Become a Professional Gamer

introverted writes "An article in the Wall Street Journal covers events in South Korea, where, even more so than the U.S., there are increasingly highly paid professional teams competing in games such as Blizzard's StarCraft. The article notes: 'Last year, [pro StarCraft gamer] Lim Yo-Hwan made about $300,000 from player fees and commercials. Another top earner, Hung Jin-Ho, whose fingers are insured for $60,000, recently signed a three-year deal with telecom provider KTF Co. that will pay him $480,000 altogether.' So now you can claim your time gaming as 'job skills training'!"

Comments

Whatever.

[Maradine]

"So now you can claim your time gaming as 'job skills training'!"

Alternately, I could make a good salary working 8-5 in an intellectually challenging field and save the gaming for its true purpose: a hobby.

I don't want to imagine a world where videogames cease being fun because I need to keep winning to put food in my belly.

Just a thought.

Re:Whatever.

[MoonFog]

Like most other professional sports out there?
Don't you think you can both enjoy and work at the same time? A lot of professional athletes out there still love what they do, and professional gaming.. well, I don't see the huge difference from that and a "regular" sport (apart from the obvious).

Re:Whatever.

[CriX]

Hey, Doom is intellectualy challenging okay?! All those keys... you even have to match the colors.

A job like that pWn3z. :)

Re:Whatever.

[garcia]

Alternately, I could make a good salary working 8-5 in an intellectually challenging field and save the gaming for its true purpose: a hobby.

I was modded up and down on this very issue. Whether or not you should make your hobby your work. "What better job to have than something you thoroughly enjoy?"

I was a decent athlete in high-school. I got a scholarship to a D1 college. I enjoyed practice, meets, and the entire thing. Once I got to college I realized that this was a job and quickly found it to be more of a burden than a release.

I can't see doing something I love as my hobby for pay. It just takes all the fun out of it for me.

I guess everyone has their own obsessions. Mine is getting money to do what I love to do on the weekends. At least I have something to really look forward to. I really feel that it would bore me to do what I currently love everyday. It's probably why I love it.

Re:Whatever.

[zomper514]

That is like saying Playing in the NFL isn't fun.

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[tcopeland]

> Doom is intellectualy challenging okay?!

It sure is if you write a map generator for it. Packing those SIDEDEF byte sequences... good times.

Re:Whatever.

[Maradine]

"It's work, not fun," says Mr. Lim, who trains 10 hours a day with his eight teammates and their coach in a two-bedroom apartment, where they also live, in southern Seoul.

While I acknowledge the possibility of that being the case, I don't think its happening here. Still, I suppose the analogy holds. Good point.

Re:Whatever.

[stalwart]

I concur..games are supposed to be a stress relief...when I am doing poorly at a game, or get too frustrated, I can turn it off. The joy of games I think would be lost when the focus of playing them is monetarily based.

But damn, half a mil to play games for a year is not bad, not bad at all...I suppose you have to make sacrifices somewhere. And $60,000 bucks for "finger insurance"? Are you kidding? Must be nice to work for a compay that actually gives you insurance...as opposed to the 12 million Americans that work everyday and reap 0 insurance/benefits from it.

Re:Whatever.

[icedcool]

This is true, as a former pro-Counterstrike player I can vouch for this. We would practice daily up to 6 hours, just so we could get down a strategy juuuust right. Then you would be constantly in practice so that you had recoil figured out. Getting guaranteed headshots 100% is a challenge. But making it work also made it not fun. The stress involved to perform was intense. It started taking priority over other parts of my life like school.

Every now and then I play for fun, and that's what it is.
It is nice though in that becoming a professional gamer doesn't have any limits to it like the physical barrier in becoming a football player.

Re:Whatever.

[Mike Hawk]

Yeah this whole participating in competitions for money is just a fad. Look how much it hurts participants in:

Football
Football
Baseball
Basketball
Hockey
Poker
etc etc etc

Lets see, doing something you love with the potential to become rich beyond your wildest dreams. Yeah, the whole competition thing sucks.

Re:Whatever.

[Buzz_Litebeer]

Having supported myself for 2 years winning mechwarrior 3 tourneys, I can say you are way off base.

Gaming was exciting, fun, and rewarding. I still play games as a hobby, but I wish I could still play them for money.

Gaming is a great thing to do for money, if you can compete at the level to make enough at it.

The reason gaming is not popular as a sport, in the same way it is in Korea, is that there is not enough money to be made in the sport of gaming. You do have your success stories, the kid that made 100k playing Unreal Tourney for example, but for every one of those success stories, there are thousands and thousands of people who simply did not win, they got nothing.

In many sports, when you compete at a lower level, you can still make a good, solid, income. In gaming, its all or nothing, you are either 'teh big winnah' or you are jack shit.

There were many times in mechwarrior 3 when I would be in a tourney, and get shoved in the loser bracket because I made a mistake. Second place generally gets you nothing, or something so negligable it does not matter.

For example, in one of the major tourneys I participated in, called "Meltdown" the main prize was a Harley Davidson motorcycle, the second place prize was a 250 dollars + free trip to Seatle. Luckily, I won the cycle that time, but the second place person got to pay half of his car insurance.

I have often thought of getting back into pro gaming, but every time I sit down and try to, I realize that I can no longer compete. This only after 5 years of not participating in the scene.

You can not have a real life when the top prizes for many tourneys is worth maybe twice the cost it took to actually drive there, and the events only take place 3-4 times per year.

Pro Gaming could be HUGE in the United States, but we just haven't figured out a way to market it.

I look at South Korea and I wonder what is different there. My opinion is strictly on the fact of population density. When someone does well, they can get to tourneys relatively quickly, and can also have an easier time of promoting themselves without having to canvas such a large area. I am also sure it does not cost 300-400 dollars to fly to Seattle or Texas to compete in a major tourney.

I think your opinion that gaming should only be a hobby should really be presented to proffesional basketball, baseball, championship chess, GO, etc. etc. etc. On-line video games are just as legitimate.

Re:Whatever.

[merphle]

I can't see doing something I love as my hobby for pay. It just takes all the fun out of it for me.

I started programming as a hobby (years ago) and am now presently employed as a professional programmer / software engineer. I can honestly say that I still love it.

How is this any different?

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Once I got to college I realized that this was a job and quickly found it to be more of a burden than a release.

Obviously you didn't attend Colorado University :)

Re:Whatever.

[AmericanInKiev]

No - this is a completely valiid point.

The pursuit of any endeavor with potential income is a tax deductable expense.

Eating frogs seems to get high rating on fear factor, thus the $15 dollars i spent at the pet shop to practice is a deductable expense.

I think we should organize more professional competative fields such as to ensure that every action from pooping to scarfing hot dogs is in fact a valid professional pursuit.

AIK

Re:Whatever.

[LetterJ]

$250 is half your car insurance? Ouch. I have 2 vehicles with full coverage and also pay my disability and life insurance at the same time and the total bill is still only $430 a month.

Re:Whatever.

[mike_mgo]

I disagree that pro-gaming could become huge here in the US (I'm not even sure, based on the article that it is huge in South Korea).

I just don't think there is the fan or media interest to be able to support a large pro-gamer population. There probably is a small segment of the population willing to watch others playing video games, but I don't think you will ever sell out 20,000 seat arenas hundreds of time every year, or get millions of people to watch it weekly on TV. And without the fan interest (and advertising that follows it) pro-gaming can probably never expand because the prizes will have to either be put up by the sponsors or come from tournament entrance fees. And as you have said, that may be enough to support a handful of pro-gamers in the country, but not enough to make it huge.

Re:Whatever.

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Maybe at the weekend he relaxes flipping burgers at McD's for fun.

Re:Whatever.

[Buzz_Litebeer]

It was half of his, that was just from what he said. They were all good guys, it was a great experience.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed... but I don't see why sports are so popular, either.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Off base, you little prick? You don't define everyone who does gaming professionally.

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[balloonpup]

All depends on the state. $250 is a tenth of my car insurance here in Massachusetts, for one car. The other driver of the vehicle has only 2 years driving experience, and that's part of it, but it'd be half of what it is in another state.

Re:Whatever.

[EastCoastSurfer]

It is nice though in that becoming a professional gamer doesn't have any limits to it like the physical barrier in becoming a football player.

Actually it does have physical limits. Extreme hand eye cordination is required. Also, if you RTFA you would have seen that what makes the guy so good is the number of moves/minute that he has been known to do. Up to 6.66 moves/second. If that isn't a physical barrier for average people I don't know what is.

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[Maradine]

Heheheh.

"Would you like a Zerg Rush with that?"

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[LetterJ]

It's actually not that far off as I pay monthly and was making the comparison that way rather than the 6 month or 12 month rate that others pay. I've just been paying my insurance monthly for so long, I didn't think of it any other way.

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

I say you are off base calling them strictly a hobby. People play games all the time and make money at them. You are off base thinking that video games are any different.

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[diamondsw]

I started programming as a hobby, got a CS degree, loved it, and still love it. However, that's not my job. When my job included programming a few years back, I grew to hate it.

What I love about programming is the creativity, and setting my own direction. I love being able to create or not at my own pace. When you start doing this as a job, you have deadlines, lack of control, and criteria that must be met. That can quickly poison a favorite hobby.

Re:Whatever.

[balloonpup]

Oh, I see. I was going to say...$500 for a year o.o

Re:Whatever.

[Decaffeinated Jedi]

"So now you can claim your time gaming as 'job skills training'!"

Actually, I think that's a typo. It should read "job skillz training."

Re:Whatever.

[Rakshasa Taisab]

Why take out your anger on others? You should blame yourself for being stuck doing bad VB scripts. Some of us actually *do* have the right to call ourself software engineers.

Re:Whatever.

[James Lewis]

I think what makes the difference between pro gaming is the US and in Korea is our societies. In the US, gaming (well anything to do with computers) still has enough of a "nerd" stigma to it to prevent pro gamers from being sought after to promote most products. In the US we seem to be at the point where you save face if you just play games casually, but you're a total nerd and pathetic if that's all you do.

Re:Whatever.

[Buzz_Litebeer]

HA! I completely know what you mean!

When playing at the top level of mech3, you could tell almost how the entire match was going to go after engaging an enemy for 60 seconds or so.

Sometimes it wasnt fun going into a game where it all came down to what mechs the other team took. You could win an entire match simply by being a good guesser, it was very tense at times.

Re:Whatever.

[z0ink]

Programming will always be a fun challenge. I've been playing games at an amatuer competition level online for the past 5 years. Something like this includes online ladders, leagues, tournaments, etc. Last winter I went to the CPL, the premier professional gaming tournament in the US, and attended as a competitor. The 4 months of spending 4 hours a night practicing my ass off made the game anything but fun. I could program night and day and come back to it with the same energy and vigor (.. as much as anybody could have towards that sort of thing, anyway), but with playing games on a professional level it really becomes a job and there is no fun left.

Re:Whatever.

[bhsurfer]

i was a professional musician for 10 years, doing little else besides setting up & doing tours - sometimes over 250 shows a year. for a good while it was great but eventually it became more & more like "work" and less like "fun". when the band finally broke up i didn't gig with anyone for over a year just becuase i didn't want to.

now that i'm doing something else (programming computers, go figure) i've gotten into a few bands to play in recreationally and it's a blast. i've gotten to remember why it was i did all of that to begin with, plus (ironically enough) i can now afford the nice gear that i only wished i could have when i was actually doing it every day.

i think there's a lot to be said for enjoying your career, but there's certainly something to be said for keeping your "hobbies" (if you can call a lifelong obsession a hobby) separate. for me, the fact that i no longer need to care if i make money at a gig frees me to play whatever the hell i want rather than what "the masses" will want to consume. that sort of cushion makes it much easier to focus on music as expression (self-indulgence?) rather than as a commodity.

as an aside, music is certainly a great hobby for those of us who like free beer!

Re:Whatever.

[mzipay]

programming has been a hobby for me for 20 years. i have been employed as a programmer for a little over 5 years.

my love of programming has not decreased in the least bit; however, i have come to realize that the freedom to be creative and exercise painstaking care in design (when programming as a hobby) is often (read: almost always) in direct conflict with the business world, where profit and deadline trump quality and thoughtful design any day of the week (at least where i'm at). it's not that that's a bad thing - it's that i am incompatible with that culture/environment. it's a philosophical difference; but one which is overwhelmingly the single greatest source of work-related stress in my life.

ultimately, it is not my love for coding that has disappeared; rather, the "i'm so lucky i get paid to engage in my hobby" feeling has completely evaporated and left me with the desire to NOT be a programmer-for-a-living.

Re:Whatever.

[John Harrison]

I have friends that are/were professional athletes. From what I can tell there are many pro athletes that do not love what they do. They have little passion and are simply collecting a very large paycheck. I understand that is especially true in the NFL where if your are around long enough to qualify for the retirement plan you are set for life.

That said, many pros are very passionate about the game and it shows both during the games and in practice.

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pro gaming is probably the worst career path in history. In order to win any money you have to be the best and it takes a lot to the best these days. Apart from competition you have the have the training equipment. A really fast Internet connection or a LAN where you can play other people. Top of the line machine and incredible set of skills.
Its not just twitch skills. You have to have the mental ability to memorize levels inside out, Time spawns, have great listening ability. Everything has to be correct one false move can loose a 1 v 1 easily. I used to be a professional gamer back when quake was big. Let me tell you the Pros, are just that PROS. Just like baseball and basketball these people just have a gift and Developed greatness with practice. It's hard to keep track of weapons spawning in 20 seconds, While keeping track of quad damage spawning in 60 seconds. Knowing the best route to get to both. Even slightly injuring yourself to take healing packs that enemy might use. Being able to rocket Jump has to be a sort of reaction.
It's like a game of chess but you have to have amazing hand eye coordination to move the pieces right. Being able to make up a route in you mind in a split second of getting a weapon and then the next spawning item in order to starve and opponent.
In team games you have to have memorized at least 30 macros just to talk to your teammates For example
F1 = enemy at:
alt q= rl or rocket launcher
Pressing these keys in combination will allow you send a message to your teammates of the enemy location.
now you have to be able to set off these macros while possibly fighting an opponent, thinking of the next place to go and reading you teammates messages.
every move has to be made at a split second no time to think..
It's a very competitive environment. Some of the moves these guys pull can almost not be replicated by the average person. I competed and although I was good it would take me 100 to 200 tries to get a correct rocket jump on cirtain levels and these guys would make it seem easy. Trust me it's a sport. I can garuntee none of you would touch one the higher level pros in the game, as you wont get a shot off, you wont see what hit you type of thing.
Don't even get me started on warcraft three of strategy games.
Its not just twitch its more. Like anyone who is the best at anything these people have a gift 99.99% of the population doesn't

Re:Whatever.

[AviLazar]

Thats the thing, it takes the fun out for you - but to some people it doesn't. Maybe these guys consider their jobs to be "9-5" and treat it like anybody else who has to sit in an office all day. Maybe they think it's the coolest thing on the planet - the fact that they can make a living on this is pretty damn cool though :)

Re:Whatever.

[nomadic]

Don't you think you can both enjoy and work at the same time? A lot of professional athletes out there still love what they do, and professional gaming.. well, I don't see the huge difference from that and a "regular" sport (apart from the obvious).

The difference is professional athletes get paid even if they lose the game. Playing solely for prizes is a much dicier proposition, and I think it stands a good chance of sucking the fun out of your job.

Re:Whatever.

[tomstdenis]

Gah? Oh I get it...

I know you are but what am I?

Re:Whatever.

[divirg]

Sure, but couldn't you make a hobby out sitting in a cube and being hassled by PHBs?

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[nacturation]

In gaming, its all or nothing, you are either 'teh big winnah' or you are jack shit.

I think the problem is in the sponsorship. Normally in tournaments you have only a handful of companies forking over money... Intel, AMD, NVidia, ATI, um... I'm sure there's others. The point being that the companies offering sponsorship are really only doing it because the products they sell are relevant to gamers.

With sports, you have all kinds of companies. Everybody wears clothing, so Nike forks over huge amounts. People like to drink liquids, so Gatorade hopes you'll drink theirs. The point here is that all these companies sell products that the people *watching* would buy. After all, when was the last time you saw an ad for great shoulder pads during an NFL game? Or when watching an NHL game, have you ever seen an ad for a super-great hockey stick? The only exception to this that comes to mind is golf, where you will see golfing equipment marketed. I think that's likely because first: a set of clubs is a high-ticket item, and second: a lot of people *do* play golf enough that it makes financial sense.

Find some clever promoter who can pitch this successfully to companies and, at the same time, overcome the stigma of a good gamer as "that nerd in his mother's basement" and it'll be successful. But it is an up-hill battle. The only good athletes are generally the ones who are in physically good shape. So the average athlete is *better looking* than the average person. The average gamer, on the other hand... :)

Re:Whatever.

[a7244270]

The difference is professional athletes get paid even if they lose the game. Playing solely for prizes is a much dicier proposition, and I think it stands a good chance of sucking the fun out of your job.

You are correct, professional team players on the NFL, NBA, etc. get paid even if they lose. However, there are many, many sports/games where if you don't win, you don't get jack.

Just off the top of my head, Tennis, Billiards, Golf, Snowboarding...

Re:Whatever.

[ryanwright]

The point here is that all these companies sell products that the people *watching* would buy.

Pro gaming just needs to concentrate on the right advertisers:

- Jolt cola
- Pizza hut
- Acne medications
- Miracle weight loss pills
- "Big & short" clothing companies
- Porn distributors
- Overprotective mothers ... etc.

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

What will make or break professional gaming is whether or not there are multiple skills required to be an expert. If it is always, who can do X faster, it will be boring. More entertainment will be had when different people are good at A, B, C, ... Then, the combinations and team interactions become more important and interesting.

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't that be "kekekeke"?

Re:Whatever.

[NevermindPhreak]

"as a former pro-Counterstrike player" under what name and teams? just curious. i play a lot of CS. :-P

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time I checked, all the Ruby-Doom stuff did was allow you to create maps through a Ruby interface or from text/bitmap files. A decent map has never been made to date using any of these methods.

So it's really not a map generator. More like a bitmap-to-Doom level converter (which isn't even a good idea in my opinion).

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can not have a real life when the top prizes for many tourneys is worth maybe twice the cost it took to actually drive there, and the events only take place 3-4 times per year.

Actually, I play Call Of Duty competetively, so I have some knowledge of this area. check out www.thecpl.com . It's a semiannual (possibly three times a year) lan. Their five major tournaments offer a total of $275,000 for this summer's lan, and for the winter one, it is expected to be about $350,000. There was a lan held by another company in las vegas several months ago with a total tournament purse of I believe over $500,000. That tournament was a miserable failure yet it shows that company's are willing to sponsor these lans with very impressive cash purses.

Re:Whatever.

[icedcool]

[hda]-Icedcool to zEx | Icedcool. After we played x3 in a cal-i match... me and one of my pals quit. Played in a lot of other little clans before these two and after but after a while I just quit for good. I wanted to focus on college.

Re:Whatever.

[SphericalCrusher]

Well, us software designers can also get paid to play games at work.. as long as we do our job though. ;)

Basically, any hobby that you have and care a lot about can be used as "job skills training" later on, rather that be gaming, programming, hacking, hockey, so on so forth.

Re:Whatever.

[falcon9x]

I'm gonna have to agree with the parent here, but touch on a different aspect.
In Korea there is a big thing about "I must have something better than that guy." I say this because I'm Korean (South, this may not apply to North) (note- not all Koreans will necessarily agree with me, but most that I've spoken with have). I personally believe that this and the population density had a major part in making Korea the most broadband connected country in the world (too lazy for links). Other factors played a role (like government money), but again I think the main thing is that "Hey my neighbor has broadband? Well I should get some better broadband!"

This carries over directly to gaming. First off, they can use the broadband for gaming. Second, they must become better than the guy who just beat them. If you look at Lineage gamers, they'll even murder each other over events in game. I got a link for that.
The society plays a huge role in how gaming has risen in Korea. Moreso than you may think.

Re:Whatever.

[Veamon]

"I never miss a match" of his, said Jung Eun-young, 28, who stood in line for 14 hours for her front-row seat. Wow...how pathetic...its a friggin video game....

Re:Whatever.

[Veamon]

"I never miss a match" of his, said Jung Eun-young, 28, who stood in line for 14 hours for her front-row seat.

Wow...how pathetic...its a friggin video game....

Re:Whatever.

[jafuser]

There are emerging virtual worlds where you can make money just by creating content; you don't have to grind, and you don't have to "win" anything.

Second Life is one of the most sophisticated of these virtual worlds (along with Active Worlds and There).

You build something, write some code for it, and put it up for sale (which automatically vends copies). It's not difficult to sell a good quality virtual object for what equates to about US$1-2 each if you put a few hours of experienced effort into it. There are exceptional-quality things that sell for even more than that (as high as US$20).

The SL world isn't big enough to really make enough to live off of yet in most countries that have sufficient technology to support the bandwidth requirements, but the more motivated residents can make a couple hundred extra dollars a month in their spare time, which is a nice bonus for doing something fun.

Re:Whatever.

[tmortn]

Dosn't have to work like traditional sports. The money in the events could come largely from entrance fees since it is so open to all. If it ever gets to the point where significant sums of money are invovled then you will see spectators begin to gain interst for that fact alone.

Better spectator technology for the games would also help in that department. Games can be involving for spectators, resource games in particular would lend themselves in similar fashion to chess matches, poker games etc...

Re:Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of professional athletes out there still love what they do

and the rest are doing it for the hookers

Re:Whatever.

[Reziac]

Come to mention it, how's the ol' project going? Got busy and haven't been around to chat in a while.

Re:Whatever.

[deft]

feel free to expand your list of advertisers by refreshing slashdot and writing down the name of whoever pops up in the banner at the top.

Re:Whatever.

[tcopeland]

Hey Rez!

> how's the ol' project going?

Well, I really haven't done much with it in a while... I started playing some newer games - Red Faction, Iron Storm - and it's hard to go back...

> Got busy and haven't been around to
> chat in a while.

Aye, such is life...

See ya around,

Tom

Re:Whatever.

[Lord Kano]

Sounds like the "adult film industry" professionaly who constantly talk about how demanding the business is.

Getting paid to cum on the faces of really hot women must be such a trying endeavor.

LK

Re:Whatever.

[Reziac]

I noticed v0.7 was getting a little ripe :) But at least the project is still there for anyone to play with. Who knows, someone may run with it someday.

Besides, after the "Oooh, Shiny!" wears off those new games, DOOM's infinite flexibility will lure you back :)

Re:Whatever.

[eoyount]

Were you a BH surfer?

I loved Independent Worm Saloon.

Re:Whatever.

[bhsurfer]

i wish i could say i was, but that would be untrue. i just chose the username because they were (are) one of my favorite bands.

i was in a hippyesque reggae band called rasta rafiki which did a lot of touring & playing around the eastern us -- music festivals in upstate ny, bars anywhere from wash dc, pittsburgh, philly, up to boston & down to florida...broke up in 1996, so i've had some time to get over it.

Yeah, did that 5 years ago...

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess the latency from here to Korea has gotten even worse!

Re:Yeah, did that 5 years ago...

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgot this in parent post - I trained for the AMD PGL on my AMD K6-2 box.

http://www.cdmag.com/articles/015/112/pgl.html

Re:Yeah, did that 5 years ago...

[Anonymous Coward]

Woah! Cool!! According to your link I can get Starcraft for my Nintendo 64 for only $45!! What a steal!

Oh, come on...

[Mz6]

"He has a fan club with 470,000 registered members, but for the past two years he hasn't had a girlfriend. His fame makes it hard for him to risk rejection by approaching girls, he says: "It's too embarrassing." Also, team rules bar him from bringing dates back to the apartment."

Screw that BS... Get a new team or something.

Out of almost half a million people, there has to be some remotely hot girl that this guy could get and not be afraid of rejection with.
I mean..... wait for it..... she' in YOUR FAN CLUB!

Re:Oh, come on...

[LilMikey]

So what he's trying to say is playing video games for a living doesn't get you chicks?!?! Incredible paradigm shift from my usual way of thinking.

Re:Oh, come on...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Global Gaming League (ggl.com) is trying to start the same sort of professional gaming atmosphere in the U.S.... and your comment reminded me of their old slogan:

Stop playing with yourself .

Re:Oh, come on...

[dr_dank]

If this guy is really raking in the dough, why not get a suite at a 5 star hotel if he can't bring girls back to the apartment?

I'm sure a penthouse suite at the 4 Seasons would be a surefire panty remover.

Re:Oh, come on...

[Anonymous Coward]

His fame makes it hard for him to risk rejection by approaching girls, he says: "It's too embarrassing." Also, team rules bar him from bringing dates back to the apartment.

Must be the Slashdot team...

Re:Oh, come on...

[Woy]

Oh, like it's not embarassing for the rest of us as well. My fan club doesn't even have the test account created yet!

Re:Oh, come on...

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

<Duke> I don't have time to play with myself... </Duke>

I knew starcraft was popular in south korea but...

[bwraith]

I never knew how popular it was up until now, maybe I should pull it back out of the dark recesses and work my way into the ranks again. Dell schedule allowing....

The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[Himring]

So now you can claim your time gaming as 'job skills training'!

That should fly as well with the wife as the, "I'm working ... really!..."

Re:The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[awhelan]

That's fine, if he's clever enough to get paid for gaming, I'm sure he's working on a way to get paid for looking at pr0n.

Re:The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[Saltine Cracker]

ain't that the friggin truth.

Re:The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[Giant Panda]

When I worked for IEG designing porn sites, this was the line I used, "Honey, really. I'm working..."

In practice, doesn't work too well!

Re:The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[runlvl0]

Or, as I like to tell my lovely bride, when she wants to me to stop playing my favorite game (C&C Generals):

"But Honey, if I stop playing now, quite literally, the terrorists win!"

Re:The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[twigles]

I've found that gaming up until I go to sleep actually *does* kill the sex drive. Not sure why, kinda sucks. Also, you *can* get paid for looking at pr0n all day. You just have to been part of an insane plot to force everyone to conform to fundamentalist christian standards of morality.

Re:The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[Anonymous Coward]

damn man, my wife and I just fight over the better gaming machine, the sex happens when ever Im ready, and the head happens about an average of every other day of an hour long really good blowjob, and this is on top of about 3 hours or more gaming per day we both do and go to school and work and sleep.

you just arnt doing things right...

maybe time to get a mistress?

Re:The Wife+Gaming=No sex

[adamofgreyskull]

But..I'd still get to look at porn right?

Don't quit your day job

[nebaz]

Just like professional athelets, you may be able to get a whole lot of money for playing a game, but the competition is fierce, and you have to be really good to do it. Not to mention that there is probably no long term viability as you age and your reflexes go south. It will happen eventually.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[drinkypoo]

On the other hand there is certainly something to be said for getting older. While your body cannot do all the things it once could you are generally in better control of it when doing things it is capable of. Further, you will tend to absorb more strategy over time. Older gamers will have more problem with twitch games (in most cases) but will be able to make up for it in other ways.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[nebaz]

This is true for certain types of games, but even then, eventually mental faculties decline (at least in terms of speed) and older people get more forgetful (although my grandfather was sharp as a tack until the day he died). Although I doubt a 70 year old would embark on a professional gaming career. :-)

Re:Don't quit your day job

[drinkypoo]

I think my point (which I should have stated explicitly, I admit) was that the useful time span for a video gamer is probably going to be longer than, say, a basketball or football player. Especially football. On the other hand, there are some crusty ass mofos playing golf professionally, so it's not universal.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Buzz_Litebeer]

I used to game for money, and I can tell you that at 24 I can no longer compete at the high profile games out there.

I do not have the reflexes I once had for games such as Unreal Tourney, and this is after only 5 years of pursuing other interests.

I used to play games 8 hours a day, now I play them maybe 6 hours a week. It really does make a difference. Though you are correct in one thing, i am a much smarter gamer than I used to be, I can often win by using strategy instead of twitch skills.

When I used to be good at quake, I would just run through the levels, allowing my enemy to get a shot off, and then killing him through simply being manually better at the game, i no longer seem to have that ability ;-(

and Im only 24!

Re:Don't quit your day job

[nebaz]

This is probably true, but just out of curiosity, what do you think the upper age limit for a gamer is generally? There are baseball players in their 40's, and a few NFL kickers. Do you think a gamer could continue into their 50s-60s? (I hope so). I could see retirement homes in 40 years with old NES games, with huge icons, and slowed down processing time so we can still play SMB. :-)

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Anonymous Coward]

Just like anything, use it or lose it. Age doesn't have as much to do with it as people think. If you don't exercise that aspect of your reflexes, it'll deteriorate. Exercise it frequently and it'll come back. I game for about an hour or two every day because it really sharpens my reflexes, and it's a whole lotta fun.

Also, it seems you have 'pursued other interests', meaning gaming no longer has the same competitive element to you as it once had. That probably has something to do with your lessened abilities.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Moonshadow]

Man, I know the feeling. I first got UT when I was 15 or 16, and practically lived for that game. I was pretty good at it, IMO, and spent a good deal of time in both regular DM and instagib matches, and would usually come out on top. Now, I've been playing UT2K4 a lot, and I've come to realize that I'm much better at Assault and Onslaught than I am at DM and CTF, simply because my twitch skills have degraded. Onslaught is a great strategy game, and if you can coordinate a team of average players, you can usually beat an uncoordinated team of great players. I'm almost always the score leader in most of the Onslaught matches I play, but I have about a 1:1 frag:death ratio, which is obviously not going to be winning matches in DM. I popped into an instagib CTF game last night and was amazed at how badly I lagged behind the rest of the players in frags. For every frag, I'd have 2-3 deaths, because by the time I pulled the trigger, I was already dead. It's pretty humbling (and a little frustrating) to realize that you can't compete in that gametype simply because you no longer have the reflexes you had a few years ago.

Of course, it was fairly easy to tell how old the other players were, judging by the constant "faggot", "gay", and "n00b" trash talk being thrown around.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, having a job and working in computers is a big effect. In college I stopped because I realized I could not get a degree and play games, I chose getting a degree.

After I got out of College I had a lot of time off (couldnt find a job) So I tried to get back into gaming, I bought UT2k4, COD, etc.. lots of different games.

I was good, I by no means suck, but I can tell the difference between being "pro" and being "just good" and I was just good at those games, nowhere near the effortless play I could achieve at quake or mech3 when I played those games for very large amounts of time.

To put it in perspective. When playing mech3, i could take challenges from people that would put me in a generally losing situation, and still win simply because I could force the other player out of his game, by doing things in a different way.

The ability to adapt and know the weapons so well allowed me to effortless beat almost every player at the game, and in some of the leagues I would play strictly 2 v 1 games (2 of them vs 1 of me) simply because it allowed me to get massive amounts of points.

I could even NAME the people that could challenge me, and whenever a tourney came up I would track them, how well they were doing, and ask people they had played at what kind of tactics they were using for the tourneys.

It was a lot of guesswork and a lot of fun, but it wasnt a thing I could do forever. I am glad I realized that.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[mike_mgo]

I'm not sure if this is true or not. The difference between gaming and say basketball is that the "in" game changes every few years. 10 years ago it was Mortal Kombat, 7 it was quake, 3 years ago starcraft, what will it be next year? (my "in" game and time frames might be off, but you get the idea) Every 3 or 5 or whatever years to be capabale of making money the gamer is going to have to relearn a new game. A baseball player just has to play one game for his entire career.

Sure, there is going to be some skill carry over- but even if you were an expert at quake does that give you any assurance that you will be at the top for starcraft?

A pro athlete on the other hand knows that his skills will carry him throughout his career. Derek Jeter doesn't have to worry that one day he's going to show up at Yankee Stadium and be given a pair of skates and told that he is the new center for the Rangers (though that probably would be an improvement for the Rangers).

So while I would agree with you that if a gamer played FPS for a 30 year career, then yes, even if he lost some reaction time he could make up for it with better understanding of the game. I just think games change too quickly for top players to remain at the top.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[drinkypoo]

Gamers play within genres, whether it's warcraft, starcraft, or total annihilation, the games work on the same basic principles. Some have resource starvation and some don't, and so on, but the game is more or less the same. A better question than quake -> starcraft would be quake -> unreal tournament, and we already know the answer is yes.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[The Kow]

I'm 24 and my "reflexes" have actually gotten better over the last two years.

This is in part due to a change in mice - the Intellimouse 3.0 never really clicked for me, the Logitech MX700 [yes, cordless] works great, in part because it's heavier, which keeps it from going flying.

It's also due to a change in focus and mental approach.

I don't think you can truly judge your reflexes based entirely on whether you're aiming better than your opponents.

Especially if you've been out of it for 5 years. Gamers all over the world have gotten a LOT better at FPS games, because they've been around longer and they've started at younger ages. The reason your reflexes aren't as good is probably more related to the fact that you haven't played in 5 years (it takes a long time to get your aim back in playing shape even if you've only been playing another game, let alone nothing at all), and the fact that the rest of the world is better than the flops we were used to picking on lo those years ago. For the record, I've been gaming competitively since Quake in 1996 or so.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do people spout this crap. Most of the really good teams in the US ladders are composed of people in their mid to late 20s. The best gamers are not the 16 year olds with twitch skills.

The reason is simple, your twitch skills don't degrade that much from age but you gain a lot of strategy. They may degrade from lack of playing though, I don't see this as I only play when I have matches or need to blow off some steam and I stay competitive.

Anyway I see this, "I'm old and no longer good at FPSs" line on almost every forum and I really can't take it anymore. Personally I turn 26 this year and on a pickup server I rarely get beat, on any game or gametype. During a match I stay somewhere in the middle of the pack. That is because many of the people I play with are both better and older then me.

So stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop blaming your age and just learn to play the game.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[mike_mgo]

I agree with what you are saying, but I think my point still stands. Yes, if you're a quake expert you will most likely be an expert at UT or Doom or any other FPS.

But the original poster was writing of making a career of gaming of 20 or 30 plus years. I don't think antone here can claim that they know what the "big" game is going to be 15 or 20 years from now. I think the gaming industry is just too fluid for someone who is 18 years olds to be able to realistically say he can make a career by gaming.

15 years ago side scrollers were every where-and you may have been the best Super Mario or Metriod player, but what good is that going to do you now, no one makes side scollers anymore. If you want to make a career out of gaming then I think you have to accept at least the possibilty that a couple of times during your career you may have to learn an almost entirely new sets of skills and strategies, in addition to having to deal with slower reflexes.

Pro atheletes can make up for their slower reaction times because after years of playing they hopefully have a deeper understanding of their sport. A gamer who played FPS for his entire career could probably do the same thing, I just question whether it is reasonable to assume that a single genre is going to be viable for a 20+ year time frame.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[drinkypoo]

It's going to depend both on the person and the game. As you point out, the football players in their forties are kickers, which is considerably lower-impact than any other position on the team, which is probably what gets them that bad rep. Amazing how the kicker can be considered a second-class player with how many games which have been won because of kicking the extra point, or field goals.

Some people retain their mind and/or reflexes well into old age, which I attribute mostly to making good use of both and being lucky enough not to contract some strange disease or virus that results in deterioration of your vital tissues, primarily nervous ones. It would be easy to get carpal tunnel syndrome or some other repetitive motion stress disorder by gaming, but breaking up the gaming with other activities which involve the hands is probably a good idea. (Many gamers already do this, if you know what I mean. Especially when playing DOA beach volleyball.)

Some games, of course, are relatively low impact in terms of controller use but still fast paced. Bomberman is an excellent example. It's a game in which a lot is going on and you only need a d-pad and one button to play most versions, or two buttons in some.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, no shit. I rememeber a few years back when I was playing SOF online and had two people ghosting me. They were surprised as hell to learn that I was 27 when they invited me to join their "clan". Since they were only 10 and 12 years old, I politely declined.

"The older the bull, the stiffer the horn"

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Anonymous Coward]

Gamers play within genres, whether it's warcraft, starcraft, or total annihilation, the games work on the same basic principles.

even within genres there can be differences. i'd a friend who complained quake 1 and 3 were too fast - he was good at quake2, while i whomped him in 1 and 3 (and other fast games), he totally shreds me in q2. imagine if you were a pro who had to deal with that transition...

its like, are baseball players automatically good at softball? major similarities. or cricket? still kind-of-similar.

Re:Don't quit your day job

[Buzz_Litebeer]

I would note I did say the following thing

"8 hours a day, now I play them maybe 6 hours a week. It really does make a difference"

I did correllate most of it with time.

When I was 18 I had a lot less responsibility.

He says it himself...

[Mz6]

"It's work, not fun," says Mr. Lim, who trains 10 hours a day with his eight teammates and their coach in a two-bedroom apartment.."

Re:He says it himself...

[handsome devil]

What I wanna know is how can i get someone to pay me to be their videogame coach. "Hit jump! Go that way!"

Re:He says it himself...

[Stormalong]

Back in university we used to play Wolf3D (and later Doom) in small groups, one guy playing and the rest watching. We had one guy who used to give out advice like that; we took to calling him Coach. His most sage piece of advice: "Don't get hurt!"

Re:He says it himself...

[Man in Spandex]

can you imagine the coach when you lost an important position in a tournament?

coach: No you imbecile. I told you 200 hydralisks that side! NOT 200 Zerglings THAT SIDE. ARE YOU DEAF! *smack*
player: sorry coach. I'l be better next time
coach: You better, otherwise I'l sell you to that other coach with the glass eye who always talks about his encounter with sasquatch

1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[lcde]

[pro StarCraft gamer] Lim Yo-Hwan made about $300,000 from player fees and commercials.

And you thought you got pissed when someone Zerg Rushed you.

Re:1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[mrtroy]

ya i would go terran against that, get my bunkers in before your zerglings arrive, and smoke those zerglings before they touch my bunker.

Then I would tank/goliath pump and destroy you before you can say "owned"

And im not a pro...I only train 6 hours a day, I work 9-5 :P

Re:1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[Molz]

Yeah. The bunkers work wonders against a zerg rush. I typically like to go with a 3/2 mix of marines/firebats which really rocks them since the marines can start hitting them a ways off and if any get close enough, the firebats toast 'em. Ah fun times...

Re:1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[CerebusUS]

KEKEKE

You said NO ZERG RUSH 5 MIN!

^_^

Re:1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[tasidar]

If I were to Zerg rush you... There's no way you'll have a bunker out before my 12 zerglings decimate your peasant stream.

Re:1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no POSSIBLE way you could have 12 zerglings before he has a bunker.

Re:1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[Magius_AR]

And you thought you got pissed when someone Zerg Rushed you.

Actually that's an excellent test of the skill level of the player. Most people with little to no skills whine about rushes.

A single-person zerg rush is _easily_ beaten by any race, protoss probably being the hardest (2 person zerg rush is harder, almost impossible to beat without supporting allies)

Zerg: you have your own 'lings
Terran: SCVs are _beastly_ 60 hps, damn near equivalent to a zergling...and most terrans can have at least 1 bunker + 1 marine by initial rush time, depending on placement (and they can always float away)
Protoss: Three groups of keyed probes + 1 zealot can take out 6 lings no problem, you just cant let the zealot fight alone.

Personally, I love when people ling rush me, I fight it off and get my allies to counterattack wherever that zerg is stationed...most ling rushers never have the resources for adequate defenses in time.

Re:1... 2... 3.... Rush!

[Specter]

Agreed...8 maybe, but not 12 unless the Terran is just plain slow. Either way even w/o a bunker complete you'd still have the marines out by then.

Terran's real problem though is that they tend to take the bunker down mentality. Makes for some initially really cool kill ratios, but always guarantees destruction in the end.

Doesn't sound fun

[Dizzle]

If you're getting paid to play games, what do you do for fun? Practice practicing medicine?

This is getting out of control.

[Dr. Bent]

in South Korea, where, even more so than the U.S., there are increasingly highly paid professional teams competing in games

Jesus, are they outsourcing everything now?!?

Re:This is getting out of control.

[Woogiemonger]

Jesus, are they outsourcing everything now?!?

Well, it's not the same thing though. It's not like we had thousands of highly paid professional gamers in the US that lost their jobs.

Re:This is getting out of control.

[Frizzle Fry]

See, that's what makes it a joke.

I am a professional gamer

[Anonymous Coward]

My company has been paying me to be a professional solitaire and spider solitaire player for years.

Re:I am a professional gamer

[mrtroy]

My boss can do the minesweeper expert size in 50 seconds.

Looks like he has been training for a few years.

My best time is 120.

Re:I am a professional gamer

[Anonymous Coward]

My best was 89. But I can only do it with a A4 Wacom stylus ;-).

-k

(50 sounds incredible)

Re:I am a professional gamer

[rusty0101]

I regularly finish in less then 10 seconds.

Oh, you mean without triping a mine.... Sorry.

-Rusty

Re:I am a professional gamer

[mrtroy]

the key is the double clicking :P

its incredible tho basically i watched him just click as fast as he could for 50 seconds

Re:I am a professional gamer

[sayap]

That would put your boss into the World's Top 10.

Re:I am a professional gamer

[strike2867]

Ive reached 2400 in Yahoo spades, should I keep pretending Im programming or switch careers?

Re:I am a professional gamer

[EastCoastSurfer]

My best time was 77. When I played a lot it got to a point where I thought about nothing. I recognized mine patterns without thinking and just clicked away without any hesitation.

To get down in the low range though you have to be good and lucky. Nothing like being forced into a 50/50 chance for you last mine :)

Re:I am a professional gamer

[gangien]

damn... my roomate can do it 79 seconds.. i'll have to tell him this.. my record is 127

Re:I am a professional gamer

[darc]

Try amazing your boss. Open minesweeper, type in:

xyzzy

[left shift]

and watch the upper left most top pixel of your screen as you pass the mouse over the mines. Yep. That bastard had a REAL mine detector after all.

XYZZY is actually a zork reference, amazing that the MS folks programmed in a cheat..

Cheaters

[L3on]

You must remember, becoming a professional gamer bears it's burdens... "OMG CHEATER! HACKER! BAN HIM!!!1111"

Re:Cheaters

[Universal Nerd]

I have a pro Counter-strike player that's a fan of my server and when he comes on the noise of the "cheater" screams from the kiddies is enough to make me take my headphones off and ignore the dialogs on the server.

BTW, I have to take my headphones off 'cause the kiddies start bitching on the microphone.

It's a real shame, the guy's a great player and he's a nice guy that helps out anyone that asks for it (including yours truly, I've learned a lot about rushing with him).

Re:Cheaters

[supmylO]

Most professional gamers play in servers where the people in them would not suspect them of cheating. I guess it'd be worthwhile for them to play in public once in awhile, but not really.

Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[FortKnox]

You're better off becoming a professional musician or pro athelete than a pro gamer.

Sure, the TOP GAMERS make over 200k a year (BTW - being a pro gamer also means you need to buy bleeding edge technology, so that 200k isn't much after you subtract your monthly computer upgrade budget), but most hardly make any... not to mention that you not only have to be fabulous with one game, but with at least one new game ever year or so. If you take a break, or have an off year or two, you are in debt.

I'll stick to my day job, thanks.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[mgoodman]

$400 for a video card isn't all that great. And who says you need a billion fps when a million will be just fine? You don't need bleeding edge technology to woop someones ass in counterstrike or starcraft...these games are several years old and having a radeon 9600 pro vs a radeon 9800 pro isnt gonna matter.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[L3on]

A professional gamer is sponsered by companies who make many of the "bleeding edge technology" products you mension. Therefore if one becomes a professional gamer they get all the newest/coolest stuff for free.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[drinkypoo]

Monthly? Maybe quarterly at the outside, and you don't have to replace your entire system. Furthermore, a paraplegic can become a pro gamer, but they're going to have a hard time being a b-baller or even a golfer.

Stick to your day job if you like, but if I had the necessary skills, I'd head for the gamer shit long before the football player. There's much more to life than money, like doing what you love and are good at and feeling the accomplishment thereof.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[Fearan]

One new game every year? The article specifically states StarCraft, which is now approaching its 8th birthday.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[wramsdel]

Starcraft was released in 1998 and ran just fine on my AMD K6-233 at the time. As it hasn't been radically updated since, I don't think there's much of a need for anything more than bottom of the barrel present-day technology if Starcraft's your addiction.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[SnowDeath]

Are you stupid or just dont read the f'ing articles...this is for StarCraft. What type of hardware do you think you need for friggin' starcraft?

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[Anonymous Coward]

oh yeah, I'll need to buy a monster of a computer to play STARCRAFT, a game released in 1998.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[FortKnox]

Yeah yeah, I knew it when I read it (no need to get hostile... sorry for ruining your idea for being a professional gamer)... but its only starcraft cause that game is still wildly popular in SK. In the US, its still a played game, but the audience would prefer to see Quake3 (And soon Doom3) tournaments. I guess CS would be popular for a while, but the top games are what is played around here.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[Anonymous Coward]

> but the audience would prefer to see Quake3

And what hardware do you think you need for Quake3?

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[SnowDeath]

An Nvidia GeForce 6800, why do you ask? ;)

Isn't hostile what geeks do best - I mean, we have to hold back on it while working, what better place to take it out on someone that completely doesn't deserve it than Slashdot? :P

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[sahala]

You're better off becoming a professional musician or pro athelete than a pro gamer. Sure, the TOP GAMERS make over 200k a year (BTW - being a pro gamer also means you need to buy bleeding edge technology, so that 200k isn't much after you subtract your monthly computer upgrade budget), but most hardly make any... not to mention that you not only have to be fabulous with one game, but with at least one new game ever year or so. If you take a break, or have an off year or two, you are in debt. I'll stick to my day job, thanks.

Re:Musician, Pro Athelete, Gamer

[sahala]

I messed up on the form submit earlier (evidently I don't have the expert hand eye coordination of a pro gamer)

I think what you've stated applies to any profession. Most people hardly make any money starting out any career, and all careers cost something (including opportunity cost). I don't know anyone with a successful career that got started without huge education (college, training) and time (experience) costs. It's just the way it is. Furthermore, people with successful careers constantly invest in their career future. Yes, I consider O'Reilly books to be an investment (but not WROX books).

And as for sticking to your day job...I think pro gamers would sneer at what you and I do for a living and stick to theirs, thanks.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I can't believe I'm reading this.

[Snoobs]

I just flunked out of school AGAIN, for playing Starcraft. Damn, I need to learn Korean so I can start getting paid. Does anyone know where to download peoples replays of famous matches? thanks. PEACE

Re:I can't believe I'm reading this.

[tbase]

Ummm... being a professional anything would require a level of responsability and dedication that for some reason I have a feeling you lack. Like professional sports, to make a living at this you have to be the best or at least in the top single-digit percentile. And there are always hundreds or more likely thousand of people busting their behinds to become better than you.
If you don't have the willpower or sense of purpose to put the game controller down long enough to get a passing grade at school, you might want to look into a career where being mediocre will at least put food on your table. My guess is that once StarCraft became a responsability, you'd find yourself sneaking a few rounds of some other game when you should be 'training'.

Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy -Cat Stevens

Where has Gary Larson gone?

[AndroidonPPC]

Man... there was a Far Side comic about parents hopefully imagining newspaper classifieds desperately searching for a super-mario player so that their son, engulfed in games, would have a career.

Professional starcraft player. Fastest Zerg rush of the east! ^_^

Re:Where has Gary Larson gone?

[netfool]

It's right here

Re:Where has Gary Larson gone?

[krony]

I have that hanging in my cube right now! I've always loved that one... Some of the want ads that they are dreaming about read:

Nintendo Expert Needed; $50,000 salary + bonus
Looking for Good Mario Brothers Player $100,000 plus your own car
Can you save the Princess?We need skilled men & women; $75,000 + Retirement

Re:Where has Gary Larson gone?

[SmittyTheBold]

I never realized he was such a visionary - but now I'm looking forward to welcoming our anthropomorphic, bovine overlords.

World Leagues ?

[vluther]

It would be interesting to see how these guys do against, the top of the US/European gaming professionals.

Just to see two different styles of play, or realize that even with different cultures, some games need to be played the same way..I'm not talking about Quake or UT etc, but strategy games, do they favor an all out constant attack, or what kinds of weapons do they prefer ? How many different ways are there to win at Starcraft ?

Re:World Leagues ?

[mikeee]

From what I understand, the Koreans dominate international competitions; their games tend to be relatively short and fierce, with doesn't-look-possible micromanagement of combats being key.

Re:World Leagues ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets put it this way, US/European players who think they have a chance move to Korea.

Re:World Leagues ?

[rylin]

I guess you could check out the World Cyber Games :)

Re:World Leagues ?

[king-manic]

1- Rush
pro: Catch enemies off gaurd
con: over commits early, if rush fails your screwed.

2- Tech
pro: Mid game or late game you will have a huge advantage of one kind or another.
con: if they rush you in trouble, if they knwo what your doing you may lose the advantage.

3- mass units
pr0: works against newbies
con: won't work well against anyone else

4- Balanced force
pro: hard to catch you off gaurd, you ready for almost anything, strong through out.
con: Not as strong early as rush, not as strong late as teching, vulnerabel to devious tricks.

5-oddball strategies
pro: the funniest games when it works
con: you look stupid if it doesn't

6-Tower
pro: done effectivly, it can cripple your opponent
con: a vast commitment of resources early and it's statics so you can't re-use this resource later.

These are some general ways to win at starcraft.

Re:World Leagues ?

[strike2867]

This would be specific the original blizzard maps. Unlike people in Korea, most people in the US play customized maps. They range from maps where you only get one unit the entire game(Aeon...) or units constantly appearing(zone control...) or 3 on 3 where its basicly normal, except you get tons of minerals as in 3v3 Zero Clutter. The Korean players I see on Battle.net specialize in the original Hunters. I haven't played that map in years, never liked it in the first place.

Re:World Leagues ?

[king-manic]

I've noticed my friends play custom maps specifically to avoid getting crushed by 15 years olds with a mouth. They also avoid playing me. After the first dozen games they ussually stop. they say I'm kind of a dick and I'm perfectly happy to play all out on a newbie. Even some of the starcraft vetrans won't play me any more. I've seena good player be exstremely hard to beat the first 5 games then slowly they get more paranoid and more defensive. They play like I might pop out of any undefended space and annihalate their bases. Which makes them easier to beat because they over commit to defence.

All this, and I'm a very average warcraft 3/starcraft player online. I'm part of the big hump statistically. I problaby get my ass whooped bye ach and every 15 years old korean player.

Re:World Leagues ?

[shadowmatter]

It would be interesting to see how these guys do against, the top of the US/European gaming professionals.

The US is very competitive in FPS games, but in the RTS genre, we tend to get our butts kicked.

My freshman year in college, a guy on the floor above me was ranked #1 on the US West Starcraft server. From time to time he went onto US East and destroyed people there too. I remember very well one night where six players (including me) on our floor engaged him and his friend (who was on par with us six) in a 6 on 2 battle. They decimated us, sadly to say (I thought strength in numbers would have done it, but once one of us fell, it was practically over).

We asked him whether he had participated in any international tournaments, and he said no, simply because he was not competitive enough. Sometimes he went to go visit his cousins in Korea, who were also Starcraft veterans. He said he was about the same skill as they were, so he won about half the matches against them. But whenever his cousins played in Starcraft tournaments over there, they never placed (although did much better than average).

He thought that if he played more, and could win consistently against his cousins, he could have had a shot at placing in Starcraft tournaments in Korea to win money. But that would have distracted him from school, which was still his top priority, so he never did.

- shadowmatter

Not to mention...

[Universal Nerd]

CS Player Ola "elemeNt" Moum's sale (or buying out of his contract) from Schroet Kommando (SK) to NoA.

More info: SK's site, NoA's site and CSNation.

OK, so, uh

[Pluvius]

How do I become a professional gamer?

Rob (Damn misleading headlines)

Poker!!

[moehoward]

Online Texas Hold 'em is the ONLY way to become a professional gamer.

Why doesn't the Slashdot crowd consider this to be "gaming"? It has all the elements of a great game AND you win money. Isn't that what this article is all about?

Re:Poker!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite possibly because it is gambling.

Re:Poker!!

[Valdrax]

"Gaming" is a modern term that refers to the explosion of new games invented in the 20th century. It typically refers to console/computer games, modern (non-kid oriented) board games, modern card games not played on the traditional 52-card deck, and role-playing games -- all modern games.

Older games, such as card games, chess, go, and the like have established terminology -- "playing cards/go/chess/etc." and "gambling." "Gaming" almost never involved gambling with money, unlike Poker. Even computer variants of old games aren't typically counted. Whether this is good or bad is a matter of opinion.

Ironically, the word "gaming's" classical usage explicitly refers to gambling. However, that use has fallen out of common usage today.

Re:Poker!!

[base_chakra]

Older games, such as card games, chess, go, and the like have established terminology -- "playing cards/go/chess/etc." and "gambling." "Gaming" almost never involved gambling with money, unlike Poker. Even computer variants of old games aren't typically counted. Whether this is good or bad is a matter of opinion.

Good ol' baseless assumptions. Actually, in the US, 'gaming' is an industry term which insiders find preferable to the word 'gambling'. 'Gaming' in the casino sense and 'gaming' in the video game sense are different and mutually exclusive terms.

Re:Poker!!

[Kallahar]

Unfortunately, more people LOSE money than win. Online poker is a non zero-sum game; the casino takes in a rake. It's no different than a game/sport where there is an entry fee, but most other professional sports don't make the players pay for the honor of playing.

Re:Poker!!

[Anonymous Coward]

As both part of "the /. crowd" *and* a successful amateur poker player, I *do* consider online Hold'em to be gaming as much as chess or starcraft.

To those who carp about "taking people's money":
All material competition must by definition involve hurting others, as you must make *significant* sacrifices in quality of life in order to attempt to play on the pro level. If you're a successful pro poker player, you're eating other players' lunches quite directly, by taking their money from them. If you're a successful pro gamer, you're eating other players lunches by winning the money they're not good enough to win. If you're a successful MLB player, just take a look at the struggles that the guys who spend their ENTIRE careers in the minors go through.

Point being: to even compete at that level you have to commit a lot of your life to it -- by beating others you're essentially taking their sacrifices and making them moot, save for whatever enjoyment they got out of the process.

And as any successful poker player will tell you:
The vast majority of people who gamble do not do so to make money. They do it to have *fun*. Those who do make money gambling (long run) are inevitably in it to profit from that which is simply entertainment to most folks.

Whether your salary is paid by the discretionary income of the computer game consumer (remember, pro sports are merely ADVERTISING for MERCHANDISE) or by the direct discretionary contributions of your fellow poker player, you're still taking money from someone. Nobody's forcing anyone to play the game.

Re:Poker!!

[vehn23]

I am a pro poker player and let me tell you, poker is NOT a good game. 85-90% of the time you have to look at your first two cards, and throw them away, and wait for the next hand 2 minutes later. Then when you finally do pick up a real hand, you have to sit there and hope someone doesn't run you down. Not exactly thrilling.

job

[MikeHunt69]

Yeah, but wouldn't that make it ... a job?

One of the best pieces of advice I have read: Don't make your hobby your job. Except in extremely rare cases, you will start hating your hobby. I have investigated a few alternative jobs in the last few years including photographer, videographer/moviemaker, professional gambler, scuba diving instructor, commercial diver, motorcycle build/repair, vehicle spraypainter. All of these things have been/still are hobbies and I have stopped myself every time, because I know that as soon as I start in a new career I will hate that hobby.

I used to love computers btw.

Re:job

[Strange Ranger]

If you HATE working in a Cube Farm, under an Adminisphere, and want to work for yourself, what are your other choices?

In all seriousness, maybe you just hate working? Or maybe it customers ? They're easy to hate no matter the field you're in.

I still love computers, I've just decided I'm done with other people's computers.

Photographer... funny you mention that...

Re:job

[cK-Gunslinger]

Bah, anecdotal evidence to the contrary is easy to find. Take me, for example. I love computers. I love programming and I love building PC systems. I have a degree in Computer Science. I work as a software engineer, and I build, repair, and sell PC systems for friends and family. And I love it all. I do it full time, and in my spare, "leisure" time, I still do it. I also consider myself rather "balanced," as I have the whole "wife and kids" thing going on. Now, granted, I'm only 27, so maybe I haven't *burned-out* yet, but I don't see it happening in the immediate future, either.

To each their own..

Re:job

[MikeHunt69]

In all seriousness, maybe you just hate working?

In all seriousness, you are probably right.

Re:job

[mekkab]

Don't make your hobby your job.

True that. Running a porn website certainly isn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be!

Re:job

[SlipJig]

I have to agree. I'm a musician when I'm not doing computer stuff, and I've had musician friends who've gone pro. The music we play (Irish trad) is pretty non-commercial, and as a result some of the pros jazz it up or mix it with other kinds of music.

I wonder why. I wouldn't say that these guys aren't bored with traditional stuff, and don't prefer the more modern version; but I don't prefer the modern stuff, and it seems to me that in general the trend is that once you go pro, you change your style. The only reason I can see is reaction to commercial pressures. I tend to think this happens in lots of other disciplines as well, but particularly creative ones. I'd just as soon not have that pressure.

On the other hand, I've been programming as a hobby for 21 years, and still enjoy my programming-related career. Maybe that's because of the rate of change in the tech world?

Gaming fun

[Tech404]

Gaming is for fun, not work. I am a StarCraft fan, yes, in fact after this comment I'll be playing it (whiteraven710 if anyone cares for a game or two). But there is no way on gods green earth that I'd do it for money.

Gaming should never be considered a career, when it is, it'll become boring and no longer be a fun activity. I really hope this never becomes a common job title.

Re:Gaming fun

[elwell642]

Gaming should never be considered a career

Perhaps someone should inform Nike.

I don't know about you...

[Mz6]

But I ALWAYS destroy that Silly Chinese army in C&C:Generals. And if their Army is any indication of their gameplay, I'm home free!

Re:I don't know about you...

[Anonymous Coward]

Great plan! And when you're done playing against the Chinese, how about building up the courage to stand off against the Koreans? :)

Re:I don't know about you...

[Anonymous Coward]

I AM BIG! DIE PUNY AMERICAN!

I'll do it for half...

[TheTXLibra]

Heck, most of us have to pay, either monetarily, or emotionally (from our significant other) in order to play games. I think if it were actually a lucrative, well-paying career, then us "geeks" could probably get our hitherto negative appelation put on par with "big baller".

Money makes the world go around, and with a six-figure income, where you don't have to retire due to old age, it could become quite an attractive trait. "I make 300k competing against some of the top professionals in my field" sure sounds a lot sexier than "I do tech support for XXXXX..."

-TheTXLibra
"You've got no kids, no wife, no job, and you're not in The Tigger Movie!!!" - my best friend's son, Gabe, at 5 years old.

Re:I'll do it for half...

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of the "company benefits" if you actually DID tech support for an XXX firm...

No Deaths = Amateurs

[engineerErrant]

The fans of a given game can't reasonably be called hardcore until some of them die playing it (as with Diablo 2 a couple years ago). I see the Starcraft guys still lack commitment.

I long for combat!

Re:No Deaths = Amateurs

[Anonymous Coward]

The family of Mr. Kim would like to have a word with you.

Sad Facts

[somethinghollow]

Unfortunatly, you have to be REALLY good at these games to make money. If you think you are really good, then you have to be even better.

I used to do Quake 3 WFA. So, I ended up hearing things about good Quake 3 players, which were, at the time, Fat1ity (or WTF ever you put that "1").

He apparently played lots of tennis and trained on the virtual field for long periods of time. The real-life sports, he said, helped him with coordination and prediction. So, you can just be a geek sitting on his haunches all day if you buy into Fata1ity's views.

What I'm getting at is: this isn't a bunch of part time gamers. This is a job, and, as with most jobs, once you get paid, the fun level drops. Kindof like when you decide to concieve a child and it isn't working as quick as you thought, the sex turns into a task instead of something fun to do (or so I hear from many people, as I've never tried to concieve).

Re:Sad Facts

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me no if you need to outsource that last job.

Re:Sad Facts

[larsoncc]

However, in the case of Fata1ty (again... WTF you put that 1)...

He's able to leverage his relative fame into endorsement deals. For instance, some new ABit motherboards are coming out will bear his name and his specs. They will expand from there to full computers.

It's important for these gamers NOT just to be good at the game, but to make a NAME for themselves. It's the name recognition that will bring the money.

Now, it brings up an interesting side bar... Game companies seem to cheer on individuals that PLAY, but not individuals that MAKE games. Yet, the gamers really want to connect with the game producers.

And yeah, this mode of operation works well for companies - after all, no company wants to hire a prima dona, and every company wants a faceless, replacable work force.

Re:Sad Facts

[MrDickey]

What is it with this belief that winning money will make it less fun? I've won a few local gaming tournamnets, and boy does it feel good. Not only can you say you beat the other people, but you got their money too. Winning money in gaming is HEAVEN!

And if "professional gamer" doesn't work out...

[turnstyle]

And if a career as a professional gamer doesn't work out ... you can always fall back on a career in professional sports.

Re:Professional Sports...?

[Maradine]

Why think of pro gamers any differently?

I don't. I wouldn't want to play football for a living, despite finding it very enjoyable. I wouldn't want to tote a rifle around for a living, despite finding it enjoyable and being quite good at it.

My point is that once something becomes work, at least for me, it ceases being fun. Hell, I break into Fortune 500 networks for a living, and even that has lost its charm.

Finger Insurance??

[d_force]

Last year, Mr. Lim made about $300,000 from player fees and commercials. Another top earner, Hung Jin-Ho, whose fingers are insured for $60,000, recently signed a three-year deal with telecom provider KTF Co. that will pay him $480,000 altogether.

I know pro-sports players buy massive insurance... but exclusively for fingers?!?!

Hell, can I get a pro-rated discount for only insuring my thumb, index, and middle finger? What about only the dominant hand?

Reminds me of the Conan O'Brian skit: "In the year twoooo-thousand... People will be able to save $150 or more on their finger insurance by switching to Geico!

Re:Finger Insurance??

[strike2867]

You can get insurance for anything. Rosie Odonald has insurance for her lips. Yes, the fact that I know this scares me too.

Re:Finger Insurance??

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a reason that you'd only want to insure the thumb, index finger, and middle finger on your "dominant hand?"

How "dominant" are you allowing that hand to be? And why aren't your ring finger and your pinky involved....?

Re:Finger Insurance??

[gitana]

Musicians also often insure their hands . . .

Interview

[Anonymous Coward]

Sir, could you tell us a little about yourself and your career as a gamer?

"Hallo! I R KOREA ^_^ kekekekeke"

OK..well..um...how did you get so good at Starcraft

"OMG zerg rush! ^_^ kekekeke"

Re:Interview

[Anonymous Coward]

GOGOGOGOGOOG

Probably not all it's cracked up to be

[Moonshadow]

I dunno. While it'd be great to get paid for gaming, playing one game 10 hours a day, every day, would get rather monotonous and dull after a while. I enjoy gaming because I can play whatever game I want for however long I want. I might play some UT2K4 in three game modes, or Viewtiful Joe, or NWN, or whatever suits my fancy. Any one game after a while gets to be rather boring. My initial UT2K4 craze (ie, spending every spare moment on it) lasted about 2 weeks - now, I play maybe 2 hours a week. I mix it up with Legendary Halo when I don't feel like competing online, or maybe Soul Calibur when my roommate's in the mood for an ass-kicking. I'm a gamer, no doubt - I've sunk hundreds into building a capable gaming machine, and the living room is jammed with consoles - but any one pursuit, especilly forced, would just get dull. Gaming is a hobby, a release, and to have to "train" for it would be rather unenjoyable, I think.

Of course, I'm very much not a powergamer, and I have an actual 9-5 that I work and come home to relax from, so my perspective is probably quite different from the younger crowd's.

Re:Probably not all it's cracked up to be

[geomon]

Gaming is a hobby, a release, and to have to "train" for it would be rather unenjoyable, I think.

I thought the same thing when I heard that folks actually made a living skateboarding .

i just saw you on b.net...

[herrd0kt0r]

Gaming is for fun, not work. I am a StarCraft fan, yes, in fact after this comment I'll be playing it (whiteraven710 if anyone cares for a game or two).

says the guy with 19 wins, 3094 losses, and "LOOKING 4 CLAN SEND MSG PLZ" on his stats page.

just kidding. i wasn't on b.net. ;)

TV coverage

[Sean80]

I guess this doesn't make a lot of sense to me until such time as these games start to be shown on TV, where rounds can be surrounded by ads and what have you.

Of course, this might be an interesting direction for games to go in. Unreal Tournament 2004 isn't too exciting to watch unless you're actually playing in it, so what types of games would do well on tv?

Another area that I find fascinating is the potential for people to do "useful" things in games. Could gamers solve potentially large problems by the fractal differential of the quantum encoding of their movements in a game of Doom? Will games move so far into the realm of virtual lives that people physically do work there?

Re:TV coverage

[CGP314]

Perhaps I should refer you to the earlier slashdot story on schizophrenia? Your post starts off nice and sane:

I guess this doesn't make a lot of sense to me until such time as these games start to be shown on TV, where rounds can be surrounded by ads and what have you.

Of course, this might be an interesting direction for games to go in. Unreal Tournament 2004 isn't too exciting to watch unless you're actually playing in it, so what types of games would do well on tv?

But then -- bam! -- psycho city:

Another area that I find fascinating is the potential for people to do "useful" things in games. Could gamers solve potentially large problems by the fractal differential of the quantum encoding of their movements in a game of Doom? Will games move so far into the realm of virtual lives that people physically do work there?


Colin

Re:TV coverage

[Sean80]

Well, maybe you're right, but sometimes it pays to be a little crazy.

Say you take Asheron's Call 2. I've played it a lot. Yes, perhaps a little psychotic, but what if they built a computer terminal into that game, that I could then program on? Useful? Maybe. Maybe not. But interesting, nonetheless. Take a more complex example. Say you can build a difficult mathematical problem, and render it in a 3D environment in which its solution can also be found. If the 3D environment is itself fun, then everybody else wins.

What I'm really getting at is that scientists, etc, and more and more turning to private citizens who enjoy doing the grunt work in their spare time. Classifying stars for example, or cataloguing snails in national parks (if my memory of the NPR article serves me). In what ways could that be made more fun, to attract a greater proportion of the population. As a people (in the US at least), we're turning more and more to computerized entertainment to fill our time. I'm just trying to think of ways to take advantage of that time.

If somebody built an environment in which I could build and test rockets, I would definitely do some of the heavy grunt work for places like NASA. So cool. So cool.

Returning to the subject of the post itself, could I earn money as a "gamer" by doing something useful which is itself fun to do?

Re:TV coverage

[filth grinder]

I guess this doesn't make a lot of sense to me until such time as these games start to be shown on TV, where rounds can be surrounded by ads and what have you.

I guess you don't have G4 in your area (now G4TechTV). They have a show called Arena. Two teams of four players compete against each other in three rounds of video games. The first round is usally a consol game. Tekken or even Mario Double Dash. Round two is the computer orund, usually it's Call of Duty. The third round is the head to head consol round, usually Socom 2.

The show is kinda sorta interesting, but not really. they could also do a much better job covering the action.

As usual the WSJ is well behind and lame

[ianscot]

Smithsonian Magazine ran a high-profile article about this ages ago, at least a year back. The WSJ article here, true to form, dumbs down its take on Starcraft:

"a game of strategy that's like a combination of high-speed chess and Risk."

to the point where anyone who's actually played the thing would say it's a generic description of all RTS titles. Yeah, they're writing for an audience of stockholders and CEOs, they think, but c'mon -- they could have differentiated it from every other title, couldn't they? (Especially because it's interesting that Starcraft is the center of this little cult despite being a rather old title?)

This is the conservative paper of record, at least for the George Will set, and anything I have any personal experience with they completely botch. I'll never forget the WSJ report, seemingly years after the fad, that men were starting to wear pony tails in office settings.

(But how about that etching of the video game star? Mostly it's just middle-aged businessmen gazing imperiously over their mahogany desks, but here we get a video game hero. Quite odd to see.)

Re:As usual the WSJ is well behind and lame

[Anonymous Coward]

they could have differentiated it from every other title, couldn't they?

Maybe they could if Starcraft was actually different in some way from any other RTS. Don't kid yourself, the only thing special about it is it's popularity.

Zerg Rush my ass.

Well, consider

[Hal The Computer]

I hate to be the wet blanket, but think about it. If you make any kind of money at poker, you do so becasue you're consistantly winning against the other players well above average. And the law of averages says that you're probably winning somebody elses rent money.

Is gambling evil. No! But I think I'd prefer to play Blackjack against the house.

Re:Well, consider

[still_sick]

I hate to be the wet blanket, but think about it. If you make any kind of money at poker, you do so becasue you're consistantly winning against the other players well above average. And the law of averages says that you're probably winning somebody elses rent money.

So what? A winning player can only control the fact that he is winning - not who loses to him, or where the money comes from.

If some welfare idiot loses his last $25 desperately trying to win his house back? It was his choice to risk the $25 in order to turn it into more.

Nobody is forcing anyone to play beyond their means.

Re:Well, consider

[king-manic]

I hate to be the wet blanket, but think about it. If you make any kind of money at poker, you do so becasue you're consistantly winning against the other players well above average. And the law of averages says that you're probably winning somebody elses rent money.

Is gambling evil. No! But I think I'd prefer to play Blackjack against the house.

the house makes it money off of the previously mentioned gambling addicts. Thus you are again victimizing the poor wretches who can't controll themselves. And the air you breath, was once breathed in by hitler. I think you shoudl stop. and the water you drink? Problably at one time was part of a mass murder, stop drinking it. And the computer you use? it problably can kill a kitten, so I think you shoudl stop using it.

Re:Well, consider

[NEOtaku17]

So in other words instead of taking money from other people your taking from "the house" which takes money from other people...hmmm....

i don;t know what's more sad

[bsDaemon]

that a video game player has a "fan club," or that a pretty girl would join such an organization.

Pro gamers are strange creatures

[Munden]

I was on my way to becomming a competative gamer in Counter-Strike. I joined CAL and was undefeated in CAL-O. Counter-Strike requires many hours of time of practice and strats for any person to be sucessful at it. I had to give up many things just to beat the first season I played and ultimatly I decided the sacrafices are not worth it. Friends become enemies, all spare time is used to hone your craft, and it turns from a fun game into a chore or job with extreme pressure. This is especially true in team based games like Counter-Strike. I made over $580.00 in one month on Star Wars Galaxies the first month I played. That was fun but became less fun over time. If you have the ability to sacrafice your friends, time, sanity, family, job, and in many cases education, then you too can be a pro gamer. Games are targeted at the younger generations. Many students sacrafice their time which would otherwise be spent on more productive activities but instead on games. To be a pro gamer you have to be all in 100%. I have seen my friends even take off a year after high school to get a job and play games instead of going to college.

Re:Pro gamers are strange creatures

[Nakamiya]

I have seen my friends even take off a year after high school to get a job and play games instead of going to college.

And that's bad? Isn't the point of college to get a job? So if you can already get a job, why go to college when all that's going to get you is a job that doesn't leave time for games??

where is the money from?

[happyfrogcow]

who is sponsoring it, what do they hope to gain, and hoe long until the bubble burts and the realize there aren't any gains?

is it a spectator event? do they get money from people logging on in some spectator mode?

this is silly.

Re:where is the money from?

[Anonymous Coward]

"is it a spectator event? do they get money from people logging on in some spectator mode?"

They sell tickets to the matches. You can call it as "logging on in spectator mode".

They also air matches on the TV...

Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[Valdrax]

Sure, the TOP GAMERS make over 200k a year (BTW - being a pro gamer also means you need to buy bleeding edge technology, so that 200k isn't much after you subtract your monthly computer upgrade budget), but most hardly make any... not to mention that you not only have to be fabulous with one game, but with at least one new game ever year or so. If you take a break, or have an off year or two, you are in debt.

You do realize that these Korean players are playing StarCraft, game for which a machine from five years ago was overkill. I mean the game requires a Pentium 90, 16 MB of RAM, and a 2X CD-ROM! The game is five years old!

Even if you were member of some sort of mythical pro gaming league that adopted new games as soon as they came out, I can't seriously imagine spending more than $5000 a year on upgrading hardware and buying the latest games. On a $300,000/year budget, that's chump change. Hell, on that kind of budget you could buy a sports car or two each year without feeling the strain.

I'll stick to my day job, thanks.

Geez, I hope it has nothing to do with making purchasing decisions for your company if you think you have to throw a significant portion of a 6-figure salary at staying competitive in StarCraft.

Re:Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[FortKnox]

Geez, I hope it has nothing to do with making purchasing decisions for your company if you think you have to throw a significant portion of a 6-figure salary at staying competitive in StarCraft.

Yeah, I'd be wasting money, you are absolutely right. Keep that old P2 running starcraft, and stay competitive...

...for the next two years its still in competition. Now while the intelligent gamers were upgrading to play games like Doom3 professionally, you are stuck with superb skills in starcraft, a five year old machine, and 2 years behind your competition.

Glad you insulted me and showed me the way.

Re:Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[aldoman]

Sorry, but starcraft players do not play Doom3 (in general). You sir, are the asshole. RTS games (like StarCraft) are always lower specced than their FPS counterparts. You can get a good 3 years of worth out of a PC with RTS games.

Re:Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Yeah, but they DO play Warcraft 3. Which I was struggling with a bit on my old celeron 600.

Re:Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[FortKnox]

Sorry, but starcraft players do not play Doom3 (in general)

They do if they are professional developers

You sir, are the asshole

Hey, I didn't get nasty until someone insulted me and my job.

RTS games (like StarCraft) are always lower specced than their FPS counterparts. You can get a good 3 years of worth out of a PC with RTS games.

Honestly, if you look at the newer FPS, like WC3, you'll notice they are getting more and more graphics intensive. Sure, not to Doom3 specs, but, as I said before, pro gamers will be more profitable with FPS than RTS. You simply get more variety in FPS's.

Re:Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[Valdrax]

Yeah, I'd be wasting money, you are absolutely right. Keep that old P2 running starcraft, and stay competitive... ...for the next two years its still in competition. Now while the intelligent gamers were upgrading to play games like Doom3 professionally, you are stuck with superb skills in starcraft, a five year old machine, and 2 years behind your competition.

You have given me excellent reason to continue mocking you.

A) RTS games like StarCraft are not in the same category as FPS games like Doom 3. The existence of Doom 3 will not hurt StarCraft's appeal anymore than baseball hurts football. They are completely different experiences. Otherwise, shouldn't Half-Life, Counterstrike, and Quake III already have destroyed StarCraft in the 5-6 years since its debut?

B) StarCraft is already old and people still watch matches. New games do not instantly obsolete old games or Spike TV's ludicrous basketball on trampolines game would've already put the NBA out of business. People still play chess and go professionally even though more modern strategy games exist. Hell, if your premise were true, why aren't Korean's watching people play Warcraft III right now?

C) In case you still haven't read the article, the players train constantly at their game of choice. Training in potential new games which aren't proven to be crowd-pleasers would mean not training in the game that they are paid to be an expert in and an atrophy of the skills that seperate them from the second-tier of games earning a tenth of their earnings. It would be professional suicide in what is already acknowledged to be a young man's game. They know they're going to burn out eventually just like pro atheletes, so why bother wasting time training for the next big thing which they might not have the talent for by the time it gets big?

D) StarCraft is a massively popular brand in Korea. There is a national TV channel pretty much dedicated to watching StarCraft matches, and StarCraft has endorsed snack chips, drinks, and shoes over there like a movie or major athlete would here. Its popularity has not faded; six years is enormous in the online gaming world. At this rate, it may become the first computer game to become an eternal classic like chess or go.

E) Regardless of all these other concerns, you still are an idiot for claiming that upgrading constantly would significantly eat into a six-figure salary. You don't see the wisdom in not fixing what's not broken and keeping around a perfectly functioning system, and I still wouldn't trust you with an IT budget.

Re:Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[king-manic]

Honestly, if you look at the newer FPS, like WC3, you'll notice they are getting more and more graphics intensive. Sure, not to Doom3 specs, but, as I said before, pro gamers will be more profitable with FPS than RTS. You simply get more variety in FPS's.

s/FPS/RTS/;

Also, It's pretty evident that RTS's are more profitabel for these players then FPS's. At leats according the articles. The top Starcraft guy made hundreds of thoughsands of dollars. Fatal1ty made a bit over one hundred thousand.

Variety doesn't equate to anything. A stable game to play will benifit a player more then competing in a whoel genre. Solid Starcraft skills don't equal solid warcraft 3 skills. Like solid quake 3 skills don't match up to solid CS skills.

They all have individual indiosyncratic features that you must get use to. Switching games often means you have to change skill sets.

Annicdote: I have a friend, he kicks my ass in Starcraft. I rarly win, and often it's a massive slaughter. He always playes the same strat but has honed it down to such a degree that I can only win sometimes if I commit to a rush. Now in warcraft 3 it's the opposet. His amazing micro skills are useless against the diversity of my strategies and the simple treacheries I do to his units that he hasn't learned yet. Oyr records against each other:

Starcraft:(me: him)
13 : 98

Warcraft 3: (me:him)
27 : 0

also, my expeince playing CS and quake are similiar. I'm an above average quake player, but the first few months of playing CS I was down int he single digit kills every round on almost every server.

Also, the rapid change in game sfor pro-gaming means you'd lose yrou audience as it becomes splintered by the permutations of the genre. u firts get CS then a whoel bunch of clones each graphically supurior to each other and variatiosn on a themes. Then you have Quake and all it's clones.... Your audience splinters. Starcraft is the game because it came at the right time, has th right balance and depth needed, and thus it's remianed popular.

Re:Not good at math or reading comprehension, huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

You sir, are speaking out of your ass..

They do if they are professional developers

What? What does gamers have to do with professional developers?

Honestly, if you look at the newer FPS, like WC3

Since when was Wc3 a FPS?

you'll notice they are getting more and more graphics intensive

Well, DUH, would you play a new RTS game that has Warcraft 1 graphics? Graphics of games advance everyday, in every genre, with few exceptions.

Sure, not to Doom3 specs, but, as I said before, pro gamers will be more profitable with FPS than RTS. You simply get more variety in FPS's

Not even close to Doom 3 specs. Blizzard's base system for Warcraft 3 was a Intel P3 700.

And again, you're speaking out of your ass.. FPS were never really popular in South Korea, so the prizes are obviously much, much lower.

And FPS has more variety than RTS? *laughs uncontrollably*

Please, think before you post.

Clarification on the 400 APM

[silverHat]

In the article, the author noted that the top player(s) can reach upwards of 400 APM.

This needs clarification about exactly what's going on here.

First off, this number is derived out of all the combined actions over the course of the game and divided by how many minutes the game was. There is a simple program created and written for this that analyzes each game through the replay details. If _anyone_ here plays StarCraft or it's younger brother WarCraft 3 (as both are considered professional games in Korea with WC3 becoming more and more popular) then you will know it's damn near impossible to accomplish anything efficiently with that high of an APM in the early game for about the first 2-4 minutes. To get that APM, keep in mind, he has to be clicking away approx. 6 times a second for the WHOLE match.

Yes, players can do this, but we gamers give it a special name: Spam clicking. As an avid gamer, spam clicking is one of the most obnoxious ways to show off your 1337 skills.

How do I know that 400 APM isn't possible, or at least where every click actually does something? Very simple, I've seen these replays, and by comparing top replays of players who spam click vs. those who don't, the highest _most efficient_ number is more are 150-175 APM, well below the 400 number the author glorified these players with. As you can probably tell, this works with marketers and advertising business, because I once tried to spam that much myself, and couldn't get higher than 250. People think it's supernatural.

Re:Clarification on the 400 APM

[gkwok]

Agree with parent. That's like typing 4-character words (with spaces) at a rate of 80 WPM, and a gamer doesn't even have both hands on the keyboard. I mean, I could easily hit ~7 actions per second in an all-out StarCraft attack: 1, rclick, 2, rclick, 3, rclick, ... but I wouldn't be able to keep that up for a minute straight.

Re:Clarification on the 400 APM

[AK Marc]

How do I know that 400 APM isn't possible, or at least where every click actually does something? Very simple, I've seen these replays, and by comparing top replays of players who spam click vs. those who don't, the highest _most efficient_ number is more are 150-175 APM, well below the 400 number the author glorified these players with.

Who cares? I play some games with friends. I'm constantly clicking. I keep looking for units that aren't working, or buildings that aren't producing. I don't keep too close track of what my people are doing, because when they finish, I'll find them pretty quickly with a click or two. But then, I play with someone that does just as well as I do. However, he only clicks when necessary. I have about twice the click rate he does, but we are about equal skill. When we look at the end of the game at the stats, no one cares who clicked the most (but we are really interested in who killed the most).

Re:Clarification on the 400 APM

[Sevaur]

While there's clearly a certain amount of showboating going on with extremely high APM's, it's pretty short-sighted to claim that 150-175 is the maximum efficient number of actions (not sure what 'highest _most efficient_number' actually means here). I can't speculate too much about warcraft, but I was a top US player in starcraft several years ago, and I have definite experience there. Most of those actions are not mouse clicks, but are using keyboard hotkeys: primarily cycling through hotkeys of production buildings, producing units while out fighting or scouting. Cycling through over and over may be a bit overkill, but the added efficiency of never having an empty building is one of the key advantages of a better player. If you check your buildings only when you think they might need new orders, you're liable to be missing valuable time. That said, before the program to measure APM (http://www.bwchart.com) was created, even the professionals had significantly lower APMs, with few players over 250. Now most pros have 300+ APM, probably due to the prestige of it... My own opinion (though it's a pretty hot issue even in the hardcore starcraft community) is that it's hard to compete at top levels without an APM exceeding 200 (less may be ok for Protoss players). As to the assertion that it's hard to get over 250, I suspect you were relying on the mouse instead of hotkeys (which composes a large percentage of top-player actions).

Quote the rest...

[Mz6]

Atleast quote the rest of the paragraph. It did a little bit more explaining, but not much. Atleast all the CEOs know it's an alien fighting game. "Players control one of three alien species in a computer-generated universe, attempting to gather resources, build weapons and annihilate the enemy"

Re:Quote the rest...

[Anonymous Coward]

Although, one of the alien species are... humans.

glines

[sso]

Is there a $450,000 market for glines players? Please contact me if you are hiring :)

THIS is more sad:

[mekkab]

"I never miss a match" of his, said Jung Eun-young, 28, who stood in line for 14 hours for her front-row seat.


Yep. I mean, I've kept my wife waiting for 3 hours. but 14?!

are there any.....

[millahtime]

Are there any teams out there that are working on their tonge game play??

Follow me

RTFA

[Mz6]

There was so many sponsorship ads in that article I had to go get myself a Coke.

RSI?

[CGP314]

Mr. Lim, who trains 10 hours a day

How on earth does he avoid repetitive stress injuries?


-Colin

Re:RSI?

[Have Blue]

Some people, hopefully myself included (computer use for much of the day for the past 6 years with no problems), seem to just not get RSI. I've used a computer for more than 10 hours per day for the past 6 years or so with no problems. I'd say it's a combination of this apparently innate tendency for or agaisnt and a carefully laid-out workspace (I don't even have expensive ergonomic gear, it's just all in the right place and adjusted to fit me).

Waiting for what though?

[Mz6]

I'd be interested to find out.... heheh

Re:Waiting for what though?

[Anonymous Coward]

This slashdot post has the best comments ever.

What?!?!

[PardonMyFrench]

And all these years I've been givin' it away for free?!?!?!

~sean
Stupendous Badass

Re:What?!?!

[strike2867]

You sound like a girl who just learned about prostitution.

this may sound silly but

[sixpacker]

the starcraft league has become my usual pastime just like I enjoyed MLB when I was in US. It's very exciting and interesting to watch the games on TV. I see new tactics everyweek. Beating opponents using the tactic over battle net is a joy. Seeing my tactic used by another players makes me excited and more addicted to the game.( I created Raiders tactic in WC3 ;-) ). These days, Gillette is sponsoring a league and their ad tactic is simply amazing such as one official map for the league is named "Gillette XXX". Surely there is a very creative cooperation between game developers, pro gamers, CATV companies, and league sponsors behind the success of this somewhat experimental e-sports. Especially when it comes to "Ad in a game", I see a lot of chances through these leagues.

Being challenged intellectually isnt a hobby?

[adamgeek]

i dunno about you, but 90% of the halfway (or more so) serious jobs i've ever had, have been ina field that i went into because i specifically enjoyed whatever it was. When i did stricly IT stuff, i liked networking and tech, and that's why i went into that arena. Much like the pro-gamer route you imagin, it started to become "work" and not "fun playing with computers."

I work handling video production for a music label now. Film/video was (and is) a serious passion of mine, and now i do that 5 days a week for a paycheck (And 7 days a week on my own time).. but it's still work. I'm sitting here keying BMP series exports of music videos.. somebody hold me back from the excitement!

I guess my point is.. work will always be work. If you're lucky, it can also, at times, be something fun that you originally got into because you loved it not for the money, but for some other (hopefully better) reason. The more successful you are in that field, hopefully the more shifted the balance of fun/challenge/innovation to "work" (i.e. a Sen. Net. Engineer has more liklihood to do challenging innovative stuff, vs a Lvl 1 tech support guy).. but there will always be that balance.

Nah

[Scott Richter]

I hate to be the wet blanket, but think about it. If you make any kind of money at poker, you do so becasue you're consistantly winning against the other players well above average. And the law of averages says that you're probably winning somebody elses rent money.

People can gamble for fun without being addicted. If it was their rent money, they'd have hocked the computer first. There are a lot of people on there to just have fun who don't care if they lose, and basically play till it's gone. You take their money.

I don't know what this law of averages is, or what exactly is being averaged here, but I'd like to see some facts first.

Is gambling evil. No! But I think I'd prefer to play Blackjack against the house.

If you prefer losing to winning, by all means do.

Re:Nah

[CVaneg]

If it was their rent money, they'd have hocked the computer first

I don't think you can say for sure that someone who is truly addicted to gambling would sell their computer before wagering their rent money. I would imagine the nature of their addiction would incline them to think that they could make their money back in time to pay the rent.

I don't know what this law of averages is, or what exactly is being averaged here, but I'd like to see some facts first.

I think that the previous poster is referring to the fact that poker is a zero sum game. So, for you to win requires someone else to lose, or generally speaking you have to perform better than the average player.

Having said all of that, though, I feel just about as sorry as Vegas does when I take someone else's money through gambling. Everyone knows the risks going in, and it's their fault for not monitoring themselves.

Re:Nah

[Scott Richter]

I don't think you can say for sure that someone who is truly addicted to gambling would sell their computer before wagering their rent money. I would imagine the nature of their addiction would incline them to think that they could make their money back in time to pay the rent.

If it wasn't clear, that was facetious - clearly, if someone has an addiction, the thing enabling it would be the last to go. In this case, someone addicted to online gambling would hock the computer as soon as a smack addict sold their needle and spoon. So yes, you're correct.

That said, I don't think anyone making claims of widespread online gambling addiction as a function of the number of people playing (or even as a function of the dollars gambled) have made any such case, as I've seen 0 evidence.

I think that the previous poster is referring to the fact that poker is a zero sum game. So, for you to win requires someone else to lose, or generally speaking you have to perform better than the average player.

If that's the case, then damned straight. I'd rather try that than the mathematical impossibility of beating the house at other games.

Having said all of that, though, I feel just about as sorry as Vegas does when I take someone else's money through gambling. Everyone knows the risks going in, and it's their fault for not monitoring themselves.

Damn straight, and I say this having gone to Vegas last month. ;) I played Hold 'em, and I won against the moron tourists in the afternoons. I lost to the shark locals in the morning, and when I was drunk on Saturday night. ;)

All told, I played for 4 days and ended up exactly $10. There were some people who schooled me, and there were some true morons that I fleeced.

Team rules don't allow ...

[burgburgburg]

him to bring a girl back to the apartment he shares with his teammates/coach.

He stopped playing basketball to make sure he didn't damage his hands. Isn't he still risking hand injuries with that sort of rule?

Re:Team rules don't allow ...

[Sn_wC_t]

Have you ever risked a hand injury doing the dirty by yourself?

Scary.

Re:Team rules don't allow ...

[demo9orgon]

Actually, he doesn't stand to risk any damnage to his hands, but could incurr adhesion of the foreskin to the glans which can happen when there's enough wear-n-tear caused by friction with the hands. Of course a "professional" is going to use lube, which will lower the risk of this happening. Also recommended is the use of "both hands" or a "blowfish", which will produce a different set of conditions and alleviate the pressure across the frenum caused by an enthusiastic grip and high speed movements.
And for those with the inclination, the use of large-mouthed beverage containers shouldn't be overlooked, however restrain such activities to just plastic containers because you can't cut-through or break the others if things are too binding. Just remember to use your best judgement with your own tools.
Cheers.

Re:Team rules don't allow ...

[doc modulo]

How about eggplants?

Re:Team rules don't allow ...

[mr_sfstk8d]

Not bloody likely. Have you _seen_ Korean pr0n??? Good luck greasing a knuckle with that stuff. It makes the bra ads in "Woman's World" look like Hustler!! In the 15 months I was stationed there, I couldn't aquire a taste for curveless women in flicks with no 'moist parts' camera time.
Carpal tunnel from the gaming is a much higher risk factor, in my opinion.

Re:Team rules don't allow ...

[demo9orgon]

"How about eggplants?"

Fibrous vegtables are a rough and tough substitute for a blowfish or other toy. There's a company which makes some interesting standalone body-part analogs which may not be as cheap or disposable as an eggplant, however they will reduce the time and artistry necessary to produce the desired results. Depending on the ripeness of the vegtable and how you want to doll it up (add some plastic toy eyes, some candy lips around the large hole you'll need to make, hot-glue a wig on the thing or just get all "Grace Jones" with it--or go completely reto and use some "Mrs. Potato Head" parts) it could be an interesting time. As with many things in life, we're truly self-limiting.

Vegetables are more suitable for penetration play, and only the foolish or bravest and most capable will ever attempt anything like that with an eggplant...unless they're stupid and greedy and possibly drunk. At which point they'll probably do about anything (I would like to call into evidence the "MTV-Spring Break" and "Girls Gone Wild" video series).

And don't forget to wash vegtables before playing with them. They're covered in stuff (pesticides, dirt, manure,etc..etc...) that can cause serious problems long after the moment.

As always take care of your tools.
And don't forget to Kegel, it's good for a boy and a girl.

Whatever?

[trs9000]

Alternately, I could make a good salary working 8-5 in an intellectually challenging field and save the gaming for its true purpose: a hobby.

does this mean you dont love your dayjob? that you dont have a great passion for what it is you do? im just thinking here:

lets say you spend 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year doing this. thats approximately 23% of your life your spending doing something just to make money. that may not seem like a lot at first but remember: this what youre devoting most of your time energy and thought to. and in reality the %age is probably higher -- with schooling, commute or extra hours etc. and of course sleep takes up 33% of most peoples life.

i just cant imagine consciously choosing to do something so intensely that i only kindof *like*.

-a

Re:Whatever?

[joeljkp]

What do you do for a living? Do you love it?

Re:Whatever?

[trs9000]

What do you do for a living?

i make music

Do you love it?

absofuckinglutely

Re:Professional Sports...?

[Anonymous Coward]

At least with gaming, you're not getting paid simply because your big... like Shaq.

ARG! Why can't any of the games *I'm* good at be

[Nakamiya]

professionaly played?!

I rock at Puzzle Bobble Online, Bomberman Online, and Tetris Attack/Pokemon Puzzle Legue/all of that type of game. I wish those could be played professionaly... or that there was some kind of way to gamble on your PBO games, like poker...

Wrist and Eye

[superpulpsicle]

Like professional sports, there is always a possibility of injury affecting your game.

Wrist and eye are right up there on my list. I game alot, but not sure I am anywhere close to readily tackling 40hrs a week.

Re:Wrist and Eye

[Anonymous Coward]

Another top earner, Hung Jin-Ho, whose fingers are insured for $60,000, recently signed a three-year deal with telecom provider KTF Co. that will pay him $480,000 altogether.

Shouldn't he be insured for his maximum potential earning income, rather than a small amount?

Work, routine, and entertainment

[Anonymous Coward]

While not necessarily the case, work tends to be routine. And doing something repeatedly, day in and day out, even if you enjoy it initially, can get pretty tiresome after a while.

I used to do programming for entertainment quite a bit. Now it's a real struggle to get the interest in doing since I'm doing it all the time at the office. Granted, we have our own tolerances on such things, but I think humans naturally get annoyed with routine after a point.

One of the main points of entertainment is to break yourself out of that routine. If the entertainment becoems the job, then how do you escape that routine.

CPL

[smallguy78]

The US already has someone similar, in the form of http://www.thecpl.com . Prizes of $100k for counter-strike tournaments, and teams like 3D, Schroet all getting sponsered by intel, ati, amd and nvidia.

Great News

[GomezAdams]

Morticia and I thought we were going to have to support Pugsly forever. He and Thing sit around playing video games and day. Pugs is 47 now, never finished school and just sits on his ass day in and day out. A true slacker. But he has the highest scores of any amateur gamer, dead or alive. Where can I get more information on this professional gaming thing so I can take the ever Loverly Morticia on our second honeymoon?

Star Wars Galaxies?

[RotJ]

How did you make money with that game? Were you selling items for real money on ebay or does Sony give out prizes for tournaments?

Re:Star Wars Galaxies?

[Munden]

obviously i sold credits on SWG. first month rates were 40,000 creds for $70 :D. Now its a million creds for 40 or 50.

You are very lucky, or maybe new

[Archfeld]

at your chosen profession, less than 5 years ?. I tend to agree with the originator, often transforming an enjoyable hobby into a job sucks the enjoyable part out and it becomes work. I very much enjoy the hardware system design and testing I do, but it has seriously impacted the 'hacker' time I used to spend 'playing' with stuff at home. On the flip side I have access to some incredible hardware, my internal lan is fully fiber at 2GB speed running on emulex-9K cards to a 4 port fabric switch.
When I get to my rig at home I just want it to work, and I don't want to mess with it generally, which was the exact skill set that landed me the job in the first place....

By the way: at 6.66 APS, does this mean ...

[burgburgburg]

that he is the Beast? Is it Armageddon already and nobody told me?

Re:By the way: at 6.66 APS, does this mean ...

[brodin]

It's only Armageddon to two sig figs...

Re:By the way: at 6.66 APS, does this mean ...

[Anonymous Coward]

to be pedantic, three of those digits are significant, eg: 666 * 10^-2

Tax Write Off?

[nixdorf_]

Finally! I can quit my day job, declare myself a Professional Gamer, and get a tax write off on my professional expenses: new PC's, all the games, and more!

Sounds good, but I think I'll keep my day job.

Natural talent

[Quill_28]

I have played sports all my life, in that time I have seen different reasons for different people to excel at different sports I will also include chess in this(avoiding the chess is a sport debate)

Take basketball: Taller the better, ju,mping ability helps.
But there are also abilities that are hard to judge.

"Ability to see the floor"
"Knowing where to be to receive a pass"
"anticipation on defense"
"knack for knowing where the ball is going to be*rebound"

I casually play games like RTS and FPS, I do well but when I play there is usually someone better than I.

My question is what mental and physical attributes make a good RTS and FPS player.

I know practice is important but practice being equal what traits physical and mental are most important.

In other words..

[bigdady92]

what the article meant to say was: "Hi, I'm a gamer, and although I make a metric buttload of $$$ I still can't get laid!"

Behold the Fingers!

[ReadParse]

It's interesting that this story mentions that this gamer's fingers are insured for $60,000. That has the immediate effect of making all who read it suddenly realize how valuable his fingers are to his livelihood. If you're like me, you then quickly realized how valuable YOUR fingers are to YOUR livelihood. Not that I haven't considered this before... I sometimes think about the future of my career (computers... duh) if I were to lose a hand or some fingers.

Actually, my first impression was that his fingers aren't insured for enough (and neither are mine, by the same standard). I would think that you should insure anything you need to keep your job for about five years' worth of your salary, to give you time to get trained and up to speed on your new career, or in the case of a computer person who becomes a disabled computer person, to purchase and come up to speed on whatever devices will make it possible to do the same job.

Come to think of it, I'm sure there are disabled IT professionals out there already doing these things that I imagine. For example, are there people who code in C, perl, or java without the use of their hands? Maybe I should submit this as an Ask Slashdot or something.

RP

Re:Behold the Fingers!

[Anonymous Coward]

I broke my right shoulder and shattered bones in my right hand as the result of a motorcycle accident. Slowed me down, but I learned to type and mouse left handed after a bit. My hand has recovered about 80-90% original but I still use the left mouse to enable writiting while computing (easier to mouse left handed than write left handed).

The temporary disability improved my left hand coordination and showed my that I rely more on my brain than my body in my job.

Re:Behold the Fingers!

[Johnboi Waltune]

It's fairly common for companies to have 'accidental death and dismemberment' insurance for the employees. In my case, if I lose an eye or a hand or whatever, I collect 6x my yearly salary. I pay $2 a month for this benefit.

Not sure if I collect the money if I just lose a finger though. I doubt it, since many people would consider trading a finger for half a million bucks.

I'm going back to high school.....

[SirStanley]

So that I can kill my Guidance Counselor. Damn them and their lack of foresight.

Ummm...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Starcraft blows. I hate any game that forces you to become a click-a-holic (also why I hate Diablo and family...maybe my issue is with Blizzard in general). But I have wasted many late nights playing Total Annihilation. IMHO, TA is the best RTS ever.
I could see playing TA as a pro, because even after all these years I love that game. But never starcraft/WC, etc.

Do it like poker

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not do it like poker tournaments? Everybody puts up a certain amount to play, and the top n players split the money according to some percentage schedule. A common format in poker is first-place gets half the total take, second-place gets half of that, third gets halved again, and after that it drops off more gradually.

Then you hold a bunch of different tournaments, with different entry fees. If you're poor, just start at a cheap tournament, if you're good you'll quickly earn the cash to go for the big money. After a while it's mostly top players at the big-money tournaments, but if some loser rich guy wants to put up the cash to give it a shot, he's welcome to...that's just more money for the winning players.

No b.s. about sponsorship deals, no weird rules to avoid offending your sponsors, just raw competition for money. Though of course you might end up losing money.

The only drawback compared to poker is that in poker, the luck factor makes it possible for a less-skilled player to do well. He might lose over the long term, and he needs to have a certain level of skill to have any shot at all, but he has a chance to go the distance without actually being a world-class player. In a game without the luck factor, it might be difficult to get enough players to generate the really huge prizes you can get in poker. Maybe worth a try, though.

"Rounders" for Gamers

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a pretty good movie, called Rounders - with matt Damon and Ed Norton. They were compulsive gamblers, but had really good skills. Well, Damon did. Norton was the slippery loser who kept getting him in trouble.

In the end, Damon plays a high stakes game with a Russian, played with the usual over the top acting of John Malkovich, and gets him and Norton out of debt.

That move needs to be re-written as compulsive gamers. Guys who are showing up at LAN parties with 4-day stubble and a stinking t-shirt, pulling out a wad of Benjamins, throwing it down on the keyboard...

"K, lamer, Zerg vs. Protoss. Five thousand."

"Ur on..."

(Cut to that cheese music that played whenever Elvis was competing in one of his action movies)

Yeah, anyone conservative must hate you personally

[jbellis]

Get a grip. The article is targetted at a mass market audience. Not everyone has played half a dozen RTS games in the past couple years.

wait until they ask to be part of the olympics

[Anonymous Coward]

thats when being a "pro video gamer" will have jumped the shark.

and no, not some geek math olympics thing, i mean the real olympics. its bad enough freestyle motocrossers think they should be included.

You need to watch more first-person footage

[jbellis]

Sure, there's useless actions (almost everyone, for instance, selects his peons over and over at the beginning of the game) but it's more to get into the groove than to spam for the sake of spamming.

It's funny how average players always think the highest APM achievable while remaining efficient is within a percent or two of their own. :P

Bah

[JMZero]

"a game of strategy that's like a combination of high-speed chess and Risk."

That's actually a very, very good description of StarCraft. It's comprehensible to the target audience and it's actually a pretty good summary. I couldn't write as good a description in as few words without invoking a lot of language that their audience wouldn't understand.

But maybe you're way smarter than me - you give it a try?

Re:Bah

[demi]

Maybe not better, but fewer words:

...a game of strategy that's like ... high-speed ... Risk.

...a game ... like ... high-speed ... Risk.

...high-speed ... Risk.

it's pretty much Risk on the computer.

...with space or something.

THE DEVIL'S SERVANT!

[dutt]

Realize this: The man has 6.66 per second! 6.66 can only mean one thing. The number of the beast. The man is the Devil's servant, he could even be the devil incarnate. Just the facts, nothing else.

There is a big difference

[James Lewis]

The big difference between pro gaming and professional sports is that because professional sports are physical, you can only practice for so many hours before it becomes counter-productive (or impossible) to continue. In competitive gaming, to be competitive you have to spend a TON of time playing. Since it isn't physical you can spend every waking hour practicing. This is why a lot of pro gamers burn out after a while, because playing the same game every waking hour for 4 years gets old fast.

Re:There is a big difference

[Tharian]

"because playing the same game every waking hour for 4 years gets old fast."

But not all games have maintained sufficient popularity over 4 years. Yes, there have been some blockbusters, but what happens if a game is on a hot streak for a while and then fades from public interest? Do these players move on to other games?

Or are they already playing/practicing multiple games to prepare for a game's eventual fading interest?

Re:There is a big difference

[James Lewis]

The real pro gamers are going to be attracted to the games that have the biggest tournaments, and are therefore the most popular. Those are the games that last 4 years. Games like StarCraft, Counter-Strike, and the WarCraft series are all good examples.

Re:There is a big difference

[sumbry]

Pro Gamers having absolutely nothing on Pro atheletes! You wanna talk about burning out on a game after playing it non-stop for a few years?

Ask Karl Malone if he's burnt out on playing basketball for more than 20 YEARS! Him and other athletes of his caliber have been playing professional sports 2-3-4-5 times longer than most of these platforms for gaming have even existed.

Re:Professional Sports...?

[servognome]

I agree with you. Professional athletes have to love the sport they play, to put in the amount of work required. Most people forget about the dehydrating 2-a-days (and even 3-a-days), endless amounts of time in a hot humid weight room.
To be a truly professional gamer would suck. Playing the same maps hours on end to identify the best spots, researching the latest strategy and tactics, dealing with horrible headaches from eyestrain.

I've heard of you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time my girlfriend and I would be making out, she'd start swearing about you.

Nasty things she said, like F Mike Hunt, smack Mike Hunt, etc.

I left her because one time she told me to suck you.

What'd you do to her, dude?

Re:I've heard of you.

[geomon]

I wish I had mod points.

That was funny.

Hahahaha

[LeoDV]

" The team competes in Starcraft, a game of strategy that's like a combination of high-speed chess and Risk"

Does anyone else love the way mainstream media describes video game genres?

Agreed

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been writing software professionally for the last 10 years. I first got into programming back in highschool and went to college to learn everything I could about computers. I still love it.

The tricky part is finding interesting projects with good people. Once it goes bad, start looking for something more interesting to do. With software, there's always something interesting to work on.

Everquest

[fritz1968]

...or Evercrack, which ever you prefer. Anyway, do a search on eBay and you will find plenty of stuff for sale there: characters, gold, magic items.... Selling evercrack stuff on eBay is just one step lower than being a professional gamer.

OT but...

[fliptout]

I've been having too much sex lately, so can anyone recommend a good upgrade for my Geforce 2? I need to spend some quality time alone gaming :D

Look! It's the next DOT.BOMB!

[Lester67]

We've inadvertently discovered the next big thing, that is now in the throws of being pushed to far, and will eventually implode on itself.

Leaving a couple thousand people, with no jobs skills, flooding the unemployment system. (Not to mention the kids that want to follow in their footsteps up to a full decade after the buzz has passed.)

And all the while, my mother will still be laughing... "I told you playing Nintendo all the time would lead you NOWHERE!"

The problem, of course...

[Control Group]

...is sustainability. Being a professional gamer works for a while just on novelty: corporate sponsorship, and whatnot. Over the long term, however, the money has to come from somewhere. Either companies will have to determine to their own satisfaction that gamer sponsorship generates more revenue through marketing than their spending, or the gamer him/her self has to bring in that money by way of attracting paying fans.

Either way, the whole scheme depends (just like every other entertainment industry) on developing a fan base whose money can be tapped into. And this is the potential problem I see with this.

I've watched televised gaming (UTx, MechAssault, a few others that have made it onto TechTV or G4), and there's always something lacking. In my mind, it seems like the missing factor is camera management. The usual over-the-shoulder camera view of the action is much less than ideal. Some system has to evolve such that you can be focused on the primary action (the guy carrying the flag), while at the same time being able to keep track of what else is going on nearby.

Translucent walls, to pop an idea off the top of my head, might help. The viewing audience gets to see the current focus (selected by a studio editing/camera crew, just like it is with professional sports), and can also see who's waiting just around the corner or on the other side of the door.

But that's what this will need to sustain profitability and grow: the audience doesn't want their situational awareness as limited as the player's. The audience wants a god's-eye view, just like they do for every other sporting event.

Re:The problem, of course...

[Reapy]

Definatly. I've seen a few of those shows on tv and it was really boring, espeically because you couldn't tell whats going on. They cut to someone shooting someone to death, then someone holding the flag and running, and it's just so disjointed you don't know whats going on.

What they need is to have a map in the upper right that has everyones position on it on screen at all times so you can watch the teams move on the map and get the big picture, then focus on the conflicts and grabs.

This is still hard as someone dieing definatly isn't as rewarding as when you are pulling the trigger. Still, an overhead map would make a huge difference.

You slashdotters...

[feidaykin]

You slashdotters have some really depressing thoughts, and you mods love to mod up really depressing thoughts. What am I talking about? Look, despite what you may think, making money off your hobby does not automatically mean you will hate your hobby!

Do you all have such pessimistic views on life? Do you all hate your day jobs, and simply refuse to believe that life can be any better?

Look. I used to work as a janitor. I also survived for about a year and a half off of NOTHING but the sale of Diablo II items on eBay, back in 00-01 when the game was still hot.

Which one of these "jobs" do you think I enjoyed more? Come on geniuses, figure it out. Is pointing and clicking at my computer, or mopping up feces and cleaning urinals a better job? Now granted, I did have to play D2 a minimum of about 12 hours a day back then, and there were a few days when I felt like not playing at all. But when I was a janitor, I never, ever, EVER felt like cleaning urinals. Where as with the D2 "job" I found myself enjoying it 99% of the time.

The D2 funds did eventually dry up, but basically what I'm trying to tell you is this: For about 1.5 years, I made money playing a video game, and I fucking enjoyed it. So don't think it's impossible, you depressed pessimistic dorks.

Heh, okay, done with the rant, sorry.

If y'ever need help concieving kids, i'll help.

[Polarism]

Don't think of it as adultery, just doing your wife a favor. ;)

(kidding)

Of course it won't.

[Anonymous Coward]

How often do you see classifieds looking to hire a professional basketball player?

But will losing his fingers really disable him?

[freakmn]

That makes the assumption that without fingers, he would be unable to do his job. This is obviously not the case!

Hobby=Work?

[charboy1]

. . . whether or not you should make your hobby your work.

But if your work becomes your hobby, would you get a new and different hobby?

As a kid I always followed everything about space. However, now that I work for human space flight programs, which I love, I really don't follow any space news when I'm away from work. (I'm ashamed to say I didn't even follow the latest Mars lander.) I wonder how many slashdotters out there would pick a new hobby if their old hobby became their job.

- charboy

Re:Hobby=Work?

[joeljkp]

This is true. I'm in college studying to be an aerospace engineer, and every other semester I work at NASA. I used to love aircraft, spacecraft, the whole bit, but now I don't really follow it that much in my spare time. It still interests me, but not as a hobby. Now I program and do websites and stuff as a hobby.

Player(s) vs. programmer(s) -- from one who knows.

[iamcf13]

Let's cut to the heart of this matter, shall we....

To be a true (arcade) 'pro gamer', you have to be cognizant of all the advantages you can eke out of the game playing environment. This can only come from hours and hours of potentially mindnumbing gameplay.

Back in the old days, such tournaments were really endurance contests because the games selected were (likely) 'pattern driven' (i.e. PAC-MAN) or had a favorable 'hidden feature' (i.e. the 'stop-them-from-shooting-at-you' trick for Galaga).

Fast forward years later to player vs. player fighting game tournaments. In this environment, at this level of play, it's primarily about 'glitches' and 'infinites combos' where the gamers take advantage of subtle(?) bugs in the programming of the gaming environment when competing with others players in that environment. Probably the best example of this is the Gambit 'blastoff' maneuver from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. In this case, a gamer playing as the playing card tossing X-Men can use this 'glitch' to win a round/game/tournament by hitting their opponent's character once then leaping up off the screen and hov'ring there until the round timer runs out--a spectacularly cheap way to win!

I know this technique works because it was used against me in a MvC2 game I played with another player. I don't think it was in a tournament setting but using such a move could be very well considered unsportsmanlike.

I've played lots of Street Fighter-related CAPCOM arcade fighting games in the past and was 'halfway decent'. I got good enough that I could assess the skill level of potential opponents by watching them play the computer or other opponents. I would avoid playing people whose skills were observably less than mine as there is no fun or challenge in playing such players.

Of course, all the above information is applicable to 'pro homegaming' as well as the home console games are as much flawed/pattern driven/'hidden featured' computer programs as their arcade counterparts....

Professional Gamer!

[Will2k_is_here]

I'm going to kill my guidance councillor for this one!

Things very wrong with this article

[spidergoat2]

Or maybe, things wrong in South Korea. The claim is they're making 6 figure salaries, yet, 8 of them live in a 2 bedroom apt. They can't afford a van. All of this guys clothes fit in a bag. Geez, what's the cost of living there? And no girls? Everything done by young males is done to impress women. If he can't have a relationship, he's just wasting his time. I just don't get it!

Re:Things very wrong with this article

[smart.id]

Six figure salaries in South Korean money. 100,000 South Korean Won is equal to approximately $85 US. Which makes sense, you know, because you know how far $85 US can get you in South Korea!

Re:Things very wrong with this article

[Anonymous Coward]

We now know who brings down the average IQ in the world!

The figures given in the article are in US dollars. Furthermore, housing is pretty expensive in Seoul. Additionaly, had the parent had a short term memory, he would have noted that the article CLEARLY mentioned that few progamers make six figure salaries. The average annual salary is only $20,000 - $30,000 (US dollars -.-;;;)

They all live together because that is the easiest way to play; in team games it helps A LOT to be able to talk to your ally(or allies) and see his/her screen.

Re:Things very wrong with this article

[smart.id]

May I ask you what my IQ has to do with knowing how expensive housing is in Seoul? The entire post was a joke, which has nothing to do with my IQ. It does, however, reveal your understanding of sarcasm.

No wonder its Starcraft

[Anonymous Coward]

You can play that game on a PC now considered a doorstop. So all those kids in South Korea play on discarded hardware and eat Ramen all day. No wonder its so popular.

Re:No wonder its Starcraft

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry. Starcraft is popular because every game is different. It takes thinking and skill and it minimizes luck.

There are many other reasons, but I am too tired to list all of them.

s.past@trilogic.cz

[Anonymous Coward]

please ignore this post

What a gip

[Avatar8]

I thought I was doing well getting free pizza to beta test games.

Now if I can find a team sponsor for the games I'm good at. Roller Coaster Tycoon anyone?

Serious Question -- not intended to offend

[localman]

I wonder what it is about Korean culture that lends itself so well to social videogame obsession. My wife is Korean and she had an addiction to Tribes that seriously interfered with her real life. She eventually had to quit gaming completely.

I remember some story about a Korean guy playing until he actually died (of dehydration or malnutrition or something). And although data is not the plural of anecdote as they say, there seems to me to be evidence that gaming as a culture is sweeping Korea faster than almost anywhere else. When I visited there two years ago you couldn't walk 20 yards in Seoul without passing a PC Bahng (internet cafe/gaming room). People were there 24/7.

I've talked about it with my wife but she doesn't have a particular theory. Though she grew up there she's not very traditional so she doesn't seem to have any insight to it beyond her own obsession.

Any Koreans out there who have thoughts on this?

Cheers.

Re:Serious Question -- not intended to offend

[Quill_28]

I work someone with someone from Korea and asked him about this.

He didn't know why but did add that in Korea group play is the cultural norm.
The independent culture of america is not prevalent in korean society at least not as much or revered the way americans do.

That's it?

[SeanAhern]

whose fingers are insured for $60,000

Hang on...this is a guy who is a "top earner," having just signed a deal for $160,000 a year for the next 3 years. His livelihood is dependent on his fingers working very quickly, so he insures them to cover the loss of income. And the insurance he gets is.... $60,000?! Sounds like this guy may be good at directing Ghosts and such, but a little short on math skills.

AAARGH!!

[throbbingbrain.com]

I still can't win!! And now my eyes hurt!! AAARRRGH!!

Can I get a job watching pr0n?

[chmilar]

Can I earn > $100k for watching pr0n?

I'll insure my wrist for $60k, in case of carpal tunnel syndrome!

Re:Can I get a job watching pr0n?

[mrklin]

I know of people whose job was watching porn (writing porn DVD reviews). As with most jobs, after a while it becomes routine and one just becomes numb (no pun intended!) to the content.

Not sure I want that as my career.

Being a pr0n star, however, is another question...

You haven't?

[burgburgburg]

Then you're not doing it correctly.

omg

[nFriedly]

can you say 'looser'
im even a gamer and i think they sound like serious loosers

Origins of xyzzy

[Matt2k]

Actually XYZZY first referenced in the text game Adventure / Colossal Caves.

http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/c_xyzzy.html

Sweet Jesus! Am I *that* old?!?!

[AKAJack]

Not Zork. XYZZY is the magic word from Adventure.

I was playing "adventure" on various DEC systems along time ago. This is so old that it was only "finally" ported into C in 1976!

Props where they're due:

Colossal Cave by Will Crowther, extended by Don Woods and ported to C by Jim Gillogly.

Not a first person shooter

[Gnissem]

I find it interesting that this is a real time strategy game and not a first person shooter. Speed counts, but not reflexes.

LOL! Be our sucker!

[Teahouse]

I just love people who think they are going to win a lot on online video poker against other players. You know who you are playing at those hold-em tables? 3-4 people who know eachother and are on the phone waiting for a sucker like you to come into their room. I know, I participated in a group like that once. You are playing against 2-4 people at what you think is an "open" table. In reality, they all bid up and then fold to the best of their four hands. Video poker is a fool's paradise. If you want to gamble for a living, make sure you can see the people you are gambling against, cause the online games are where marks get fleeced dude.

more than games anymore

[deathcloset]

I really think that with the arising cinematic gaming experience, a broadcast of a video game match could be every bit as compelling to watch as any action movie; perhaps moreso...in fact, I'm pretty sure moreso.

And I don't mean broadcast in stickly the television sense. John Carmack has theorized that eventually there will be "THE graphics engine". A standard engine which can be just as integrated into operating systems as any GUI server is today.

Couple that with more robust human interface devices and you could browse to a full-scale war; resplendent with all the physics and sights one would expect from the real world (and quite a few extras I'm sure). In a world of gigabit connections and clockless CPUs it's not hard to imagine a Game world so immense and immersive that people would spend thier lives in it; and just as our world, there will be celebrities.

However, as opposed to our celebrities, these virtual stars will have to fufill a noteably different set of criteria then our current rock, movie and sports stars. In many ways, I think they will have to have something of all of these.

But not only will these celebrities make thier livings online, but I foresee a plethora of people simply working full time jobs inside these worlds. Some of these workers will be like amusement park employees (perhaps making sure the AI behaves within parameters; like the guy that makes sure the automatonic pirates keep singing "yo ho"), others will make money the same way current workers inside MMORPGs do - via sales of virtually-gained commodities.

With a photo-realistic graphics engine, bandwidth galore and CPU to burn what can't you see in the virtual world that you can in ours?

Re:Sweet Jesus! Am I *that* old?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmmm, do I smell some Royal Jelly nearby?
Was that key up in a tree? can't remember... must have erased my memory and lost all those Infocom game references.

outsourcing

[fresh27]

we should start outsourcing some of our gamers to korea. particularly the cs players.

Scary

[Atario]

$300,000/year is alerady pretty amazing, but all the more impressive when you realize that the average yearly income in South Korea is about $10,000.

Re:Professional Sports...?

[f97tosc]

While I don't necessarily disagree, I have to wonder how people would react if you said "football" or "basketball" instead of gaming. I don't see how, given a suitably strategic and interesting video game, professional gamers would be any different than professional athletes who get paid grotesque sums of money to engage in what is, for most people, a "hobby."

People don't get paid for how well or how hard they work, but for how much other people value their services. It now so happens that a very large number of people very much like to see top athletes perform, hence the gotesques sums of money.

Not that many people are very interested in seing others playing video games. Perhaps not very surprising, considering that the games were never made with spectacors in mind. Who knows about the future though?

Tor

Perspective

[cgenman]

Yes, there would be a lot of ethical questions about paying our Nintendo Superstars more than our teachers or our police or what have you. But people don't seem to mind that much with professional athletes. Why think of pro gamers any differently?

To put this in perspective, Albert Bell signed a 5-year, 65 million dollar contract. The median income in MLB is 800,000 dollars per season. Tiger Woods made an estimated 78 million for 2002-2003, including endorsements. This #1 highest ranked korean professional videogame player is making less than 200k per year.

If conjecture and heresay are true, it is the rare US "professional" player that earns as much as a teacher. South Korea has always been a little ahead of the curve when it comes to integrating videogames and society, but even then 100,000 dollars is lower than the top bracket in most professions. True, it is the rare public school teacher that makes 180k, but school superintendents do on occasion make that much. And what about corporate training programs, or inspirational speakers?

To me, 200,000k sounds "fair."

A reviewer's 2 cents

[syberanarchy]

I write reviews professionally, over 350 in a 2 yr period. I don't exactly have a secured contract like an editor with gamepro/spot/IGN would have, but I do well enough for myself, and it beats working at MCd's for the summer. I can honestly say that before I began doing so, I was MUCH less jaded. I could get enjoyment out of, and even beat, games like Oni, Star Wars Starfighter, and Gunvalkyrie. Every game except the worst of the worst (ala Kabuki Warriors, et.al;) had something in it that made it worth looking at, if not a purchase. Believe me when I say that this is no longer the case - after playing games like: Big Bass Fishing, Celebrity Deathmatch, New Legends, Clone Wars GBA, WWE Crush Hour, Die Hard, T3: ROTM, Drake, Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, Ecco PS2 I find it hard to give any games but the absolute best my time or money for "personal" gaming. I complete far fewer games, and play for less amounts of time. Games just don't hold my interest for as long as they used to, something I'm convinced is a result of turning my obsession into a job. I'm not complaining - I love what I do, and feel blessed to be able to do it in lieu of a "real" job. But it's very disheartening to play through crap games by the truckload, with the knowledge that there are actually people who BUY these things, keeping the market for them well-oiled with dollar bills. This is a bit different than being a FPS superstar making 100's of k a year, but it's in the same ballpark.

Lim Yo-Hwan vs. ESPN's Toughest Sport Ranking

[cyranoVR]

A few weeks ago, ESPN.com's Page 2 published an article asking the controversial question "Which sport is most difficult?"

A panel of Experts ranked a variety of professional and Olympic sports based on several criteria, with boxing coming out on top which quasi-sports like billiards and fishing were at the bottom. This led me to wonder: Where would Online Gaming fall in the ranking?

Originally, I came up with the following analysis:

ENDURANCE - Gamers are known to 10-12 hours without going to the bathroom. That takes a bladder of steel. Score: 2

STRENGTH - Hefting that PC to the LAN party: 0.5

POWER - Clicking a mouse repeatedly requires strength of a ten-year old. Score: 0

SPEED- Players sit in one position, motionless, often for hours or days at a time. Score: 0

AGILITY - Uhhhh...right. Score: 0

FLEXIBILITY - Gimme another score: 0

NERVE - Chances of being fragged at least during a typical FPS game: 100%. Courage required to face those odds: 0.

DURABILITY - Back strain, stressed bladder, possible carpal tunnel syndrome after several years. Score: 1

HAND-EYE COORDINATION - Studies have shown that playing hours of games will improve this skill. However, lining up a crosshair with your mouse is not the same as hitting a 95mph curveball. Score: 3.5

ANALYTIC APTITUDE - Ok, I think it is fair to say that this deserves a high score. Let's say 7.5

GRAND TOTAL: 14.5
RANKING: A tie with Fishing! Woo!

However, after reading that article, I have to say I have a newfound respect for Professional Gamers. 650-moves-per minute? Is that even possible?!? Also, it sounds like your average teenager has better odds of making it as a professional basketball player than as a Gamer. Conclusion - the people who can make it in the GPL must be *really* gifted.

I would definitely revise-upwards the scores for ANALYTIC APTITUDE and HAND-EYE COORDINATION up to 9.5 and 8.5, respectively.

And they could add a few points to the Endurance score by having the gamers take an electric shock every time one of their units is destroyed (or something...)

Re:Sweet Jesus! Am I *that* old?!?!

[xTown]

Yup; all you got for XYZZY in Zork was a hollow voice calling you a fool. I loved that.