“We see it differently”, video games finally reassuring for the parents of e-sports?

The consoles were lined up and the controllers placed on the tables of the Atrium d’Argenteuil this Saturday. “Game Impact” was the name of the event organized by Kayane, an internationally renowned fighting game champion, in collaboration with the town of Argenteuil where she is from. An initiative to introduce parents and children present on site to “the positive impact of video games and e-sports. I wanted us to attract an audience other than the fighting game community that I already know” emphasizes Kayane.

“A moment of discovery” for parents

Throughout the day, visitors were able to discover several retro or recent games installed in the Atrium room. Controller in hand, many parents have lent themselves to the game of facing their children. This is the case of Nadia Taleb, 40, who came with her son Ishmael, 7: “It’s true that we have an image, me first as a mother, negative of video games. I like this type of event because it allows you to see them differently. It’s a moment of discovery, I had never played video games before”. Competitive environment obliges, two tournaments were also open to amateur and professional players on Dragon Ball FighterZ and Tekken 7 broadcast on the stage.

The e-sportspeople battled it out to applause and cheers from the audience as two professional commentators translated the characters’ actions onto the big screen for ease of understanding. “I was watching earlier and it made me laugh, it really feels like watching a sports competition exclaims Nadia. I did not know that there were competitions at this level, in such a professional way”.

Yet this is what has punctuated Kayane’s daily life from an early age: “I started playing video games at 4 years old, fighting games at 7 years old and tournaments at 9 years old”. A passion she inherited from her brothers, who are also competitive players. “So my parents were used to it and it happened naturally. As long as I had good grades at school, I was allowed to go to tournaments on weekends,” adds Kayane, who emerged at a time when the vision of esports was very different: “The only places where we could talk about it, it was often the television media which spoke badly about it most of the time, so that did not reassure my parents. What would have reassured them is that I work on a permanent contract in a big company”.

For the champion, the appearance of new broadcasting channels has helped to allay the fears of worried parents: “We have social networks, YouTube, broadcasters like the Twitch streaming platform, which have made it possible to democratize the discipline and promote new professions around the video game”.

Changing mindsets

With the professionalization of e-sport, some players present at the event can now experience video game competitions. This is the case of Yasha, professional player on Dragon Ball FighterZ, who won the Game Impact tournament for the Solary structure: “My mother always supported me in what I did, even if it was an unknown path. and that she was sometimes uncertain about my future,” the player points out. Several elements allowed Yasha to demonstrate to those around her that this career choice was not a dead end:

When my mother saw that I was starting to gain notoriety, to win cash prizes (winnings of a tournament), that I was traveling for competitions, that I had signed with a professional team (Solary) last year , she was happy. When she sees the phenomenon, she tells herself that it’s not just playing in a vacuum and wasting her time.

At the Argentueil event, very young parents are also interested in discipline, such as Wilfrid, 26, father of a six-month-old baby girl: “I think that today we are part of a new generation of parents who still have a lot of perspective on video games”.

“I will encourage my daughter to the maximum”

The Argenteuil, amateur e-sportsman, made the trip to Game Impact to face the best players of the Tekken 7 tournament. Passionate about video games, he wants e-sport to be more popular: “It’s a discipline which has enormous legitimacy, which must be taken seriously. We have a talent pool in France that can do great things,” announces Wilfrid. For him, the practice of e-sport by his daughter would not be a problem: “I would totally agree to her becoming a professional player. It’s like sport, it brings us all together, if my daughter chooses video games in the future, I will encourage her as much as possible. A mix that is lacking in this environment despite the presence of Kayane as ambassador of the event.


source site