Interview with Scott Hilsen | Author of the Novel - GAMERS

It’s not every day that we get to speak to someone like Scott Hilsen. He’s a lawyer by day and an author by night. For nearly thirty years, Scott Hilsen has investigated, litigated, and written about fraud and corruption. No, he isn’t the Batman that you know of. But he does even more! He came to our attention with his latest book called GAMERS. A book where virtual reality becomes real. So we decided to catch up with Scott Hilsen and talk about his works and more.

 

Ron: Let’s start with a bit about yourself, for those readers who might not be familiar with you?

Scott Hilsen: Thanks a lot Ron and it's great to be on NoobFeed. GAMERS is the fourth novel that I’ve written between juggling a career and raising three kids with my wife. I used to joke that I wrote my books between changing diapers and taking depositions! Writing for me has always been a way to escape in the same way someone might read a book or watch a movie. I feel like I’m actually in the scene that I’m writing, and many times things play out in ways I hadn’t planned. The story can really take on a life of its own and I’m just along for the ride!

I’ve also been fortunate to have had the opportunity to conduct over 100 fraud and corruption investigations all over the world, which has provided me with an almost endless supply of ideas for the white-collar crime thrillers that I write. The complexity and creativity of some of the schemes I’ve investigated are unbelievable, and my stories revolve around that kind of criminal ingenuity.

Ron: Tell us about your latest book GAMERS. What inspired you to write on such a topic?

Scott Hilsen: I wrote GAMERS during the pandemic while I was working from home. I watched my kids playing and streaming video games, and I realized that some of their friendships were totally virtual. They met other kids in video games and became friends without ever meeting them in real life. They only saw the other person’s avatar, and it struck me that these friendships were made without regard to race, color, or stereotypes. They just had fun playing together and I wanted to write a story that involved a gaming friendship like that. I was writing GAMERS during the racial inequality marches and I purposefully did not describe the appearances of the main characters so that they can be anyone who the reader imagines them to be, just like in a video game.

The second driving factor was my fascination with how far virtual reality technology has come in a relatively short time span. VR is not far away from being able to replicate a real-life, 3D experience that is visually indistinguishable from reality. VR will soon begin to blur the lines between what is real and illusion. GAMERS is about what could happen when that line is crossed and the game becomes real.   

Ron: You probably had to spend some time checking video games for writing this book. What are the games that you have checked?

Scott Hilsen: I spent a lot of time watching my kids play and stream first-person games like CS Go, Call of Duty, and Overwatch. I was amazed by how fast the action is and how quickly they had to react. I also watched esports and studied the industry. I started thinking about what professional players do after their esports careers are over, since they are relatively short-lived. The main character of GAMERS has to face that challenge when he starts slowing down and gets outplayed by younger, faster players.

Ron: Tell us why GAMERS is special and why we should read it.

Scott Hilsen: I wrote each scene of GAMERS to merge into the next scene so that the end of one is the beginning of another. I want the reader to feel a seamless transition between reality and virtual reality throughout the book, just like a gamer. It also makes it really hard to put down!  

Ron: You are the Chief Compliance & Privacy Officer of a multi-billion-dollar company, and before that, you were at an AmLaw 25 law firm, and Big Four accounting firm. Do you find it difficult to find time for writing?

Scott Hilsen: Actually when I’m writing a book, I sometimes find it hard to do anything other than to write, much to the chagrin of my family. I can write anywhere that I have a laptop, a cell phone, or even a pad of paper. When I used to travel a lot for work, I would write in airports, on planes, in taxis, at dinner, whenever I could. In fact, I wrote Cloud of Lies and The Key Holders almost entirely on my Blackberry!

Ron: Have you ever thought of being only a writer?

Scott Hilsen: I love my day job and right now I write for passion, not profit. But it certainly is a dream of mine to be able to write full-time someday. Maybe when Gamers becomes a best seller (wink!), I’ll be able to be an author by day instead of by night! But until then, I really have the best of both worlds.

Ron: When you were young, have you ever spent time playing video games? If yes, name your most favorite game.

Scott Hilsen: I’m going to date myself, but I grew up playing video games at the arcade, which was usually a dark alcove in a shopping mall. My favorite game was Galaga. I’d play for as long my allowance would last me, or until my parents picked me up!  

Ron: Do you think the video game industry is heading in the right direction? Is it teaching our younger generation the right things?

Scott Hilsen: Like any technology, there are good and bad things about it. Video games have transformed from being transient games that you play and leave, into platforms that you can create alternate identities and structures that remain there until you log back in. Video games have become communication networks where players meet and form friendships, like in GAMERS. And I’ve seen from my own kids that when you leave something in the game, it creates an insatiable urge to get back to the game. Sometimes it can turn into an unhealthy craving, especially for games like Clash of Clans, where other players can attack your castle while you’re not even online. There is no longer the finality of winning or losing anymore . . . or walking out of an arcade.

There is a message at the end of GAMERS that VR games should have some limits to the extent that the technology is able to completely simulate real life. At some point, graphic violence and other elements could have negative mental and emotional impacts if they become visually indistinct from reality. And for young minds, I think this can be confusing and maybe even traumatic. One of my favorite quotes about VR is from Douglas Adams who said: “Being virtually killed by a virtual laser in a virtual space is just as effective as the real thing because you are as dead as you think you are.”

Ron: Tell us about the other books that you’ve written.

Scott Hilsen: My first novel, Fraudulent Intention$, is based on a true story. It’s about one of the first investigations I did as a lawyer and involved fraud, embezzlement, adult entertainment, and even the Russian Mafia! It probably was the most exciting case I’ve ever had, and it convinced me that I wanted to focus my career on doing these kinds of investigations. Every time I told the story to friends or colleagues over the years, they would say “You gotta write a book about that!” So I eventually did and discovered my passion for writing.

My second book, Cloud of Lies, is about a secret government program that searches data in the cloud to hunt for terrorists, and the main character is a flawed corporate spy who is hired to cover it up. The story is juxtaposed with him testifying about it before a Senate Investigations Committee, which is debating how far national security can be used to justify invading someone’s privacy. This was before we used to see Senate testimony on the news all the time, so I actually had to watch hours of hearings on C-SPAN to learn the procedures. Coincidently, just as I finished writing the first draft, the Edward Snowden case broke and this issue of national security versus privacy was splashed in the headlines for months.

And my third book, The Key Holders, was inspired by a story in the Guardian about the real key holders. There actually are seven people from around the world who each hold a piece of a password to the Internet’s Domain Name System. The DNS is a series of registers linking web addresses to IP addresses, like a phone book to the Internet. Without the DNS, you couldn’t verify that the site you visit is actually the real site. These seven key holders come together twice a year for a secret ceremony in an underground secured facility where the password is regenerated. I was instantly fascinated and got the idea to write a book about these seven people getting abducted at the same time around the world by a cybercriminal, who then auctions off the password to the highest bidder.  

Ron: Your second book ‘Cloud of Lies’ was highly praised by all the readers. Have you thought of a sequel for it?

Scott Hilsen: I haven’t thought about a sequel specifically for Cloud of Lies, but I have considered writing a book where I bring together the characters from all of my stories. Each character is really different and I think it would be fun to see how they all interact. With GAMERS, however, I did leave open several possibilities for a sequel and I already have some ideas!

Ron: Do you have any mentors or people from your past that helped inspire you to get involved in writing novels?

Scott Hilsen: My mother was a career teacher and reading specialist, so books have always been a big part of my life. She inspired me to read at a young age, which leads me to write later in life. My first book is dedicated to her and my father.

Ron: Can a game be made with the concept of your book GAMERS? Would you like that?

Scott Hilsen: The VR game in the book is a fully immersive, first-person assassin game where the players wear shoes, gloves, and a headset with sensors that replicate every detail of reality, even down to calibrating their pupillary distance to refine the images. That kind of technology exists today and my guess is that it's not too far away from being incorporated into gaming. It would make for a really incredible gaming experience. But there is a darker side, which is woven into GAMERS, about what happens when that technology is used for nefarious purposes (no spoiler alert!).

Ron: Anything for your fans at NoobFeed?

Scott Hilsen: Thanks a lot to Ron and everyone at NoobFeed. Keep gaming and hope you enjoy the book!

We thank Scott Hilsen for giving us his precious time for this interview. We wish him all the very best with GAMERS and we’re confident that it’ll be a best seller. It was wonderful knowing more about him. Keep up with Scott Hilsen and don’t forget to order his book GAMERS on Amazon.