Online coaching from pro/popular gamers in demand?

[Intabus]

Don't listen to the naysayers here. There is a market for this type of coaching. It is the reason why people search youtube for players better than them playing the game. Having the interaction from a pro player tell you exactly what you are doing wrong, or how to do something differently is a market. It will not be a huge market but it is a market none the less.

Now where you would come in is designing and managing a website that will gather pro players from multiple games and allowing the consumer to choose the game, the length of the session and a secure way to pay, while also having a secure way for the pro to get paid for their time.

The only real problems I can see is that all pro players are not created equal. Some will be better than others and there needs to be a ranking system with a price adjustment to go with it, and that will cause unrest amongst the pro players. Those guys have an ego and telling them that they are not as good as so and so will rankle them. Secondly, pro players need to continue to play and practice to stay pro. So there will be limited amounts of time for a pro player to spend coaching a nub.

 

[kkelis2784]

I asked a dozen friends if they would pay for this. Only one said he would, but only if it's a hot chick from a small Mediterranean island and she's naked. The rest laughed and said "who in their right mind would pay for that!?".

Well im a guy on a small Mediterranean island ... not good enough ?

Thanks for the feedback!

I have currently 76 people who have stated "very interested" for the idea and services. 89 people said "no" , 250 "not sure".

So as you can see.. yes and no's are very close together. Of course, many things are to take into consideration: quality of service, terms & agreements, costs etc etc but we only informed them of the general overview of this segment of the business.

Not that bad really.

Thanks again !

Aris

edit: This was a little research done for me last night. Thousands will be sent during this week though with solid statistics.

 

[kkelis2784]

Don't listen to the naysayers here. There is a market for this type of coaching. It is the reason why people search youtube for players better than them playing the game. Having the interaction from a pro player tell you exactly what you are doing wrong, or how to do something differently is a market. It will not be a huge market but it is a market none the less.

Now where you would come in is designing and managing a website that will gather pro players from multiple games and allowing the consumer to choose the game, the length of the session and a secure way to pay, while also having a secure way for the pro to get paid for their time.

The only real problems I can see is that all pro players are not created equal. Some will be better than others and there needs to be a ranking system with a price adjustment to go with it, and that will cause unrest amongst the pro players. Those guys have an ego and telling them that they are not as good as so and so will rankle them. Secondly, pro players need to continue to play and practice to stay pro. So there will be limited amounts of time for a pro player to spend coaching a nub.

Hey and thanks for the feedback

Very good points stated and i appreciate that.

Definitely something being taken into consideration in the overall analysis.

We wouldn't really rely on the coaching segment to be the main source of revenue. Our intentions are to start building it though, and furthermore perfect a system that will benefit everyone and gradually expand on it. But definitely wont be a main source of revenue or the sole source of revenue. Hell, i don't even know if we will even make it generate revenue we'll see how it goes.

thanks again

Aris

 

[Soundmanred]

Well im a guy on a small Mediterranean island ... not good enough ?

I know who you are Mr. Savvas.

Thanks for the feedback!

I have currently 76 people who have stated "very interested" for the idea and services. 89 people said "no" , 250 "not sure".

/QUOTE]

Who are you asking? Where did you find 415 people to survey?

 

[kkelis2784]

Without being 100 % sure because Im not the one doing the research (we paid for research) , I was told these numbers via Skype when i asked what we had so far. Ill have a report on who,what,where at the end of the week.

I instructed this survey to begin from twitch contacts. So i assume these numbers are from there.

Aris

 

[cbrunny]

18.3% of your target audience has said they would be interested on a (presumably online and presumably incentive-driven) survey... This seems pretty low to me. I hope that you are basing your business model on some extremely conservative projections.

 

[kkelis2784]

18.3% of your target audience has said they would be interested on a (presumably online and presumably incentive-driven) survey... This seems pretty low to me. I hope that you are basing your business model on some extremely conservative projections.

Hey and thanks

The real picture will be clear in a couple of months when the survey is completed and we have all the answers. It will target thousands of people.

I also stated this in a previous comment above "We wouldn't really rely on the coaching segment to be the main source of revenue. Our intentions are to start building it though, and furthermore perfect a system that will benefit everyone and gradually expand on it. But definitely wont be a main source of revenue or the sole source of revenue. Hell, i don't even know if we will even make it generate revenue we'll see how it goes."

As i repeatedly mentioned, this is just for feedback and i appreciate all the different opinions everyone has given.

Thank you!

Aris

 

[imaheadcase]

No. You make your money from subscribers on Twitch. The ads pay a pathetic amount. For every 1000 people WHO SEE THE AD, you get around $2.00. And, considering, only very few people don't run adblock, you need a lot of viewers to keep this up.


rating system, otherwise everyone would be coaching, whether they were good or not.

Mmm, how do they make money from subs when it costs nothing...

 

[smackababy]

Mmm, how do they make money from subs when it costs nothing...

Subscribing to a channel costs a fixed amount each month and they get half of that. Unless you have a huge channel, you really can't make a living streaming. Maybe the top LoL streamers can, but they get like 20k+ viewers daily.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Damn. Maybe I should try to sell tutoring in how to play Sins of a Solar Empire in competitive online multiplayer PvP.

 

[cbrunny]

No offense intended, but anyone can start a business that doesn't need to generate revenue....

 

[smackababy]

No offense intended, but anyone can start a business that doesn't need to generate revenue....

This business venture isn't even a high cost one. You just need to pay to have your site maintained, the credit card transaction fees, and marketing (which is your biggest expense by far). Offering coaches the bulk of the money and simply acting as a middle man for setting up the coaches with their marks... I mean students and taking like 12% is easy. That nets you like 8% profit after CC fees.


I think quite a few people would love to have someone coach them in a game they are passionate about, but don't do too tell. Imagine if someone who placed top 16 at EVO could spend an hour or two watching you play and correct your mistakes in SF? Explaining where your weaknesses lie and how to improve them. That is a pretty marketable idea. And, a real business could easily partner with some of the tournaments and have a promo (like 10% off coaching) and get cheap advertising to their exact market (those watching fighting game streams).

The real problem is getting the coaches to do this.

 

[slpnshot]

How many movie watching coaches are there?

For the vast majority of people (especially in the future) gaming is done for entertainment.

You're being asinine.

How many movie watching competitions are there?

Whether you see it or not, online gaming is competitive to some people.

There are coaches out there who coach people who only play recreational sports. They're not expecting to go pro, but they'll still put up cash to get better at a game because they're competitive and want to one-up their friends.

That said, I'm still really skeptical at how large of a market there is for online coaching.

 

[cbrunny]

Ok - so you get a small segment of gamers to receive coaching, point out mistakes, flaws, weaknesses, etc.

If I'm a "student" receiving this coaching, which I admit would be helpful if I had a desire to increase my competitiveness or skill , but I can't imagine ever doing this more than once or twice. Once those flaws are pointed out, you can google strategies for overcoming them, or practice the strategies that the coaches provide. No cost.

And, there is a HUGE conflict of interest here on behalf of the coaches. These coaches are professional gamers, right? Ok, so you expect professional gamers to coach other gamers to become professional gamers and compete directly with them? You don't see Mike Babcock on the rink trying out for the Montreal Canadians. Walt Weiss isn't competing for a roster spot on the Mets.

The more coaching there is, the more competition there is to be pro, and the higher the average skill level. And considering that pro-gaming circuits evolve with new games, providing a close-to-equal-opportunity for skilled players to turn pro on release of a new game with new mechanics, I think it would be in the interest of pro gamers to not coach new players to keep the level of competition low to increase the probability of the pro being ranked well.

If I want to one-up my friends, I'm not spending money to do it unless I have money to burn.

Edit: This doesn't constitute a post of its own but I want to include it in this thread somewhere: http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Video_Game_High_School/70291366?trkid=1889703 <- I watched the entire first season, and bad as it was through and through it did have at least a smidgen of entertainment value. Particularly if you are a gamer.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I think this has been tried numerous times already. Not sure if it's ever been successful.

I think Hot Chicks who are willing to play with guys for money are a much better market.

 

[ikachu]

There are people that charge for hearthstone coaching so I don't see why there wouldn't be at least a niche market:
Example

 

[smackababy]

I think Hot Chicks who are willing to play with guys for money are a much better market.

There is already a site for that. I don't think they are even required to be hot. You can pay to play with a girl gamer. Yeah, wat?

Why would I pay someone to bring my team down? No thanks, I'd rather get a chub from winning than white knighting for someone I paid to be there.

 

[Paul98]

I think this has been tried numerous times already. Not sure if it's ever been successful.

I think Hot Chicks who are willing to play with guys for money are a much better market.

LOL now that is a winning market for video gamers.


The problem I see is practice, the coach can only tell you what and how to do things, what you are doing well what you can improve on. Then there are the tips and tricks about the different games and maps which you can find online.

If you want to get better and learn how to play a game well, you need to practice against good players. Or you need to have other players do things so you can try different things against them. Practice against great players, and training your subconscious is key. It's not just learning what you are doing wrong, that's the easy part, it's the training yourself to play correctly that is the hard part.

 

[smackababy]

LOL now that is a winning market for video gamers.


The problem I see is practice, the coach can only tell you what and how to do things, what you are doing well what you can improve on. Then there are the tips and tricks about the different games and maps which you can find online.

If you want to get better and learn how to play a game well, you need to practice against good players. Or you need to have other players do things so you can try different things against them. Practice against great players, and training your subconscious is key. It's not just learning what you are doing wrong, that's the easy part, it's the training yourself to play correctly that is the hard part.

Obviously the barrier to being great is practice. However, in a lot of competitive games, practice alone won't help you. Take Street Fighter: you can practice your ass off, but if you aren't working to correct bad habits, no amount of online play will make you good at a tournament. Real competitions expose weaknesses easily missed online. Without someone saying "your safe jumps are wrong" or "you are easy to read when you are going to overhead / kara throw / whatever", you'd never work on that. Or something as simple as "your neutral game is what is holding you back, you aren't making the correct decisions and your footsies need improvement against GOOD people". There is a lot coaching can do to improve a player that practice can't fix. Look at HoN. There are players with over a thousand matches played still in the 1500s (the MMR you start at). They practice an incredible amount, but still are awful. They make bad decisions, have bad builds, lack the basic fundamentals required to advance. Yet, they don't know this on their own.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I was convinced for a long time that everyone cheated. I thought that there was no way anyone aimed that well or fast. Then I started watching videos of people in lan games with witnesses. Seeing what is possible opened up a can of worms. I think my twitch skills are as good as anyone around now.

 

[kkelis2784]

Great stuff guys!

and i want to thank everyone for their feedback..

The project is a go and its pretty safe to say that coaching will be included. Of course, along with your feedback and thorough market research we decided this should be included. Although its not very big at the moment and we don't really rely on it to be a main source of revenue, we still believe that it should be implemented and start being built.

If anyone is interested for more info when the project is releases etc or require more info about coaching and/or learning, feel free to contact me a.savva@outlook.com

Thanks again

Aris

 

[Soundmanred]

Great stuff guys!

and i want to thank everyone for their feedback..

The project is a go and its pretty safe to say that coaching will be included. Of course, along with your feedback and thorough market research we decided this should be included. Although its not very big at the moment and we don't really rely on it to be a main source of revenue, we still believe that it should be implemented and start being built.

If anyone is interested for more info when the project is releases etc or require more info about coaching and/or learning, feel free to contact me a.savva@outlook.com

Thanks again

Aris

I didn't think you got the results of the market research back already. What were the results?
I hope this is more successful than selling domain names.

 

[Lonyo]

So basically you want to make:
http://www.gosucoaching.com/
Is that about right?

Such things have already been tried. And run by people who know the players.

Or you compete with free:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=321106

 

[mmntech]

I could be a gaming life coach. I offer positive encouragement when the gamer gets stuck on a level, read inspirational quotes from Myamoto, wipe sweat off their forehead for our more weight challenged individuals. However, I do not service bedpans or change diaper for marathon gaming sessions. I charge $50 per hour plus a two-four of beer.

 

[kkelis2784]

So basically you want to make:
http://www.gosucoaching.com/
Is that about right?

Such things have already been tried. And run by people who know the players.

Or you compete with free:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=321106

Hey and thanks for those links

I haven't seen those before, probably because they are based only on SC2 (as far as i noticed).

I guess the coaching segment would be similar to gosucoaching but with various games.