s Laugh”, Fantasy Readers Wanted: Apply Within!, 2003
- “Shade of the Heart”, Enchanted Realms II: Vampires of Tinadriel and Other Stories, 2002
- “Song of the Spirit”, Enchanted Realms: Tales from Masters of Fantasy, 2000
Poetry
- “Oneness”, Not One of Us, Special Issue (“Hidden”)
- “Beauty Sleep”, Mythic Delirium, Issue 20
- “Osteometry”, Asimov’s Science Fiction, August 2009
- “No Signal” and “Bag Man”, Farrago’s Wainscot, July 2009
- “The Fall of Fairy Castle”, Scheherazade’s Bequest, September 2008
- “Hyldegarde Speaks to Jacqueline”, Electric Velocipede, May 2008
- “Theoria”, Not One of Us, Issue 39, April 2008
- “The Flight of Alecto”, Illumen, Spring 2008
- “The Substitute”, Not One of Us, Issue 38, October 2007
- “Terror”, Antimuse, March 2007
- “Coalition”, Antimuse, March 2007
- “Black Noise”, Antimuse, March 2007
- “Broken Wings”, Poets Against the War, May 1, 2003
- “Circle of Winter”, Verses Magazine, Spring 2004
Opinion/Essays
- “EA: The Human Story”, Nov 2004.
- Various syndication; reprinted in Best Software Writing I, ed. Joel Spolsky
- “Like the Turtle”, Chicken Soup for the Grandma’s Soul, 2005.
- “Why We Haven’t Lapsed – And Why we Won’t”, feature, Escapist Magazine, Oct 2006.
- “The Fourth Dimension of Game Development”, feature, Escapist Magazine, Oct 2006
- “The Double-X Factor”, feature, Escapist Magazine, Nov 2006.
- “Who’s Your Daddy? — Why Parents Make Great Game Developers”, feature, Escapist Magazine Dec 2006.
- “Shark Bone or Snake Oil? Noah Falstein and the Great Brain Training Debate”, feature, Escapist Magazine Jan 2007.
- “Shadows of the Colossus”, feature, Escapist Magazine, Feb 2007.
- “The Geek In Disguise”, essay, Shameless Magazine Apr 2007.
- “Tighten Those Graphics — A Look at Small College Game Dev Programs”, feature, Escapist Magazine, May 2007.
- “Interception: Gaming on the Gridiron”, feature, Escapist Magazine, July 2007.
- “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? — Why Developer Organization Doesn’t Threaten Studios”, feature, Escapist Magazine, July 2007.
- “Scrumming It”, feature, Escapist Magazine August 2007.
- “Holding Out for a Heroine”, feature, Escapist Magazine September 2007.
- “Let’s Get Together: A History of The IGDA”, feature, Escapist Magazine October 2007.
- “Enhancing Humanity: The Sociology of Play at the University of Waterloo”, feature, Escapist Magazine March 2008.
- “Hail to the Kitty”, feature, Escapist Magazine April 2008.
- “Cyberpunked: The Fall of Black9″, feature, Escapist Magazine April 2008; May 2008 (”Best Of the Escapist” reprint)
- “Writing Pitch Docs and Exec Docs”, book chapter, Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing, May 2008.
- “Slave to the Beat”, feature, Escapist Magazine, June 2008.
- “Someone Stole My Magic Sword”, feature, Escapist Magazine, June 2008.
- “We the Gamers”, feature, Escapist Magazine, October 2008.
- “Why Your Game Idea Sucks”, feature, Escapist Magazine, September 2009.
- “Ditching the V-Word”, feature, Escapist Magazine, December 2009.
- “Riot Grrrls Wanted”, feature, Escapist Magazine, January 2010.
- “When the Stars Align”, feature, Escapist Magazine, January 2010.
- “How Social Games Ate Our Lunch”, feature, Escapist Magazine, July 2010.
- “1988: The Golden Age of Game Piracy”, feature, Escapist Magazine, September 2011.
Inside Job
A biweekly column with The Escapist.
- Inside Job 1: What is Quality of Life?, August 2007
- Inside Job 2: No, Really — What is Quality of Life, Anyway?, August 2007
- Inside Job 3: The Great Game Studio in the Sky, September 2007
- Inside Job 4: How Much Work and How Much Play?, September 2007
- Inside Job 5: Getting Real about Kids and Games, October 2007
- Inside Job 6: Kids and Games, Part Two, October 2007
- Inside Job 7: Why Crunch is Awesome, November 2007
- Inside Job 8: Breaking the Pain Cycle, November 2007
- Inside Job 9: Censorship and You, December 2007
- Inside Job 10: Voices of Sanity: An Interview with Gerard Jones, December 2007
- Inside Job 11: Go Indie, Young Man, January 2008
- Inside Job 12: Interview with Aquaria Creators Derek Yu and Alec Holowka, January 2008
- Inside Job 13: Why the Future is Important, February 2008
- Inside Job 14: Interview with Zeitgeist Games Founder & Full Sail Director Dustin Clingman, February 2008
- Inside Job 15: Lessons from the Street, March 2008
- Inside Job 16: Lessons from the Street II, March 2008
- Inside Job 17: My Perfect Game Design Degree, April 2008
- Inside Job 18: Toward the Future of Game Design, April 2008
- Inside Job 19: It Takes a Method, May 2008
- Inside Job 20: Revisiting Quality of Life, May 2008
- Inside Job 21: Tools of the Trade, June 2008
- Inside Job 22: Tools of the Trade II, June 2008
- Inside Job 23: A Love Letter to Video Games, July 2008
- Inside Job 24: Why We’re Here, July 2008
Reviews
- “The Technotranquility of Electroplankton”, Strange Horizons, Feb 2006.
- “Shadow of the Colossus, for Playstation 2″, Strange Horizons, May 2006.
- “Nintendo Review Roundup: Fresh Faces on Old Favorites in the Palm of Your Hand”, Strange Horizons, July 2006.
- “Half Life 2: Episode One, for PC”, Strange Horizons, July 2006.
- “Grasshopper Manufacture Makes Contact”, Strange Horizons, March 2007.
Reporting
- “Games for Health Keynote Speaker Steve W. Cole on ReMission“, feature, Gamasutra’s Serious Games Source, Oct 06.
- “Games for Health 2006: What We’re Facing: CDC, NIH, and Hospital Administration Staff Share Insights”, feature, Gamasutra’s Serious Games Source, Oct 06.
- “Games for Health 2006: The State of Exergaming”, feature, GAmasutra’s Serious Games Source, Oct 06.
- “Games for Health 2006: Pulse!! First-Person Healthcare System Simulation”, feature, Gamasutra’s Serious Games Source, Oct 06.
- “Games for Health 2006: Making Hospitals Fun: How can games improve the patient hospitalization experience?”, feature, Gamasutra’s Serious Games Source, Nov 06.
- “Exergaming Goes Mainstream”, feature, Gamasutra’s Serious Games Source, Feb 07.
Awards
- Games for Health Open Storyboard winner, Food Finder and the Quest for the Golden Walnut
- Poet of the Year finalist, first quarter winner, 2003, Cader Publishing
- Rensselaer McKinney contest:
- 2003: “Circle of Winter” compilation, 3rd place poetry
- 2002: 1st place short fiction
- 2002: “Wind and Fire” compilation, 1st place poetry
- 2001: 1st place short fiction
- 2000: 1st place short fiction
Speaking Engagements
- “Not Dying Alone: Thinking Long Term in Massive Fantasy Game Design”; Speaker, LOGIN Conference, May 2010
- “Hey Game Designer! If It’s Too Easy For You, It’s Still Too Hard”; Panelist, LOGIN Conference, May 2010
- “Working to Death: Game Developers and the Future of Work-Life Balance”; Panel Modreator, Game Developers Conference, March 2010
- “Happiness is Mandatory: Emergent Ethics in Massive Online Environments”; Speaker, Games + Learning + Society, June 2009
- “From Enlightenment to Action: Year Two of the BetterEULA Project”; Moderator, LOGIN Conference, May 2009
- “Interactive Narrative and Game Design” workshop; Context 21, September 2008
- “From Feudalism to Enlightenment: Building a Better EULA”; Panelist, Austin GDC, September 2008
- “Forest for the Trees: Long Term Career Planning in the Games Industry”; Westwood College, May 2008
- “From Feudalism to Enlightenment: User Rights in Virtual Worlds”; Moderator, Independent MMO Game Developers Conference 2008
- “From Feudalism to Enlightenment: User Rights in Virtual Worlds”; Moderator, ION Conference 2008
- “Real Rights in a Virtual World”; Panelist, ION Conference 2008
- “Design Your Future Day”, Panelist, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, April 2007. Event review.
- “Warrior Queens of the Cyberworld: How Massively Multiplayer Online Teams Gravitate toward Female Leads”, Speaker, Immersive Worlds Conference, St. Catharines, ON, June 2007.
- press release covered by Gamasutra: “Particularly notable sessions scheduled for the event include Erin Hoffman’s “Warrior Queens of the Cyberworld: How Massively Multiplayer Online Teams Gravitate toward Female Leads,” David Owen’s “The Narrative Web of Mimetic Desire in Second Life,” and Jennifer Martin’s “Creativity from Code: Resisting and Subverting the Limits of World of Warcraft.” “
- “Battle of the Walking Dead”; Speaker, The Never Ending Odyssey 2007;.
- Panelist; Context 20:
- “Getting the Most Out Of Gaming”
- “Writing for Interactive Media”
- “The Game as Literature”
- “Female Fandom”
- “Plugged In: Why Game Developers Make Great Parents”; Speaker, Montreal International Games Summit 2007
- “The Passion of the Developer: ea_spouse in the H_ouse”, Panelist, Sandbox ACM 2006. Event review.
- “Alumni Panel”, Panelist, Rensselaer Game Festival & Symposium 2006.
- Speaker, Albany IGDA, June 2006, Quality of Life. Event review.
Adjudication
- Judge, IGDA GDC Student Scholarships, 2007
- Judge, FuturePlay Student Competition, 2007
Interviews
- Interview with Charles A. Tan at Bibliophile Stalker, September 2009
- BetterEULA:
- Virtual Worlds News, Oct 9 2007: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/10/virtual-world-2.html
- ea_spouse:
- Netjak.com, Jan 8 2005: http://www.netjak.com/review.php/768
- Gamesfirst.com, March 2005: http://www.gamesfirst.com/index.php?id=112
- San Jose Mercury News, April 2006: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/04/exclusive_nicol.html
- Advanced Media Network, May 2006: http://ps3.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=2850
- Alterati.com, May 2007: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=92
- GoPets:
- IGN, September 2004: http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/551/551728p1.html
- Black9:
- IGN Action Vault, August 2003: http://actionvault.ign.com/features/interviews/black9int.shtml
Hi Erin:
I got your name from Lou anders of Pyr books. I am the principle Founder and Owner of a convention company called Starcon. We are running our first big convention out of Vancouver B.C June 24th to 26th and would like to invite you to appear.
My email is aurorisentertainment@gmail.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Patricia