From:vgplayer.station.sony.com

Hi Christian! Thanks a bunch for taking the time out of your busy day to introduce yourself to the Community. Easy and quick questions first! Where are you from? How long have you lived in San Diego?
I am originally from Sweden and have lived in San Diego since 2001.

What is your official title here at SOE and how long have you been a part of the Vanguard team?
My official title is Art Lead and I have been part of the Vanguard team since end of 2002.

What did you do before coming to work here?
Before coming to SOE working on Vanguard, I was working for Sigil Games on Vanguard and previous to that was working for SOE on EQ 2 which was my first job out of college. The circle has, in a sense, been completed :).

What areas within the game have you worked on, and which are you most proud of?
During my years here I've touched on most areas of the game, meaning, technical player character work, a Keith Parkinson original NPC, terrain, environment and objects. I am probably most proud of the wall/row of ancient giant statues that islocated outside of Vulmane village and the revamp of the elven starting city of Leth Nurae.
?/P>

What are you currently working on?
That is super secret. Just kidding, I am answering these questions…errr…seriously, we are currently working on optimizing our player characters. It's one step in a multi-stepped campaign to get better performing and better looking player characters, which, besides (much) better performance will also make it easier for us to implement other things like helmets etc. There is, of course, never just one thing going on, so we are also spicing up the APW shaders, and doing various fixes to that raid dungeon and Khal.

There has been a lot of excitement over the revamping of Khal. Players have posted numerous stunning screenshots from the Test server as well as reports that FPS has increased quite a bit. Is this going to be a trend for other big cities within Telon?
We were definitely excited over the fact that we were able to get Khal to run better and also at the same time make it look better. Right now our main focus is with the PCs. It is possible that we spend time to get more performance out of, and give "art love-time", by doing optimization and polishing pass on other big cities on the planet. We have to evaluate what will give us the most bang for the buck after we complete the PC work.

What race and class do you play?
I play a human ranger.

What games other than Vanguard do you play?
At the moment, I am not playing any other games as I have been busy with both work and things outside work. My family is about to expand and?with child comes great responsibility (and tons of preparation work :) ).

Do you have any favorite artists or artistic inspirations?
I get my inspirations from a lot of mediums and sources. Working with Keith Parkinson was a huge inspiration to me both as a person and as an artist. His art is a great source of inspiration. I also get inspired through books, music, movies, photos, CG images and shorts.

If you were forced to eat the same food for an entire week, what would it be?
Sushi

What's your favorite movie?
I am a huge movie buff, there are so many, but Iron Giant is definitely up there.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Probably the Maldives because it looks gorgeous and relaxing J . Just Google it and look at the images...

If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?
Teleportation. It would be a fun one to mess with people and also a very handy one. Just imagine the possibilities?

Fill in the blanks:
"I have never...?"- understood intolerance to differences.
"If you looked in my fridge you'd find...?"- Pacifico
"The last book I read was...?"- Stieg Larsson's M?n som hatar kvinnor, first part in a thriller triology called Millenium. The novel was insanely good and the triology will be translated to English in 2008.

What's an interesting fact you think the players would be surprised to learn about you?
That I play ice hockey, I guess most people don't expect that one when you say you live in San Diego :).

What advice do you have to aspiring artists out there?
To never give up, if you have a passion for what you want to do, don't stop pushing until you fulfill your goal. That drive is what will get you there, take you through the hard work that probably will be required to put you in the spot you want to be. Stay current with new tools and techniques as this business constantly evolves at a very high pace.

Is there anything else you'd like to say to the community?
The entire team is working very deliberately towards goals that we have staked out that will bring Vanguard onto a very solid foundation. It's no secret that the game was prematurely released, but there is a sense of excitement right now as we are moving in the right direction and are tackling fundamental issues with the game that I believe will have a positive impact on the fun level of the game. The things that we feel can be done fairly quickly and will have the largest impact are being done first, but we are at the same time honed in on the more long term goals.