Playing an FPS for Money?

IronChef writes "Ran across a web site where someone is attempting to combine online games and cash. The difference here is it looks like it's not some big tournament where everyone gathers and the top 3 out of a field of hundreds get paid, but a small group jumps into a server for a buck or two per head, and the winner cashes out on the spot." And you thought you swear a lot when you lag now!

Comments

Texture based ads...

[jasno]

I always wondered why noone has exploited the possibility of selling ad-space in the game... I think it would be about as effective as real world advertising.

Maybe you could even get advertiser sponsored game servers. I don't think I'd mind an occasional coke ad on the wall (or even product placements!!! Just like the movies.. ) in exchange for a nice, fast server to play on.

Security & Hackers?

[stefanlasiewski]

From the FAQ:

Q: Why do you require my social security # or social insurance # when I withdraw money from my account?
A: If you live within Canada or the U.S. You are required to submit your winning as income.

Q: Should I be worried about hackers?
A: No, we have many many security features installed to make sure you are safe.

Arg! Since I can earn winnings (Taxable income) from these guys, they want my Name, Address, CCard Number, date of birth and Social Security Number. How do I know this information is safe?

According to the video, everything is secured with a "proprietary security system". What the heck does that mean?

What about gang-style play?

[Magus311X]

What's to prevent me and three friends from creating 6 player games all the time and coordinate ourselves over a party line (or on a LAN in the same room) to gang up on two players and rape them of their money, and let the next two victims come in.

If a ganger runs low on cash, he kills his teamie for money, so the team is always with a few bucks, and can continue to take everyone else for granted.

I've used these tactics with TFC, Infiltration, etc before... nothing to prevent me to apply it this way and make a few bucks every night. Curious as to what measures are in place to prevent this kind of abuse.
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Cheating

[SeanCier]

This gaming model is beautiful, but it's also the optimal model to encourage cheating; small enough for cheaters to be relatively anonymous, but still a real incentive for unscrupulous cheating -- and many players won't even know they were robbed. So, I wonder what safegaurds they'll put in place? Nothing is provably perfect, of course, but if they're careful, smart, and very diligent, it's possible to make it arbitrarily difficult for cheaters (e.g., requiring positive identification at registration, an auto-updating client that incorporates a challenge/response system that changes daily, etc)... I wonder if they'll expend the effort neccessary to do this right?

-spc

I can see this starting...

[Karma Sink]

I can see this starting a new group of people, who think they're good enough to make a living off of this. It wouldn't be a big surprise, seeing the way that people did the same with Magic cards when they were really hot, and try to do the same with other hobbies. However, I think after the initial few months of excitement, we'll end up with the same sort of group... Unemployed folks, who didn't see a trend dying before it was too late...