Earlier last month the MG team had the chance to sit down with women’s NBA champion Aerial Powers, to talk about what gaming meant to her and how she balances being an athlete both online and offline. Aerial talked with the MG team from her apartment in Washington DC, with the rest of the team hosting from their home base of London (with two exceptions stuck way up north). Ariel shared with the team her origin story as a gamer, memories about her experiences growing up and how playing an FPS online game with her dad while catching up with her mum on the mic was an important family tradition. Even when Ariel’s career or training had her in a different place or a different time zone, they found time to play together.
The team was uncharacteristically quiet listening to Aerials stories
All of us a little starstruck by the WNBA champion who was chatting to us over discord like it was no big deal (it was a big deal) except when the team all piped up at once to ask more questions (the most important being: is playing Oddjob in golden eye cheating?) The conversation eventually turned to health in gaming, with Aerial walking the team through some of the great initiatives she was a part of to promote health in gaming (check out our podcast to hear more).
If you were ever thinking of starting that YouTube channel or that twitch stream or starting that podcast maybe now’s the time to get started
Health and video games are rarely discussed together in a positive context
With videogames often being associated with laziness, poor hygiene and (when the media train has really slowed down) violence. Just about anyone who plays videogames from a casual hobby to a 9 to 5 career will probably tell you that there’s not much truth to the first two (Maybe the first but only sometimes) but (almost) all will deny that video games lead to violent behaviour (an occasional controller launched into a defenceless wall not being included). But beyond the same tired old conversation about video games not causing violence and actually being a positive and productive hobby, in the era of COVID-19 the video games industry has an important role to play.
In light of our current circumstances video games can become the way we connect again
Lately, recording podcasts with MG always seems to start with “so how’s lockdown on your end?” either right before or after talking about how much we like our American guests’ accents & vice versa. This conversation almost always ends with an uncertain “Yeah we’re doing ok” on one or both ends.
Writing this some weeks after recording the podcast with Aerial (you can hear me nervously asking my pre-planned question somewhere towards the end). I’m still thinking about her story of how gaming was something that brought her and her family closer, about how her dad bringing home a few extra controllers one day sparked a lifelong love of gaming for Aerial, and I’m thinking about how talking over the mic during a twitch stream suddenly feels like connecting with the outside world again rather than just a thing I do on a Wednesday night. Suddenly playing video games is something I’m doing for my own mental health rather than something I do badly just for fun.
In light of our current circumstances video games can become the way we connect again, not just with strangers who like to troll but with the friends and family who we are unfortunately too far from right now. If you were ever thinking of starting that YouTube channel or that twitch stream or starting that podcast maybe now’s the time to get started, cause really all you have to do is start. In the middle of a global crisis may not seem like the best time, but if this experience has shown me something it’s that the ‘best time’ doesn’t really exist, so we should probably just make the best of time while we have it.
In light of our current circumstances video games can become the way we connect again
Not just with strangers who like to troll but with the friends and family who we are unfortunately too far from right now. If you were ever thinking of starting that YouTube channel or that twitch stream or starting that podcast maybe now’s the time to get started, cause really all you have to do is start. In the middle of a global crisis may not seem like the best time, but if this experience has shown me something it’s that the ‘best time’ doesn’t really exist, so we should probably just make the best of time while we have it.
That’s why although I still can’t play animal crossing all day (Still not on that switch hype) I can ask my work buddy how her town is doing while we’re stuck on opposite sides of the city. I can still get tips from a twitch viewer watching me trying to play a 10-year-old JRPG in the UK while they look up a guide for me in the US. At the weekend a kind soul from Germany explained to me how to actually play Final Fantasy 14 online (she’s apparently teaching her young son how to play so he and I are probably about the same level of expertise) and I can still meet with my MG team over discord to talk about our next new project for MG, and be a little starstruck listening to special guests about theirs.
That’s why we can all still take care of each other as best we can, and why just talking over the mic to catch up can make all the difference.
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