4 ms·

Virtual Leagues Fold, Forcing Gamers to Find Actual Jobs

16 points by peter123 18y ago

mberning 18y ago
This is also happening to leagues for fringe or 'extreme' sports, such as paintball.
- blang 18y ago
  and olympians http://www.newsweek.com/id/189296 http://www.newsweek.com/id/189296
mdolon 18y ago
I don't feel bad for these guys. Sure you can argue that playing video games well is a skill and if people are willing to pay for it, fine. It is essentially another form of entertainment, after all, similar to acting or sports. Still it feels cheap to me, as it doesn't even require the physical might that at least athletics demands. With so many people working so hard to make a living, it seems unfair for someone to do so playing video games. Maybe this shitty economy will help weed out the lazy and force people to be useful again.
- CodeMage 18y ago
  Have you any idea how much effort and training is necessary in order to become proficient enough in one game as to be able to compete professionally? Just because the professional gamers are not running around or doing push-ups, doesn't mean that they're not investing their time and effort in their profession. So much about being lazy. As to being useful, the only thing that makes professional football players more "useful" than professional gamers is the fact that their entertainment industry is more mature and established, which allows them to move more money around. This will probably change in time, with games steadily gaining more popularity with mass market.
  - mdolon 18y ago
    It's funny how that comment triggered such strong responses. Ironically enough, I am working on a gaming startup myself - I understand that if there is a need, someone will supply it. I still find it hard to believe that gaming has even become something considered a real profession. Something just feels off about that. Kids used to dream about becoming astronauts and doctors when I was in elementary school and I honestly don't want that to change. Especially with gaming, their only goal will be to play games until they're good enough to play professionally. This logic is coming from having to help my younger sister with homework and making sure she is doing well at school, something that seems a lot more difficult than when I was in school because of endless distractions (and the internet). Gaming is already an issue - she and her friends play a lot of games, I can only imagine the arguments they'd start giving if professional gamer came into their vocabulary. As far as usefulness goes, you're dead on about the entertainment industry and their current demand. If people want entertainment then they have a need that can be supplied with a product, in this case a 'professional gamer'. I do think that this logic is flawed as well because people find a lot of things entertaining and a line must be drawn somewhere. I understand that some people here are (ex-)professional gamers and might be inclined to down vote me to oblivion - I'd ask for a comment on your responses instead.
    - unalone 18y ago
      Astronauts and doctors are fine. But do you look down on kids who want to be professional football players? That similarly gives no benefit to society, focuses on skills that aren't useful anywhere else, etc.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  Read some of David Sirlin's stuff (like his book "Playing To Win" http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/ http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/) and see how lazy you think competitive gamers are.
  - mdolon 18y ago
    I'll take a look into it, thanks for the link.
  - unalone 18y ago
    Sirlin is terrific. I've been reading through his blog, and his insights into the gaming world are incredible. I'd recommend it to anybody who's designing anything, especially since to many people using web sites are similar to playing games. (Some of his tips on gameplay would really influence and change sites like Reddit and HN, I feel, especially his article about balanced gameplay.)
lacker 18y ago
"Actual Jobs"? Ironic that the NYT would gloat. Next article in the series: Non-Virtual News Sources Fold, Forcing Journalists to Find Actual Jobs.
- omnivore 18y ago
  I was thinking that too. A bitter copy editor must've enjoyed writing that headline.
lacker 18y ago
This isn't the end of professional video gaming. As the article points out, Major League Gaming is still going strong. Also in other countries professional video gaming is even stronger than in the US. I was surprised when visiting Korea to see in airports big screen TVs showing video game championships. The big money's over there, someone recently signed a six-figure contract: http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/22880-FOX_officially_unveils_record_signing_Moon http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/22880-FOX_officially_unveil...
adammarkey 18y ago
As a former pro-gamer (sponsored by Diamond Multimedia for Counter-Strike... remember them?) turned pro-hacker to pay the bills, the future for pro-gaming seems bright. Quake-live is a great example of a game that could really become the next "basketball". It can run on almost any computer (10 years old) and the gameplay has stood the test of time which shows how incredibly balanced the game is.

16 points by peter123 18y ago

mberning 18y ago

This is also happening to leagues for fringe or 'extreme' sports, such as paintball.

blang 18y ago
and olympians http://www.newsweek.com/id/189296 http://www.newsweek.com/id/189296

mdolon 18y ago

I don't feel bad for these guys. Sure you can argue that playing video games well is a skill and if people are willing to pay for it, fine. It is essentially another form of entertainment, after all, similar to acting or sports. Still it feels cheap to me, as it doesn't even require the physical might that at least athletics demands. With so many people working so hard to make a living, it seems unfair for someone to do so playing video games. Maybe this shitty economy will help weed out the lazy and force people to be useful again.

CodeMage 18y ago
Have you any idea how much effort and training is necessary in order to become proficient enough in one game as to be able to compete professionally? Just because the professional gamers are not running around or doing push-ups, doesn't mean that they're not investing their time and effort in their profession. So much about being lazy. As to being useful, the only thing that makes professional football players more "useful" than professional gamers is the fact that their entertainment industry is more mature and established, which allows them to move more money around. This will probably change in time, with games steadily gaining more popularity with mass market.
- mdolon 18y ago
  It's funny how that comment triggered such strong responses. Ironically enough, I am working on a gaming startup myself - I understand that if there is a need, someone will supply it. I still find it hard to believe that gaming has even become something considered a real profession. Something just feels off about that. Kids used to dream about becoming astronauts and doctors when I was in elementary school and I honestly don't want that to change. Especially with gaming, their only goal will be to play games until they're good enough to play professionally. This logic is coming from having to help my younger sister with homework and making sure she is doing well at school, something that seems a lot more difficult than when I was in school because of endless distractions (and the internet). Gaming is already an issue - she and her friends play a lot of games, I can only imagine the arguments they'd start giving if professional gamer came into their vocabulary. As far as usefulness goes, you're dead on about the entertainment industry and their current demand. If people want entertainment then they have a need that can be supplied with a product, in this case a 'professional gamer'. I do think that this logic is flawed as well because people find a lot of things entertaining and a line must be drawn somewhere. I understand that some people here are (ex-)professional gamers and might be inclined to down vote me to oblivion - I'd ask for a comment on your responses instead.
  - unalone 18y ago
    Astronauts and doctors are fine. But do you look down on kids who want to be professional football players? That similarly gives no benefit to society, focuses on skills that aren't useful anywhere else, etc.
pchristensen 18y ago
Read some of David Sirlin's stuff (like his book "Playing To Win" http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/ http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/) and see how lazy you think competitive gamers are.
- mdolon 18y ago
  I'll take a look into it, thanks for the link.
- unalone 18y ago
  Sirlin is terrific. I've been reading through his blog, and his insights into the gaming world are incredible. I'd recommend it to anybody who's designing anything, especially since to many people using web sites are similar to playing games. (Some of his tips on gameplay would really influence and change sites like Reddit and HN, I feel, especially his article about balanced gameplay.)

lacker 18y ago

"Actual Jobs"? Ironic that the NYT would gloat. Next article in the series: Non-Virtual News Sources Fold, Forcing Journalists to Find Actual Jobs.

omnivore 18y ago
I was thinking that too. A bitter copy editor must've enjoyed writing that headline.

lacker 18y ago

This isn't the end of professional video gaming. As the article points out, Major League Gaming is still going strong. Also in other countries professional video gaming is even stronger than in the US. I was surprised when visiting Korea to see in airports big screen TVs showing video game championships. The big money's over there, someone recently signed a six-figure contract: http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/22880-FOX_officially_unveils_record_signing_Moon http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/22880-FOX_officially_unveil...

adammarkey 18y ago

As a former pro-gamer (sponsored by Diamond Multimedia for Counter-Strike... remember them?) turned pro-hacker to pay the bills, the future for pro-gaming seems bright. Quake-live is a great example of a game that could really become the next "basketball". It can run on almost any computer (10 years old) and the gameplay has stood the test of time which shows how incredibly balanced the game is.