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Sami Drasin

You may know Valkyrae (real name Rachell Marie Hofstetter) from many places. She is one of the most watched streamers on YouTube, where she broadcasts diverse and gaming content. She also co-owns the lifestyle brand and gaming organization, 100 Thieves. She even recently broke into music, collaborating with fellow streamer Fuslie and singer Ylona Garcia on the song “Echoes,” which she swears is a one-off.

But at its core, Valkyrae is a gamer. She was previously listed as live on Forbes 30 Under 30she was an employee at GameStop where she worked on the game’s overnight release Fate and posted reaction videos on social media. Today, almost a decade later, millions of viewers tune in to see her play.

Right now, her biggest appeal to fans is her Grand Theft Auto online flows in which it participates GTA V role-playing game where players log into separate servers to play a meta-game, improvising their own stories together outside of what is already offered by Grand Theft Auto onlinemissions of. Valkyrae plays on the game’s largest server, NoPixel, which has over 20,000 members. There, Valkyrae plays with friends, but as the community’s most famous server, it’s also populated by celebrities and big content creators live-streaming their experiences.

With so many balls in the air, you’d think it would be hard for Valkyrae to find time to play for herself (spoiler: it is), but she’s determined not to let her workload poison her passion. A rolling stone recently sat down with the YouTuber to discuss her approach to keeping video game live streams constantly fresh, what she plays to relax, and how she balances online time and real life to maintain her mental health.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What games are you currently playing?
Right now, Valorant and GTA V [roleplay] is what I mostly play, but there are games I only play offline Hearthstone or Stardew Valley.

The thing that’s really addictive is that I don’t just enjoy it [GTA Online] – because it’s a lot of role-playing, it’s improv and you never know what’s going to happen – but the audience loves it too. I pretty much tell them to treat it like an unscripted reality TV show.

i was playing [GTA Online] a long time ago, but I gave up because I noticed a trend of toxicity. Some players become attached to characters; you don’t want your character to become a villain, but sometimes they do. It’s probably too much for me, but now that I think about it as a reality TV show, I just detach myself from the character and just play and people already love it.

How do you create a story for your GTA online reality show?
I try to have a plan for some big things I want to do in my head, but every time I play the plan changes. You can never just go off script because you never know how any of the other characters are going to act. So, sometimes I’ll have a plan like, “Oh yeah, I’ll just have this one character that’s in a gang and stuff. But now as the story progresses, my character has a relationship with a clown. How did we get here?” I never thought I’d play roles as a character who meets a serial killer clown persona, but now there’s this whole Romeo and Juliet era going on between them because her gang doesn’t of course with these clowns.

It’s definitely like a soap opera.

I guess you are excited about Grand Theft Auto VI.
I’m so excited! This game has been in the works for years and years and years and is already huge GTA community. Everyone has been waiting for this.

I think a lot of people are obviously expecting this to be like the game of the year. It’s really exciting for GTA role-playing streamers and the server itself — NoPixel is going to improve so much when this new game comes out. It will be great for content in general, for everyone.

What do you like about Valorant?
It’s always one of those games I can go back to, [it] it just never ends and i have a bunch of streamer friends [that] everyone feels the same about it. It’s just fun to play together and improve and progress. Apparently, ranking is addictive. But since I’m such a streamer, my skill comes and goes.

What do you gravitate towards for out-of-stream play?
Ok so the game at the moment I only play offline [is] a game called Hearthstone Battlegrounds. It’s just a card game, it’s strategic. I think the reason I like this game the most outside of stream is because it’s super cold. Since it’s a card game, it’s not like I’m building a story or anything. So this is the game I play when I want to multitask. Since it’s portable, I can do my emails on my other monitor or do 10,000 steps on my treadmill while gaming. It’s a good way for me to pass the time even when I’m at the airport.

So you’re obviously a big computer gamer. What other platforms do you use?
You know, it’s funny because as much as I play games, I don’t really play phone apps as much as people probably think I do. Hearthstone, I can play on my phone but I prefer to play on PC. Most of the time I’ll only play on Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox if there’s a new game coming out that’s only available on those consoles. Otherwise, I’ll just run it on Steam, which is on my computer.

Do you travel with a gaming laptop?
I’m trying to do a better job of balancing real life, so when I’m traveling I try not to game other than playing my card game now and then. I have a laptop but try not to use it for gaming; it’s more like just watching shows or something.

Work/life balance is important!
Yeah, I mean, my hobby has become my career, so I never want to burn out. And there were a few times where I felt burned by it. So the last thing you want to do is hate what you do for a living. i do this [in] this industry, I’ve been in it for 10 years and I’ve been playing games all my life. So balance is very important.

Give me your list of current game recommendations.
Good! I’m just going to start naming a bunch of different games for different reasons. If you want a game to lose your life in, I’d say World of Warcraft or Runescape. Those were two games that I just invested the most time in, but I enjoyed it.

Valorant or Fortniteor like [Counter-Strike: GO], are really good team shooting games where you work together and can progress. Very strategic.

I would probably say something similar about nostalgia Super Mario Sunshine or Kingdom Hearts. When I was a kid growing up I loved these games.

You recently participated in a multi-series Dungeons and Dragons stream. Is board gaming a niche you want to break into?
I did it for fun for a few different reasons. I participated in real Dungeons and Dragons run with a real Dungeon Master and it went really well. Then I participated again because of this game called Baldur’s Gatewhich is a video game that is quite Dungeons and Dragons. I played this with a few friends but unfortunately I didn’t finish. It’s very, very long.

[The stream] that you saw was my friend and roommate – she’s also a streamer – she came out with her own scratched D&D campaign where it is made for content only. And it was silly, we were just streaming it and it was a lot of fun. She put in so much work. She hired a bunch of artists and animators to bring it to life in a stream so it would be as fun as possible. It was only three sessions.

But I always see clips of Critical Role, they play Dungeons and Dragons The whole time. It looks like a lot of fun, but it’s true the ton hours I just don’t have time for anymore.

Finally, there are now waves of video game adaptations coming out. What is the dream role you would like to play in one?
Oh my god, good. Something I really want to do is play a character in a horror movie based on a video game. I think that would be the most perfect thing in the world. A good example would be a game like Until sunset. This is a scary game that is a single player [and] your decisions affect the outcome of whether certain characters live or not.

I’m really good at screaming, I have a lot of experience in horror games.

This is actually being adapted into a movie. Call them!
I mean, there are some things I can’t really talk about, but there are definitely more video game adaptations coming out that I might actually be involved with. A little.