Community Profile:
Steve "sCary" Gibson

By Stephanie "Bobbi" Bergman

he Quake community is filled with truly unique personalities, many of whom have gone on to work for gaming companies. One person who has definitely been around the block is Steve "sCary" Gibson, whose initial webpage, sCary's Quakeholio, started just about the same time as the Quake community truly took off. sCary was one of the earlier hires from the Internet community, hired by Hipnotic Entertainment (publisher of Scourge of Armagon, a Quake add-on pack) which subsequently became Ritual Entertainment, and moved from there to VRGN. When VRGN went under recently, he struck out on his own, becoming yet another webmaster to try to 'make it' as a full-time web pimp.

sCary's website, sCary's Shuga Shack, prints gaming news like many others, but with a different twist. Daily sections include "If I were King" and "Things that suck," showing his unique brand of humor. Even if you're not a fan of first person shooters, these sections alone make sCary's page worth a visit.

sCary is also one of the top ranked Quake players in the world. He took some time out during the recent Cyberathlete Professional League tournament to answer a few questions for loonygames.

Name, rank and serial number: Steve Gibson/sCary/Quake player/Whore

You've worked for a game company, and now you're on your own again. Has this influenced the way you see the gaming community, having gone from fan to employee to fan? It's given me a lot of insight on how game companies work, and you find out a lot of things about game companies...internal rumors. My roommate still works at a game company, and my three best friends still work for game companies, so I maintain all my contacts, and all my friends. But...my days of being able to have insights to everything, and put on top of that I am a competitive player, so it kinda makes me feel like I have my own niche, and I only see it getting better.

Would you ever want to work for a game company again? Absolutely. I would drop everything I have if given the opportunity to help create a game I believe in.

Do you think you can work for a game company and still be just a fan? Well, as I learned at Ritual, there were a lot of conflicts of interest, with me running the website, and trying to be a fan page. If I'm supposed to keep an objective view, and I'm at this company, I'm a little wary of giving a view that's not beneficial of the company I'm at. So, that kinda preceded me going off to VRGN afterwards. But, then VRGN got bought out, liquidated, whatever, so now I'm independent. But I've spent all this time learning more, and I've got a few avenues to explore now. Sure, I'm searching for work in other game companies. That's everyone's dream, isn't it?

When you started at the beginning with the Quakeholio, did you ever think you'd end up here? Nope. I was a broadcasting/marketing major in college, about three years into it, looking to get a degree and go up to New York and had a job looking at me, and then I started this webpage, and it started getting real popular. I started learning more about games...actually, I started learning about a year before I started the page, I was just fanatical, and it started taking away from my major. I was looking into switching to computer science and everything. It was changing my life. It was all for the best when it actually happened, I had actual gaming job offers after a while. I ended up going to Hipnotic, which turned into Ritual. But, I don't have any regrets, I'm doing great...I'm very happy with where I'm heading.

Has the community changed since you've started your site? Sure. More commercialized, the user base has gotten a lot bigger, everyone's looking to make a buck, as am I. I gotta pay my rent, and as of right now...a month ago...I'm doing this full-time. I'm not making money yet, but I made the leap right now. I really hope it works out for the best, I'd hate to live with my parents again.

Do you think the changes are a good thing or a bad thing? That's hard to say. There are large companies that have more resources, so they can do better for the community. But, who cares if you have to look at a couple ad banners. These guys are getting paid full-time, to do things that you would want to see in the games community. What are your favorite games to play? It'd still be Quake 1 for competitive play, but I prefer Quake 2 for recreational. I love the weapon balance in Q2 when it comes to recreational style games. I think it's great. However, the next game I ever play competitively will probably be Quake3:Arena. From what I hear, Quake3:Arena is the next game I can count on to have the precision controls like Quake1 that I enjoy. Quake2 and SiN both just lack that.

What are your favorite websites? Aside from my own? Actually, it was Op3dfx, which I ended up approaching, and now I work for them. And then it'd be OGR, and then PlanetQuake, of course. I visit Blues, but now I get e-mail with every update, so I don't actually see the page. Redwood's, of course, he's been a friend for a long time. He's always got something different, and he's always got the most important things first.

Thanks for the interview sCary! Visit sCary's shack, located at http://www.shugashack.com.

- Stephanie "Bobbi" Bergman is an associate editor for loonygames.