Lisa’s Rolling Video Games: Making memories & closing digital gap 

Shahid Beasley, owner of Lisa’s Rolling Video Games, is playing it forward in the video gaming industry by providing kids and adults alike with a mobile gaming party experience in Houston. 

The inspiration for the game truck was Beasley’s mother, who was the self-proclaimed neighborhood gamer mom of Philadelphia throughout Shahid’s childhood.  She kept kids off the streets and out of trouble by inviting them over to her house to play video games.

The Defender spoke with Beasley and co-owner Lisa Sanchez to discuss how the industry works, his vision for the future, and various ways the community can work with children to excel in the digital age.

Humble beginnings

Beasley: “We started our gaming truck six months before COVID, and as you can imagine that was extremely tough where we put everything in to save the business.  It got really scary at some points but we made it through.  And not only did we make it through we made it out on top.  We are doing really good right now because we just stuck to our core beliefs as far as giving back to our community and making sure we make our mom proud.

 Mother’s name on truck

Beasley: “Unfortunately my mother passed away four years ago from cancer, and I was in so much pain because she was so much a part of my life.  So, I wanted to do something to honor her name.  I came across this business idea and it just fit like a glove.”

How works

Beasley: “We have six TVs with six different systems.  We can hold up to 24 players at once for private parties, events, concerts and just about anything.  We have 30-40 video games on each console and are over 150 video games now.  And essentially, we set it up to cater to your needs. If you have a small group we can set six kids up to play on Fortnite three-on-three. Or you can have the party with 90 people and just rotate them out every 10 minutes to make sure every kid gets a chance.  So, our business is set up to be so versatile that we can essentially cater to anything.” 

‘Where Memories Are Made’ motto

Beasley: “We really take that to heart and you can see it throughout our social media. You will see pictures of dads playing with their sons, moms playing with their daughters, and vice versa.  We want people to have those memories and want to bring that experience so seven years from now they can talk about playing Smash Bros. and beating your dad with your friends.  And you might not ever have that experience again.”

Future focus

Beasley: “One of my main focuses is to bring kids back to weddings.  I think this is perfect for a wedding reception and it will allow the parents to sit, have fun, have their drinks and dance at the wedding while the kids are playing video games…taking out that awkward situation where kids aren’t invited to weddings.”

Industry forecast for esports

Beasley: “I forecast it as bottled water. It is one of the few situations where you can take someone who previously has not been an athlete in the past and put them in a competition that will give them that experience.  Anyone who has played sports before knows exactly what I am talking about.  And you can’t recreate that in a normal situation.  So a lot of non-athletes don’t know what that feels like and esports closes that gap.  And that is where it is like bottled water to where you are able to almost give anyone the competition experience and have them feel like an athlete without having to be physically active.”

How to close the digital gap in esports?

Beasley: “We have to make sure we grasp where we are going with technology.  Our community is amazing with art and we just need to transfer that art culture with technology, coding and things like that.  Then it will take off.  All we have to do is just transfer everything we do in art and music, we just make sure we code it and create it digitally now instead of on pencil and paper.  The it will take off itself.  Our creativity in our communities holds no bounds, and just converting that over to a digital frame is the key to everything.”

For more info

Lisa’s Rolling Video Games

Phone: 281-923-5923

IG: @lisasrvg

Facebook: @LISASRVGHTOWN

Website: https://www.lisasrvg.com