LoR Interviews — A Link to the Past

A Conversation with GamingGrandmom

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Mar 25, 2022

Like a good chunk of the LoR tweetosphere, we learned about GamingGrandmom via her profile by Best LoR Moments' tweet. We reached out to her, and she was happy to sit down (virtually, via Discord) for a chat.

GamingGrandmom being Austrian, and often preferring to answer in German, there was a bit of a language barrier to overcome (as you will soon see; more about the beautiful nuances of the German language below! =).

Luckily for us, Leer during most of the interview, and at one point Conansson – both being native Germans – kept things flowing.

After the conversation was over, Leer double-checked the translations (some of us had used Google Translate) and made sure that the English version of this article was correct. Jürgen, GamingGrandmom’s eldest son, also chipped in with the live translation effort, and helped giving this article its finishing touches.

Warm-up Questions

Hi, GamingGrandmom! As you may be aware since you both follow each other on Twitter, bA1ance is quite fond of Haiku – to begin this interview, would you be willing to put your favorite Champ in three lines and seventeen syllables?

Well… I would be happy to try.

I love Gangplank most.

With Miss fortune on his side

Everything is right.

Does that work? =)

Indeed it does! So, GamingGrandmom is a Gangplank fan – would you say you prefer Aggro in general?

Yes, I love to play aggro decks. My favorite champion is indeed Gangplank – my first favorite deck was Spiders, and at the moment it's Gangplank and Miss Fortune.

By the way: I nickname many of my cards, because I often don't remember the right names, so Gangplank is "The Pirate", Miss Fortune is "Pistols Jenny", and Gnar would be "Schnucki".

Translation note: in German, "Schnucki" is a pet name, usually used by older people, meaning something like "cutie" or "cinnamon roll"

I think I am not very good with control decks, and that's the reason why I've never reached Masters. I've found Leer's guide about Scouts, though, which is well written, and I've already played with the deck he recommends – now I have to practice.

What is your current favorite Best-of-Three decks lineup? And, also, this might seem like a silly question, but our audience would like to know: What do you think of Tasty Faefolk as food?

I would have to think about the three decks. I've only made it to Diamond once, and my decks very often come from the same regions, like Gangplank & Miss Fortune, Spiders, Gangplank & Gnar.

Tasty Faefolk is an annoying card… but I wouldn't eat them, they are too cute for that.

Streaming – A Love Letter

Since you present yourself as a GamingGrandmom – which may be common for kids these days, but your Grandma being a Twitch celebrity wasn't a thing when some of us boomers got into video games – I guess the main question in our minds is, "How did you get started?"

My oldest son, Jürgen – he's almost thirty years old now; my daughters are Jenny, who's twenty-four, and Janine, who's twenty-eight and will make me a Grandmom in April, when she's expecting her first boy, Linus – encouraged me to.

Jürgen had already gotten me into Hearthstone, back in 2014, and I played HS until I couldn't get any further without money. I like LoR better, and I also find LoR more difficult and varied – I just love it!

So, my son said, "Mom, you're actually pretty good at LoR for your age. Wouldn't you like to stream it?"

… and here I am! =)

I started streaming LoR by the end of last December, and I was already raided during my third stream. I have around 180 followers now – although there's usually only about five viewers on average in my channel, I always stream like all 180 of them are watching me. ;)

Of course I would like for my Twitch chat to be more lively, and have more interaction, but my son always says that I have to be patient and stream continuously. Obedient mother that I am, I try to go live on Twitch at least three times per week.

We've also created a YouTube series called From Boomer to Zoomer. The idea is to go from older games to more recent ones – for now, we've started with Pokemon FireRed, and once I finish it, Jürgen will choose the next game I'll play.

Do you have any goals you’re looking to meet through your streams?

I think the goal of every streamer is to have a lot of followers! 😊

I want to build my own community. Above all, I would like to familiarize myself with the Internet culture, and catch up on what I missed some years ago, when I was doing nothing but working.

How do you see the role of social media in all of this? Is it only a tool for promoting your stream, or would you use social media without Twitch?

I have used most social media before Twitch. If you have children, it’s a must-have!

For me, it is also an opportunity for conversations and exchange with all sorts of people.

Have you ever come across internet trolls, or people who intentionally write mean messages to annoy you? If so, how do you deal with such situations?

There are people like that? I didn’t know, but thank God I haven’t encountered any on my stream.

I am a very phlegmatic person, anyway. I wouldn't take it personally – they don't know me.

About your streaming schedule: Are you a retired grandmother, and can stream whenever you want? Or are you still working, and have to accommodate your Twitch time to that?

Still working – I teach children between 0 to 6 years, in kindergarten.

Now that's hard work… =)

It is. You need solid nerves, and much patience and understanding.

You got into CCGs with Hearthstone, back in 2014 – how did you get into video games in general?

I've always loved games, including board games like Risk or Monopoly, which I still play with my grown-up children to this day.

Around twenty years ago, back when my children were one, five and seven, I used to play Rainbow Island and Bubble Bobble with them, on an old PS1 they had borrowed from their uncle, who worked at an electronic store.

And, a bit later, our neighbor gifted us a Nintendo SNES console. Back then, I was married to an alcoholic – our neighbor knew that my husband would drink or gamble away all of our money, and that I could never buy my children anything like that. So she gave us their SNES, as a present, when they moved to an N64.

At night, on the SNES, I would play Zelda by myself — “A Link to the Past.” I was totally in love with that game. Years later I would find out that Jürgen, without me knowing, would sit in the stairs and watch me play as I fought through Hyrule.

So, every night, while my husband was supposedly at work, I played Zelda – until, around the time I got to the last boss, I discovered that my husband wasn't actually working, but was in fact seeing someone else.

I could never finish Zelda, and I didn't touch a game for thirteen years, as I mostly had two or three jobs to support my three kids.

That's truly terrible to hear…

It is okay now. I have three wonderful children. In April my first grandchild will be born. Two years ago I married a wonderful man. And I can play and stream what I really love – it wasn't until Hearthstone came out that my son got me to play video games again, then he introduced me to LoR and I've been addicted to it ever since.

Everything is great! =)

I just want to do the things I enjoy now. As I've said, I still have two jobs, but maybe I can reduce it to one in the future, so I have more time for the nice things in life like streaming, gaming, and communicating with people from all over the world.

A handful of the better known players & streamers are either quitting, or putting LoR on hold, because they find it too frustrating. In general, CCGs can generate a long streak of feels-bad moments when luck and RNG are not on our side. You went through a lot of tough moments in your life, and had to work super hard for many years… Why choose a type of game that even die-hard fans find so frustrating at times, instead of going for something more laid-back?

I mean, how do you handle a streak of bad luck? Or, perhaps given your perspective, having bad luck in a card game is not really a big deal?

One of my mottos is: "Never give up."

In Austria we say: "You only post a letter," in the sense of taking the letter to the post office, which means as much as nothing and nobody is given up.

Translation note: Google Translate had a meltdown here, and it took two bright, young Germans – namely Leer and Conansson – to piece together the puzzle: Grandmom's phrase is an Austrian play on words.
"Aufgeben" means both "to hand over for forwarding," as when you hand a package at the post office, and also "to quit something" (as in "quit smoking"), "to give up something", and "to see something as a lost cause/hopeless".
In other words: for Austrians, this play on words means: "You must not give up, no matter the difficulties."

I am convinced that all negative things that happen to you in life either turn out to be positive at some point, or were necessary to make later positive aspects possible.

For example, if my first husband had not cheated on me, I would still be married to an alcoholic. And I would have never met the wonderful man I'm now married to.

You lose some, you win some. That's the nature of the game.

Would you like me to try expressing that through Haikus? =)

Yes, please – we'd be truly honored if you would.

Choose two worlds you like

Champions are on your side

And now start the game

Don't matter if you loose

Have fun with playing again

Learn from your mistakes

You will be better

And still climb up the ladder

But never give up

GamingGrandmom's socials:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GamingGrandmom

Twitch: https://twitch.tv/gaminggrandmom

YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC6nVq5xysEPx-65iN1NDNLg

GamingGrandmom and Jürgen plan, in time, for the From Boomer to Boomer series to reach “A Link to the Past,” to finally beat the end monster, and close that chapter.

For Lovers of Words

According to Google Translate:

Aufgegeben

1: zur Weiterleitung, Beförderung, Bearbeitung übergeben

ein Paket am Schalter, bei/auf der Post aufgeben

(...)

9: mit etwas aufhören

das Rauchen aufgeben

10: sich von etwas trennen; auf etwas verzichten

sein Geschäft, seine Praxis aufgeben(schließen)

11: als verloren oder tot ansehen, keine Hoffnung mehr auf jemanden setzen

du darfst dich nicht aufgeben

12: nicht weitermachen; aufhören

trotz aller Schwierigkeiten nicht aufgeben

1: handed over for forwarding, transport, processing

hand in a package at the counter, at/at the post office

(...)

9: to quit something

quit smoking

10: to part with something; give up something

give up (close) his business, his practice

11: see as lost or dead, no more hope in anyone

you must not give up

12: not continue; stop

don't give up despite all the difficulties

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