Last Looks
We thought we would leave you with a last look at our model, Teresa Noreen.
Teresa is a lot more than just a pretty face - or a fantasy figure, for that matter. She's a hardcore gamer, a case modder, and with the help of her husband - sorry, guys - she built her own car computer.
She's been playing seriously since she was in high school (she's in her late 20s). Her initial foray into gaming followed the same path as many others who get hooked on this form or activity, namely game consoles attached to a television set. She got her start on gaming with PlayStation 2 and Nintendo, courtesy of a high-school boyfriend who was himself a console gaming aficionado. Since then, she's spent a lot of time in front of game controllers and mastering video games of many kinds.
Teresa also confesses to being something of an untraditional women gamer herself, in that she "likes guy things" and has no problem with the blood'n'guts outlook or the occasional obligatory male persona she must take on in traditional shoot-em-up games. In fact, she confesses an unabashed passion for cars as well as video games, and believes that video games not only "spur imagination, and promote creative thinking," but believes that they also "improve hand-to-eye coordination." While she's no longer into console gaming (she never owned one herself, but always played on other people's equipment), she's made the jump into PC based gaming. "I could finally afford a machine that's fast enough to let me play my favorite role-playing games online."
Just how good is Teresa? She was good enough to make the cut for the Las Vegas finals in the online contest Sony ran to find a spokesmodel for its EverQuest role-playing game "Quest for Antonia." She was also good enough to land in third place overall, based on online input and Sony's judging, and actually placed first overall in the online voting that led up to the final scoring. This contest was concluded on August 15, 2005, and whetted Teresa's appetite for a full-time modeling career. You might have recognized one of her costumes in the picture of her holding the Axim. (You were looking closely at the PDA, right?)
Teresa's had to let her EverQuest subscription lapse for the moment, however. She's currently working on a bachelor's degree in business administration and starting out in what promises to be a successful modeling career (she was leaving for a modeling gig in Las Vegas the morning we interviewed her). She says she'll jump back in to gaming as soon as she has some more free time, and looks forward to spending more time playing, and possibly, returning to the contest circuit if the right opportunity comes along.
We also wanted to thank Frank Young of Full Count Photography & Imaging for his great work on the pictures of Teresa as well.
From all of us at Tom's Hardware, and our related Web sites DenGuru.com, TwitchGuru.com, MobilityGuru.com, TomsNetworking.com and TGDaily.com, we wish all of you and yours a healthy and happy holiday season, and a wonderful new year.
