Three women share with Aiman Maulana their passion for video gaming
GAMING is one of the most popular pastimes today. It keeps you entertained, allows you to vent your frustrations and even makes you feel like you’re living the life that isn’t possible in reality.
Despite the popular notion that gaming is a boy’s toy, it is also rapidly gaining popularity among girls. Like the boys, they play shooters, fighting, action-adventure, role-playing strategy or Massively Multiplayer Oneline (MMO) games, with the same level of enthusiasm and passion.
AZEAN ABD MALIK
Azean, 19, from Penang had her first experience with video games at 7, when her brothers played the Nintendo Entertainment System. She became curious about this wonderful machine that was capable of projecting pixels and images on the screen. Soon she tried it out on her own and became an avid gamer ever since.
Azean typically enjoys gaming on the PlayStation 4.
Her favourite genres are role-playing and open world, mainly because she loves to explore. This is also why she has never participated in any gaming tournaments. However, she is open to it as long as she has time to brush up on her skills.
She started her YouTube channel last month under the pseudonym Kambing Golek. She believes she can entertain people with her experience in gaming and to prove that there are girl who are into gaming. She has since amassed over 300 subscribers.
Azean finds the most joy when there are people on YouTube who are surprised to find that the person behind Kambing Golek channel is a girl. She goes through all the comments expressing their surprise and takes pride in being able to break the “girl gamer” stereotype.
Azean plans on building her life around gaming, especially with content on her YouTube channel, as she believes that gaming is her life’s calling.
MIMI HANEY
Syamimi Haney Jaffrymore, better known as Mimi Haney, from Johor Baru, is a well-known local gamer on YouTube and Twitch. Her father is an avid gamer who taught her how to use PlayStation 1 when she was just 6, with Resident Evil: Nemesis being her first game. It may sound scary for a young girl but it hit her at that point that there was no other entertainment that gave her the same level of thrill. Thus, video games became her favourite hobby.
Mimi, 22, enjoys playing horror and shooter games as she enjoys the excitement that comes from a blood rush. She feels that there is no better excitement than in taking down enemies and a good scare. Mimi doesn’t just play games for entertainment as she enjoys competitions too. She prefers are international tournaments which are not open to Malaysians. She feels that if those tournaments are available here, she will seriously make competitive gaming her career.
In order to promote her skills, Mimi started doing video content on YouTube and streamed her gameplays on Twitch.
She admits that it’s tough being a girl in the gaming community as no one seems to take girls seriously.
As much as Mimi loves to play video games, she also enjoys creating video game-based content which enables her to get to know more like-minded people both within the country and internationally.
NATASHA HASHIM
Natasha or TashBunny, as she is known in the e-sports arena, is one of the hosts of Astro’s eGG Network, a lifestyle and gaming channel on Channel 808.
Cheerful and bubbly, the 25-year-old professional gamer has been playing all sorts of genres since young, until she was chosen by Astro to host the esports channel.
She was hooked to role-playing games such as Kingdom Hearts, Persona 3 and StarOcean in the beginning. But after a while, she moved to PC gaming and played massive multi-player RPG (MMORPG) RunScape.
Natasha continued with MMORPG for about eight years and went into esport, a competitive gaming, in 2013 with the League Of Legends. Playing games gives her a sense of fulfilment, especially when completing or winning a fight or a mission.
The current live streaming channels she handles are more for communicating and interacting with her followers.
“I’m not into competitive gaming, but more of a Let’s Play gamer where people can see me through live streaming,” she says.
Normally, Natasha plays from 9pm till 3am when many viewers are online. Her current favourite is The Walking Dead.
“For me, the game has a very good story line, and it has different outcomes based on what you do,” she says.
“But I still play League of Legends everyday.”
Besides gaming, she also enjoys reading books, especially Harry Potter’s Series and Howl’s Moving Castle.
Natasha’s love for gaming and all-things games has landed her a dream career. “I’m already in it, but if I want something big,
I want my streaming channels to be huge.
I just love sharing the experience of playing games,” she says.
Natasha does online streaming on two channels, on Tuesday at eGGNetwork (www.twitch.tv/eggnetwork.)
and other days on TashBunny (her InGameName)
THE BIG MISCONCEPTION
THIS is weird when you think about why there’s a need to distinguish female gamers as “girl gamers”. You don’t hear male gamers referred as “guy/boy gamers”, so why is this the case for the ladies? This stems from an old misconception that video games are just for boys.
There was once when the video game industry was facing imminent destruction and the hero that saved the industry was the Japanese multinational company Nintendo. However, in their efforts to save the industry, they inadvertently planted the seeds of prejudice against women.
In 1978, the video game industry saw a huge spike in popularity. A huge number of people were willing to spend their hard earned cash to bring home a video game console and this led the profitability of the industry to skyrocket, with total video game sales peaking at US$3.2 billion (RM14.2 billion) in 1983 according to Nintendo of America’s reports.
And since people saw the money-making potential of the industry, there was a sudden influx of consoles and video game software hitting the market. The market became oversaturated with shoddy and poorly designed video games. Since then, plenty of people opted not to spend money on video games and stores became filled with unsold inventory. This was when revenues plummeted by about 97 per cent to around US$100 million.
As a result, video games, or electronic entertainment devices to be precise, were frowned upon.
Nintendo wanted to release the Famicom then but to get a more positive reception, they marketed it as a toy instead. However, toys back then were divided into two sections; boys and girls. They went for the boys’ section and started to market it relentlessly. Other video game companies soon followed suit.
FOR THE LOVE OF GAMING
HOW DID YOU GET INTO GAMING?
Azean: I was watching my brothers playing video games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the one that you had to put cartridges in and there were cartridges with hundreds of games in it. I was intrigued and I’ve been gaming ever since.
Mimi: My dad was a gamer and he taught me how to play games on the PlayStation 1 when I was 6. Resident Evil: Nemesis was my first game and the thrills of a horror game got me hooked on gaming.
Natasha: I’ve been playing games since primary school, using my cousin’s Playstation 1, initially. Soon, my father bought me a Playstation 2 after I did well in exams.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE VIDEO GAME PLATFORM?
Azean: Since I only have a PlayStation 4 console and I’ve always been gaming on consoles, I have to say that the PlayStation 4 is my favourite.
Mimi: I’m a PlayStation and Xbox owner. Between the two, I choose the PlayStation 4.
Natasha: PC for now but only because
I don’t have a PlayStation 4 yet.
WHAT KIND OF GAMES DO YOU PREFER TO PLAY?
Azean: I play mostly role-play and open world games. I get to explore the world, do whatever I want, like hunt down items to upgrade my characters. I’m not into fighting games since people tend to just mash buttons to win.
Mimi: I’m mostly into horror, fighting and shooting games because I enjoy the thrill.
Natasha: I’m mostly into role-play and story-centric games. League of Legends aside, it needs to have a compelling story to reel me in.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE VIDEO GAME?
Azean: I have quite a few. Fallout 4, Uncharted 4, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, and every single Grand Theft Auto game.
Mimi: It used to be Destiny, Rainbow Six Siege, and Battlefield 1. Now I’m more into Titanfall 2.
Natasha: Despite loving League of Legends, I have to say that it’s Persona 3 for sure.
DO YOU HAVE A DREAM CAREER OR EXPERIENCE THAT YOU WANT TO PURSUE?
Azean: To be a successful YouTuber. I want people to not only be entertained by my videos, but also serve as proof that there are girls who enjoy gaming. My current goal is to grow my channel as much as possible.
Mimi: I don’t really have a specific thing in mind but whatever career I’ll land in, I want it to be within the scope of gaming. I would also love to travel around the world.
Natasha: A full-time Twitch streamer, maybe do something on YouTube but essentially, make a living with gaming or gaming-related things.
