Bewildered.
That’s the word Kason Patterson uses to describe her parents, who a few years ago couldn’t quite believe that she was quitting a stable job to pursue a self-employed career as CupAhNoodle, an online content creator focusing on gaming and pop culture.
But Patterson, an LA native, had grown up playing video games with both her dad and older brother.
“All I used to hear is, ‘there you go, playing them little video games.’ Fast forward to cut off ‘them little video games’ when I played too much. And now, what do I do for a living? Play them little video games,” laughs Patterson, who uses the CupAhNoodle gamertag bestowed on her as a joke by her brother.
She had to explain to her parents, who were born in the 1950s, how she would make a living as a full-time content creator and streamer: People would watch her play games online, and they would interact.
“But I’ve learned that it’s literally much more than playing a game,” Patterson says. “Your chat is building your communities. You genuinely get to know people. If we’d met in high school, we would have been best friends. I’ve seen community members graduate from high school and college, start families and get married.”
Her parents were livid she was leaving her job as a supply planner – which had a good salary and benefits – but they eventually came around.
What Patterson loves most about being her own boss is problem solving. Some days, it’ simple: streaming while playing a video game, interacting with her community. But other days, she’ll need to produce a show that requires setting up multiple cameras around her house, which takes a lot of trial and error for someone self-taught and still learning from her community.
For Patterson, streaming is more community-based and hosting is what she does at conventions or other focused events. Hosting is for the general population of the gaming community as opposed to the streaming audience, which is about building a community specific to her content. The chat goes all over the place, but mostly focuses on what’s happening in their lives. This is also a community she feels indebted to, as they’ve helped her over the years, like helping her get a graphics card so she could better stream PC games.“That stuck with me, so I would love to help people,” she says. “Sometimes you just need someone to believe in you. And if I can help you out even a little bit, I would absolutely love to.”
She’s not really technical, but she can “MacGyver” things.
“I have to find the answer for myself,” she says.
Nowadays, the technical parts of her job are easier with the addition of OMEN PCs, powered by Windows 11. She’s part of the OMEN Squad, a group of Twitch streamers chosen by OMEN to use OMEN PCs. As she grows her own business, HP’s OMEN is one of many companies and brands she works with, but at the same time, sponsorships are new to her. In alignment with the brand she’s building for herself, customer service is paramount, so saving time is important to her.
Before OMEN approached her to be on their squad, she had a rig she joked was “literally put together with paper clips and rubber bands. I could barely stream PC games.”Now, she can do so much more with OMEN PCs and accessories. Her current OMEN 40L gaming desktop is her third PC from OMEN.
“I’ve never had any issues with my PC. It’s one of those things where no matter where I go, no matter what I do, and although I know that the future’s never set in stone, I just hope to be with HP,” Patterson says. “It has to be absolutely durable because I’m kind of rough and I’ve accepted that. But the monitor clarity is superb, and the speeds have no lag. A big thing with PC streaming is, are my games going to be laggy? It was the reason why I was afraid of PC gaming because I have to go in the back end. I have to touch everything. But with OMEN, everything is so smooth, processes are fast. The RAM capabilities are insane.”
She also thinks it’s the perfect PC for those who want to expand and customize, even redo everything (such as overclocking).
“But all I want to do is stream. I don’t want to worry. It’s still a great PC,” Patterson says. “And I love that you get options and options are the best thing we can ever get.”
She also has an OMEN 27u gaming monitor, which she says is one of the best she’s ever had.
“The clarity, the colors, are so vibrant. I play a lot of horror games, so that means they were usually dark and I couldn’t see anything, but that is not the case with these monitors. I don’t have to mess with the brightness,” she says. “The clarity on these things is bar none and again, this comes from someone who predominantly plays games where someone would be staring at me, and I didn’t even see them because it was blurry. Now, I see everything.”
She hasn’t had Windows 11 long, but she’s already picked out some features she’s using frequently.
“My favorite is voice typing. I like that now the dictation comes with punctuation because it helps me immensely with hosting, for scripts,” Patterson says. “As opposed to just typing it, I could just talk, and now the punctuation is there, I don’t have to go back in and clean up run-on sentences. That is really cool.”
