He has frequently been referred to as the Programmer Tough Pants. He worked at Midway and Activision before temporarily leaving the gaming industry to join the US Navy, where he learned how to fly military aircraft. He later left the Navy and was hired by Obsidian. Arguably, of all the staff at Obsidian, he is one of the ones who has contributed to the BioWare NWN2 boards the most through answering many fan questions and contributing to discussions on NWN2. On 12 July 2006, Lawson announced on his blog that he would be leaving Obsidian after NWN2 is completed. [1]