Last night I viewed a stream that Meho2007 was doing on Twitch. I managed to get him between games – he’d just finished one and was moving on to Halo by the time I left. When I dropped in I said Hi to Meha and the chat. Meho, who is very loud, immediately shouted out Hi back, and told the chat (about 48 people) that I was FacelessJim’s dad. There were several people I’d met online before, and lots that I hadn’t. A number of people said hi back. Meho went on (again very loudly, I think his internal amp is set to 11!) to tell them about my blog and how Faceless (and friends, as it turns out) are helping teach me how to game online, as I’ve mentioned in the first blog posts that I’ve done on here. He also told them the blog site url, and posted it for others to go to.

All this time Meho’s close-up camera was on as he was preparing packs of Pokemon cards that he was selling, and preparing for a giveaway game that happened a few minutes later. His regular camera was set to record him – standing and pacing up and down and dressed in a grey tank top. I suspect he works out as he kept pulling the shirt up to reveal an impressive set of abs and pecs. At one point he stopped and suddenly shouted “everyone go follow Old Geezer (me) – he’s going to start streaming soon and needs followers!” A few minutes later I had a look at my site – the number of followers had jumped from 3 when I first signed on, to 13 after Meho’s shoutout. I figured I’d better get on there & start streaming asap (see next blog post for how that went).

Shortly after the shoutout, the stream took a more emotional turn, with Meho revealing that a friend of his had died about 15 years earlier, and he started talking about his friend, and shedding a few tears along the way. Chat was very supportive, with others revealing heartbreaks that they had had in their lives. Meho walked out of the frame for a few minutes to compose himself, then came back and continued opening packs and commenting on the cards in it. I had to leave at that point.

I had no idea before I started this project that gaming could become such an intensely personal experience, allowing for the expression of deep emotion and compassion. I had thought it was a place where little was said and the gaming experience was paramount. How wrong that impression was.