How Valkyrae’s Imaginary Relationship With a Killer Clown Became a Streaming Hit

You may know Valkyrae (real name Rachell Marie Hofstetter) from many places. She is one of the most watched female streamers on YouTube, where she streams entertainment and gaming content. She also co-owns the lifestyle brand and video game organization 100 Thieves. She even recently branched out into music, collaborating with fellow streamer Fuslie and singer Ylona Garcia on the song “Echoes,” which she says is unique.

But at her core, Valkyrae is a player. Before, she was a listed live streaming heavyweight 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. Now, almost a decade later, millions of viewers watch her play.

Currently, her biggest draw to fans is her Grand Theft Auto Online streams, in which she engages in RGT V role-playing, where players connect to individual servers to play a meta-game, improvising their own stories together outside of what is already offered by Grand Theft Auto Onlinemissions. Valkyrae plays on the game’s largest server, NoPixel, which has over 20,000 members. There, Valkyrae plays with friends, but as the most famous server in the community, 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 difficult for Valkyrae to find time to play for herself (spoiler: it is), but she’s determined not to let her charge work poisons his passion. rolling stone recently sat down with the YouTuber to discuss her approach to keeping video game live streaming up-to-date, what she plays to relax, and how she balances time online and real life to maintain your mental health.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What games are you currently playing?
Right away, Valuation And GTA V (role playing) is what I mainly play, but there are also games that I only play offline, like Hearth Or Valley of Stars.

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What’s really addictive is that not only do I enjoy (GTA Online) – because it’s a bunch of role-playing, it’s improvisation 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 show.

I was playing (GTA Online) a long time ago, but I stopped because I noticed a tendency toward toxicity. Some players become attached to the characters; you don’t want your character to become the bad guy, but sometimes they do. It’s probably too much for me, but now that I’m looking at it as a reality show, I separate myself from the character and I play, and people love it now.

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

It’s definitely like a soap opera.

I guess you’re excited for Grand Theft Auto VI.
I’m so excited! This game has been in the works for years and years, and there’s already a huge RGT community. They were all waiting for this.

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I think a lot of people expect it to be the game of the year, obviously. It’s really exciting for RGT RPG streamers and the server itself – NoPixel is going to improve a lot when this new game comes out. This is going to be great for the content overall, for everyone.

What do you like about Valuation?
It’s still one of those games that I can come back to, (it) never ends and I have a group of streamer friends (who) all feel the same way about it. It’s just fun to play together and improve and progress. Obviously, ranking is addictive. But since I’m a very varied streamer, my skills come and go.

What do you gravitate towards for non-stream gaming?
Okay, so the game I’m currently playing only 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 off-stream is because it’s super cool. Since it’s a card game, it’s not like I’m constructing a story or anything. So this is the game I play when I want to multitask. Since it’s turn-based, I can send my emails on my other monitor or get my 10,000 steps on my treadmill while I play. It’s a good way for me to pass the time, even if I’m at the airport.

So you’re clearly a big PC gamer. What other platforms do you use?
You know, it’s funny because even though I play games, I don’t really play phone apps as much as people probably think. Hearth, 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 play it on Steam which is on my PC.

Traveling with a gaming laptop?
I’ve been trying to balance real life better, so when I travel I try not to do anything other than play my card game every now and then. I have a laptop, but I try not to use it for gaming; it’s more like 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 I felt exhausted. So the last thing you want to do is hate what you do for a living. I’ve been doing this, (in) this industry, I’ve been in it for 10 years now, and I’ve been playing games my whole life. So balance is very important.

Give me your list of current game recommendations.
All right! I’m just going to start naming a bunch of different games for different reasons. If you want a game to make you lose your life, I would say World of Warcraft Or Runic landscape. These are two games I invested the most time in, but enjoyed.

Valuation Or Fortniteor like (Counter-Strike: GO), are great team shooters where you work together and can progress. Very strategic.

For nostalgia’s sake, I’d probably say something like Super Mario Sun Or Hearts of the Kingdom. When I was a child, I loved these games.

You recently participated in a multi-part program Dungeons & Dragons flow. Is tabletop gaming a space you’re looking to expand into?
I did it for fun and for different reasons. I participated in a real Dungeons & Dragons ran with a real Dungeon Master, and it went very well. Then I participated again through this game called Baldur’s Gatewhich is a video game that looks roughly like Dungeons & Dragons. I played it with a few friends but unfortunately didn’t finish. It’s very, very long.

(The stream) you saw was my friend and roommate – she’s also a streamer – she invented her own scrape D&D campaign where it was done purely for content. And it was silly, we just streamed it, and it was a lot of fun. She did so much work. She hired a group of artists and animators to bring it to life on streaming, to make it as entertaining as possible. It was only a matter of three sessions.

But I still see clips of Critical Role, they play Dungeons & Dragons all the time. This looks like so much fun, but it’s tons hours that I simply don’t have time for anymore.

Finally, waves of video game adaptations are currently being released. What is a dream role you would like to play in one of these roles?
Oh my God, okay. What I really want to do is play a character in a horror film based on a video game. I think it would be the most perfect thing ever. A good example would be a game like Until dawn. It’s a scary game that’s played solo (and) your decisions affect the outcome of whether certain characters live or not.

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

This is being made into a film. Call them!
I mean, there are some things I can’t really talk about, but there are definitely other video game adaptations coming that I could be a part of. A little bit.