Hiring yourself out as a "bodyguard" in FPS games. News article within.

[blastingcap]

Anyone wanna comment on this?

For the Right Price These Gamers Will Die For You

This story starts, as so many great ones do, with a classified ad: "I will take bullets for you," it read.

And he did.

Contact made, cash transfer confirmed, Londoner Toby Smith met me on a bluff overlooking the border between Iran and Turkmenistan on an early December afternoon armed with an M416 assault rifle. One minute and 15 seconds later he was dead. He died the second time three minutes and 37 seconds after our meeting. His third death didn't come for another five minutes or so.

While the deaths, the many deaths, weren't real, the money I paid Smith to protect me was. The 15-year-old high school student is one of several gamers who have begun to hire out their services as virtual bodyguards, digital guns-for-hire in popular military first-person shooter video games.

Earlier this month I tracked down and hired two of these in-game bodyguards, both teens who excel at Battlefield 3 and advertise their services online, charging other gamers 5 quid, or about $8, for half an hour of in-game protection.

Read more here: http://kotaku.com/5866830/for-the-right-price-these-gamers-will-die-for-you

 

[KaOTiK]

 

[Ns1]

sooo let's rent out ATOT services on SW:TOR?

best facepalm I've seen in a long time.

 

[blastingcap]

I know, right? I mean I guess I could see why an older gamer with more money than spare time would pay 5 pounds ($8 or so) for insider info to get up to speed faster on maps or whatever, like the Smith dude, but the Vysotsky guy seemed to literally bodyguard and not much else. In any case, I think part of the fun of playing games is to learn them. Play with friends or join a clan or something if you want to practice with buddies or learn new sniping spots or whatever.

Still, it's an interesting way to earn pocket money, for some of you virtual gunslingers out there.

From the article:

Both Battlefield 3 publisher Electronic Arts, and Call of Duty publisher Activision declined to comment for this article or say whether using hired bodyguards would be considered cheating under their terms of service.

But as the popularity of video games continue to grow, it is inevitable that people are going to continue to look for ways to invest more than time to improve at their hobby. From purchasing pre-leveled characters in World of Warcraft, to buying virtual land in Second Life, to Call of Duty's official coaching videos; paying to play well is slowly becoming as common as hiring a sports trainer or personal coach. And now you can do that too.

 

[Childs]

And to think I try to do this for free for anyone in my squad. Its strange that people want to play shooters so bad, but dont actually want to play the game. Just appear to be playing the game. So you get your butt kicked for a few hours while you learn the ins and outs. Maybe they need to experience a few physical beatings to learn that virtual ones are not that bad.

 

[manimal]

PL services crack me up.


next big thing. Paying someone to get achievements for you.

Or buying achievements outright.

 

[Piano Man]

I used to sell my services to carry players to a certain Arena Ranking for WoW players wanting to get their PvP Shoulders or Tier 2 PvP Weapons. Not the same, but not too different.

There are so many ways to make money from games now its not even funny. I can't even imagine how much D3 is going to make Blizzard with their legal real money AH.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Yeah with a block buster game it's just a licence to print money. Within a decade movies will be strongly second fiddle to video games.

 

[Powermoloch]

I used to sell my services to carry players to a certain Arena Ranking for WoW players wanting to get their PvP Shoulders or Tier 2 PvP Weapons. Not the same, but not too different.

There are so many ways to make money from games now its not even funny. I can't even imagine how much D3 is going to make Blizzard with their legal real money AH.

I"ve done the same as well with previous arena seasons (WOTLK). IT'S very lucrative when carrying people.

 

[Destiny]

And to think I try to do this for free for anyone in my squad. Its strange that people want to play shooters so bad, but dont actually want to play the game. Just appear to be playing the game. So you get your butt kicked for a few hours while you learn the ins and outs. Maybe they need to experience a few physical beatings to learn that virtual ones are not that bad.

Thank-you! We really appreciate it! :biggrin:... and if you take a few bullets here and there we'll be more than happy to revive you... ... LOL I do the same for my squad - I could care less about my K/D ratio as long as my squad members are pwning everyone and winning for the team... I actually care more about exp points and getting ACE Squad ribbons...

 

[Newbian]

Only one thing to do... snipe the player and let the bodyguard live.

 

[RebelCapitalist]

As an older gamer with cash, I still wouldn't do something like this. Makes no sense. What do you gain? Living a little longer in a respawn battle? LOL

Although I wouldn't mind buying levels in a MMORPG (for 2nd, 3rd, etc toons). But, it's against ToS, so no go. The old days in Asheron's Call, EQ, etc were far better.

 

[Ns1]

As an older gamer with cash, I still wouldn't do something like this. Makes no sense. What do you gain? Living a little longer in a respawn battle? LOL

Although I wouldn't mind buying levels in a MMORPG (for 2nd, 3rd, etc toons). But, it's against ToS, so no go. The old days in Asheron's Call, EQ, etc were far better.

seriously, it makes NO SENSE at all for an FPS


I did pay out like a hundred bucks to level WoW characters though - love that cheap chinese labor.

 

[lord_emperor]

As an older gamer with cash, I still wouldn't do something like this. Makes no sense. What do you gain? Living a little longer in a respawn battle? LOL

Although I wouldn't mind buying levels in a MMORPG (for 2nd, 3rd, etc toons). But, it's against ToS, so no go. The old days in Asheron's Call, EQ, etc were far better.

He can artificially inflate his K/D ratio and "appear" to be a better player. As to what the point of doing that is... I don't know.

 

[sygyzy]

I love this idea. I don't know why it hasn't happened sooner.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I didn't really mind being a dead man walking n00b when I used to play online back in the UT2004 days. I played, I died a lot, I still had fun.

I could only see doing this as some kind of role-playing thing -- if you wanted to RP being a diplomat or CIA analyst or something like that, where you might hire Blackwater goon(s) to watch your back.

 

[RebelCapitalist]

He can artificially inflate his K/D ratio and "appear" to be a better player. As to what the point of doing that is... I don't know.

That's true. Kind of pointless. Never picked up a woman in a club/bar/etc by telling her my K/D ratio. I'll let her find that out later.

 

[lord_emperor]

That's true. Kind of pointless. Never picked up a woman in a club/bar/etc by telling her my K/D ratio. I'll let her find that out later.

I hooked my wife with my amazing WoW accomplishments. It's probably a 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 story but it happened.

 

[KaOTiK]

I hooked my wife with my amazing WoW accomplishments. It's probably a 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 story but it happened.

Story please

 

[sandorski]

It's brilliant that someone could think of making $ off this.

It's pathetic that someone would pay for it.

 

[RebelCapitalist]

I hooked my wife with my amazing WoW accomplishments. It's probably a 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 story but it happened.

Got to love women who are after phat lewt.

 

[Maximilian]

Professional shitbag for hire:

For $50 i will teamkill you with buggy then teabag your corpse. I will ensure you never get into any vehicles before me or if you do i will do my best to heavily damage them before you enter. Also i offer my services as a cover where i will prone directly in front of you and stare back at you while you try to snipe, in addition to this i will fire randomly into the air revealing our position to everyone.

Lastly i will never drop ammo/health/revive you and will offer discouraging comments about your skill level in public chat on the event of your death which with my services will be often.

Any takers?

 

[Childs]

I hooked my wife with my amazing WoW accomplishments. It's probably a 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 story but it happened.

lol More than likely you could have been talking about anything, she just liked you.

 

[spacelord]

I will be an FPS pimp. just need to find some FPS hoes/bodyguards.

 

[JTsyo]

How can you be a bodyguard in BF3 though? I don't get it. Does he just go around corners first? Revive when the guy dies?