Slashdot Mirror
Paid to Play Video Games
acehole writes "This would have to be every gamer's dream, to get paid for playing games. In South Korea gaming has taken off to an extent that companies sponsor gaming teams (some earn up to $100k per year) to play games up to 12 hours a day."
their are q3a tourneys. UT tourneys. i didn't RTFA but over here it seems you make money off of game when you have skill. of course your skill doesn't matter when your title is "Game Tester"
I get paid to Slashdot all day! (Don't tell my PHB)
Isn't it interesting how you come to recognize posters based solely on their sigs???
Now if only someone would pay me $100K a year to look at pr0n 12 hours a day...
~ "When I'm of that age I'm just going to live up a tree."
Over at Penny Arcade they are talking about little girls who make money renting their virtual asses out on Sims Online. And not play money either, real money.
Not the same thing... or is it?
(And here I was feeling guilty over being a karma whore.)
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Is it a prerequisite to own a futuristic jumpsuit to join a professional gaming team or are they forced to wear that thing?...shoulder pads and all.
Yet another example of the end of our civilation.
In case anybody is tempted to RTFA, here's a synopsis.
1) Guy finds out he can get paid to play games, can't believe his luck.
2) Guy discovers that he is actually expected to play all the time, and very, very well, in order to keep getting paid.
3) Guy stresses out under the pressure and ponders his sorry fate.
I say, quit your crying, kid! You should come over to the US of A, and see how talented youth are really exploited...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Yes. Excessive Gamer dies. But its not just in Korea... Boy exhausted after mammoth CS session
It might be a dream for some, but getting my ass handed to me over and over and over, for twelve hours a day, by some fifteen year old nerd whose nick is "H3lld0g_69", is pretty much my worst nightmare. The only move I have ever been able to perform successfully in any game is "mash all the buttons at once".
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
That was a thoroughly entertaining anecdote. I just cannot wait for your autobiography.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Team3D is sponsored by CompUSA and nVidia.
there's no way i'd like to earn my money playing games. I play em for fun, not to pay the bills.
Imagine getting evicted just because you missed that headshot in the tournament playoffs. That sort of pressure would stop me enjoying the games, which sort of defeats the purpose of playing them in the first place.
I heard in Korea they broadcast computer games over cable tv, with comentators and the full suite.
"It seems Li-hun should have sent a few more Zergs to that narrow pass, what do you think John ?"
"You are right, now watch as the Protoss break through in a classic destroy-the-Hatchery offensive. He used this in last year's finals to great effect."
"Right -- but wait -- Li Hun opened up a second front down in the SE corner of the map !"
(...)
I never did watch such a thing on TV here in the west, but I guess it would be interesting to see some pro-guys playing a game which I have tried to master, and figuring out how they think.
Once that happens, well, sponsors are the natural next step.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
Sounds like my freshman year of college.
More seriously though, 12 hours a day at a job in Korea doesn't seem like such a big deal. I have a friend from Korea who moved here about 25 years ago. He says he gets calls from friends at home who are about to go back to work at about 1am their time, having just worked MORE than a full day already. It seems like adults there do almost nothing BUT work -- literally, not like "workaholics" over here. 12 hours a day doesn't seem so bad compared to that.
-"It seems like you're trying to exploit a security hole. Would you like help?"
Is that a spreadsheet, Mister??????
When you start playing this seriously it isn't fun anymore, and you realize how limited the rule-set/skill level needed for most games is.
- Ted's Boss
The only thing you have to sacrafice, is your dignity.
And I thought it was bad the day I turned on ESPN2, only to see the exciting Scrabble championship being televised, complete with commentators.
Even better, now, instead of actually playing a video game myself, I can turn on the TV and watch someone else play a game! From this day forward I will live vicariously through professional video gamers.
Buy the President
They get paid $100k/yr to PLAY games .... Hell, I wish I could make $100k just programming them!!!
I'd be willing to provide something tangible for my salary!!!!
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
They're going to be opening video game sweatshops!
So thats why those obsure 120 ping Counterstrike servers always have people jabbering away in Korean (at least I think it is, my ability to differentiate between Asian langs in limited). Now if only the Indians would pick up heavy gaming addicitions, I wouldn't have to worry about my application being off-shored
Playing video games all day long would get very old very quickly...
It's that old addage. Never turn your favorite hobby into your job. It'll stop being your hobby and it'll stop being your favorite thing todo.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
That sounds good until you realize you'll be playing Daikatana for those twelve hour days... then you may be tempted to claw your eyeballs out.
Subscribe for free to my show!
The article's framed as a look at the time since the Korean war, so the modern "PC bang" culture in the South makes a nice contrast. Detail:
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I play everquest, pretty much at a competitive level , that is I've been playing for 4 years and have multiple high lvl characters. In the time I've been online, I've watched public opinion of 'ebaying' go from being loathed, to accepted, to welcomed (by the players). I never bought or sold virtual items over ebay, BUT, I know several players who have to great success. In fact the guy that owns monkly business (a game information site) is reputed to turn 7-figures through his player auction store that sells in game money for real world money. I also seem to rememeber some sweatshop named blacksun entertainment that was farming out the 'work' of playing everquest to china, where they had like 30 employees that farmed items all day long for sale.
What I find interesting is the different approach the koreans have to the western 'under the table' idea. The korean channels broacast Lineage, warcraft, starcraft, and several other types of games on multiple tv channels with full commentary. I don't know, but I'd bet that online auctions of lineage crap are known and accepted as well. It seems like here we still believe that games are for kids, and that the resale of virtual items or profiting from gaming is some kind of taboo. What's funny is that this is the classic setup for something that's destined to be 'cool' and accepted in the future (starts as a taboo).
I'm betting that its only a matter of time before this becomes the norm in the US as well. I know it seems alien, but most folx who have played the high end (or aspired too) of these games knows that it CAN be entertaining to watch how people setup strategies and outthink the environments. The next generation of Blizzard game (world of Warcraft) has the potential to bridge this gap between the us and the koreans quite quickly, and I'll be interested to see if these 'odd' parts of their culture don't become more common here as well.
see you online - chitlenz
Imagination is the silver lining of Intelligence.
I heard in Korea they broadcast computer games over cable tv, with comentators and the full suite.
Ok, call me a geek but I think I would actually find this interesting. Of course, they'd have to be able to freely spectate within the game so that they could fully show the audience what was going on. And I actually want them to talk to the participants and get the lowdown on what their strategy is for the current game. Of course, this means you can't let the other team overhear them.
I'm thinking Iron Chef meets Starcraft, only without the constant use of fish.
Mechanik
You work ONLY 8 hours a day and 5 days a week? You Slacker! Next thing you'll tell me is they PAY you too. After all all your boss has to do is shake a few trees and engineers fall out in clumps. You better shape up buddy!
They start outsourcing all of the game playing jobs to India for 1/10th the cost.
Zoid.com
Dr. Evil: "Do you like your quasi-futuristic clothing, Mr. Powers? I designed it myself."
"You want a toe? I can get you a toe by three o'clock... with nail polish."
How will it look on your resume "Nov 2002 - April 2005: Played computer games." Doesn't really give the impression of a hard worker, does it?
This depends all on what kind of job you're going for. I'd love to be able to put "Professional Game Player" on my resume. That way, when I apply to EA Games or id Software for a game testing job, I'd have had a professionally documented position with a company known for sponsoring good game players. And I'd definately have an advantage over the MIT guy who's wasting his life on math and algorythms...
I was just talking to my partners in a retail store we own about this fear... We provide skateboards, paintball supplies, and BMX equipment -- all mostly outdoor sport.
We've seen sales in these markets slide a bit (of course helped by Internet companies) which I can partially attest to the fact that a lot of our regulars spend much of their afternoons with video game systems rather than going outside.
As each year progresses, I see more and more fat and lethargic kids who have less and less desire to really do anything. I remember my days (I'm 30) of video games back with Atari and Intellivision and Coleco, and they rarely occupied more than an hour an evening, if that. Sleepovers might be all night of video gaming, but those were rare too. We preferred skateboarding or laser tag in the evenings.
My thought the other day was that we'd soon see corporations sponsoring video game teams like my shop sponsors skate, BMX, and paint teams. This article brings that fear to fruition.
Of course, this is what the market wants, so I support the decisions that those people make, even if I disagree with the general movement. I just hate seeing kids en masse dropping any kind of athletic activity because of laziness. New video games ARE cool looking, but nothing woos the young ladies better than extreme sports!
I bet once you have to play it's not nearly as much fun.
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
It is pretty interesting. There are two channels in Daegu (central Korea) that broadcast games all day. Besides matches, they also have review roundup shows, shows that show off the latest in hardware, etc. They also show the odd in-game movie, and sometimes even re-enact a player going through a level in some adventure game, with voice-over dialogue which I assume is meant to be comedy (not knowing the language really well, I only have tone of voice to work with...).
Starcraft: They LOVE Starcraft. Besides tournaments -- which normally have a small but knowlegable live audience that knows when something big has happened and cheers along, and end with final knock-out games being played before a massive audience in an arena -- they also have programs that compare tactics and units -- you have to be able to understand Korean well to get the most of it, but they had visual displays showing the different kinds of damage that a different attack could cause. They built a bunch of buildings in close proximity and launched a nuke at it to show what sort of damage you could expect to see, they lined up a bunch of small units in a row to show how the different kinds of Zerg splash damage worked... They really take this stuff seriously. The popularity of Starcraft is such that the war chest, which has been out for years now, is still consistently amongst the top sellers and hasn't had its price reduced to the bargain bin yet. The commentators in the show are pretty good about locating where the action is on a big map and taking the spectator there to watch. They'll even switch to the different players' views, and let me tell you, those guys move and react quickly!
They're trying to bring in more competitive FPS and RTS matches, both for PC and console, but for whatever reason, because none of the games have the long-term penetration that Starcraft has had, what ends up happening is that one player comes along who dominates pretty quickly and is on every week. Because of the culture of PC rooms though, where every public machine in the country is likely to have Starcraft on it, there's a much larger talent pool to draw from, which has probably lead to the evolution of clanning into corporate team sponsorship.
These shows also serve as great ads for the product. Because I'm not much for consuming games and like to pick and choose, these shows are great previews for what the gameplay is like and whether or not the game is deep enough to play. I'm glad I never bought into the Halo on XBox hype, not saying it's not an excellent game, but the Halo show gave me a good idea of what to expect in terms of multiplayer and gameplay dynamics, and that stuff isn't really for me. One drawback of the shows is that they don't really give you an idea of what non-multiplayer games are like, as well as only give you an idea of what graphics are like in MMO games. Maybe it's better if you can understand Korean, I don't know...
Common tactic in Starcraft -- send your eighth builder out to find the enemy base, and just build a Vespian gas extractor. Which leads to common counter-tactic, cheap buildings that can block that builder. After that, it's just an all out competition to out-produce the enemy, and spying on the enemy's forces to figure out what units you'll have the most luck in combatting them with.
If you think the players look silly in the Starcraft uniforms, wait until you see what they have to wear for WWE matches.
My first professional publication was a review of Myth II for Computer Gaming World, which was published in April 1999. In order to write it and make my deadline, I had to play Myth II from start to finish - in a week.
I literally spent 8 hours a day for five days playing that game. By the second day, my eyes were burning at the end of the day. Once I finished playing it, I put it down, and to this day I have never played it again. I've played Myth I, but never Myth II.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
They don't just play video games in Korea. There are over 250 BOARDGAME cafes in Soeul alone, where people meet and _pay_ to play boardgames. Not Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, but so-called Euro- or designer boardgames like those shown on Spielboy.com or Boardgamegeek.com.
-nd
See sig...
Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!
I don't care too much about the commentary, I'm more curious as to how they take patches, updates, and balance changes. Is abusing a bug grounds of disqualification? If an update causes a big enough change in the game, are matches suspended for a certain period of time until players can reorientate themselves? Is there any concern regarding certain unit balances in the game? (ie. If a balance change in Starcraft fu*ks up a pro's strategy, is that player allowed to withdraw from the league/tournament without penalties?)
..better than getting paid for playing video games:
Getting laid for playing video games.
If I had the money, I would gladly hire "Morimoto" to do nothing but create more of "Time Attack Videos" like the ones floating around for Super Mario Bros 3 and Megaman 2.
Watching someone tear through a classic game you used to spend hours on as a kid and go from start to finish in under 30 minutes has got to be worth $100K/year.
Remember him? Way back when, he was the red-headed guy who was reportedly "Played video games for a living." He was employed by Nintendo. He was basically a pro-games advocate.
"Why do you think video games make children violent?"
"They don't."
"Let's try again. Why do you think video games make children violent?"
"They don't.
And now, for a sig that's a complete copout.
No huge shocker. It'd be like someone saying hey wanna get paid to throw that ball around back in 1900.
:P
Look where baseball and football are today.
Maybe all these hours of rtcw enemy territory will pay off
Witty slam, but is it true?
...well catch up. In truth, Everquest is so damn competitive that often times the GMs are called in to settle disputes about camp rights/training/etc.
I'd so no. To clarify, everquest and games like it (MMORPGS) require a great deal of time to get anywhere (I'll give you that), but the true skill of playing is more an exercise in social organization and strategy (what I presume you are alluding to.. as in Warcraft/starcraft which seem to prevail on the korean circuit atm). By strategy, I mean the ability to progress beyond where the average gamer can go, gamers I might add that many times are able to and do sink as much time as powergamers into achieving success yet still never get to the would-be endgame for any particular expansion.
For instance, on our Everquest server (rodcet nife), there is approximately ONE plane of time enabled guild. They are there when many people are not because of solid tactics in engaging in specific encounters (oober mobs if you will), while other guilds who spend as much or more time playing catch up cannot seem to ever completely
But, let me return to the topic at hand a bit. To say that a warcraft match between two human players is any harder or easier than an encounter between a guild in everquest and an epic mob (creature) is simply wrong. That's why it's a game people play constantly in order to be able to compete in. If it was as easy as you seem to think it is, everyone would be at the top, while most are not...
Lets look at it this way, how about I say that warcraft sux as a strategy game because all the players have to live within the rules of the game the programmers created. Human opponents aside, you have to play within the realm of strategies created by the development team, so technically every move is predicatable at some level. For that matter, what about chess?
The difference with everquest is minute at best. RTS fans who may think that such rpgs have to do with roleplaying may be a tad shocked to discover said endgame is much more like a cooperative version of warcraft than anything else. Strategy and tacitcs are in fact closely guarded guild secrets in many cases, and may involve up to 60 people working in synchronicity over time in their 'roles' as classes to accomplish whatever the goal is.
I, personally, play warcraft as well, and I like the game, its just not my thing. Oh and btw, we have MANY Korean guilds (openly, as in recruit members only in their own time zone) on our server, so to say its purely an American fetish is a bit on the unjustifiably elitist fringe eh?
I post infrequently, but do follow up on the posts I make, so I'll wait for your response.
Regards - Chitlenz
Imagination is the silver lining of Intelligence.
Myself, and many other people in the counterstrike community, smoke weed and take pills to fuel long sessions of late night counterstrike. I have read articles about this in various places, exploring the connection between counterstrike and drugs. it is an interesting take on "doping" in proffessional sports. Will you lose your sponsorship if they catch you taking speed or smoking weed? ZERG RUSH KEKEKEKE
Lightweights. I play longer than that, and for free.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.