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Young studs earn $10k a month playing video games!

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KentState said:
Doesn't sound that great when you have to spend so much time play 1 or 2 games for a considerable amount of time.
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Yeah sitting in a cubicle filling out TPS reports and fighting corporate bureaucracy for $60k is much better. <end sarcasm>
 
The only game I would watch live stream is Resident Evil. It's hard for me to play that game. Just like F.E.A.R back in the day. Never finished it. And the zombie mod in COD World At War? Forgetaboutit.
 
OverVolt said:
They build zero real job skills, $100k or whatever is good money don't get me wrong but they act like they could live off it forever like they won $10mil in the lotto and thats not the case. Its about 1/8th what a normal person earns over their lifetime. And again... zero sustainable skills learned in years and years of playing.
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I don't disagree with the long term aspect, but everybody in the thread is like "That's not worth it for only $100k/yr". But, consider this.

Most of the people doing this (that I'm aware of) are late teens, early 20's. Still young enough to develop a career path. Say they are one of these top tier players making $100k-$200k a year. Your average fast food/retail employee is making what? $30k a year? Do we have any documented evidence that this is more demanding on your time than a typical 40 hour/week job? Do the gaming for 2 years, then go to college and come out with zero debt. How many could say that? Not saying they are doing that, just saying they could.

And, as much as I hate to say it they might (unlikely) be able to milk it for a long time. I mean even if you aren't into gaming, if you're into computers you've probably seen "Fatal1ty". Sure, he's only made $500k over 15 years from gaming. Obviously not career money. But, I don't know how much he's made off endorsements/business from Creative, ASRock, etc, but I'm betting it's a lot. Youtube allows a lot of people to make money doing stuff people used to do for free.
 
With a lot of sports pro players can carry on at a reasonably high salary till in their 30s. With the pro gamers they tend to last until half or late 20s at most, after that their reaction speed has dropped too much again to be able to keep up with the new top players.

So unless they can get a job at a gaming company they will need to study and find a job elsewhere afterwards as most can't make enough money to last a lifetime.
 
The hours are terrible. They're playing 18 hours a day.

I could see doing it for a year or so but after that you're spending too much time rather than living in the real world
 
doubledeluxe said:
The hours are terrible. They're playing 18 hours a day.

I could see doing it for a year or so but after that you're spending too much time rather than living in the real world
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That assumes they would be living in the real world if they weren't playing for a living. 🙂 I know people that were on Welfare that just played Eve for 10+ hours a day every day.
 
And a generation of kids grow up thinking they're going to do the same think. A couple dozen will get lucky, the rest will be useless members of society.
 
DrPizza said:
And a generation of kids grow up thinking they're going to do the same think. A couple dozen will get lucky, the rest will be useless members of society.
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You have a good point. It's the same with pro sports. There are many college athletes, but only a small percentage get to make money by playing pro. That's why college athletes are told to study because going pro isn't guaranteed. Having a backup is always recommended.

I read an article on how pro gamers spend countless hours on preparing for their matches. It was like 10-12 hours a day. They normally just burn out. Also, only a few are able to make good money.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2014/04/09/the-reality-behind-the-pro-gaming-scene

Finally, I know streamers on TwitchTv make money, but again it's only the few that make anything decent. Look at Man vs Game. He was projected to make $100k this year. But it comes at a price. Supposedly, he's been suffering from depression, and it's due to the countless hours he has to put into his gaming sessions. The money is decent but it's not enough to retire on. The guy is still young, but what happens in 5-10 years. Imagine if TwitchTv pulls the plug on his show, or people start to watch other streamers, or they just pull out altogether. He hasn't developed any marketable skills during the time he was with TwitchTv.

Beware!
 
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DrPizza said:
And a generation of kids grow up thinking they're going to do the same think. A couple dozen will get lucky, the rest will be useless members of society.
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Not sure how its different from every other generation ever.

Except, in this case, the generation tend to be better with computers, and so probably would have more applicable skills in the workplace.
 
drebo said:
People like Day[9] (Starcraft 1/2) and 2GD (DOTA) have basically built media companies around their hobby of gaming.
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this is how most are now, others simply got super lucky and got in before the hype train on whatever they were doing

PewdiePie makes like 3+ million a year just from his crappy YT videos
 
If by young studs you mean something like:

hipster-basement-dweller-27480473556.jpg


I suppose there's more to life than being rich.
 
OverVolt said:
They build zero real job skills, $100k or whatever is good money don't get me wrong but they act like they could live off it forever like they won $10mil in the lotto and thats not the case. Its about 1/8th what a normal person earns over their lifetime. And again... zero sustainable skills learned in years and years of playing.
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That's not necessarily true. e-Sports are becomming more and more accepted in America. These players could see significant sponsorship and endorsement deals. And even after they're no longer able to compete, lots of them go into coaching and continue streaming. A few build media companies and translate their presence into a real full-time job by capitalizing on the talents of others.

It's an emerging industry, but it definitely has staying-power.

For reference, the team that won TI4 won over $5m. In one tournament.
 
SunnyD said:
If by young studs you mean something like:

hipster-basement-dweller-27480473556.jpg


I suppose there's more to life than being rich.
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I've seen this picture a lot over the years. I wonder what happened to this guy.

Did he die a virgin, or was he able to find true love.
 
BeeBoop said:
It's more like people watching NFL or Golf. There's a market for it. South Korea and China have proven this.
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Yea, that makes sense, I golf but to watch the Masters is free and it's golf at a level I couldn't even begin to come close to so it's probably the same with these games, people must like to see what someone who's REALLY good plays like.
 
DrPizza said:
And a generation of kids grow up thinking they're going to do the same think. A couple dozen will get lucky, the rest will be useless members of society.
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Hey, that kind of reminds me of rap music LOL, my neighbor co-signed a $35K student loan because his 19yr old kid was gonna be a music producer, that was 6 years ago, he works at Sears and is in default on the $390/mth payments.
 
drebo said:
That's not necessarily true. e-Sports are becomming more and more accepted in America. These players could see significant sponsorship and endorsement deals. And even after they're no longer able to compete, lots of them go into coaching and continue streaming. A few build media companies and translate their presence into a real full-time job by capitalizing on the talents of others.

It's an emerging industry, but it definitely has staying-power.

For reference, the team that won TI4 won over $5m. In one tournament.
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They're from China apparently. Hell it cost them $81,000 just to change their name or something. They split it five+ ways depending on if the team leader/coach get anything. I'm thoroughly unimpressed :/

If they cashed out now that would be a good idea, but of course they won't, and 7 guys will probably blow through $1mil of it touring around the world looking for game competitions. Taxes on prize winnings are high too probs 35% trimmed right off the top then split 5-7 ways. Awesome.
 
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lozina said:
That's as stupid as saying "who wants to watch people do office work" in criticism of the movie Office Space.

I've had a lot more laughs watching FrankieOnPC playing DayZ with a guy who sounds exactly like Morgan Freeman than most comedies on mainstream TV
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that is the dumbest comparison i have ever seen.

did we actually watch peter, samir, or michael do any work?

no.
 
master_shake_ said:
that is the dumbest comparison i have ever seen.

did we actually watch peter, samir, or michael do any work?

no.
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you're watching them work just as much as you are just watching people play video games in the productions this thread is referring to.

the streams where you just watch some kid play a video game is not earning any money.

the ones that are making money are typically rehearsed/scripted productions using many hours of raw footage being cut down to interesting parts with funny commentary added by likable characters.
 
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