Diana Sherman is a community content writer for Champions Online
"Meet the Team" Interview[]
Q. What do you do on Champions Online?
A. I write for the website. I write the character profiles, I write up the Ask Cryptics, I write the interviews, I write the Meet the Teams. In fact, I’m writing up this Meet the Team. How weird does that feel?
So, for example, last week I wrote up info about Lemuria, the Bleak Ones, and the Bronze King. Plus the script for a podcast, a section for the game manual, and a press release. I also cleaned up the patch notes and helped come up with villain dialogue for the game. Every week is different.
Q. How long have you been in gaming and what did you do before?
A. I started working at Cryptic in November, and this is my first job within the gaming industry. Before that, I taught. And wrote. Actually, I still write.
Q. What did you teach?
A. I taught 18 year olds to write, in spite of themselves. I taught at a bunch of different universities. Most recently UC Irvine. I taught lots of different writing classes, ranging from tech writing to creative writing to comp.
Q. What do you write?
A. I write science fiction & fantasy and plays. My scifi/fantasy stuff is usually short stories, although I did just have a science fiction play published in November.
Q. Who is your favorite Champions character?
A. Foxbat!
(At this point, Skullder walks by, pointing at himself and whispering, so IronAngel can’t hear him.
Skullder: Me! I’m your favorite Champions character!
Diana: (laughter) Skullder is walking by right now and saying that he’s my favorite Champions character. He’s not. But-
Skullder: Aww.
Diana: But! But he may be one of my favorite people on the Champions Dev Team.
Skullder: Sweet!
Diana: But you know what this means? It means you’re going to have to do a Meet the Team, too!
Skullder: Hi, team! What’s up? See? I just met them.)
Q. What is an interesting fact about you that players would be surprised (and not scarred) to know?
A. I make my own lip balm? Except that’s not really surprising. I always say that when people ask me to share something unusual.
How about this: My doctor thinks I’m allergic to food. Not all food, but lots of it. So I’m on a crazy allergy elimination diet right now. Which means finding food is way harder than you’d think it should be. On the upside, I now know how to make really rockin’ gluten free, sugar free, egg free, and lactose free shortbread cookies.
Q. What was your first favorite video game?
A. Contra. And yes, I know the code.
I started playing on the Nintendo NES when I was a kid. I used to play Contra until my hands hurt. And I can remember all the times my mother told me that I ought to be doing my homework instead of playing video games. I’m not sure if she ever actually said, “You’ll never make a living playing video games,” but she said something pretty similar. She’s delighted that I’ve proven her wrong.
Q. What is your secret super power?
A. A friend of mine tells me that my secret super power is finding the right people and trusting them. It is extraordinarily useful.
Q. What advice do you have for someone who wants to break into the gaming industry?
A. Play. Play all the games you’re interested in, and some you aren’t. Get a good sense for what’s fun, and what you like. And never assume that you can’t do it. I’d thought there was no chance I’d ever get a job in the game industry, even though I’d been wishing I could for years. Turns out I was wrong and they needed writers with my skill set.
Q. What’s cooler: ninjas, monkeys, or pirates?
A. I’m torn. They’re all so cool. But I’m going to go with robots, since my brother builds robots.
Q. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A. I’m hungry…