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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.
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...
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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.
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
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
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.
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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.
They start outsourcing all of the game playing jobs to India for 1/10th the cost.
Zoid.com
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!
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.
Yeah, 'cause look at all those programmers who get a job doing it, then hate programming and quit doing it. Oh, wait, that doesn't happen very often.
Well, look at the kids who love to play football, then wind up in the NFL, hate football and quit playing. Oh, wait, that doesn't happen very often.
Well, look at all the guys who love to fly, then get jobs as commercial pilots, so they hate flying and quit. Oh, wait, that doesn't happen.
Every example I can think of where people turn an avocation into a vocation, it's by and large their dream job.
Wait, I know; what about that guy who started a little geek news web site, then get hired by big software companies to run it and decided he hated it and shut it down.
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