Biography

The following text has been written by Jessica and altered for JessicaChobot.net. Enjoy :)

I've lived all over the Midwest (yay) for most of my youth. Born in Buffalo, NY we moved around NY (Syracuse and the like), and eventually made our way outside of the state to such places as: Virginia, Illinois and Michigan (all before the 7th grade).

Luckily, my parents kept me placated by buying different gaming systems. To date I've had: Atari 2600, NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Playstation, PS2,Xbox,Xbox 360.

Handhelds have included: GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy SP, Nintendo DS, PSP.

I'm a big fan of PC gaming as well (mostly for mmorpg's and RTS's) and have run the gamut from all the Sims games to The Movies, Warcraft, WoW, Doom, Unreal Tournament, City of Heros/Villans and Age of Empires.

In the midst of this on-going gaming haze, I went through my tumultuous teenage years and entered intro a strange mix of Punk and Goth. Obviously this meant sitting in cafes and reading Nietzsche. This also meant a fascination with the dark side which only found expression through the collection of various comics (of which I've sold and have hated myself ever since-long and terrible story), and a fascination with vampires.

Naturally, I began wearing combat boots, listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees and role-playing a Malkavian and Toreador from White Wolf's: Vampire, The Masquerade. This eventually led me to my first LARPing group in Ohio (where I was going to college for a BFA).

After college I ended up going through an "I better get my sh** in gear" phase and squelched all my dark urges and gaming obsession in order to develop some sort of life-sustaining career.

This didn't work quite the way I had hoped.

After working at a thankless and hellacious job as an administrative assistant to a bunch of over-the-hill ingrates at a real estate office for the better part of 3 to 5 years, I picked up the gauntlet of gaming once more and became obsessed with WoW and Final Fantasy XI.

It was during this time that my tax return from Pres. Bush and my emotional breakdown co-insided with one another and I bought a one-person, one-way ticket to Japan; set to leave that Friday. After receiving the "I thought we raised you better" speech from the 'rents, I hopped onto a plane determined to carve out a new life in a foreign land and never return to the US again.

However, money quickly became an issue and I was forced back into servitude here in the states. Two more times I tried to make my Asian escape, but to no avail (although each and every trip was, in itself, quite wonderful). After a rejection letter from the JET program (due to a missed deadline), I gave up on living in Japan, got married to my fiancée and went back to college for a teaching certification in Art Education with a minor in Literature and Videogame character design.

I could take my secretarial job no longer and quit to work at EB Games where I figured I might be slightly happier. I also managed to land representation from a few modeling agencies (which helped to support my ever-growing gaming/manga and anime habit).

It was on the fateful day of the PSP release that I also happened to be scheduled for a photo-shoot. After picking up my pre-ordered PSP pack, I headed off to the shoot and showed off my new toy. Pictures were taken, PSPs were licked and an infamous picture was taken.

Once I got the picture developed, I thought it was rather sexy and sent it to a friend of mine who was owner of a business that focused on product placement within videogames. After making fun of the fact that I got my PSP before he did, he mentioned that I should send the picture in to Kotaku. I figured, “what the Hell” and sent it along thinking 2 things: 1.) They wouldn’t post it. And 2.) If they did post it, that would be my 15 min. of fame right there-so I better enjoy it.

Well, Kotaku did post it and within days started receiving emails from all over the world asking who I was. The EIC of Kotaku contacted me once again and asked if I would be interested in writing reviews in exchange for games at his personal webpage, RedAssedBaboon.com. I agreed and a wonderful team was born.

During this time, I was using my “workerbee at EB Games status” as a way to try and sneak into that year’s E3. Somehow I managed to eek through the cracks as a representative, so now it was just about trying to find a place to stay. By luck or providence I ended up staying at the same hole-in-the-wall as the RedAssedBaboon/Kotaku EIC and hung with him-even to the IGN E3 party (which I wasn’t really invited to). It was there that I met an IGN rep who suggested that I talk to IGN entertainment editor, Chris Carle, about a possible Babes channel piece and future IGN work as a booth babe/model for the company.

After an interview with Chris Carle at IGN.com for our Babes channel, it was quickly discovered that I wasn't just some chick with a decent face, but also an avid gamer and Japanophile. After reviewing my work and personality a freelancing offer to write for IGN's Insider channel was made.

From there it was a short hop to hosting our IGN Weekly show along with a variety of other events.

Once I got hired on full time (this past N. Years) I packed up my stuff, divorced my husband (it was going to happen anyway) and moved out to California on my own in order to have a job in an industry that I love beyond all other things on this planet.

So far, things have been great. Along with my IGN Weekly segments, I’ve been fortunate enough to land regular guest spots on Maxim Radio for Sirius, as a game advisor on The Daily Habit, a dating advice columnist on IGN’s babes channel called “Preacher-Teacher,” and most recently, as a reporter for the Championship Gaming Invitational. Hopefully there will be many more projects in the near future and I look forward to whatever comes my way.

The whole ride has been a strange and bumpy one but well worth it and something I'm always going to be grateful for.