Electronic Arts' famed "Can A Computer Make You Cry?" print ad, which departing exec Bing Gordon helped create 

Once we got wind last week of William 'Bing' Gordon's impending departure from Electronic Arts, we quickly sought a pre-briefing, to which the PR teams at both Electronic Arts and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers graciously assented. We spoke by phone yesterday evening with Gordon, whose laconic California drawl belies one of the industry's most colorful and outspoken characters. Last night's chat, however, found him in a more contemplative mood, as he looked back at his tenure at EA--where he's credited with everything from creating the EA Sports brand to founding EA's studio system--and forward at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead as he enters the dizzying world of venture capital. To give you a sample of our conversation as quickly as possible, we've given Gordon the Just the FAQs treatment, but we plan to publish a more complete Q&A from our wide-ranging conversation in the days to come.

Why did Gordon decide to leave Electronic Arts for Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers?

Three reasons. First, he's comfortable with the partners at Kleiner Perkins. "I've known the leading partners at Kleiner since John Doerr and Brook Byers made a founding investment in Electronic Arts in '82," Gordon told us. "Then Brook went on the board, and Brook was kind of the cool guy on the board; deeply believes in entertainment and entrepreneurial possibilities. So he shaped my thinking about what a board member can be."

Over the last decade, Gordon has stopped by Kleiner Perkins from time to time to see what they've been up to. This, he says, resulted in him being invited to join the boards of such Kleiner Perkins investments as Amazon and Audible. "I kind of have 25 years with them. Like 'em; get my best reading list from them. So that's kind of the first thing: long experience and love for the Kleiner way of doing things."

What's the second reason?

With an empty nest looming as his daughters go off to college, he's been wondering about the second act in his American life. "I've got 15 more years to do something—might be cool to do something else" says Gordon of his thought process. "The first thing that popped into my head was Kleiner. Just unbidden, popped into my mind."

And the third?

The time that Gordon was spending at Stanford University (where he co-taught videogame prototype design) and the University of Southern California (where he has a faculty chair position in its Interactive Media Program following EA's partnership with the school), along with the shifting patterns in the way that the youth consume and produce media convinced him that the time to move on was now. "Being on campus with young people in videogame classes; seeing what they're interested in; seeing what's going on with the Internet turning into new kinds of platforms, from iPhone to Facebook and Amazon Web Services--I've gotten fired up about an all-new ride, an all-new round of invention that's coming," he says. "Kind of as part hobby, part work, I started diving into it. I realized that I really, really, really wanted to be in the middle of that.

How did EA CEO John Riccitiello take the news?

"He said that if I was leaving for anything other than going to Kleiner, he'd try to talk me out of it," Gordon told us. "But he also has a deep affection and awe for what the Kleiner people do. So he said, 'Oh. That's different.' Then we started talking about how I could stay involved; what the transition would be like—and what the good-bye and thank-you party would be like. [Laughs.] So we did that for a little while, and then we started talking about Electronic Arts' strategy."

When is Gordon's last day at EA?

He'll finish up at EA the first week of June and start at Kleiner Perkins on June 9th.

What's the right metaphor for Gordon leaving after a quarter-century with EA?

In recognition, perhaps, of the EA Sports brand that Gordon launched, he compares himself to an aging football player in discussing his departure. "There's a bunch of different ways to take it: Joe Montana going to play for the Kansas City Chiefs, or Jerry Rice going to play for the Oakland Raiders," he says. "As my kids have gotten older and I've gotten older, I've stopped playing console games."

Whoa. My mind is officially blown. If he's EA's chief creative officer, what the heck has he been playing for fun?

From what Gordon tells us, his palate has evolved in two directions--ultra-casual and ultra-hardcore. "I'm playing on Pogo and Facebook; Warhammer and World of Warcraft," he says. "My personal tastes have changed. So if I can have dinner with John Doerr and Al Gore versus some people trying to make the next console game, I'm finding their grown-up, global thinking just more fun. As much as anything else, after 25 years at EA, I'm ready to be a forty-year old."

Gordon says he's leaving to join Kleiner Perkins' "digital practice." What exactly does that mean?

"Find entrepreneurs and ideas in all things digital," says Gordon, before referring us to the list of investments that Kleiner Perkins has made on its Web site by way of explaining why he'll have to be vague about unannounced affiliated startups. "There's three companies they've invested in with people I used to work with, none of whom are doing games. They're all doing other things in digital media that are wildly cool. " He also cited the venture capital firm's previously announced iFund for iPhone-related applications as well as its green technology initiative. "The goal is to try to find ideas and people that can build something as meaningful as Amazon or Google--or Electronic Arts."

Okay, but what did Kleiner Perkins see in Gordon that made them bring a game guy on board?

In his opinion, it's his combination of big picture thinking and an eye for the details, born of many years working on consumer entertainment. "What John Doerr thinks I bring uniquely to the Amazon board," says Gordon as an example, "is big-idea creative thinking that can be business-changing. The ability to dive to a deep level of detail with high potential younger managers. Think oustide the box, but then break it all the way down to execution details. And also a lot of instincts about consumer behavior. People rarely come up through the consumer side into venture capital; it tends to be finance or sales or operations.

"So I'd say big ideas; the ability to grind all the way down to exquisite line-by-line or wireframe-by-wireframe detail; all in a framework of understanding the irrational behavior of consumers."

One last question: what is Gordon going to miss most about working at EA?

After an extended, heartfelt soliloquy about the people he's been able to work with during his many years at EA, he talked about what's most relevant to you, Dear Reader: the games. "As a creative person, you always hate to leave in the middle," says Gordon. "I wish Spore and Warhammer were out the door. Army of Two did ship, so I was happy about that. But it'll be hard to be an outsider when Warhammer and Spore ship."