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Grace Kim is Playboy Magazine's Playmate of the Month for November 2008 (see below). Before that she worked as a PR correspondent for the Guitar Hero franchise. Now, she sits down with GameGirl to talk about what really matters: Guitar Hero or Rock Band, and life as a Playboy playmate.



So Grace, What got you into gaming? Was it working with Activision that introduced you to video games, or were you a gamer before that?

GRACE KIM: I was a gamer before that. I was actually really into Guitar Hero when it came out. But that was really the only game I was playing. I'm not really into other games like shooters. I really like the guitar, but I can't play, so I got really into Guitar Hero because it really channels your inner rock star if you can't play the real thing. I started playing kind of a lot. I stopped going out so much, and on the weekends my friends and I would just play at home the whole time and so we got a little bit obsessed.

At that time, an opening had come up at Activision, who is the publisher of Guitar Hero, and I didn't have any gaming industry experience, but I had a PR background. So I just thought, Hey I'm going to try out and see if I can get it, because playing the game all day while getting paid doesn't sound like a bad gig. So I applied amongst I think like 100 applicants and I honestly didn't think I'd get it because there were so many applicants that had gaming experience. But I think they really valued my passion for the game even though I'm not anywhere near expert level. They definitely appreciated that so, it got me on board.

You're a huge guitar hero player, but I've been reading that you prefer Rock Band. Which do you officially prefer?

GRACE KIM: I actually do prefer Rock Band. I think Guitar Hero has some great songs, better songs honestly. But I like how Rock Band obviously has the different instrumentation, but obviously now with Guitar Hero: World Tour, I mean you know there's competition, but we are so used to the GH instruments. It's just really cool. I have a girl band and a guy band [in Rock Band]. In our girl band, we all have our different instruments. I'm always bassist, my best friend is always the guitarist, and we have our third person who always wants to sing.

Same goes for the guy band as well. For the boy band, no one ever wants to play the drums you know, so now we have somebody who always wants to play drums. I like how aesthetic Rock Band looks. I think it is aesthetically more pleasing than Guitar Hero, especially with hitting the notes I think it's a little bit more precise when you're strumming. Just as a group everyone tends to prefer Rock Band as well so you know, majority rules. You know what I mean?! One of my girlfriend's, she does prefer Guitar Hero over Rock Band, but the other two of us say, "We prefer Rock Band," then we go with Rock Band since we've been playing that a lot more. Also, working at Activision I would lose my passion for the game because I'm working so much for it. At the time actually, I hadn't even tried Rock Band, so during my tenure there, my short tenure there, I kind of started playing Rock Band all the time. I would definitely have to choose Rock Band now over Guitar Hero.


What's your favorite position in rock band?

GRACE KIM: Bassist for sure.

Ohh yea? Mine too! You said you have the different Rock Band bands, what are the names of the bands?

GRACE KIM: For the guy band, it's really dorky, and I don't want to say because it's a little offensive.

What about the girl band?

GRACE KIM: For the girl band we're just called, it's kind of dorky too, it's called LuLu Bell, because my best friend and I call each other these pet names. We call eachother LuLu. It's a weird thing. My best friend's little sister, who plays the drums, she's part of the band. But we don't call her LuLu. Her name is Carol, but we just call our band LuLu Bell.

What's your favorite song to play?

GRACE KIM: For Guitar Hero 2 and 3, obviously Sabotage, Welcome to the Jungle, Bulls on Parade, Sweet Child O' Mine, Barracuda obviously is a good one, Black Sunshine, Paint It Black, and definitely Surrender.

What is the highest difficulty level you usually play on?

GRACE KIM: Definitely medium. It's where I'm at right now because I feel comfortable on it. I've tried hard mode and my comrades are actually on that level. I just like to play where I'm comfortable at. But I definitely I would say medium is where I'm currently comfortable and I'll delve into hard for a round, but that's very rare. I guess I don't like to challenge myself too much on these games. I don't want to mess it up where the crowd is booing because it's my fault, you know what I mean?

I know. I never like being that person that my friends have to save!

GRACE KIM: Exactly! I never want to go down first! We definitely do co-op. We play as a band. We don't really do much challenging each other. For Rock Band, I didn't say what songs we like to play on that, Dammit is definitely right now our favorite. Black Hole Sun too, definitely back in high school, it was just the jam you know? Celebrity Skin, Paranoid, and Mississippi Queen are fun too. When you want something slow, a slower kind of vibe, Maps is definitely a great song to play too.

What do you think would be a fun new instrument to add to Rock Band?

GRACE KIM: Oh, that's a great question! I don't know, like a cow bell or a tambourine or something. I think something really simple because that would be kind of fun, I guess. To have simple instrumentation like a tambourine or something for a person that's always left out at the party but kind of wants to join in, but not like really join in and umm, I don't know, what other types of instruments are there? Harmonica...or? A harp would be kind of cool. I've always wanted to play, I know this sounds really dorky, But I've always wanted to play the harp. I think it's just a beautiful instrument. I was actually eyeing one the other day at the Guitar Center because they had one there and it's really, really beautiful. I mean it's a gorgeous instrument. I don't know how that would transfer over to gaming though.

If you could make your own Rock Band group with any celebrity musicians, dead or alive, who would you choose to be in your band and what positions would they play?

GRACE KIM: I would definitely want to play with Led Zeppelin, they're my favorite, and I would definitely want to play drums as Bono. That would be the ultimate. God bless him.

Are there any other games you enjoy?

GRACE KIM: Well I'm not playing too many games unfortunately. I do like the old school Donkey Kong, Pacman, and the pinball game, which I play at the [Playboy] mansion's arcade, but thats about it. I've tried my hand at Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 but I'm really not into it honestly. I like Wii games but unfortunately, I don't actually have a Wii. I like playing at my friend's house when there is a bunch of us, that's fun. I'll play a sports game once in awhile. My friend just brought a Vivendi game which is really realistic; the CGI is really on point. But it's like choosing the character or the player, and it's hard setting up and checking up on your avatar unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band; you kind of lose interest you know what I mean? So I'm not really into that.

I know you've been holding off on telling your parents about the Playboy issue; have you been able to tell them about it yet?

GRACE KIM: Throughout the year they were supposed to be here, and people were telling me you have to tell them. Sometime around June, I had this letter drafted up. I was like I'm going to send this, but not to my Mom because she wears the pants in the family. She'll get all melodramatic and she'll really just interrupt me and won't let me really explain why I'm doing this because it's pretty big. I got it all drafted, but I just couldn't press the send button.

When it came out on the newsstands, I was like I got to go home because the sooner it's on stands the sooner they'll find out. I couldn't tell my parents because of everything happening. My sister just found out she got pregnant and my mom was kind of sick so it didn't really feel appropriate to bring up the fact that I was in Playboy so I kind of held off. Then a day or two after that, my Grandmother says "Hey, we've been getting this magazine in the mail what's up with it?" She hasn't even heard of Playboy or she doesn't even recognize the rabbit head insignia. That's how religious they are. She thought my dad would see the magazine and throw it away.

My dad is a religious man, but he's a man. I've seen his stash of his quote-unquote, you know, pornography. I think I saw a VHS tape one time of this strip poker kind of thing. And also my parents aren't that computer savvy you know. But I use their desktop at their house and I pulled up the history and seen that he, you know, kind of navigated through some risqué sites. Although my father and I have not discussed it, I am absolutely positive that before he, quote-unquote, throws the issues out that have been coming to my parents house, that he will look through them before he tosses them out. So I think that he knows and my brother and sister in-law know, but as long as we don't tell my mom it'll be ok. But eventually after a couple of months pass and it kind of dies down, then I'll feel comfortable telling her; especially accomplishing what I hope to make after my issue has been out. I definitely think she'll be supportive. My dad hasn't disowned me or anything and I'm 99.9% positive that he's seen my issue.


How about any of your old co-workers at Activision? How have they responded?

GRACE KIM: Definitely a huge response there. I actually just talked to one of my insiders over there in production and he said they are a little disgruntled that I've been posing a lot with Rock Band. The reason why I am is because, especially with the Fender Strat from Rock Band, both my Guitar Hero guitar has been just thrashed. I etched my name in one and the other I put little stickers all over. It wouldn't look aesthetically pleasing in the shoot. So obviously they chose the Fender Strat as something to pose with. But really both games were present for the shoot. So I think they just thought Rock Band would be more appropriate and more aesthetically pleasing for the pictorial. So I heard a little disgruntlement from them about that. But I still think they are happy. I mentioned Guitar Hero and my love for the game in the article, so I think they are happy about it and I've definitely have heard great things about Guitar Hero World Tour. So definitely, I have much love for both.

Do you have any upcoming appearances or projects you have lined up?

GRACE KIM: Definitely. Appearances, yes. They have me pretty booked. It's funny because the gaming industry is so huge, so I'm definitely doing a lot of juxtaposition with game stuff and Playboy, which is really cool. A lot of people think it's cool to have a playmate who is into gaming, albeit only musical gaming. The gaming industry being as huge as it is, it's setting me full force into a lot of work, which is cool. Like next week, I'm going to be doing Wii testing on a college campus; it's really cool. And that same weekend I believe I have a mixed release, and after that I am hosting Vegas at the Palms, one of the clubs for their comedy tour. So it'll be a busy next week.

I'm also working on a book; it's an extension to my article. It's a book I've been working on for quite some time that has been pushed to the wayside a couple of years ago because I didn't think anyone was going to publish it being how I'm just a random girl from LA. And the premise is based off of dating tips for guys on how to date women through the eyes of an LA girl born and bred. But now I can say through the eyes of a playmate. So it's definitely something I'm working on and hoping to get done. Unfortunately I'm really busy right now, so I haven't been putting much work into that. But I definitely want to get at least the skeletal version of it and the main points of it out. I have a literary who is interested in sending that out. I definitely want to get that done now within a year. I told myself realistically it would take maybe three years. But the longer time you wait between the time you are a playmate and when your book is published is not going to shorten. It would be great if it came out next month, you know what I mean. But I'm a bit of a perfectionist so definitely won't happen that soon.

Raychul: Awesome. So definitely good luck with the book! Thanks so much for carving some time out with me and doing this interview!

GRACE KIM: Sure!


For more Grace Kim check out this video: Playboy's School of Rock Featuring Grace Kim

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