These days, Friday turns her couch into battle central as Theresa and her daughter pour over the screen, shooting reds and comparing kill scores. Her brother joins them too, eager to get in on the action.
Theresa, better known as Sky Woman to the community, got into WR through a Call To Arms put out on Facebook by her brother. Though her first match consisted of her running around in circles, she has come a long way in these six months. She’s now an officer in her own right in her clan Honey Badgers.
For Theresa, the game had started as a way of connecting with her brother. She rushed to level up to join him in his league so that they could run squads together. Soon enough, her daughter, Clare (Fire Woman) joined in as well, lured in by all the exuberant yelps or passionate sighs her mother would make at that small screen. For the Kennedy’s, it has “become something of a family game”.
When I learned that Theresa isn’t an avid gamer, I had to ask her. What was it that glues her to WR then? Turns out, she absolutely loves the “realistic” aspect of the game. Her favorite parts in any game are the cutscenes and true to life graphics. War Robots, she accounts has nailed it in “Graphics, sound, animation, everything.”
Even though she feels disheartened at times by the “tankers” and “seal clubbers”, Sky Woman spends a lot of time with Hangar X, continuously trying things out and attempting to emulate feats shown in Youtube videos. “Why practice so much?”, She says that she has a lot of catching up to do, and that “I only hope that when I do badly, that people won't think it was on purpose. I don't like being embarrassed for doing badly.” Her will to improve is partially due to her competitive attitude towards sports as a kid. “But it’s not so much about winning anymore, because the most important thing is learning. Maybe it was always about becoming skilled. If there was something I was interested in, I tried my best to learn it.”
One thing I realized about Sky Woman is that she is completely immersed in WR Culture. She watches tonnes of videos, reads guides, all to soak up the rich wealth of things that the game has to offer, “Knowledge, Strategy, and Experience. (sic) And patience.”
When pressed about her approach to the game, Theresa says that she keeps learning constantly and it never gets stale: “There are so many factors that affect the outcome of each battle, and I am forced to make split-second decisions based on all of those things. Then there are the constant rounds of decisions on my hangar to be made, which I spend so much time doing that I get indecisive. It's fun! And it keeps me sharp.” Now that, that is an attitude that is both admirable and I for one, hope to emulate.
Not only the core game itself, she and her brother Tim Kennedy has been very involved in the community as well. They’re so enchanted with WR, that they are involved in the 6-pack league, a meme page only pertaining to WR memes and other groups.
Our talks revealed a more sensitive side to all this. War Robots, hasn’t just been a way for Sky Woman to connect and have fun with her family, it’s her own little oasis away from the pain she experiences in her daily life due to medical complications.
That little nugget of information made me question myself. How often do we get frustrated at the game, and life itself and its difficulties? And here was a woman fighting through her pain and smiling all the way through. And if War Robots was something that helps her through this, I truly believe that it makes all our efforts worthwhile.
Theresa had expected a game with a predominantly young male population. But, she was surprised to see a thriving population of older gamers and especially women from all walks of life. This is what we strive for as well, afamily that transcends borders and becomes a center for creativity and love.
Last but not the least, I asked her what her favorite build was. She smiled and said she was absolutely smitten with the Gust-Storm/Plasma Gareth. But, she was quickly starting to love the Kumiho as well and aiming to get a DIESS (Dash, Inquisitor, Ember, Shocktrain, Scourge) hangar.
Our talk coming to a close, I took home some valuable lessons on family, mutual respect and doing the best you can, in any amount of obstacles. I wish Sky Woman the best of everything life has to offer, and good luck in battles about to come, in WR and elsewhere.
Soar high, woman of the sky.
