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How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

newyorker.com

71–80 of 202 posts

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#71
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that have to do with... literally anything?

I was refering to this: >The game regularly has over 2,000,000 concurrent players Well, I think it is interesting to point out what demographics tend to play a game the most. If the game has 1,999,999 Chinese players then, I think, that is less interesting than if it had 2,000,000 global players (from all over the place). Not sure why you think it is so far fetched....

You need to explain your reasoning a bit better. "Less interesting" for what exactly?

If anything from a streaming standpoint it's better to have a more "unified" player base, at least linguistically speaking. I doubt chinese players watch american streamers en masse, or vice-versa.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#72
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What in Earth do you mean a "quid pro quo?" Twitch user gives entertainment and in return the donor kicks in some cash of they want to. Just like a busker. If you feel they provide you with $500 in entertainment and you have a spare $500, then it makes sense. That's like asking "why would you go to a casino when you know casinos make lots of money?" If you're watching Larry David's shows the business transaction has…

Twitch user gives entertainment and in return the donor kicks in some cash of they want to. Just like a busker. I understand the busker metaphor, but the $100/$500 donations we hear about most often are to successful streamers, so it's more like throwing $500 at Axel Rose. That's the bit I find interesting. Such donations strike me as unusually altruistic for the demographic involved, in a way that we don't see en ma…

Same reason why Axel Rose being rich and successful doesn't stop fans from buying albums, going to shows, and buying merch.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the story. Those are the sort of things I'm interested in hearing about. Could you foresee a situation where you might ever donate $100 or more to such a streamer?

I've donated >$100 to one streamer in one go, who I've watched for years for both entertainment and game-related education (watching his tutorials on how to get better at games I play). The traditional sense of paying someone cash for something often happens in parallel: you give something and you immediately get something. I think the mentality (or, at least my mentality) with streamers and tipping is a bit differen…

Thanks, this reply definitely helps me understand it a bit more.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#74

> Garcia’s specialty is the multiplayer fantasy game World of Warcraft. While he isn’t its best player, he has a knack for talking entertainingly over his play : he is funny, brash, and filled with stories about his delinquent childhood in Newark. Most, if not all, of the live gameplay videos nowadays mostly tend to be about screaming and raging at the screen with lesser amount of stories. And for some reason people…

The only streamer that I really watch is Brian Kibler, who plays Hearthstone and used to be a pro MTG player. I think the reason I watch him and no one else really is because he's older, doesn't rage, includes his wife in his stream occasionally, and provides insights into his decision making process. He's just good natured and it's the closest thing I've found to those poker tournaments that I used to watch on cable…

Likewise, I watch almost exclusively Firebat (with a bit of Kibler every once and awhile).

He does a really good job of balancing being funny and interesting (as a person), and giving really good insights into his thought process in playing Hearthstone, building decks, and competing.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just one, very lucrative, tactic. For example, one woman was recently banned for 24 hours for masturbating on camera (no skin, just highly suggestive movements and sounds). Someone who ranted about this kind of behavior on camera was banned for 72 hours. The rules are, to the casual observer, not evenly applied. It's also hard not to see, when browsing through channels, that the average successful streamer is an attr…

Isn't that conceding the point? She got banned. It's good to point out uneven moderation, but it's important to back those accusations with sources. I doubt that 72 hour ban is so clear cut.

Both of these "accusations" were well documented (and both occurred within the last couple of weeks) on Reddit - a resource I (thankfully) don't have access to at work.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#76
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top English Dota streamer is probably AdmiralBulldog, who's a very personable and funny guy but was pretty unattractive. He streamed for years without a camera and had no trouble drawing 10k+ viewers.

And his voice? Lots of the top youtube game reviewers arent exactly attractive physically, but they have classic radio voices. Totalbiscuit and most all of the yogscast fit the profile.

Decent voice, not comparable to TB. What he has going for him is that he's hilarious.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#77
post #52

The bit I'd be interested to read about is the psychology behind the "donors." Why would anyone throw down random $100 or $500 without a quid quo pro to someone receiving many other such donations? I understand streaming, generally, and have paid to subscribe to a channel before but the random throwing around of not insignificant amounts of money gets me scratching my head. (Should make it clear I'm not criticizing t…

Lots of people have more money than sense... Or, less flippantly, for some people this is literally their only entertainment.. They watch every day, all the time.. At some point, dollar-per-hour evens out when compared to going to the movies or paying for other forms of entertainment.

If people enjoy it, what's wrong with that? It's better than TV in a lot of ways and doesn't have screaming loud advertisements every 5 minutes.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#78

Slightly off-topic but now even New Yorker is inserting autoplay videos about completely unrelated topics in the middle of long articles (in my case "Anthony Bourdain on Going from Obama to Trump"). Why would they do such a thing? Are they hoping everyone suddenly develops ADHD?

I think they're counting on the fact that everyone already has ;)

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#79
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitch user gives entertainment and in return the donor kicks in some cash of they want to. Just like a busker. I understand the busker metaphor, but the $100/$500 donations we hear about most often are to successful streamers, so it's more like throwing $500 at Axel Rose. That's the bit I find interesting. Such donations strike me as unusually altruistic for the demographic involved, in a way that we don't see en ma…

Same reason why Axel Rose being rich and successful doesn't stop fans from buying albums, going to shows, and buying merch.

Presumably those fans are buying those things at least in part because they want to have the album, concert experience, or merch. With twitch donations/tips you get comparatively very little in return - your username might pop up in a video overlay for a few seconds, and the streamer might be like "hey thanks, [username]!". Those 3-4 seconds are typically the entirety of your several-hundered-dollar experience.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#80
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitch user gives entertainment and in return the donor kicks in some cash of they want to. Just like a busker. I understand the busker metaphor, but the $100/$500 donations we hear about most often are to successful streamers, so it's more like throwing $500 at Axel Rose. That's the bit I find interesting. Such donations strike me as unusually altruistic for the demographic involved, in a way that we don't see en ma…

Same reason why Axel Rose being rich and successful doesn't stop fans from buying albums, going to shows, and buying merch.

Well the difference is that most fans don’t mind paying the money to get those items, they don’t typically just hand him money for nothing just because they like him. Twitch subscription is like a concert: you get something in return, but donating large amounts for nothing to already successful streamers is a bit odd.

But not that odd: I’ve backed people on patreon because I liked what they do and wanted to reward them - even though they were already making good money on it - and then never actually accessed the rewards. So I do get it.

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