Name: Jerome Atherholt
Title: Artist/Animator

LDespot: What did you do for SMG?
Jerome Atherholt: Generals' portraits (both sides), Options Screen, Side selection screen (not the paintings in the frame which are the work of Don Troiani) "F10" map of Gettysburg, Scenario Briefing screens, Union and Confederate Desktop artwork. Also lent my voice for some of the Generals in the scenario briefing.

LDespot: What are you working on for Alpha Centauri?
Jerome Atherholt: Portraits of faction leaders, datalink screen, icons and paintings.

LDespot: How did you end up at Firaxis?
Jerome Atherholt: After Firaxis formed I became curious as to what they were "up to." This curiosity led me to a meeting w/Jeff Briggs who described the general philosophy behind the new company. This philosophy was so compelling that I soon found myself applying to and subsequently (I'm happy to say) working with Firaxis.

LDespot: Are there any suggestions you would have for someone trying to get a job in the game industry in a position similar to your own?
Jerome Atherholt: Keep your ear to the ground, your shoulder to the wheel and your nose to the grindstone. You may look funny and feel terribly uncomfortable but, with patience, you'll find a company suited to you and you to a company.

LDespot: Is there anything else you would like to say to the gaming community (This is your chance to vent, praise, or babble to the world)?
Jerome Atherholt: I'm relatively new to the previously mentioned "community" (3 years) and have, thus far, found it to be a curious and most peculiar creative. The old phrase, "It's only a game." Has taken on a new meaning, for to even the most passive inhabitant of this world of games, a game is just that: a world, not the world; the person who believes that is usually found in places where sharp objects are forboten. But it is rather a world. A world that's to be conquered, or mastered, or understood. A place to immerse oneself in for whatever reason, for however long a period. This I found interesting and encouraging. Human nature takes its play seriously.

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