Christiane Meister/Inside the Vault

An interview with Christiane Meister as part of the "Meet the Dev" conversations. Originally posted on several threads on Bethesda's Fallout 3 forum.

Transcript
What's your job at Bethesda?

Lead Character Animator on TES projects - currently taking a break with Fallout and doing whatever character stuff needs doing.

What prior projects have you worked on?

Morrowind, Tribunal, Bloodmoon, Oblivion... Horse Armor (snort), Knights of the Nine, Shivering Isles

'''What have you drawn on for inspiration in developing Fallout 3? Books, movies, music, etc would be fine, if you don't want to name any games.'''

MSFD makes me watch BAD 50's sci-fi movies - wow everyone's hair was PERFECT back then - except for the crazy old scientists smile.gif I do like the old War of the Worlds flick, though. The literary version is the best. Mad Max - how could you not look at that for inspiration?

'''How is the work-environment? Is it competitive or co-op? Do the different teams talk together?'''

It's very co-op, sometimes you can't hear all of the opinions that are being thrown around in the meetings! There's also a lot of good-natured jibes and ribbing - especially at Jonah (Well he IS blond and so damn cheerful).

What is your favorite type of game to play (RTS,FPS,RPG etc)

I love me some old time UT! I'm looking forward to the new one. Hope it has the beautiful simplicity and gibs - gotta have that. I'm a dork and still play Oblivion from time to time (you'd think I would have had enough of that by now...) Never really got into RTS.

How long have you been playing Fallout, and how would you describe your feelings towards the franchise?

Well I know this will get a lot of tomatoes thrown at me. Good thing I like tomatoes. I haven't played Fallout YET. But as a game, I really like the concept and I like where our team is going with Fallout 3.

Considering that much of the game will probably be in a wild wasteland, do any of you spend much time hiking, camping, etc, and if so where?

Uh, there's no wasteland aound here - unless you consider the urban setting a wasteland... I do spend a lot of time riding my horses before work though.

'''What's the last game you bought? Did you like it?'''

I don't have too much time to play games, but I was so jazzed to get KOTOR 2 after the first one - what a let down... just didn't have story I was looking for. Don't get me wrong, I still like the mechanics and the system though.

What games are you looking forward to on the horizon?

Assassin's Creed, UT 3, Fallout 3 :)

'''Other than videogames, what are your interests? (Board games, reading, music, etc)'''

I love to play Scrabble - I even got this puzzle a day calendar - I have it stacked up - I keep promising myself that I'll get through March one day. I ride my horses (one 5 year old and one 25 year old). We're about to move to a farm so that I can have the horse at home - that will be exciting - and scary. Last book I read was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Good read. Just saw Lisa Gerrard in concert (known from Dead Can Dance). She's an interesting person - not quite on this planet if you take my meaning - awesome voice though!

'''This is for Mav...Are you a Pisces? You seem to be into the elusive fish thing. I am, so im just curious.'''

Hehe, no the "quiet like a fish" reference comes from Chicken Run. I love those entrepreneurial rats...

'''You mentioned to love tomatoes? Ever tried them with olive oil, slightly salted and with a pinch of origano? Is good.'''

I try to grow my own tomatoes in summer and I make a pretty good tomato salad. Vinegar,oil,salt,pepper,sugar,green onion,dill, and of course the tomatoes

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