How video games made these SA gamers’ lives better

From a teacher who ditched his day job to a man who films himself gaming for an almost 10m-strong audience, these South Aussies turned their hobby into a career.

He spent many years as a teacher, but his lifelong passion for video games drew him into a career he never expected.

Now known as Mr A Game on YouTube by more than 300,000 subscribers and fans, the 31-year-old has brought his lifelong passion for playing video games together with his supportive presence for young Australians.

A teacher in his former profession, Mr Game was known among his primary school pupils as a gamer and would find them often trying to “be cool” and boast about “adult games” they wanted to play.

“They would always be talking about the latest Call of Duty games or Grand Theft Auto 5, and these kids are like 8-to-10-year-old,” he said.

“As a teacher I was sitting there thinking, these kids are trying to ‘be cool’ to me … and are trying to put on this act of, ‘oh, I don’t need to play kiddie games I can play adult games because you’re an adult and you like video games’.

Mr A Game is a well-known SA-based family-friendly YouTuber with more than 300,000 subscribers. Picture Supplied

“And that kind of became the mission of my YouTube channel, to show kids, adults, families – anyone really – that you don’t have to be playing shoot-em games or Grand Theft Auto games in order to have fun.”

Mr Game said playing games had always been a part of his life, and as one of five siblings their Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 consoles became a key part of their dynamic.

“It was something we could always do together to spend time together,” he said.

“We had all the multiplayer games … we would always be playing Mario Kart or Donkey Kong country.”

His father’s love of technology spurred his interests further, and Mr Game fondly remembers importing a Nintendo 64 console from Japan before its Australian release in 1997 when he was just four.

“I remember we spent three months trying to figure out how to play Mario 64 in Japanese,” he said.

“One morning my dad came into mine and my brother’s room while we were sleeping saying, ‘Boys! you have to jump into the painting!’ and we were so excited.”

But he said the magic of games also comes from their versatility.

“Anyone can pick up a game and eventually find something they like,” Mr Game said.

“There are racing games, story-driven or adventure games, if you are having a bad day and just need to vent it out, you can do that in a safe space which is a video game.”

Mr A-Game at home in his video game streaming studio. Picture: Matt Loxton

JoshDub

Joshua Wanders, known by his 9.96 million YouTube subscribers as JoshDub, said he has always enjoyed playing games, and now it’s become his day job, he couldn’t be happier.

Homegrown YouTuber JoshDub has 9.96 million subscribers and is well-known for his humorous content produced alongside his mates The Boys. Picture Supplied

The 33-year-old has been building his numerous channels for more than six years and has found growing up alongside the industry to be particularly special.

“Back (when I was a kid), every time I sat down to play games it was the best day of my life,” Mr Wanders said.

“It was a good time to grow up, with all the big milestones so every two years there were some new huge developments in the space.

“It was so exciting to go from 2D to 3D, then to computer games and big graphic jumps and

when the internet first came out, you could play with your friends without sitting next to them.”

Now Mr Wanders finds himself making videos with his friends, ‘The Boys’, making full use of the developments in virtual reality to creature “wacky fun” videos.

“I play a lot of VR games, so anything where you have full-body movement so you can see your friends running around, waving their arms about … it’s what I aim for when making content,” he said. “It’s a dream job”

Hack the Dino

Ben Rosenthal has been running his Hack the Dino gaming podcast for seven years alongside his three co-hosts Floppy, Brayden and Anto.

The team have since recorded more than 300 episodes and an interactive live show talking all things video games – past, present and future for their loyal subscribers.

Mr Rosenthal got his first game console, a Nintendo Entertainment System, at the age of seven at a recommendation from an optometrist as a way to improve his hand-eye co-ordination and his eye health.

Ben Rosenthal from the Hack the Dino podcast. Picture: Supplied

Now aged 42, Mr Rosenthal has been enthralled by the Nintendo gaming company ever since and is an avid fan and collector of games old and new.

“I even had my daughter hooked on it for a time, most heartbreaking time of my life two years ago when she said ‘Dad, I don’t like video games anymore’,” he said.

“During Covid she stayed with her mum’s due to my work … so I would, on weekends and after school, go to her mum’s place and we would play Animal Crossing and I’d visit her island and she would visit my island, and that was how we would keep in touch while she was at her mum’s, through the playing of this game.

“And that’s what I love – they aren’t the old theory of the nerd sitting in their parent’s basement by themselves, they are a way to connect with people who you can’t in person at that time.”

Rooshla

Rooshla is growing his Twitch. TV community is set to hit his first 1000 in the coming year and is passionate about having fun. Picture Supplied

Rooshla – as he’s known on gaming site Twitch.tv – has been growing his community of friends and fans since the Covid lockdowns.

Now he has almost 1000 Twitch followers and 200 people in his Discord server and has no intention of slowing down his passionate and fun playthroughs.

Rooshla and his brother got their first taste of video games when a mall Santa gave them a Sega Master System console and it has bound them ever since.

The 34-year-old said despite their parents never understanding it, his brother’s move to the Netherlands seven years ago hasn’t stopped them spending time together while having fun.

“Once in a while when we have the same time zones or similar times we’ll say, ‘hey, I’m jumping on this game, do you want to just chat and catch up,” Rooshla said.

But even when playing solo, Rooshla said the journey a video game can take you on has helped him through the good and bad times.

“The Last of Us (2013) came out when I really needed it, and the character development and journey they go through really helped me,” he said.

“I still go back to it to this day.”

Originally published as How video games made these SA gamers’ lives better