The beauty of gaming is that it’s one of the those activities that transcends age, gender, religion, or any other differentiating factor. There’s a vast variety of platforms, consoles, and game genres out there today, so there’s a little something for everyone. And this has never been clearer than with the case of Hamako Mori.
Mori is a 90-year-old Japanese “Gaming Grandma” who has been gaming for 39 years—her first console was the Cassette Vision, a console first released in 1981. Guinness World Records recently recognised her as the oldest gaming YouTuber in the world, with Mori boasting a subscriber count of 269,000.
According to Mori, her interest in video games started after she noticed the fun it gave to children:
“It looked so much fun, and I thought it’s not fair if only children played it. I thought life would be more fun if I knew how to play it. So I started playing, at first while no one was watching.”
In the decades to follow, Mori delved into multiple consoles and game genres, keeping memorabilia throughout the years to preserve the memories they’ve given her. At present, her console of choice is the Sony PlayStation 4, which she uses to play action games.
Despite the general difficulty of the genre, Mori explains that action games are usually “visually spectacular”. The complexity of characters in storylines, as well, has contributed to her interest in the genre for now.
So, what’s her game of choice?
Grand Theft Auto V.
Mori has been uploading gaming videos onto YouTube for the past five years or so, with her first video garnering 88,020 views since 2014. She has continued to upload vidoes regularly, and says that she enjoys interacting with her fans.
“They also say watching my video gives them hope for the future. I feel so happy. That’s why I want to create lots and lots of videos. That’s my dream.”
When Guiness World Records first shared Mori’s story, she “only” had 150,000 subscribers. That count has now surged to 269,000, with her most-watched video drumming up 3.6 million views in just 2 months.
And Mori plans to continue uploading gaming videos onto YouTube, and of course, to continue gaming.
“After living for this long, I feel more than ever that playing games for this long was the right choice. I am truly enjoying my life – it’s rosy.”
[ SOURCE , IMAGE SOURCE ]
