Meet Shirley Curry & Hamako Mori, Two 80-Year-Old ‘Elder Scrolls’ Streamers

Gaming is traditionally perceived as a young person’s hobby, but the medium is one that can be – and is – enjoyed by people of all ages. 83-year-old Shirley Curry and 89-year-old Hamako Mori are two older people who exemplify this, with both streamers sharing their gaming adventures on YouTube.

Curry, known to many as the “Skyrim Grandma,” has become a significant YouTuber with over 700,000 followers. She’s a proven fan of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, frequently streaming the open world game with and without mods. Developer Bethesda‘s even taken notice of Curry; after preserving her likeness with voice recording and facial scanning technology, the studio will immortalize her as a character in the next Elder Scrolls entry.

Mori, whom Kotaku published a story on yesterday, is another elderly streamer, one who’s played games for over 40 years. After starting with the 1981 console Cassette Vision, the Toyko resident moved on to more recent titles like the NES classics Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda to Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V. While her YouTube base isn’t as large as Curry’s, she’s still accrued an impressive following of over 30,000 subscribers.

Speaking in an interview with Japanese gaming publication GameSpark (with translations curtesy of Kotaku), Mori explained one of the reasons she partakes in this pastime is to exercise her brain and avoid dementia. “If you play video games, you don’t get dementia,” she said. When it came to discussing modern games, Mori is blown away by their graphical fidelity. “The graphics for the recent games are truly amazing.” Currently, Mori is anticipating the next installments in the Grand Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls franchises.