Q. You obviously occupy a unique position in the field of spiritual gaming. By this, I'm referring to your extensive history in the three ordinarily separate and distinct fields of science fiction, shamanism and gaming. Can you tell me more about this?

A. Yes; first of all, my father was Horace L. Gold, editor of Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, one of the three leading sf periodicals of the 1950's. I helped with the "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts, meaning those that arrived from authors who had not been specifically asked to write for Galaxy. My father made the final choices, but he trained me to read for the market.

Later, I became a pro writer myself, and was invited to join SFWA, the Science Fiction Writers Association, in which I have participated for almost half a century as a Pro Author. I have had over 1 million words in print in science fiction and fantasy and have been a guest speaker and panel member at sf cons (science fiction conventions), on panels with Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Robert Sheckley, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jack Williamson, Alfred Bester and many more. In addition, I have appeared on L5 space colony panels to discuss the issues of the settlement of outer space and the colonization of Mars.

I later edited Galaxy Magazine and am presently editor of Galaxyezine and Galaxy SF Novels, and am the senior editor of Sirius SF Books. Two new novels, one SF and the other a wild fantasy are being published this Fall by Sirius SF.

In the field of Shamanism, I am perhaps best known for my best- seller, The American Book of the Dead which has had several publishers, including And/Or Press and Harper & Row. Other publishers include Longmeadow Press, Omni Magazine, and Simon & Schuster. My longtime collaborations and co-lectures in Transformational Psychology have been with John Lilly -- "Day of the Dolphin" and "Altered States" were sensationalized movies about his life -- and other well-known shamanic figures, such as Lee Lozowick, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert deRopp, Heather Valencia, Zalman Schachter, Dr. Claudio Naranjo, Reshad Feild, Mark Olsen, John Cage, Dr. Claude Needham and Margaret Randall.

I have given literally thousands of workshops and lectures on the subject of Shamanism, with over 100,000 participants, over the past half-century or more.

In the field of gaming, well...

Q. Yes?

A. Well, it goes back a long way. I played chess from the age of eight and was a regular at the New York Chess Club. From there it went to game theory and set theory. Then in 1964 I used a rather crude computer to construct what may very well have been one of the first computer games. It was written in text. Of course I played "Hitchhiker's Guide" when it appeared as a text computer game.

Then it was Zelda I ... the best videogame ever developed. There has not been anything better since. Technology has "improved" but for sheer fun of gaming, Zelda still has them beat and its following proves it, almost 30 years later. I used to spend 10-16 hours playing that thing, flinging the controller across the room, claiming it was "broken"!

After that, I decided to find some game in which I could write -- use an "editor", to put my sf and fantasy ideas combined with shamanic principles, down in some gaming format. Good gaming was primary, with the "message" as a secondary concept.

I played Wolfenstein, but it was too crude for my purposes. I did do about 150 games with the ROTT engine, but again, too crude and limited in its scope.

When Quake I came out, I quickly learned to use the editor, and wrote over 300 levels, including CTF and Team Fortress. Several of my levels became popular with online gamers, and I eventually ended up collaborating with American McGee on sounds and music for Quake II -- he visited during the development phase and we worked in my studio. We also played Quake together and he tore me up every time -- of course, he had written the damn levels and when you do that, you have to test them thousands of times, so you know exactly what each thing is going to do. Nobody can beat someone at their own game! He was great! Again, no one has done better with weapons and levels since; although some great levels and weapons have appeared and wonderful strides have been made technically, for playing enjoyment and "feel", his work was incredible.

Then at last I got my own engine, developed for me my Richard Hart; it's a combination of rendering methods, controls, lighting and fog effects and internet speed and reliability for which I asked and got it. My biggest complaint about contemporary e-games is that the developers don't play them on the machines that ordinary people use, on the kinds of connections that ordinary people have. We used to play Quake I on 28k and you had to anticipate where the guy you were shooting would be by the time your weapon struck. Skewing in that way, allowing for packet loss and swapfile confusions, is one of the most important issues for me, along with easy gamefinding and reliable internet usage. Of course, the game must also work solo, because most folks are solo users, not internet gamers, and nobody but a few diehards like myself play continually 10 hours a day online, which I've done for the past 25 years.

In the area of Quake, I ran 3 servers known as Gorebag's Slayground, which were among the most popular at the time. I founded Clan LoL (Legion of the Lost, although we're also known as Little old Ladies) which was one of the largest clans of the period. We still operate the clan server at fairgame.org and now are engaged in running mods for nwn and Godd Game levels -- my Godd Games are still in beta, but are due for release in 2005.

Today I play Diablo II and Neverwinter Nights. I've written a few popular nwn mods, including Dragon 3d, Shakespeare, Ring 3d, Evil 3d and Diabolical 3d, all of which have their own websites and are on the nwn site. You can see some of my browser games on gamexx.com and several have been released on cdrom.

I read game developer's magazine for the latest gaming issues and concepts and try to keep up with the new technology, but again, the real issue for me is just plain good gaming, combined with a serious level of fun-frustration and whenever possible, a spiritual "message" which doesn't intrude on the gamer's fun.

As far as I know, no one else in the field has that peculiar combination of skills in all three fields.

Q. Thank you. With your background at Galaxy SF Magazine and in the sf conventions, would it be fair to say that your intimate relationship with other SFWA writers gives you unique access to other writers' story properties?

A. Well, not unique. Anyone with enough money can buy any story, but...it's a question of which story you buy, who wrote it and how the story will actually translate into a linear game. Most good games are linear at least in theory, although some allow a little slack for side-explorations. The storyline of a game is much more important than most game developers believe.

So, yes, I suppose my position is somewhat unique, in that I can ask a writer for a story, and in my capacity as editor indicate re-writes for the market. A good professional writer writes for the market, not for self-expression, although that certainly is part of writing. I have in my head at least a hundred really incredible sf, fantasy and horror titles that would make good games, and at least two dozen of them have shamanic or spiritual themes that would be acceptable to just about any gamer, meaning that they don't preach, they teach. Most of those stories would translate well into movies and I always consider the aftermarketing, such as action figures, comics, t-shirts, mugs and tabletop game variants.

Q. Thank you for that answer. I'm sure there's more there, but you mentioned films. I'd like to ask you about your work in the movie and television industry. Is it true that you still work as a "film doctor", meaning that you fix or improve scripts?

A. Yes, I'm working on one now, and have worked on several movie scripts in the recent past, none of which I am at liberty to discuss. I can't disclose the titles or the content of any of them, of course, without specific permission. Several are due for release, and hopefully one of my favorites will soon be distributed in Europe, a German-made sf film that should be spectacular in the same genre as "Men in Black", although we started writing it before MIB came out. A number of years ago I worked with Catherine Oxenberg on an sf film which I hope she will eventually star in and release. The script is very solid.

Q. Have you worked as a consultant on any games?

A. Yes, I have. I have the unique situation of not only being a gamer and having written literally thousands of levels in dozens of different engine-editors such as Rott, Worldcraft, nwn, Quake and Godd, and being a script-writer and story editor, but having a background in teaching Zen, Shamanism and Spiritual Transformation makes it easy to convey ideas and come up with a melding of good gaming and "message" that many developers appreciate. I know the limitations of not only the major engines but also the public, and can work with the tolerance levels of both, plus the inevitable politics and give-and-take that all development teams must endure. My background as a professional artist since 1959 gives me the ability to work with political situations; many of my industrial art projects involve dealing with boards of directors and city councils, and in the film and television industry, the ability to get along with others is a given.

A. Lastly, if you don't mind my asking, is your multi-talent a product of coincidence, self-directed fortune, or just plain fate?

Q. Yes.