Get to know a little about Becky “Aktrez” Young’s background and you’ll see why she knows what men “Crave.”
But that’s only the beginning, Becky unloads a full clip of truth about girl gamers while also talking Comic Con and the modern art of cosplay.
How does an “almost always good girl” enjoy a successful career in the entertainment industry? How did WoW make her the “bad…bad girl” she is today?
We asked her all this and more:
JHS: What inspired you to get your start in cosplay? What was your first character?
In 2004, I had come across an artist (while playing Magic the Gathering) named Greg Horn. I was always in LOVE with his Sera Angel print from the cards. I did a little follow up research on him one day and discovered he was the mastermind behind the covers on the Emma Frost origins series. It was love at first cleavage! She was not only EXTREMELY sexy and powerful but, her history and why she was the way she was was fascinating. Comic Con 2006 was the birth of my Emma Frost costume and the rest… is history!
Talk about your role at Crave and what the culture is there…are you the biggest geek on staff? Are you guys pretty competitive about your geekdom?
I am the Video Department Manager at CraveOnline.com. So, basically, I manage all of the video that we put up on the site. CraveOnline is the GO TO place for guys. When we say “we know what men crave” … we mean it! Athena Stamos and I are the only two girls on the content team but, we are a –small but fierce – team of geeks, music lovers, pop culture fans and yes – even a jock!!! Can you believe it!? Geeks and jocks CAN get along. CraveOnline is living proof.
Given that it’s now actually cool to be a geek, a lot of girls are now “posing” as gamers/nerds just to market themselves…do you have any feelings on this?
Sigh … this is a hard one. I mean, I have been called out SO many times for being a “fake” geek. So, it’s a bit hard for me to call out girls for being fake if I don’t know them.
Just because a girl poses seductively with a game controller does not make her fake. It makes her seductive. It means she is playing off of the age old “sex sells” mantra that we all know works. Sure, it can get annoying to walk around comic con and see all of the “off the rack” costumes getting more attention than your hand sewn work but, at the end of the day, is it really for me to say they are fake? Maybe going to a convention will awaken something in them and they will pick up a comic or start collecting action figures. I guess, at the end of the day, if you claim to enjoy something – who am I to question that claim? I’ll just challenge you and see who wins instead.
Most geeks worth their salt know about your Santa Baby song, but are there any other geek inspired holiday tracks out there you’ve produced? Any on the horizon?
Gosh, you really did your homework!! Ha ha. You know … I have a CLOSET in my head just filled with geek parodies. I’ve been writing parodies for years now, far before the amazing Team Unicorn made geek girl parodies famous. One of these days with enough time – and budget – I would LOVE to see some of these come to life. We’ll have to see!
Ally or Horde?
I originally started off with a Dark Elf but, that was back in the beta days. It didn’t take me long to go over to the dark side and become Horde. I felt like the game played better on the horde side and that the characters were a bit more robust. Which is ODD for me! I am almost always good. In Fable – 100% good. In Bioshock – saved all the sisters. In SWToR – Jedi. But, something about the characters in WoW made me want to be a bad … bad girl. I will say, I’ve been away from WoW for a while now and have been spending most of my time in Skyrim and Diablo III. That is … until the next wave of awesomeness comes out. Then, who knows!
Make sure to keep up with Becky on her facebook page and on her twitter for more awesome cosplay updates and photos!

Paul Nyhart – who has written 891 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Paul Nyhart is the Head Editor and Writer of JaceHallShow.com covering everything from game reviews and previews to the cultural impact of video games.

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