Wendy Sue Noah Interview

*Wendy Sue working at the* *Avatars 97 conference*

Author notes: - The following interview took place between October and December 2025 after trying to co-ordinate something previously back in 2022.

Wendy was super generous with her time and as you'll see from our chat, she has a super positive energy that really comes across through her words (and if you watch the video further down, you'll hear that same energy too).

This interview mostly focuses on Wendy's WorldsAway/VZones adventures, however if you're interested in learning more about her personally then you should check out the interview she did with Bold Journey last year.

Where did you first hear about WorldsAway?

Good question! So I was introduced to Bruce Damer by a mutual friend, and we immediately hit it off and ended up working together in the Avatar space for several years. I assisted him with PR / marketing in both of the San Francisco Avatar conferences, and helped him with his Avatar book.

Dr Bruce Damers seminal work on virtual worlds in the mid to late 1990's, Avatars! is a moment in time captured on paper (and in digital form on his site). WorldsAway features prominently in there and this book was also used in court to shut down patent trolls claiming to have invented things we take for granted in these spaces, like word balloons.

With that in mind, Bruce introduced me to Reid Hoffman (now quite famous in his own right, as one of the co-founders of PayPal and of LinkedIn! He was actually a guest on Stephen Colbert a few months back!).

Wendy co-hosting a talk on Digital Communities and Culture at the Avatars to Earth conference in October 1996 in San Francisco featuring Linda Stone from Microsoft (Who had their Microsoft V-Chat virtual world service), Jim Bumgardner from The Palace, Incorporated and Judith Rubin from Fujitsu.

At the time, Reid was working at Fujitsu as a senior level manager, and worked with WorldsAway. Soon after meeting Reid, he arranged for me to interview with the manager of WorldsAway, possibly it could have been Tony Christopher!

I remember being real nervous at the interview, and calling Reid the next day to see if he heard anything about the interview. He reassured me that it went well and to be patient, as hopefully they will hire me.

Since I was coming from the Match.Com start-up, I had told them that I would be very interested in putting a dating / matchmaking area in the world, and partnering with Match, so we would be able to reach out to all of their single members to join us.

At Match, I held several matchmaking events (in San Francisco, Los Angeles and NYC), so taking it to the virtual world space was a no brainer!

Do you recall when your employment at Fujitsu started?

Summer or Fall of 1996

Do you recall what your original position was and if so, what your job originally entailed?

I believe I was hired to do Business Development and Marketing. I worked directly with Tammy Sims, the Marketing Manager.

In Business Development, I was the primary lead with partnerships, like with Match and what then developed as “Club Connect”. I do remember we had Spike Lee come in one time to do an event with us. I don’t remember who knew him but someone there did. I helped him download the software and get his avatar ready for the event.

One of my favorite parts of my work at WorldsAway was collaborating with Tammy and the Art department, as well as the developers to figure out what can or cannot be done.

Who else did you work with initially?

Tammy Sims and I worked closely together in the marketing department, and I worked closely with Sheryl Knowles and Joe Zona in the art department. Tony Christopher was the General Manager, or something like that, overseeing the WA operation. Tammy reported directly to him.

Have you seen the customized avatar they made for me?!

Wendy's custom avatar "Spark4U" created by the WorldsAway art department for her personally

*A typical WorldsAway scene around the time Wendy joined the company. This particular screenshot is of the Dreamscape on November 1st, 1996 at the opening of the Meditation Park area.*

What were your first impressions of WorldsAway at the time?

Coming from the Match start-up and seeing first hand how the Internet and online communities (what we now call social media) can change the world, I was thoroughly excited about the potential of Virtual World communities and WorldsAway.

Working with Bruce during these early days also gave me an early position as a pioneer here.

*The Fujitsu offices in San Jose where WorldsAway was developed and operated from 1994-1999*

Did you ever spend any time in any of the worlds on your own personal time?

Wow, it is so nice to see the building where we created WorldsAway as a work family with such dedication and passion!

I do remember because I spent so much time at work and in the world at work, that when I return to my North Beach San Francisco apartment, I would put away my laptop and focus on real life!

It was a lot easier to do that before social media and smart phones.

What was the office environment and culture like back in those early days if you remember?

Yes, I do. I found it very interesting, because there was the strict corporate Japanese Fujitsu presence, and then our WorldsAway world. I mean in the physical, of course. 😊

WorldsAway was treated like a startup, and we were allowed to be creative, make mistakes, and think out of the box. I loved that!

The art department was located in what appeared to be in a dark cave, and it felt like a place of great creativity!

You brokered a partnership between Match.com and WorldsAway, how did this collaboration come about?

It seemed like a perfect next step for both Match and WA. Plus, I was still very much connected with the staff at Match (like Trish McDermott), so was able to easily bring the two together.

I found a Match promotion that I had printed out from their website about Club Connect and a Delphi forums advertisement promoting it for your review and enjoyment:

Did you ever have any say in the design of any areas in any of the worlds?

Not really, just able to provide “wishes and visions".

I did have some say with “Club Connect,” though not much really. Which was really OK with me, as that was not why I was there and I was fully impressed with Sheryl and her art department’s ability and creations.

The opening ceremony of the Event Center in the Dreamscape. Wendy is on her Spark4U avatar wearing the Host hat

(Editors note: Wendy said in regards to this screenshot "Love this, thanks for sharing! Did you know my nickname at Match was Spark, and I even had an online blog called “Spark’s Plug”!")

Did you ever feel like you were a part of something special when you were working at WorldsAway?

Absolutely! After launching Match and then entering the virtual worlds industry, with WorldsAway as my professional nucleus, I knew that my work was definitely pioneering, and that I was at the beginning of a whole new world, literally and figuratively.

Did you ever have any interactions with any of the volunteer remote staff at all as part of your job?

Yes, my work involved interacting and collaborating with our members, who were extremely dedicated.

I do remember one member who became a personal friend over time. I don’t remember her name, but she confided in me that she was abducted from aliens as a young girl, and that WorldsAway / Dreamscape allowed her the ability to interact with others in a real way that she felt she was not able to do so well in the RW (real world).

How did the match.com collaboration end up working out? It’s mentioned in archived internal development e-mails that Match agreed to do events in conjunction with WA for 3 months and I wonder what happened after that.

OK, the 3 month trial rings a distant bell. I do remember that it was a trial partnership, depending on results.

I also remember that the software was still too bulky and complicated for most Match members. It was a difficult hurdle for us in WA’s marketing and business development, overall.

*The Club Connect hatchery, the first region an avatar would see when entering the world for the first time*

Do you remember how Club Connect came to be?

My recollection of CC was that I brought the concept after my successful launch of Match, and that the higher ups gave the rest of us the approval to move forward with it. I do remember Sheryl and Joe were a part of building it. I’m sure there were more artists involved. I remember discussing the branding of CC, and whether or not we should have a Match room. Don’t think that happened though.

*A screenshot of an event with author* *Connie Briscoe* *talking about their book Sisters and Lovers in Club Connect*

I do remember that we wanted to somehow make it as realistic as the RW dating scene, but that was not possible. Plus, we were wanting their Match name to match with their CC name, but there was no way technically to do this, so we had to rely on the Match member to do so.

Was there ever any talk about being a more adult world?

I was not a part of these discussions, and if I was, I would have backed out of it for sure.

On a personal note, that would not have been OK for me to diddle daddle with. It was hard enough dealing with all of the adultery caused in Match and virtual worlds, and the fraud behind the computer screen.

*Avatars getting married in Fujitsu’s Habitat II world known as Elysium*

Fujitsu ran a Japanese localized version of WorldsAway called Habitat II which was staffed by their own development team.

Did you ever have any interactions with the Japanese side of the WorldsAway team?

Wish I did, that would have been fascinating! Tammy and I, who were focused on the marketing and business development aspects, only dealt with our WA Team.

Wendy Sue presenting WorldsAway at the Avatars 97 conference in San Francisco

Do you remember anything about the Avatars 97 conference you helped put together with Bruce Damer?

Oh yes!! My work with Bruce Damer is a fond and vivid memory for me. I also worked with him on the 1996 conference, called Earth to Avatars.

It was truly an honor and privilege to work so closely to Dr. Bruce during these pioneering years of virtual worlds. I remember spending many weekends driving down to Boulder Creek, to his cabin, to help him with his avatar book and with the conferences.

Going back in time slightly, do you recall the first time you ever heard of or met David Andrews?

I do remember, as he entered our business as the “executioner” - he was hired as the person who would make WA more profitable, and cut costs (including people) that were not as productive as they needed to be. Something like that, we were all scared.

Fortunately, he kept me (for at least this round) and I was thrilled to continue my WA professional journey.

Do you recall the first time you heard about the WorldsAway group being sold off in 1999?

I do remember returning from maternity leave, and we were in a new office with new employees. And name too, right? It was now VZones?

Anyway, I did not last long past this.

Do you remember if you were concerned at all about the service surviving and whether you’d be able to continue on at WorldsAway?

I do remember there were a lot of changes that I had heard about, but I was having my own life changes with my first child and a new marriage.

From the time you started at Fujitsu up until David taking over, did your role change in scope at all?

Not really, except that as I got to know everyone well, my professional scope extended wider. I was able to interact with the artists and the programmers to lay out what Tammy and I would like to see for marketing campaigns or for business partnerships (CC) or special guests (Spike Lee).

*A Star Trek themed region used to pitch WorldsAway/VZones to Paramount*

Do you recall any pitches to companies to get them to operate a WorldsAway service that you might’ve been involved in?

No, wow! How fascinating, but unfortunately, it was way before it’s time. Mostly software wise, too much to download on a modem and limited memory space.

When did your employment end at VZones and do you remember the circumstances surrounding it?

My departure was soon after Fujitsu sold the WorldsAway group to David Andrews, and it became VZones. I had returned from maternity leave, and my services were no longer needed.

Looking back on your time at WorldsAway/VZones, how do you feel about it overall?

WorldsAway was to me a way for others to extend themselves to others in a creative form, which would allow people from ALL OVER the world to meet and join one another with similar interests, to merge new friendships / relationships, or just to allow people to express themselves to others.

WA and virtual worlds in general was a sacred space in my view, for others to merge and connect and explore beyond their physical world (city, workplace). In my hippie altruistic viewpoint, I was hoping for virtual worlds to provide a new place for true expression and inner freedom.

Do you have any regrets or projects you weren’t able to realize?

Try not to do regrets, though yes, I did have big future visions of what was possible at WA. After Club Connect, I wanted to open other space for other communities, like Planet Out (for LGBTQ+) and LatinoLink (for Latino’s)

I also wanted to do more events with famous people, book authors, inspirational speakers, etc.

Wendy sent along some photos of stuff she dug out of storage that was WorldsAway and VZones related for the interview.