Inside Look, Continued

RW: Some people feel that video games are sort of an exclusive club that doesn't take well to outsiders. Did you find that most people were willing to give you a view into their world, or were they resistant?

Chaplin: The video game market is rising in cultural dominance so quickly, yet it's great because you can still meet a lot of people and just talk to them. I think we came in during a time when gamers and developers were looking to be taken seriously and were ready to be asked serious, personal questions. So I pretty much always felt like I was accepted. Aaron may have a different answer because I definitely think there can be a lot of resistance, but I never had a problem. I'm sure it also helped that I'm a woman, because there aren't as many women out there in gaming. Still, it's a fine line to walk. The industry is in a strange place; they want cultural dominance and acceptance, but they also don't want to look like posers or see their culture co-opted.

RW: The book has gotten good review, both from critics and gaming afficionados. Did that surprise you?

Chaplin: We were both really surprised; we thought we'd get slammed by gamers when the book came out. We thought that a lot of gamers wouldn't accept our view of the industry and claim we got it all wrong. And there have been a few of those people, sure. But I think the fact that we spent five years on this book helped us gain acceptance. It's funny - under our original contract, we had to produce a book within a year [laughs]. There was just no way were going to be able to accurately portray a culture and a business this complex in that short a time period.

RW: What about the people featured in the book? How did they respond once they read the book?

Chaplin: Everyone was really great. We've done book signings and interviews with a lot of people, and it's been great. I did, however, write an article for the New York Times on CliffyB back in November, and I described him as scrawny, and that upset him. It sounds silly, but we portrayed CliffyB as a very vulnerable person in the book, and I'm not sure how I would take something like that. But he's been a great sport, considering he was portrayed in a sometimes unflattering light. He was so great and was such a huge help for us. Cliffy is definitely one of the few sources that we've really grown to care about.