Game Changer: Stephanie Harvey’s Story
How a tech passion brought her to the big leagues of e-sports
Stephanie Harvey; in the tech world you may know her as a game designer, but if you are an avid gamer, you will know her as @missharvey in the computer gaming universe.
Born and raised in Québec City, Stephanie’s accolades reaches far beyond the computer screen. She graduated with a BA in Architecture at Laval University in Montréal and also holds a Post Graduate Diploma (DESS) in Video Game Design from the University of Montréal.
Before answering her calling as a professional gamer, Stephanie was a video game designer for Ubisoft Montréal. She was also one of the key masterminds behind well-known video games, such as Far Cry: Primal(2016).
In the gaming community, having skills and strategic thinking sets the elite apart from the good. When you are a female to boot, the reception from other players can be a toss-up between good sportsmanship and vulgar commentary.
“It has happened to me numerous times, but I’m still here- I have the fire to say, it’s not ok to say that!” “I don’t believe it’s just video games, but a problem in society — the ability to say things behind a screen -and it’s something we should tackle as a society.”
The gaming culture is still relatively an all-boys club, but female gamers are on the rise. As for Harvey, she believes any gamer with a passion for eSports can make a break into the industry with their own grit.
“You follow your own path — it doesn’t matter what people say, if you want to compete then do it — eSports is so new, we don’t know what’s to come!”
Harvey is currently two years into her professional gaming career, but her passion for video games started much earlier as a game designer at Ubisoft. She is currently focused on her professional career, but Harvey remains open to the idea.
“I would love to partner up and eventually I can help support and design a game — that would be something I would love to do!”
Harvey also exercised the idea of potentially returning to game design if the right opportunity should arise.
“Who knows — maybe in a few years I’ll go back to game design, because it is my passion and it is something I feel was good at when I was at Ubisoft! I truly enjoyed working with the team and making the best game for the [video game] players.”
During her time at Ubisoft, Harvey worked on multiple “triple-A” (AAA) games, a term classified as top-tiered video games with the largest development budgets. With high profile clients, Harvey worked on projects at different capacities. From local to global teams working around the clock, her experience as a game designer taught her valuable life lessons.
“When you first start out, you will feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. What Ubisoft taught me is to trust myself — every time I make a decision, I am able to do it!”
She also credits the ability to accept humility essential to her success
“…It’s great to be humble about what you do and not always have the right call. Working on projects with thousands of people, of course there will always be thousands of different ideas.”
Similar to sports athletes, eSport athletes train, plan and work just as hard as sports athletes to perfect their craft. As professional gamers increase in popularity, online forums such as Twitch.tv and Reddit become platforms for fans to share knowledge and debate about players and teams.
The gaming culture is a competitive world on its own, but as a female eSport athlete, the competition is even more fierce, but not necessarily between athletes, but fans. Like professional sports, players have a loyal following with fans showing support on multiple platforms, such as online forums and live events. In the gaming world, fans are just as passionate about their following.
Although female gamers continue to grow in the circuit, the professional realm is still rather small. Better known as her online handle “MissHarvey”, she often cannot escape the discussions of being compared between other female gamers.
“[On forums] people are always comparing — it’s like pinpointing and sometimes it hurts. It’s a hard habit to break — it wasn’t until I was about 25 or 26 years old that I started to realize that my time will come if I work hard.”
Currently, at 32 years old, Stephanie Harvey is now a recognized professional gamer best known for her skills playing Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. These two video games placed Harvey on the map, making her a five-time world champion along the way. She also recently signed on as spokeswoman for HP’s online gaming line, OMEN by HP, and is currently touring in North America promoting the new product line.
At Chic Geek, the organization holds three important core values; be brave, stay curious and be supportive. During the earlier stages of her career, Harvey was subjected to multiple levels of criticism, but through time, she learned to brave the storm, by working hard to silence her critics. Despite being pegged against her peers, Harvey seized to break into a male-dominated industry; breaking the glass ceiling of what is equivalent to an all-boys club.
