FALLING asleep in the same bed as your parents, uncles, grandparents, and siblings isn’t what you typically expect from life in the UK.
But it was normal growing up for Tamoor Hussain who lived in a one-bedroom council flat with eight other family members in East London.
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In an interview with GLHF, Hussain recalls “It was a weird upbringing.
“It was a rough council estate. Whenever you went outside, there was a 90% chance that some lads would beat the s**t out of you for no reason.
“I was scared most of the time. That’s where my love of video games came from – it was escapism.
“As a kid without the agency to walk around on my own, I’d immerse myself in games.”
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Today, Hussain is best known as the creative director of GiantBomb and a fully-fledged BAFTA member, as well as the managing editor for GameSpot, but growing up he didn’t even own a console.
While his household was topping up the energy metres by the pound, Hussain could go to his cousin’s house to indulge in his passion.
Hussain tells us: “I remember thinking, ‘This is unbelievable. I cannot believe what I’m seeing,’
“I couldn’t understand it. It was so weird. I was like, ‘You’re controlling what’s going on on the TV. That’s insane to me.’
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“I desperately wanted to play it, but my cousins were like, ‘I get to play for two hours a day – you must be mad if you think we’ll let you play for us.’”
This changed when fighting games became the most popular entertainment in the market, and Hussain’s cousins needed victims to play with.
While Hussain was often hammered by his more experienced cousins in the ring, he kept coming back for more.
Hussain recounted: “It became a thing that I needed desperately.
“It became everything in my life. It was like food to me. Every second I wasn’t playing video games, I was forced to live in the world around me.”
Managing to cut a deal with a friend who worked at a second-hand gaming store, Hussain got his first console, a Sega Mega Drive.
He says: “Streets of Rage was a massive one for me. And then Columns. So much Columns.
“People talk about having the Tetris bleeding effect, where when they close their eyes, they can still see [the blocks]. For me that happened with Columns.
“I think that’s where a lot of my broad love of video games came from because I just had to play whatever I got.”
As a kid he was branded as trouble, as he didn’t like socialising with others.
Hussain was, and still is, an introvert, and preferred the company of a controller than of other people.
He tells us: “Even as a kid, my teachers would constantly tell my parents, ‘He doesn’t talk to anyone’,”
“From a young age, I was getting in trouble for doing it. So I learned and forced myself to do it here and there.”
Hussain was battling with social anxiety and depression, which is even more difficult to navigate when your family is from Pakistan.
He explains: “I was severely depressed. Depression in the South Asian community is extremely taboo.
“South Asians have a very, very bad relationship with mental health.
“I think back on people that I knew when I was younger – adults in our community – and with hindsight, I can tell, like, that person was depressed.
“We just didn’t talk about it.”
Hussain went on to study Law as he felt that was what was expected of him, but he always felt his calling in games.
He took a leap of faith by applying for an unpaid internship at GameSpot – the site he now runs – and the rest is history.
Tamoor Hussain is not only a games journalist, but he supports new talent and pushes for positive change within the gaming industry.
He hosts charity streams to raise money and awareness for global causes, showing the good that video games can do.
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If you want to hear more about gaming successes, check out our interview with Lucy James.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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