Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: Steve (aka Rident)
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: Steve (aka Rident) |
| Interviewer: | Kelly M |
| Interviewee: | Steve (aka Rident) |
| Date(s): | December 19, 2014 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Tomb Raider |
| External Links: | In the Spotlight: Steve (aka Rident) – The Archaeology of Tomb Raider, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: Steve (aka Rident) was conducted in 2014.
Some Excerpts
When and how did you learn about the Tomb Raider series?
I learned about the Tomb Raider series right from the beginning really. I was a bit of a Sega fanboy back in the day and used to read all kinds of games magazines. I remember the first news and images of Tomb Raider, which was coming to Sega Saturn as well as the new Sony console, and it immediately had my attention.
As a bit of an Indiana Jones fan, the thought of playing through a 3D adventure armed with an arsenal of weaponry, encountering dangerous animals, tombs, artefacts, traps, all of it just seemed my kind of game and was exactly what I wanted to be playing to break up all the side scrolling, first-person and point-and-click adventure titles I was addicted to. I could identify some similarities with Indiana Jones and the kind of globetrotting adventure in search of mysterious and powerful relics. Was also nice and fresh to see a female in the front line too, though also a little strange (not in a bad way) being outside of the norm.
Do you run a Tomb Raider fansite or blog? If so, what would you say was your biggest achievement to date?
While I have been a fan since the beginning, I have never run any Tomb Raider specific fan-sites or blogs. I do have so much passion for the series and characters, but my game love extends pretty wide to focus on one franchise. Forums have never really been my thing. I always found them quite intimidating, so I never joined sites such as Tomb Raider Forums before. In general, though, I prefer to stick to social media and collect all my various information from just a few places
I have, however, joined and contributed to one of the newer forums, Survivor Reborn, which launched in the build-up to the more recent Tomb Raider title and I must say I have had fun there interacting with fellow fans and sharing some of my own experiences with the series. I have done a few “Let’s Plays” and live-streaming of Tomb Raider games on Twitch. One of my favourite and maybe biggest achievements with this has to be the 24-hour charity stream I did back in February 2014, where I played through the entire Crystal Dynamics trilogy back-to-back, plus I got to throw in a little Guardian of Light at the end. That was great fun interacting with the community and made a great impact on helping to raise funds in support of the SpecialEffect charity.
What are your thoughts on Lara’s image? Is she simply the product of a sexist gaming industry or can she be seen as a positive role model?
A mix of both, to be honest. When she was introduced to the gaming world, I was about 12 or 13, so a young lad. I never really saw that side of her during the first game launch. However, the marketing for the second to fourth titles depicted her in a more sexual nature which, as a young teen, was quite a cool thing. It wasn’t what sold me to the games, but it did make me want to have the merchandise and posters at the time. Looking back at it n,ow however, I feel it was probably a little in bad taste, which is a real shame as I did always feel her character in the games was strong, stubborn and intelligent and quite fitting as a role model. She had goals and would do all she could to achieve them.