News Club Interview: Stephanie Bendixsen

Stephanie Bendixsen (aka Hex) is a video game journalist who’s carved out her own space in a pretty male-dominated industry. So I wanted to chat to her about that, about the rise of gaming, and about how it’s shaping our culture. And if you’re thinking video games seem a bit niche - the industry makes more global revenue than film and music combined…

Video gaming isn’t a small thing anymore…

Given the amount of attention they get in the media compared with movies, music and television, you could be easily forgiven for thinking that video games are still a niche hobby, played only by kids. But it’s a long way from the truth - and it has been for years.

Video games are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Statistically, either you play them (yes, even Candy Crush) or someone close to you does. They are a gigantic industry at the forefront of pop culture.

And as they’ve grown, they’ve become more than just games - they’ve become a medium for storytelling. As someone who watches a lot of movies and TV shows every year, many of the narrative experiences that have stayed with me the most have been from video games. They have the capacity to tell deep, mature stories with characters as rich as a long-running TV show and worlds as evocative as a great book.

We’ve come a long way from Pong and Tetris, that’s for sure.

And yet even with all of this growth, we still don’t really hear that much about them - and to many of us, they’re still a bit of a mystery. So given The Call Sheet is all about diving into the world of entertainment, it felt only right to give video games their moment in the sun.

So we chatted to Stephanie Bendixsen, or Hex as she’s better known to many, who is a video game journalist, presenter and content creator. She loved video games as a kid, but she didn’t see many people like her talking about them in the media. So she’s built a career doing just that - spreading her love of the medium (and concerns about it) with the world.

She’s got a unique perspective on not only video games generally, but also what it’s like to be a professional content creator who has built a community around her.

And on the off chance you’ve never played a video game - or reckon they’re just not your thing - Hex has a few starter recommendations that might just change your mind…

You can listen to the conversation here or tune in on YouTube - and hit subscribe while you’re at it. And scroll on for my highlights of our conversation.

100 years of community partnerships

Woolworths has hit a century tonne, and to mark this milestone, a new podcast series called From Grassroots is shining a light on their community partners like the Clontarf Foundation. They do incredible work to improve the lives of young Indigenous men and boys, starting with support to stay in school. Woolworths is proud to play the role of both a financial supporter and employer of program participants in local communities across Australia. You can listen to the chat with Clontarf’s Troy Gordon here.

Interview Highlights

Highlight 1: On becoming a presenter on ABC’s TV show Good Game

Stephanie Bendixsen: It was a time when women were a novelty in any kind of geek or tech space. People would refer to me as “girl gamer Stephanie Bendixsen,” and it was such an odd thing because you would never say “boy gamer so-and-so.”

It was rough, because that audience really went out of their way to try and tear me down. And it was pretty devastating to get your kind of dream job and then face that. But my producer at the time, Janet Gaëta, gave me the best advice I’ll ever get. She just said, “You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone. Just let your work speak for you, and you won’t have to.” And that’s exactly what happened.

Highlight 2: On the stigma of video gaming…

Stephanie: When you're playing a video game, sometimes there are options where you can affect the story. But even if there aren't, you are participating in actions that are playing out as a part of that narrative and make you feel more connected to what's happening…

And whereas binge culture of television has become so commonplace and accepted - if someone says, "I binged two seasons of The Office this weekend," people are like, "Oh, great! I love that show."

But if you say, "I played video games all weekend" - something that's using your brain, something that is social and engaging, and you're learning things... why is that demonised over just vegging out on a couch? I don't understand that. It's very strange.

Highlight 3: On the impact of technology on gaming development

Stephanie: What we're seeing is that games are kind of shipped in a state where they're not entirely finished. Because now that we have a more sophisticated connectivity with the audience, they’ll just ship a patch [to fix the issues] post-release...

Andrew Williams: If you're unfamiliar, think of it as if a movie comes out, and then the day later they put a different version of the movie out that's edited. It just doesn't happen in any other art form in the world…

Stephanie: Yeah, it's like if they released a movie and they hadn't finished all of the graphics. There are a few rare studios now that still commit to the idea of you'll get it when it's finished. And that's hard when you've got shareholders that are all waiting on a bottom line… but I really feel like that should be kind of the way that games operate.

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