8 ms·

How Ninja become gaming's first crossover star

46 points by pmcpinto 8y ago

savethefuture 8y ago
"I play Fortnite every day, Mom. It's my dream to play Fortnite." - What a world we live in now a days...
- BLKNSLVR 8y ago
  Oh the stress of modern celebrity! I'd give you all my pity but I already spent it raising children and paying a mortgage and working for sociopaths. Having said that, now I fucking well WANT to play Fortnite every day
  - sky_rw 8y ago
    Heaven is being able to play fortnite every day. Hell is _having_ to play fornite every single day.
    - BLKNSLVR 8y ago
      I'm not seeing any "have to" in any of this anywhere, except in the woe-is-me voluntary victim handbook.
      - thecatspaw 8y ago
        He has to play fortnite just like we have to go to our jobs. Sure, we can just not show up anymore, but that will loose you your income. Of course, he has a bit more flexibility, but so does an employee who yields the company a million each month, and takes home half of that.
        BLKNSLVR 8y ago
        "a bit more flexibility" and "half a million take-home per month" aren't in the same ball park (to paraphrase Pulp Fiction: it ain't even the same sport) Apologies if I'm coming off as offensive or patronising, but I really truly cannot see what there could possibly be to complain about that isn't entirely within their control to change. I think there's a bigger picture that you might not be stepping back far enough to look at.
        thecatspaw 8y ago
        What I tried to say was, if you have an employee who yields you half a million each month, you're probably not gonna fire him if he says "hey im gonna take off tomorrow". But yes, they obviously can just not stream for a single day, but it costs him. According to the article, not streaming a day looses him 15,000 subs (assuming the default cut of 50% of 5$) thats 37k lost, per day, and it adds up. Ninja seems to be aware that his stream wont live forever, that his fame is on a timer, like anyone on the internet. So he's trying to save up as much money as he can, to support his family after his fame dies down. Lets be generous and assume $200k spent per year for rent/mortage, food and all that fun stuff. A day streaming means he has 2 months less buffer, before his money would run out. 4 Months, if you're spending 100k a year. Choosing between 1 day of work, and 4 months of work, seems pretty easy to me, even if that single day sucks.
- belorn 8y ago
  Is it much stranger than kicking a ball around on the field? Having sports as a profession is in general strange.
charleyma 8y ago
Toxicity in gaming + virtual communities (particularly against women) seems to be an issue that no company has a great grasp on. I recently gave Fortnite a try and ended up turning chat off due to relentless abuse by someone that sounded like they were pretty young. It made me a bit sad - I met some of my best friends growing up online in irc channels playing CS, WoW, etc - not sure if I would be able to do so today. Also Polygon article where Ninja talks about why he doesn't stream with female gamers (for whatever reason espn didn't link...) - https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17675738/ninja-twitch-female-gamers https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17675738/ninja-twitch-fema...
- tbiwiti 8y ago
  That article is really strange to me. On one hand, he's probably 100% right. There's no other way to avoid rumors and jokes like that. On the other hand, that's a completely unacceptable excuse to bar women from something. Can someone refuse to hire a female secretary out of respect for their wife?
  - Bizarro 8y ago
    That's a dumb analogy and bordering on being disingenuous. He's not barring women from something...you know that. And the people that he plays with are not his employees. You know that too.
    - tbiwiti 8y ago
      Getting to stream with Ninja would have a large, direct effect on their income, not to mention the promotional aspect. But sure, lets instead imagine a male-only social club that directly promotes the business and career interests of it's members. That would get shut down real fast.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - hnzix 8y ago
cuboidGoat 8y ago
These twitch streamers and their relationship to their audiences reminds me a lot of William Gibson's simstim celebrities in the Neuromancer trilogy.
baxtr 8y ago
Every day, people tune in by the hundreds of thousands to watch him play, and he's making bank doing it. The most commonly reported figure is $500,000 a month. Blevins suggests the number is closer to seven figures. And then later: "Until my family is taken care of. Say this ends tomorrow, we don't have enough for the rest of our lives. I tell Jess, 'Honey, we're not going to have that much quality time this year, or even next year. But if we do this right and I continue to grind for a couple more years, we can set ourselves up, and our family and our family's family, for the rest of our lives.'" Even though he makes so much money I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. He doesn’t seem to have a good, relaxed life. One vacation in 8 years while making 500k+ a month? Why...?
- woolvalley 8y ago
  It's pretty god damn smart, work hard for 10 years and have generational wealth for the rest of your god damn life. He knows that this was a lucky break of fame, and as celebrities rise and fall with fads. It's way better than most startups.
  - ndh2 8y ago
    There's got to be some boundary, though. The guy streams every single day. Doesn't even take one weekday off. That's not healthy.
    - Doxin 8y ago
      Working until you're 80 isn't healthy either. given the choice I'd rather do 10 years with no free time than 60 years with only a tiny bit of free time.
    - tuesdayrain 8y ago
      He plays videogames for a living. I could do that all day every day for free if I had the opportunity, nevermind 500k a month.
  - mylons 8y ago
    there's no guarantee he lasts beyond a month. streaming is very "fad" driven. follow the memes. you're also ruling things like health issues, etc.

46 points by pmcpinto 8y ago

savethefuture 8y ago

"I play Fortnite every day, Mom. It's my dream to play Fortnite." - What a world we live in now a days...

BLKNSLVR 8y ago
Oh the stress of modern celebrity! I'd give you all my pity but I already spent it raising children and paying a mortgage and working for sociopaths. Having said that, now I fucking well WANT to play Fortnite every day
- sky_rw 8y ago
  Heaven is being able to play fortnite every day. Hell is _having_ to play fornite every single day.
  - BLKNSLVR 8y ago
    I'm not seeing any "have to" in any of this anywhere, except in the woe-is-me voluntary victim handbook.
    - thecatspaw 8y ago
      He has to play fortnite just like we have to go to our jobs. Sure, we can just not show up anymore, but that will loose you your income. Of course, he has a bit more flexibility, but so does an employee who yields the company a million each month, and takes home half of that.
      - BLKNSLVR 8y ago
        "a bit more flexibility" and "half a million take-home per month" aren't in the same ball park (to paraphrase Pulp Fiction: it ain't even the same sport) Apologies if I'm coming off as offensive or patronising, but I really truly cannot see what there could possibly be to complain about that isn't entirely within their control to change. I think there's a bigger picture that you might not be stepping back far enough to look at.
        thecatspaw 8y ago
        What I tried to say was, if you have an employee who yields you half a million each month, you're probably not gonna fire him if he says "hey im gonna take off tomorrow". But yes, they obviously can just not stream for a single day, but it costs him. According to the article, not streaming a day looses him 15,000 subs (assuming the default cut of 50% of 5$) thats 37k lost, per day, and it adds up. Ninja seems to be aware that his stream wont live forever, that his fame is on a timer, like anyone on the internet. So he's trying to save up as much money as he can, to support his family after his fame dies down. Lets be generous and assume $200k spent per year for rent/mortage, food and all that fun stuff. A day streaming means he has 2 months less buffer, before his money would run out. 4 Months, if you're spending 100k a year. Choosing between 1 day of work, and 4 months of work, seems pretty easy to me, even if that single day sucks.
belorn 8y ago
Is it much stranger than kicking a ball around on the field? Having sports as a profession is in general strange.

charleyma 8y ago

Toxicity in gaming + virtual communities (particularly against women) seems to be an issue that no company has a great grasp on. I recently gave Fortnite a try and ended up turning chat off due to relentless abuse by someone that sounded like they were pretty young. It made me a bit sad - I met some of my best friends growing up online in irc channels playing CS, WoW, etc - not sure if I would be able to do so today. Also Polygon article where Ninja talks about why he doesn't stream with female gamers (for whatever reason espn didn't link...) - https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17675738/ninja-twitch-female-gamers https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17675738/ninja-twitch-fema...

tbiwiti 8y ago
That article is really strange to me. On one hand, he's probably 100% right. There's no other way to avoid rumors and jokes like that. On the other hand, that's a completely unacceptable excuse to bar women from something. Can someone refuse to hire a female secretary out of respect for their wife?
- Bizarro 8y ago
  That's a dumb analogy and bordering on being disingenuous. He's not barring women from something...you know that. And the people that he plays with are not his employees. You know that too.
  - tbiwiti 8y ago
    Getting to stream with Ninja would have a large, direct effect on their income, not to mention the promotional aspect. But sure, lets instead imagine a male-only social club that directly promotes the business and career interests of it's members. That would get shut down real fast.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - hnzix 8y ago

cuboidGoat 8y ago

These twitch streamers and their relationship to their audiences reminds me a lot of William Gibson's simstim celebrities in the Neuromancer trilogy.

baxtr 8y ago

Every day, people tune in by the hundreds of thousands to watch him play, and he's making bank doing it. The most commonly reported figure is $500,000 a month. Blevins suggests the number is closer to seven figures. And then later: "Until my family is taken care of. Say this ends tomorrow, we don't have enough for the rest of our lives. I tell Jess, 'Honey, we're not going to have that much quality time this year, or even next year. But if we do this right and I continue to grind for a couple more years, we can set ourselves up, and our family and our family's family, for the rest of our lives.'" Even though he makes so much money I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. He doesn’t seem to have a good, relaxed life. One vacation in 8 years while making 500k+ a month? Why...?

woolvalley 8y ago
It's pretty god damn smart, work hard for 10 years and have generational wealth for the rest of your god damn life. He knows that this was a lucky break of fame, and as celebrities rise and fall with fads. It's way better than most startups.
- ndh2 8y ago
  There's got to be some boundary, though. The guy streams every single day. Doesn't even take one weekday off. That's not healthy.
  - Doxin 8y ago
    Working until you're 80 isn't healthy either. given the choice I'd rather do 10 years with no free time than 60 years with only a tiny bit of free time.
  - tuesdayrain 8y ago
    He plays videogames for a living. I could do that all day every day for free if I had the opportunity, nevermind 500k a month.
- mylons 8y ago
  there's no guarantee he lasts beyond a month. streaming is very "fad" driven. follow the memes. you're also ruling things like health issues, etc.