Each week on Show Us Your Rig, we feature the PC game industry's best and brightest as they show us the systems they use to work and play.
Tina Zhang-Powell, Associate Producer for Tera at En Masse Entertainment, has a beautifully lit and open room for her rig. Sporting two monitors, to match her two cats, and enough space to host game jams and game nights alike. She also rocks a Razer mouse and keyboard that she claims the cats don't jump on, but I'm not so sure a well behaved cat can actually exist. They are probably just biding their time. Tina was kind enough to take some time and tell us about her PC, her rescue cats, and why she loves MMORPGs.
What is in your PC?
Home Desktop:
- i7 4770 @ 3.4GHz
- 16 GB memory
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
- 256 GB SSD
- 1 TB HDD
Surface Pro 2:
- i5 4th Gen Intel Core
- 8 GB memory
- 256 GB SSD
What is the most interesting/unique part of your setup?
Some folks may frown upon putting a desktop PC in a cabinet. However, I removed the back panel and front door of the cabinet to allow for more air flow and haven’t had a problem with temperature yet. This gives me more space on my desk area for dual monitors and my Surface Pro 2 laptop, with room to spare. I also don’t like wearing my glasses, so having my desk area set up in the corner lets me to keep my monitors at a good distance while letting me enjoy a nice view of the neighborhood through the nearby window.
My husband and I have a nice big room for our PCs. It’s great for when we play games together, but the extra space is especially helpful when we do game jams with friends. Having that extra space is absolutely necessary when we’ve got five friends over with their own workstations. I crocheted the little creature in the photo for our game jam group. During our game jams, we put this little guy on the desk of the person who needs the most help!
What’s always within arm’s reach on your desk?
I always have lots of sketch pads and note pads nearby. I’ve found that sometimes sketching out ideas and notes on paper works better for me than typing them up on the computer. Having white boards nearby also helps me organize ideas and information I want to share with co-workers later.
I also have two cats, both rescued from local shelters. Atlas, the orange cat, loves to hangout whenever I’m at my computer chair. He’s a fan of napping and often sleeps at my feet or on my lap. Somehow, we’ve managed to train our cats not to jump on our desks or sit on the keyboards. But we still have to be careful where we sit. Our cats are quick to occupy seats whenever someone gets up from their chair and yes, I have sat on Atlas quite a few times! I will probably sit on Atlas again soon. I guess neither of us have learned to watch out for each other yet.
What are you playing right now?
I play a lot of indie games and puzzle games on Steam. My recent favorite is Everyday Genius: SquareLogic (yes, it’s an old game I know). Call me weird, but I find doing puzzles, especially the ones that involve matching, calming and relaxing.
Working on the launch of TERA: Fate of Arun is taking up a lot of time lately. To give my mind something different to think about, I’ve also been playing more board games. I personally prefer co-op board games to competitive board games. Sentinels of the Multiverse along with all of its expansions, is the current favorite amongst our group and we’ve been playing it on almost a weekly basis. Dungeons & Dragons board games also make frequent game night appearances. I recently picked up Pathfinder Adventure Card games and have heard good things, but haven’t got to actually try them out yet.
What’s your favorite game and why?
My favorite game of all time is Final Fantasy XI, which I have played for many years since launch. I do miss those old days in that game, where monsters never stopped chasing you down until you zoned to the next area. Even searching for a raise 3 from a high level healer after you died, so you would not de-level, makes me a bit nostalgic. You also have no idea who you might meet while playing an MMO. I met my husband in-game in FFXI and we’ve been together for over ten years now!
We met while doing woodworking in the game and the rest is history. A lot of things happened during those ten years including moving across the country to start a new life together. We still reminisce about the days when I had to use my Bard to help his Dragoon get a leveling group and farming BCNM 40. It is hard to beat the game that brought two strangers from completely different backgrounds together. That’s just another great thing about playing MMORPGs.
