Alyce Rocha makes her living working from home – but she doesn’t have a normal nine too five.
Forget endless Teams meetings, she’s spent recent weeks living the (virtual) life of an ambitious Mafia upstart in 1900s Sicily.
Such is life as a video game streamer.
Known online as alyska, she has made gaming her full-time career, by broadcasting herself playing games live, to her combined 585,000 followers.
The appeal, she says, is “sharing an experience together”.
“If you’ve played the game yourself than you want to see someone else’s reaction,” she tells the BBC’s Woman’s Hour.Once thought of as a male-dominated pastime, today women make up around half of the game-playing public, according to Ukie, the UK’s games industry body.
Women ‘less quiet’ about gaming
Although figures show young women now play games just as much as men, the streaming sector audience is still predominantly male according to YouGov. Blockbuster titles like Fifa and Call of Duty mirror this.
Frankie Ward, an eSports gamer and presenter, says this is a lot about who games are being marketed to.
“In the past gaming has kind of been this protected identity that men have held on to very strongly.”Women are being a lot more vocal about the fact that they’re gamers, and they’re becoming a lot prouder to say so.”
More women are finding community through gaming
“I’ve been gaming since I was a child,” she says. “I didn’t know anyone in my school who was a girl who played games, whereas now it’s so easy to find communities and streamers who are women who you can talk to and game with.”
An ‘escape’ from daily struggles
Black Girl Gamers are one group that are bringing women together through gaming. What started out as a small Facebook group in 2015 has grown into a community of over 10,000 black female players worldwide.
Speaking to BBC Women’s Hour, community member Iesha says that gaming with the group has helped her meet like-minded people who share her background – some of whom have become her closest friends.
“When I was younger… I didn’t know there were other black female gamers like me.
“I thought I was a bit of an anomaly. I like the fact that I’m not.”
Fellow member Deanne has become a close friend. She playfully compares meeting Iesha online to a “try before you buy” situation. Hours spent chatting while gaming meant they got to know each other so well that their first in-person meeting felt entirely natural.
Deanne says that gaming with the group offers her “an escape” from daily struggles, including those unique to black women. “It’s a whole universe of people who just get it; everybody understands – it gives you a calmer mindset,” she says.
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