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Interview with Nikasaur: "I have a webseries I’m pitching"
Following her announcement to cease her involvement with Riot Games where she presented the best fan creations in the Summoner Showcase, many fans wondererd what Nika Harper aka Nikasaur was going to do next. We managed to get hold of her and she was kind enough to agree to an interview.
We talked about her past at Telltale Games and Riot Games, her passion for writing and what she will do in the near future. Enjoy reading!
Before we get into the what's going on at the moment in your life, let's try to go way back, to the Nikasaur origins if you will. One of the earliest documents of your connection to gaming that most people will draw is a video from Blizzcon 2005 where you are seen cosplaying and voice imitating World of Warcraft. How did that come to be, have you cosplayed a lot before and after that?
Nikasaur: Blizzcon 05 was actually the very first time I had done a real cosplay, and I feel it came out pretty good! I had been a theatre kid before that so I’d dress up for no reason, but this is the first time I really tried to emulate a particular look. After spending so much time in vent with my friends, they told me I should do the sound-alike contest at Blizzcon because I would imitate their characters talking to them to freak em out.
Around 2010 you worked as an intern in the community side of things for Telltale Games, a company that puts a strong emphasis on storytelling in their game development. From what you put out there about yourself, I know you are definitely one to cherish the importance of a good story. Was the company's philosophy what drew you to them?
Nikasaur: I had been trying to get a job in video game communities since about 2004, and I had worked with a few really fun fansites and the like (Myndflame for instance). I had been familiar with Telltale from a while back, and when I saw the types of games they did and what I thought the culture was like, I jumped at the chance to join the games industry in a more official capacity.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Lapaire
I know you were definitely loved and appreciated at Telltale, they even put you in one of their games! What did YOU take away from your time there, what did you learn? Did it help you figure out that this was something you wanted to do more of?
Nikasaur: I’d been very passionate about working as a community representative for years, and Telltale was the first place I really felt I could expand my talents. With such a diverse and unique fanbase, it was very fun to see how we could keep them entertained and engaged between game releases.
Next stop: Riot Games. Tell us how the contact happened. How did you end up on the Summoner Showcase?
Nikasaur: My friends had been playing LoL since the beta, and it was only about a few weeks afterwards when I joined them and fell in love with it. I had been an old (and unskilled) DotA player from WC3, and everything about the company seemed like a dream to work for. I loved their business sense, which was groundbreaking at the time, and the game they’d created, and it turns out they needed a new community intern. It might as well have had my name on it, it described what I loved to do for a job! I started off overseeing social media, working on contests and events, and eventually we wanted to write articles promoting the fantastic fan art we were ALREADY getting! Articles didn’t seem to be as popular, so Andrew Beegle suggested I turn it into kind of a YouTube vlog-style show, and it turns out that worked really well.
What are some of the most memorable fan creations you've seen that stuck with you throughout the years?
Nikasaur: The art has been phenomenal, the cosplay just jaw-dropping... one of my favorites (and a very unique submission) was making a 2 foot tall Baron Nashor ceramic fountain. Like, plug a hose in it and he spits water out. It was such a cool idea! After so many episodes though, it’s so hard to pick out just a few, I could go on for ages....
Throughout the episodes, you went through an insane number of looks and hairstyles. I imagine you had as much fun preparing for the showcases as you had shooting them. Did you come up with all of them yourself or was it mainly your stylist?
Nikasaur: I didn’t have a stylist, the Showcase was often a labor of love with me and a camera guy in a room going „LET’S MAKE A SHOW!“ It progressed really well and I got much, much better at doing my hair and being girly for once- I’m pretty much a tomboy when you see me off the screen. I did end up having a lot of fun experimenting with outfits, I attribute some of my better looks to years of experience on GaiaOnline.com because I was a complete fashion know-nothing until that site came along. Yeah, I learned fashion from an avatar paperdoll site. It’s like learning to dance from MMO’s.... which I also did.
Aside from League of Legends, you have been incredibly busy with writing. First topic here is your short story collection "Echoes of Old Souls". Tell us about that and why you think people who enjoy reading short stories should check it out.
Nikasaur: I’d participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org) every year since, I dunno, '08? Echoes of Old Souls was my third novel I had written and for the first time, I feel like I really had something special, something I actually wanted to publish and put out the door. With a lot of revising and writing some new pieces, two years later I got serious about publishing it and there it is!
I’m very inspired by Ray Bradbury and his usage of short stories to paint a world, and with Old Souls, that’s really what I tried to do. Each story tells a different perspective on a simple sort of premise: what if death wasn’t the end? You learn a lot about spirits and the different ways they’ve moved on, their motivations and mostly there’s a lot about people. People is a favorite topic of mine.
When did you get into writing? Do you remember the first bit of creative writing you made?
Nikasaur: I’d been writing for as long as I can remember, I was always overly-creative, trying to make something cool or do something profound. I never took writing seriously as a career, it was just something that came naturally and I did when I needed to, like writing monologues for drama class. Looking back, I got tons of support and even awards for writing all throughout school, and I didn’t take a damn bit of it seriously. I was like, oh, look at that, cool. Then just went on trying to be an actress. What foolishness!
Photo courtesy of Noble Press
Three months ago you started a video series called WordPlay that is all about creative writing on the popular Geek & Sundry Vlogs channel. To me this seems like where two of your main interests meet, community interaction and creative writing. Do you agree? Is this something that you have wanted to do for a long time and have just not had the right place to realize it in?
Nikasaur: People had been telling me „do a vlog! People would love to watch it!“ and I felt like I’d have nothing to talk about. I try not to waste people’s time. I don’t care about talking about my day, why would anyone else want to hear about something as silly as that? It felt wasteful. I wanted to find something that was close to my heart and also encouraged people... when I came up with the idea for Wordplay, I knew it’s exactly what I wanted to do. I was talking to Geek & Sundry about their upcoming vlogs channel and the pitch was generally „This is a thing, I love it and I’m gonna do it anyway, but it’d be cool if it was with you guys.“ Turns out they agreed!
How did you get in contact with Geek & Sundry, this huge network - most notably known for projects like TableTop with Wil Wheaton or The Guild with Felicia Day?
Nikasaur: Felicia and I used to play on the same WoW server way back when – she was familiar with my guild because apparently we used to gank her. (Not me, I swear, my resto druid was never one for open-world PVPing.) We met at Blizzcon one year and she was such a kind, excited person, such a fantastic role model for geeky gals back when they were considered a rarity! We kept in touch a little bit after that and I was an extra in Season 2 of The Guild. After a while she saw me in the Showcase and we started getting serious about talking new opportunities and I was really excited for the chance to work with her.
In your Riot farewell blog post, you mention that you weren't quite sure what precise direction you want to go right now but that it will definitely include writing. Will that involve continuing WordPlay, more short stories, any ideas you have flying around that you are willing to share?
Nikasaur: ALL OF THE ABOVE, ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! Right now I have a webseries I’m pitching, playing with the idea of pumping out a game, I have a new novel I’m writing up, keeping up with Wordplay and my other writing blog, Typeface Tales... and just so many more things! I’m a little overwhelmed with my own ambition but it feels good to be jumping into it headfirst and taking new opportunities! Everyone has been incredibly supportive, I think they all know what it’s like to just break free and go make stuff. Most things I work on are listed on my site ThisIsNika.com and tons of writing goes on my tumblr, nikaharper.tumblr.com.
Those are all the questions I had. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about you and your numerous projects! Is there anything you would like to add or say to your fans who will miss you in their League of Legends clients?
Nikasaur: Don’t miss me, I’m still around! I love the game so much, I love Riot so much, it’s been a huge part of me and it always will. I’m still gonna go to events, I’ll still wait excitedly for the new champions, and if you make great fan art, I always wanna see it. I started off a fan of LoL, and after three years of helping work on it, now I’m back to being a fan again. It feels great, and I’m sure I’ll continue to see you all in the community.