Real Women of Gaming

I think streamer, vlogger, and all-around content creator Avid Mc might be my new favorite entertainer.

You may be wondering how I got here.

It all started when I took a much needed social media break over the winter. For months the only social media site I looked at was Ravelry—well, and Youtube, since I watch YT videos with my child during breakfast before school. I had to skip watching a few of my subscribed channels due to triggering content, but one of the ones I was able to continue viewing was my kid’s favorite Minecraft player: LDShadowlady.

Lizzie’s videos are incredibly entertaining. Her builds are large scale, complex, and beautiful, and her expertly edited videos are imaginative an funny, as she falls deep into character for multiplayer roleplay and has a fondness for playing tricks on her fellow players. In fact, my child had recently made the whole family watch the entirety of the popular survival multiplayer (SMP) game, Minecraft Empires, from her point of view (on the Big TV, no less!). So we were excited when, in early spring, she released a new video introducing a brand new SMP.

Minecraft Misadventures may be LDShadowlady’s most ambitious project yet. Inspired by Dungeons and Dragons and the Empires format, Misadventures drops the 20 players on a map where they cannot place or break blocks, except on land that they’ve purchased with in-game currency. They can earn coins by completing dungeons (built by the players and brought to life by Lizzie), or doing quests for NPCs. To get materials, the players can visit the “resource world,” a dimension unique to the Misadventures server where they can break blocks, but the world resets with a new map every day. Using materials gathered in the resource world, earned in dungeons or from quests, or traded with other players, they collaboratively create an RPG world.

Without doomscrolling to fall back on I was bored and had a lot of time on my hands. Misadventures was an entertaining escape. Lizzy didn’t update very often, so I started seeking out videos by the other players in the SMP. It was one one of these that I was introduced to a purple-eyed stranger shamelessly flirting with VidCon Hall of Fame member Joey Graceffa. That player’s name? AvidMc.

Then I watched the weekly recap video summarizing the entire cast’s opening episodes, and I was blown away. Avid’s video opened with a cinematic sequence introducing his character, the only survivor of a failed space mission, then transitioned into the opening: a fully hand drawn animatic set to an original song describing how he crash landed his escape pod on the Misadventures planet. The production values were beyond anything I had ever seen on a Minecraft video. I was instantly hooked.

Every video featured an original song, elegant storytelling, silly, self-deprecating humor, and (literally!) out of this world builds, each more impressive than the last. Best of all, he stuck to a regular release schedule of one video every week. There was plenty of polished content to watch and a reasonable wait between episodes. But even this wasn’t enough for me.

When I’d caught up on every player’s edited videos I still needed more misadventures in my life, so I started watching recorded streams. I’d never been much of a stream person–I tended to get bored with slow pacing–but I figured out the trick of putting streams on in the background while I do housework or work from home, and quickly discovered that Avid’s streams were the most entertaining of any of the misadventurers. Hours of resource gathering or custom tree building are broken up with musical interludes, bonkers anecdotes from IRL, and dog cameos. There are even fun little games like “No Witnesses,” “Give Bernie A Treat,” and everyone’s favorite: “Dig! Straight! Down!”

But don’t let the name of the game deceive you into thinking that Avid is straight. He is a proud bisexual man and a fierce advocat for his transgender friends, fans, and collaborators. Streams conversations often touch on the bisexual experience, including dealing with queerphobia and bi erasure, as well as neurodivergence. He’s made it very clear that transphobes and other bigots are not welcome in chat or his fan discord. Watching and participating in streams feels like hanging out with some of my oldest and closest friends.

I think that there is something uniquely compelling about Minecraft as a medium. The simplicity of voxel avatars allows the audience to fill in the details with our imaginations, making it easy for creators to tell high-impact stories on a budget and without a huge art team. At the same time, details like the atomization of building and the way the game tracks head movements let the players convey body language and visual nuance that would be impossible to achieve in a different game—imagine what Red Vs. Blue could have been like if the characters could hang their heads in shame. Hank Green refers to Youtube creation as a craft, and it is that, but some creators elevate it to an art. And even though you might not think so at first, Minecraft makes one hell of a canvas.

For Avid Mc, the art of Minecraft youtube combines storytelling, music, digital sculpting, and game design. Misadventures is the tip of an iceberg. As I’ve been making my way through older videos I’ve discovered Skyblock Kingdoms, which is, if anything, even more delightful than Misadventures and a must-watch for those of us who love Empires SMP for its political intrigue. SBK is currently on season 2 and features a cast of mostly-unknown minecrafters who all deserve more recognition. His most recent video project is Vampires SMP. Produced by POW Creations , Vampires has been described as “the Life Series with lore.” It’s a fully immersive version of the party game Werewolf with an all-star cast of expert improvisers from Misadventures, Hermitcraft, SBK, and previous POW SMPs. Avid is also a recording artist whose genre-defying music is as poignant as it is catchy. His newest album, Singularity, drops on September 29 and is worthy of whole article of its own.

At his core, Avid is just a silly little guy. “A silly little guys with a big heart and lots of smarts,” according to Twitch user Libertybelle Silverleaf. And yet, that silly little core is wrapped in folds of beautiful creativity, profound thought, and deep care for his community. While he’d tell you that no one “deserves” an audience, certainly not him, I will say this: you as an audience member deserve to have his songs and videos in your life.

New episodes of Vampires are posted to YouTube on Sundays at 12pm EDT. You can find all of Avid’s socials, platforms, and more on his Linktree. Singularity is available for pre-order on Bandcamp. Its September 29 release will be accompanied by an eight hour, front page Twitch stream starting at 2pm EDT that will include not only Minecraft, but a deep dive into the album and its creation with co-creator Musithical. Official merchandise will also be launching, including apparel, stickers, and physical albums.

I, for one, can’t wait to watch Avid’s next adventure. And I hope to see you there!