La communauté de Briana White de Final Fantasy VII Rebirth en portant son cœur sur sa manche [interview]

I'm glad you touched on feeling things really big, because something I did want to talk to you about is your gaming channel. You cry a lot over there. I think it's hard to be vulnerable like that. And especially hearing that you felt kinda insecure about that as a teenager. How did you reclaim being vulnerable and crying in public as an adult?

It's crazy that you bring that up because it's true. I sorta made a career out of being the crying girl on the internet, which I did not set out to do. To me, it was never an option to be any other way. It's just who I am.

When I first started my YouTube channel, I played lots of different games trying to figure out what kind of gamer I would be on the internet. There's gamers who play Minecraft and there's gamers who play Uncharted . J'étais le type de joueur qui, j'ai essayé beaucoup de choses différentes, et finalement, quand j'ai joué Uncharted , les gens ont vraiment résonné avec le fait que je pouvais parler des personnages et des relations entre eux et pourquoi cette scène et cette scène ont été si percutantes. People really liked that aspect of my gameplays.

So, that is what led me to The Last of Us , which is an incredibly dark and emotional game. At the same time I was playing Life is Strange which, like I said, just cracks me open in the best sort of way. Jouer à ces deux jeux en même temps était juste une expérience si intensément émotionnelle que je pense que cela a cimenté le genre de contenu que les gens veulent voir de moi. Which was fine, because that's who I am.

I sort of fell into being a story-based gamer from there. Because that's who I am, that's what people wanted to see. They want to see authentic reactions, they want to see people feeling things.

Oftentimes, I'll get comments like: “I'm a 52-year-old man, I haven't cried in 20 years, but I cried watching your content.” Et je prends cela comme une énorme source de fierté, que mon contenu pourrait aider les gens, comme nous l'avons parlé plus tôt, d'avoir des sentiments à distance qui les font se sentir en sécurité pour les avoir. Je pense qu'il y a quelque chose de vraiment beau à ce sujet, que mon contenu pourrait aider à ouvrir un peu le cœur de quelqu'un et leur faire sentir en sécurité pour avoir leurs sentiments.

I love your philosophy about what a Strange Rebel means to you. Could you talk about that a little bit?

I had always grown up feeling a little out of mainstream. I was never very popular, I was never very normal. And I always very much wanted to be normal, but, somewhere along the line in high school, I grew out of that.

I had a friend, actually, who was completely, loudly, and unapologetically weird. In the best sort of way. En tant qu'enfant de théâtre au lycée, nous avons tous embrassé cela comme: «Nous ne sommes pas normaux et nous n'appartenons pas au courant dominant, et c'est super! That's so much more fun than being normal.” And I think that's where I picked up this like: “Being average, being normal… that's not something you should want.”

I took this idea of being a rebel to mean going against the mainstream, but not in a bad way. Not in a way that's “wears all black and is angsty and mean”. I don't want to be a rebel in that I want to hurt other people. I want to be a strange rebel. I want to be a rebel in a way that makes the world a little bit better. I want to be a rebel in the fact that I do cry on the internet and I don't feel bad about that.

It's easy to be mean to others. It's easy to close your heart off when you've experienced bad things. But it's strange and beautiful to do the opposite of that. I want people to embrace being rebelliously compassionate and rebelliously kind. That's sort of where Strange Rebel comes from and that's really a huge part of my mission.

I wanted to ask about the channel and how you've seen that community grow since Final Fantasy ?

C'est incroyable. I mean, when I started out on the internet all I ever heard was that it's a terrible place. That's all I ever heard. I heard about harassment, and women being chased off platforms, and I heard about toxicity in gaming. But, what I found on the internet is that most people are really good and kind, and they just want to share their passions.

I started my channel reading every single comment that was left on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, whatever platform. I'd read every single comment, every single message that someone sends me. And I pretty much still do to this day, which is a lot harder now, but I really make an effort to do that. Parce que si quelqu'un fait tout son possible pour regarder mon contenu et me laisser un message qui dit: "J'ai adoré ça", je veux rembourser le respect qu'il me montre pour me donner leur temps de journée et lui donner l'heure de la journée en le lisant au moins et en lui donnant un comme si je le peux. I've found that when I engage with them, that only comes back to me tenfold. Because they're good people, and I like them. I like them as people.

Je veux dire, maintenant, nous faisons partie d'une discorde vraiment incroyable, animée et prospère où nous avons des soirées cinéma, nous avons un club de cuisine, nous venons de commencer un club de lecture, nous faisons des lieux de rencontre avec des vidéos chaque mois, nous jouons ensemble deux fois par semaine. We are there for each other. We meet up at conventions with each other. People in my Discord have found love. I mean, a couple people in my Discord have gotten married after finding each other in my Discord!

I cannot state enough just how proud I am of being able to bring people together in that way because they no longer feel alone. What better thing could I do in this life than bring people together? To celebrate each other, be there for each other, support each other in hard times, and share each other's passions. And all in an amazingly respectful way.

They're so generous. We've raised over $50K for charity, just in my Discord in the past four years.

The fact that Final Fantasy is a huge part of my channel, I do think that that really brings in a good audience. A good group of people that care about the world through the amazing stories that Final Fantasy tells.

But really, I don't care much for numbers, how many subscribers I have, or how many views I get on a video. What I care about is the fact that people have found others like them, that give them faith in humanity, that give back to others. They're not alone in this universe anymore. That's everything to me. That's so much more important than everything else.

Community building is huge, and it sounds like you've curated a wonderful community.

I try, but I don't do it alone. J'ai un manager de la communauté, Jeff, qui fait un travail incroyable qui organise tous ces événements et la planification, comme, nous avons un triathlon de jeu annuel où nous jouons tous à des jeux et rivalisons afin de collecter plus d'argent. We've even had a custom Dungeons & Dragons Strange Rebel Gaming themed one-shot! We've done so many amazing, incredible things because of Jeff.

I mean it when I say I haven't done it alone. Every person who joins the community is as much a part of the community building as me. And I try to throw that back to them as much as I can. And people say: “Thank you for making the Discord.” No, thank you for being a part of it! It's not me in there chatting all day, it's you all.

Je voulais demander avant de partir s'il y a quelque chose dans votre vie en ce moment qui vous apporte de la joie, que ce soit des jeux que vous jouez, des choses que vous regardez, des gens dans votre vie. What's fueling you right now?

Well, the holidays are coming up, and I'm a big family person. So, being able to see my family is everything to me. I'm excited to see everyone.

Actually, after this, I'm making a sweet potato casserole that can feed 30 people.

Do you do the marshmallows on top?

No. So, I used to work at a restaurant called Ruth's Chris [Steak House] that has the hands-down best sweet potato casserole ever! Because it's, if you look at the ingredients, it's basically cake, but with a sweet potato base. The top is brown sugar and pecans and butter and then it crisps up in the oven, so it's like a crust. It's almost like an upside down sweet potato cake.

It's mind-blowing. If you've never had it, you must!

C'est tellement bon. I am not welcome at Thanksgiving without it. I am not allowed to show up without this sweet potato casserole, every single year for like seven years now. People demand this sweet potato casserole. I just get better at it every year.

I love family. Family's really important to me, that keeps me going. Like I said, my dad was calling me the other day. My parents are very proud of me right now, which is really nice to hear!

And your mom's a gamer, too! How does it feel to have that family legacy now being in video games yourself?

It's crazy because my mom's a gamer and I keep asking her to play my game, and she won't do it!

The games for her are like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask , so with the Z-targeting, the camera's really manageable. Final Fantasy , elle a raté quelques générations de jeux où vous apprenez à contrôler l'appareil photo avec l'autre bâton, donc le contrôle de la caméra est vraiment difficile pour elle. But maybe one day.

But still, they're very proud and very supportive, even if they can't play my game.

Pour en savoir plus sur Briana White, consultez sa performance nominée au prix du jeu en tant qu'Aerith Gainsborough dans Final Fantasy VII Rebirth , son étrange communauté de médias sociaux de jeu rebelle et son plat de Thanksgiving sur le site officiel de Chris de Ruth.