So as I admitted in my last article, I know very little about the gaming industry.  I knew a bit more when I was younger; I played Spaced Invaders and Donkey Kong on my Atari system like a champ.

When I was about 14 or 15 my dad bought me a Nintendo Entertainment System and the game Final Fantasy.  I liked it well enough, but not enough to finish the game or even get through a complete level.  As I got older my interest in gaming went from slightly interested to completely uninterested.  When I got into a relationship with a guy whose interest in gaming was off the charts I thought perhaps he could change my mind.  He plays Starcraft and Modern Warfare and goes to places like Game Stop and Best Buy.  He would shop for hours spending his hard earned money on new consoles while I stood there dazed, my eyes glazed over in sheer boredom.  So when I got my first assignment, talk to the gaming department and write a couple of stories on the state of the gaming industry, I admit my stomach dropped a little.  What did I know about gaming?  How on earth could I write about something I hadn’t played since I was 14?  However, my feelings changed when I had the chance to sit down and interview Aaron Sternlicht, EP of Games at Zoic Studios.  Talking to Aaron gave me a fresh outlook on this billion dollar a year industry and why I should start caring about it.

Sternlicht is a ten year veteran of the gaming industry.  He is passionate about all things gaming, but just don’t tell his wife.   Sternlicht, an avid player, isn’t really allowed to play at home anymore.  “It’s something my wife went from detesting to I just can’t play it when she’s around.  I am constantly buying games so I can sample and taste them, but I can’t get too deep into them because I have two kids now.”

Sternlicht’s children are four and three months old.  He and his wife have played some PBS.org games with their daughter as well as played the occasional Wii game.  “The first thing you start playing when you are little is Peek-a-boo and tickles and these are games.  From a very early age it is the first way we learn to communicate so why wouldn’t that be something we gravitate towards and become interested in when we are older?”

Gaming became a part of Sternlicht’s life around seven or eight years old when he would go to the arcade.  His interest in gaming faded a bit in his late teens and early twenties, “I’ve always been a gamer… but took a few years off when it was no longer ‘cool’ and then I got back into it when I was twenty-four or twenty-five around the time Playstation 1 came out.  I became really interested in the first Lara Croft game and loved to explore new worlds.  Then I remember in 1999 I snuck into E3 to check out Halo for the first time.”

Two years later Sternlicht was writing and producing trailers for the game industry, primarily for Electronic Arts.  “Part of the draw to the industry was I was a huge (John) Madden fan for years and when I first started I wrote a trailer for Madden (NFL) and he was doing the VO for it.  (Madden NFL is the largest selling sports game in North America).  So I wrote up some lines, sent it out and five hours later I got a bunch of MP3’s with him reading it and it was the coolest thing ever.”

Sternlicht has been working for Zoic Studios for about three years now and he has seen the department and industry grow tremendously in that time.  “We’ve definitely grown since I have been here and are becoming one of the industry mainstays.  We have three full time producers and have about five or six projects going at any one time.  We have a full CG Project happening right now and we have game capture and motion graphic editorial for another project.  For the majority of the projects we do, we direct them and for probably 80% of the projects we are creatively directing all the scenes and the camera work and the characters.  For 80% of that we are probably doing the writing for it as well.  It’s really fun and we are working a lot direct to client.

For example right now we are working with EA directly to produce a series of trailers for Dead Space 2, likewise for (Kingdoms of Amalur) Reckoning as well.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sdcc-10-kingdoms-of/702014

What’s nice is we are asked to fill the role of creative and we can step in and do it  We relish the opportunities where we can help craft an entire campaign.”

It’s clear for Sternlicht and those he works with that there is a true passion for all things gaming.  “I love the industry; it’s been a lot of fun.  Our clients are fantastic.  They are the nicest clients, and the most fun because they make games.  They are in this business because they love it.   There is something really great about that, when they find out that the producers and a lot of the artists at Zoic play games.  Loni is a huge gamer too (Loni Peristere is one of the Executive Creative Directors and Co-Founder of Zoic Studios).  It’s fun, and because of that love it’s great for us because when we get projects we are really passionate about them.”