Back in the 1990s, Braden Moulton scripted a website to display his resume as if it were the opening text sequence of the Star Wars movies. Of course, it got him the job at Microsoft.
Today, he’s living his longtime dream of working in the video-game industry, as business development director for RealNetworks’ GameHouse division, helping to build its social games business — at least when he’s not making friends with Luke Skywalker.
Sensing a theme here? Meet our latest Geek of the Week. Continue reading for Braden’s answers to our questionnaire.
Name: Braden Moulton
Job, hobby and/or other geeky pursuit: Director, Business Development at GameHouse.
Coolest thing about what you do: The coolest things about what I do are play games, demo games, evaluate games, have games pitched to me and coolest of all – interact with people who are both brilliant and deeply passionate about digital entertainment.
What does it mean to you to be a geek? For me personally, it is the little things. Staying up all night on an MMO raid, admitting to still playing tabletop D&D, recognizing when someone references Star Blazers, feeling my pulse quicken when I walk through a game studio and seeing concept art all over the walls (old Millennium campus anyone?), or the excitement when talking to people from this business.
Geekiest thing you’ve accomplished, built or worn: Getting this picture (me on the left). In the middle of a fairly important business meeting a couple of years ago at Comic-Con, my colleague and I saw Luke Skywalker enter the restaurant and we lost our minds. I would compare our unabashed behavior that day to teenage girls at a Bieber concert. We ambushed calmly approached him, and Mark (as I call him) actually chatted us up, had a drink and would have stayed longer but was soon rescued by some PR folks.
Your best geek tip or trick for managing everyday work and life: Work in a space you are excited about and with people you enjoy. It keeps your energy and enthusiasm high, which carries over to your colleagues and family.
Mac, Windows or Linux: A lifetime of Windows, but I’m wavering.
Kirk, Picard, Janeway or Sisko? It’s a hard choice between Kirk and Picard. Patrick Stewart makes everything better. I can’t imagine the Oblivion intro without his narration. However, Kirk’s cadence… is… so… great!
Transporter, Time Machine or Cloak of Invisibility? Time Machine. Has anyone ever not chosen this option? 1.21 gigawatts and the flux capacitor. I’d like to go back in time and sell all my tech stocks in the late 90s.
If someone gave me $1 million to launch a startup, I would … Form my own micro-VC and fund some other start ups. I get to see a lot of talent with my job, it would be rewarding to work with more teams.
I once waited in line for … iPad.
Your geek role model: Two people immediately come to mind. Mike Morhaime, founder of Blizzard. One of the highlights of my career was sitting across the table from him and his team at Blizzard HQ to close a deal. I could barely focus on what they were saying as my brain kept reminding me who these guys were and all the amazing products they have created over the years. Ed Fries is right up there as well. Very successful, launched the games group at MSFT years ago, is actively involved in several game ventures in the area, and still offers time to advise aspiring geeks like me. I’d like to emulate either of those careers.
Greatest Game In History: Archon on the C64. There is no debating this.
Best Gadget Ever: I love watching my 4 and 6 year olds easily navigate our iPad.
First computer: Commodore 64. Load “*”,8,1.
Current phone: Blackberry Bold
Favorite app: Angry Birds is the background music of our house.
Favorite hangout: George’s in Kirkland. Great owners, great food, and a lot of video game companies in the area. Always plenty of game industry people there at lunchtime.
Favorite cause: I’m proud to be part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Most important technology of 2011: In my company, we are bringing fun social gaming experiences across multiple devices. We want you to play with your friends anywhere.
Most important technology of 2015: I’d like to see holographic 3-D gaming. Chewbacca and R2-D2 could do it on the Millinneum Falcon in 1977. Roughly forty years later seems reasonable to see it in my living room.
Some final words for your fellow geeks: Own it. Geek is cool.
Geek of the Week is a regular feature profiling the characters of the Pacific Northwest technology community. See the Geek of the Week archive for more.
Does someone you know deserve this distinguished honor? Send nominations to tips@geekwire.com.
[Geek of the Week photography by Annie Laurie Malarkey, annielaurie@geekwire.com.]
