Twitch streamer Eliska and women gamers defying stereotypes

ALYCE ROCHA works to work at home – but he does not have normal nine to five.

Forget the meetings of endless teams, he has spent an ambitious mafia upstart in Sicily to live a recent week (virtual) life.

Such a life in the form of video game streammer.

Known as an online Alka, he has made gaming his full -time career, playing the game live, by broadcasting her to 585,000 followers.

The appeal, she says, “sharing an experience together”.

“If you have played the game yourself, you want to see someone else’s response,” she tells the BBC woman’s hour.

Once a male-oriented pastime was thought, today women make about half of the people playing the game, According to UK Games Industry Census,

Alice says that a part of her role is challenging perceptions on the types of women enjoying.

Statistics suggest most women Playing puzzles and strategy-style gamesThese non -violent titles, including Jeevan Simulator Sims and Animal Crossing, are often grovelized under the label of “cozie gaming”.

But Ellis says that she also enjoys the role-like action and fantasy-musical games like many women.

“I used to hate horror games,” tells Alice. “However, my audience loved to see me suffering, so I would play more and more, at the point that I really love them now”.

This shows the makeup of her audience. While still mainly male, she has seen the number of female audiences in recent years about 10% – a small but significant increase.

Alyce earns he earns as a “respectable” wage – even as one of the small names in the scene.

It is not that this is an easy task. Gaming can be fun, but not only growing, but the challenge of maintaining, an audience is tireless.

“I am always grinding,” Alice says, recently cut six-hour streams from 12-hours, with morning administrator, seven days a week.

He needs to avoid many accounts on popular platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, to create adequate income from things like customers, revenue and participation.

This is a complex function for the need to cut income transmitted by several platforms. For example, Twitch takes half as standard.

This competition reflects an industry that is now more than music, TV and film joint with revenue this year. UK alone is expected to reach £ 13.7bn.

Although showing figures Young women now play games like menViewers of the streaming sector are still primarily male According to yougovBlockbuster titles such as FIFA and call of duty mirror.

Asports gamer and presenter, Frankie Ward says it is a lot in which game is being marketed.

“The previous gaming is like this protected identity that men have held very strongly.

“Women are getting very vocal about the fact that they are gamers, and they are becoming too much proud to say so.”

In the industry, more sexual illustrations, more sexual, more sexual, female characters have also departed from female characters.

Sports such as The Last of As -As, partially molded by writers such as Haley Gross, boasted female characters layered in their originals. Somewhere else, life is strange and anger and bloom Woven the realities of teen life and femininity – From periods to sexuality and body image – in their widespread narratives.

Considering the shift, Alice says that there have always been women’s gamers, but they have just been “cool about it” – so far.

“I have been gaming since I was a child.” She says. “I knew nobody in my school, who was a girl who used to play the game, while now it is so easy to find communities and streamters that are women you can talk and play.”

Black girl gamers are a group that bring women together through gaming. The beginning of a small Facebook group in 2015 has developed in a community of more than 10,000 black women players worldwide.

Speaking to the BBC woman hour, community member Isha says that gaming with the group has helped her meet like -minded people who share their backgrounds – some of whom have become their closest friends.

“When I was younger … I didn’t know that other black women like me were gamers.

“I felt that I was a bit of discrepancy. I like that I am not.

Fellow member Dean has become a close friend. She compares ficklely to meet Lesha “before buying” the situation. They spent hours in chatting during gaming, which meant that they knew each other well that their first in-tradition meeting looked completely natural.

Dean states that gaming with the group provides it with “a migration” from daily conflicts, including unique for black women. “This is an entire universe of people who receive it; everyone understands – it gives you a calm mindset,” she says.

It can help when dealing with toxic elements of the broad online gaming community More than a decade from gamergate.

Another black girl gamer Edobi says that she says buffers when she joins the public online game session outside the group and faces wrong or racist misuse.

“I know if I turn on my mic and I open my mouth [to talk during an online game]No person is happy with this, “She says. In response, she has started telling men who abuse her only to” improve “.

Others, such as Dean, opt for mutual interaction. “I just close it. I don’t listen to them. The scoreboard will tell everything,” she takes a pinch.

To help combat these shared negative experiences, the community has launched a ‘venting’ channel on its discord social media platform. A safe, member-place place for discussion and support.

Gaming then, no longer a solitary experience, but there is an online world that can be a positive entrance for real -world understanding and connection.

For Isha, it has become an emotional asylum to navigate emotions with others, playing online with others or watching a stream.

“Gaming has helped me through some difficult times, including family losses and grief,” she says. “Some of these games allow you to experience these emotions in soft ways.”

And, as she emphasizes, shared journey makes all differences. “I am going through the luggage … they are passing through the luggage – but we can get through it,” she says. “He is gaming”.