Mark

CEO & Chief Creative Officer

Mark possesses over 14 years of development experience for major game entertainment companies, including Blizzard Entertainment, Naughty Dog, and Interplay.

As team lead for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft game project, Mark was instrumental in building and leading the development team which created the massively successful MMO. He was a key figure in transforming Blizzard Entertainment from a box-based developer/publisher to a world-wide, subscription-based online service with over 5.5 million subscribers. His past accomplishments during his seven years at Blizzard include producer roles on Diablo II, Starcraft, Starcraft: Broodwar and Starcraft 64 as well as leading strike teams for many of Blizzard’s major releases. Mark can often be found on the firing range, testing out new additions to his growing collection of fine firearms and mumbling something about “better game development through superior firepower.”

Q: What was your first computer?
A: My first computer was a TRS-80. I wrote my first text-based game, Kragenskire, on that system. It had pop-up dialogs, split frame windows, and animating text. It was a cross between an RPG and a text-adventure game.

Q: Favorite Sleepless Moment?
A: Toss up between staying up 48 hours straight to finish playing X-Com: UFO Defense, and sitting down with a friend and a case of Molson to play through Wing Commander III all night.

Q: What got you started in MMOs?
A: I was a Gemstone junkie on GEnie, back when you paid $5/hour to play on a 300 baud modem. I nearly flunked out of college and bankrupted my parents. After becoming leader of the thieves’ guild and rescuing the buxom Cleric Guildmaster Luxelle from the invading demon hordes of Elanthia, I decided I would stop playing games and start making them.