Online battles keep elderly ahead of the game

Family night

When Yang started playing Honor of Kings, she just wanted to stay connected with her daughter, who took a night shift in a State-owned company in Chengdu in 2016.

"My mom has always been my best friend, with whom I share everything, good or bad, in life," Wu says, adding that, a week after she played the game, she recommended it to her mother.

It was not easy at first for Yang to get to know and understand the basics of the game, which has a vast range of heroes and complex game-play mechanics. Before Honor of Kings, Yang had puzzle games, like Collapse, and card games downloaded to her smartphone, which she found funny but not challenging enough to spend her leisure time.

"It is definitely a challenging game for beginners, like me. To understand the skills, equipment and play styles of Zhou Yu (a hero in the game), I practiced more than 4,000 times," Yang says, adding that compared to young players, with quicker reactions and better techniques, she has her own advantages — emotional stability and patience, helping her make wise decisions in the arena.

Having played the game for eight years, Yang has developed her own strategy — to make up for her slow reaction speed, she prefers heroes with faster mobility speed and those able to withstand blows from enemies.

Always aiding her daughter in the game, Yang has enjoyed the nights she spent in the Hero's Gorge defending their base, like what she does in life.

"No matter in the game or in life, I have always accompanied and supported my daughter," Yang says, adding that they also have quarrels and disputes, but they will always find a way to solve disagreements and move forward.

When Wu decided to quit her stable job and become a game streamer in early 2021, Yang didn't doubt her daughter's choice, because she trusted that Wu "knew what her specialty was", and she knew that being young means to give anything a go, the mother says.

At the beginning, there were only several viewers for Wu's livestreaming, and to help warm up the audience, Yang joined Wu in the broadcast to help viewer numbers from home and abroad reach more than 300,000 at peak hours.

"I can play better than many young gamers, which makes me feel great," Yang says.