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How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

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Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#91

Post by gozur88 »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #18
tinbucket wrote: post #2

Interesting read and insight into a subculture I know very little about. Looks like only a few of them are getting rich, and it isn't without its costs. Working seven days a week as a professional gamer is pretty brutal.

>Working seven days a week as a professional gamer is pretty brutal. I'm gonna throw some shade towards gameplay streamers. Streamers who do focused content and actually produce shows as you would in a TV/Radio studio have a real job which I've actually done, so this doesn't include them. Playing a game and running a stream, technically, is not hard. Engaging with viewers is not hard. There's a bunch of solutions out…

>Playing a game and running a stream, technically, is not hard. Engaging with viewers is not hard.

That's all true, but anything you do for a living gets old after awhile, especially if you're putting in long hours. I like to play video games, but if I had to play to pay the bills it would be a job like any other - minus the breaks, the paid time off, and the benefits.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#92

Post by gozur88 »

maccard wrote: post #28
sandworm101 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And be attractive. The top youtube/twitch people either look or sound like celebs. They are either cute or have the voice, the pipes, of a radio star.

Lots of people are saying that, but it's clearly not true. I don't think imaqtpie [0] fits that description. Skimming through the top twitch streams right now, plenty of them don't fit that description. [0] https://go.twitch.tv/videos/200675143

I haven't looked in awhile, but when I used to watch dota streams the top four or five (by viewer count) were always extremely attractive Eastern European and Russian women. They were better than average players, but not good enough to command that kind of attention.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#93

Post by DougN7 »

kwijibob wrote: post #50
EA wrote: post #16

No mention of Dr. Disrespect - a Twitch persona who recently won "Streamer of the Year" at the Esports Industry Awards. Just a passing mention of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a game which according to some is growing faster than Minecraft did. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is the most popular streamed game on Twitch right now. The game regularly has over 2,000,000 concurrent players, has sold over 13,000,000…

I have just discovered how enjoyable Twitch is. Dr Disrespect is amazing. He is an online performer and a gamer. Most surprising are the people who talk about how watching Dr D has helped them through depression or cancer. He talked about this movingly but briefly in his speech this week. This is a whole new form of entertainment. It will be fascinating to see where it unfolds. I think Amazon will get a very good ret…

I'm not into watching gaming at all (I'd rather play), but this is really just another twist on 'Reality TV', and one with less dysfunction IMHO.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#95

Post by nightski »

bllguo wrote: post #90
Jemmeh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course "streaming isn't hard" in the same way that playing football isn't hard. It's when you do it at a professional level and have to put in mad hours every week to keep up that it becomes brutal. All without guarantee that you'll even get paid if you're just unlucky that week and don't get enough viewers.

Streaming requires little commitment to try out. You can easily have a normal job and stream at night to ease into it. The skills required are to just be entertaining. You can quit immediately if you want or need to, without dropping a beat. The commitment required is orders of magnitude less than something like playing sports professionally. The actual comparison to football is "esports," where people play games com…

If you don't want any viewers. You vastly underestimate how hard it is to build a stream that attracts a healthy audience.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#96

Post by vibrato »

seanalltogether wrote: post #23
thisisit wrote: post #15

> 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…

Check out Jason Somerville (JCarverPoker) for some great poker streaming, when he's on. He goes in spurts and it feels about time for a nice one. He has a great personality and is much less negative than a lot of the other poker streamers.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#97

Post by thefalcon »

xchaotic wrote: post #6

This is very much like sports - very few make it to the top, and it's kind of subsidised by the ones coming up or just idly watching. Unlike actual sport, the disciplines here change rapidly, in spite of Blizzard's best efforts, World of Warcraft numbers are rapidly dwindling so a WoW start will pretty much have to start from scratch in another game or quit streaming as a career move. Game developers or even petty mi…

That's why you build a personal brand while you're riding the coattails of a popular game. See Day9, who plays whatever game he feels like playing on his scheduled "day off" and streams it. He definitely has fun, even if it doesn't make him money (he recently streamed Mario, for example, which Nintendo [probably] claimed the revenue for) he's still building his personal brand and personal audience. His fans will follow him no matter what game he starts playing, because they're following him. But you're right that it's a hit-based system and if you don't become a hit (which requires a lot of effort and a lot of luck) then you're going to starve trying to "play video games for a living."

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#98

Post by EA »

rndmwlk wrote: post #39
EA wrote: post #16

No mention of Dr. Disrespect - a Twitch persona who recently won "Streamer of the Year" at the Esports Industry Awards. Just a passing mention of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a game which according to some is growing faster than Minecraft did. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is the most popular streamed game on Twitch right now. The game regularly has over 2,000,000 concurrent players, has sold over 13,000,000…

I don't mean to be rude, but so what? There's no need to specifically mention your favorite streamer, or your favorite game. Just because PUBG is popular right now doesn't mean this is a phenomenon centered around PUBG. There have been many streamers making A LOT of money for years now. League of Legends, Counterstrike, and DotA 2, for example, have always had large fan bases with "Top streamers" making similarly rid…

There is basically no mention of the hit game on HN. It is presently a video game phenomenon and is inspiring video game developers to explore that video game genre.

That particular streamer is changing the streaming game and is invested in some third party streamer support apps. He has broad appeal as little kids dressed up as this Twitch streamer for Halloween this year.

I think an article about the game, its streamers, the revenue sharing, and how Twitch is evolving would make the front page of HN.

That is all. No hidden agenda.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#99

Post by harrisjt »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #83
tomschlick wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also takes in a lot through Twitch subscriptions. He has 30k+ subscribers from what he last said and each would pay him $2.50-$10 / mo. Of course Twitch would take their cut but thats insane.

Twitch negotiates cuts at 30k and they scale it back a bunch at that level also.

From what I've heard at around 10k subs you are getting around $4 a sub.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#100

Post by jdietrich »

sandworm101 wrote: post #38
nindalf wrote: 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.

Nobody naturally sounds like Totalbiscuit. It's a learned, affected style of speech.
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