Playboy's October Playmate of the Month Pamela Horton Lets Us Peek Into Her Gaming Habit

She's every gamer guy's dream.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Pamela Horton loves being known as ever gamer guy's dream. She said so in her centerfold bio in the October 2012 issue of Playboy, so it must be true.

Now, we can confirm it. Speaking with Pamela over the phone recently, it was clear that she's the real deal. She's obsessed with MMOs, particularly World of Warcraft, and other hardcore games, including the notoriously noob-unfriendly League of Legends.

And her favorite Mario Kart character? You'll never guess—you'll have to read on to find out.

 

Let's break the ice—who's your go-to Mario Kart character?

My go-to Mario Kart character is Toadette.

Toadette?

I always play Toadette. Yeah.

Which version of Mario Kart is she even in? The Gamecube one?

No no no. Her first one was in Mario Kart Wii, I believe.

You know more about it than me, apparently.

[Laughing] Yeah, Mario Kart is actually one of my best games. You know, my favorite level is Raindbow Road, and it's the one I'm best at.

So tell me more about yourself—you're an artist as well as a gamer?

Yeah, I've been an artist since I was in about fifth grade, but I've been a gamer since I was about five years old. I try to do a little bit of everything. I mostly do just pencil drawings, but I've got a pen tablet for digital design attached to my Mac, and I do acrylic paints and oils and watercolors. I also do pastels, and I also do, like, craft stuff, like ceramics and glass-blowing and leather-working. You know, just, crocheting, literally anything you can create with your hands, I can do or am willing to try.

Do you find that your art and gaming overlap a lot?

Yeah! Oh yeah, all the time. I make fan art of—actually, it's funny that you asked who my favorite Mario Kart character was, because a while ago I had made this little comic of Toad pooping in a pipe [laughing]. It was an inside joke with a couple of my friends, and I drew it and it actually kind of got pretty popular on the internet.

I'll have to look it up [note: could not find. Anyone?]. How did you get into gaming?

When I was about five years old, my dad first let me play A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo, and I immediately was drawn in and addicted. I played so much that I knew how to do the first dungeon before I could tie my own shoes, you know? [laughing]

So what other kinds of games do you like—I heard League of Legends?

Yeah! League of Legends is a big one. Actually, last night I made my Playmate smurf account. It's level-one, but I plan on leveling it to level 30. It's MissOctober2012. But other games that I play right now—I just got Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy for the 3DS, Bust-a-Move Universe for the 3DS, I just finished Final Fantasy XIII-2 for the PS3. I'm going to pick up Borderlands 2, because everybody and their mother is telling me that I need to play it [laughing]. But right now what I'm really excited for is God of War: Ascension. Like, I'm a big God of War fan, and I really really really really want it to come out now [laughing].

So are you a Sony fangirl? Or Microsoft, or Nintendo?

I'll always be a Nintendo girl on the inside, but I try not to play favorites for any system. I spend most of my time on the PC, but I own every current console. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the Wii U immediately, but, you know, as a Nintendo fan girl I'll probably get it just out of, you know, my die-hard Nintendo fandom.

What do you think about the Wii U?

I think it's a good idea, but it'll be confusing and people will be a little bit wary about it at first, as excited as they say they're going to be. You know, just the whole idea of the interface and the handheld, but still, you know, have the Wii console, and you know. It's just—people are going to be confused [laughing].

 

How'd you get into modeling? Did you ever think you'd be posing for Playboy?

I've been modeling since I was 18. I actually never, you know, put my eggs in the modeling basket before then. You know, I was posting—back when Myspace was the thing, I had taken a picture with my digital camera and posted it on Myspace, and I guess a photographer saw it, and he figured, you know, if I could take a picture like that on my digital camera, I'd probably be able to take amazing pictures in front of a camera, you know, of a really nice camera with a backdrop and makeup. So he went out on a limb and sent me a message. I was kind of scared at first, but my sister was with me and I found that day that I had a natural knack for modeling. Like, it was just amazing how poses and, you know, expressions just come out of me without really me even trying.

And I've always been fairly modest in regard to my talent, but not necessarily what I'm willing to show [laughing]. I've been a nude model since I was 18. And I've never been embarrassed about it. I've always been very open about, you know, the human body. I know that, you know, a lot of people are embarrassed or whatever, but, you know, I believe that the human body is a masterpiece. It's a beautiful thing, and I never thought that I'd be able to get into Playboy, but then a Playboy photographer contacted me, and said that he wanted to submit me for Cybergirl, and he sent in my pictures, and they wanted to test me for Playmate, and here I am!

I feel like that's one in a million. A Myspace message?

Yeah, I mean, it was all just chance. And I mean every day I count many, many blessings.

Congrats. So have you hung out at the Playboy Mansion a lot?

Yeah! Every time I go to California, I tend to stay at the Mansion. It's 100 percent amazing. It's just, I mean, you know they have the movie nights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and, you know, Hef is such a sweetheart, and he is amazingly respectful, and his girlfriends are nice, and my Playmate sisters are absolutely amazing. You know, everybody feels that it's a cutthroat industry, and everybody would be, you know, really mean or uptight, but everybody's just incredibly nice.

They have movie nights—is there a game night too? Do you get to play any video games at the Mansion?

Sunday at about 1 o'clock usually it's called either fun-in-the-sun or game day over at the game house. But it's not necessarily, like, modern gaming, with like pinball and, you know, just basically arcade games that are in the game house. But they do have a couple different consoles hooked up in the library or the living room at the Mansion. But usually when I go out there I'll have my laptop with me [laughing].

As a female gamer, do you find that other gamers are respectful? Do you get a lot of shit?

Well, of course, it's a very, very sexist area. I always get told either "Show me your tits" or, you know, "Get back in the kitchen," you know? Like, it's either I'm objectified, or like, "put in my place," quote-unquote [laughing]. But most of the time when I get picked on or people start teasing me, I don't want to say I embrace it, but you know, I don't let them use it against me. It's like, they tell me to get back in the kitchen, and I say, well, "I'm all out of turkey," and, you know, "What kind of cheese do you want?" [laughing] They kind of take me seriously then, or at least treat me a little bit more like a human being and start having conversations with me instead of, you know—like, "Well shit, she's not afraid of, or offended that I told her to get back in the kitchen. What am I going to do now?"

And then you push them back down the lane?

Yup. And then I take down all their towers [laughing].

 

What's your favorite game of all time?

My favorite game of all time—the one that I always go back to—is Chrono Trigger. We had that when I was very, very young, and I just remember, even to this day—I have a hard time remembering which endings are at which time frames, and, you know, which point in the game I can get the frog ending or the balloon ending, or, you know, just how different it is every time you play it, I feel. And I will always love that game, forever and always. You know, I've got it for the DS, so I get to play it all the time.

It was way ahead of its time. What games are you looking forward to right now?

God of War: Ascension.

Anything else?

I was pretty excited about [the World of Warcraft expansion]Mists of Pandaria, but now it's out, so I can't say that. I'm excited about that. But as of right now, I mean, I am such a big God of War fan that that's the one that, like, I'm just freaking out about. Like, all the pictures and videos that they put in, like, Game Informer and on Youtube and, you know, just, I cannot believe how amazing it looks, and I'm just—I'm excited.

Do you have any advice for girls who date guys who are gamers?

It's really easy. My current boyfriend is my best friend. I mean, and we lane together in League of Legends. He has my back when it comes to people dogging on me. I mean, he's not like bro-man, getting all defensive for his woman. He's just like, "Let her do her thing!" You know? "You'll see! Give her a chance!" I found that gamer guys who come to appreciate me as not just a woman, but a gamer, you know, they make really, really good friends, and really, really, really, really, good boyfriends [laughing].

Is there anything else you wanted to mention?

Well, you know, I wouldn't have this platform to talk about my gaming had I not had this opportunity with Playboy, and if people haven't checked out my issue, or the app on the iPad that allows you to see every issue that's ever been made, you know, just check out Playboy and Playboy.com, because they gave me this opportunity, and their content is amazing and classy, and you know, check that out [laughing].

What else do you have coming up?

I of course have a couple commercial events coming up for Playboy that I can't really elaborate on, but I will be back in LA and I have been invited to go to the world championship for League of Legends in LA, which I'm excited about. So yeah, so I guess I've become quite the hubbub on the subreddit, League of Legends.

That's not surprising to me. Thanks Pamela!

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