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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

#101

Post by dvt »

I played Counter-Strike competitively (and to the extent it was possible "professionally") about 10 years ago and made some money winning tournaments, but nothing compared to what people are making nowadays. We got our hotel paid for for a few tournaments and that was "making it" back then :) It's fantastic to see the sector grow and I'd love to return to esports/gaming sometime in the future.

Unfortunately, it's not all rainbows and roses, as I think there are some detrimental forces at play which are trying to rip out the grassroots origins of esports and commercialize it to the n-th degree (see Blizzard's Overwatch League). This was attempted before in '07 (see the Championship Gaming Series) and it failed miserably, so we'll see how it does this time around.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#102

Post by derefr »

simias wrote: post #71
chrisper wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Less interesting as an investment vehicle, maybe. If cross-cultural interest in the phenomenon hadn’t yet been proven out, it might still hit an adoption cap at the boundary of the originating culture, and so stop growing.

> I doubt chinese players watch american streamers en masse, or vice-versa.

I agree. But are there any streamers who make use of live closed-caption transcription + translation services, the way broadcast news does? It’d Be interesting to see if just removing the language barrier would remove the culture barrier, or if it’s more fundamental.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#103

Post by dvt »

EA wrote: post #98
rndmwlk wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 strea…

> 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.

He's not really changing the streaming game. There's streamers out there much more successful than he is (Lirik, Shroud, IcePoseidon, etc, etc.) Don't get me wrong, he's fun to watch, but no mention of him isn't a big deal in the least.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#104

Post by forkLding »

From reading the article it sounds like it could be retitled to almost "How to get rich playing video games or die trying" but another aspect is the global scale of this thing, you can also look to see China's obsession with video-streaming to see that this isn't really a one-time trend but rather an enduring thing that will likely keep evolving into more physical interactions where streamers do more and more celebrity on-site activities rather than purely virtual.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#105

Post by sctb »

post_break wrote: post #4

Step 1 be a girl. Step 2 break all of Twitch's community guidelines. Step 3 ??? Step 4 Profit.

Please don't do this.

> Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#106

Post by hfourm »

dvt wrote: post #103
EA wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 strea…

> 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. He's not really changing the streaming game. There's streamers out there much more successful than he is (Lirik, Shroud, IcePoseidon, etc, etc.) Don't get me wrong, he's fun to watch, but no mention of him is…

I agree no mention of him isn't a big deal. But he is definitely changing the game. His stream style is way more entertaining then a lot of the other streamers mentioned, subjectivity aside. His production value for a live stream, thought that goes into each session, and the entire character he portrays.

I've seen so many knockoffs of him recently its kinda disturbing.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#107

Post by superb_herb »

glenneroo wrote: post #14

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?

They need the ad dollars like everyone else.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#108

Post by ben_jones »

thefalcon wrote: post #97
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 foll…

Yup. It's a new "field" if you will, and a lot of people are getting hurt during the birth phase. That said I've noticed streamers focusing more on being game agnostic, they'll demo new games and take note how much of their fan base follows. If the new game is a success they'll keep at it, if not they'll migrate back.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#109

Post by superb_herb »

gozur88 wrote: post #92
maccard wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not much of a surprise that (mostly) men like looking at pretty women talking about video games.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#110

Post by ben_jones »

petercooper wrote: post #36

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…

I'd encourage you to watch the niche streamers, playing games with smaller audiences. It's very, very, similar to i.e. pornographic cam shows, strippers, and gambling. Traditionally poor working-class demographics will throw money away for little more then a nod in their direction.

My theory is that its anthropological, people want to belong to the group. The isolation of being behind a computer ironically amplifies the phenomenon, people become more desparate to connect and the only outlet they have is to donate.

Finally there is the rabid success of the female streamers, many of whom wear low cut shirts and exhibit flirty behavior. While there are many talented female gamers who deserve their place in the twitch spotlight, there can be no denying that a portion of the demographic caters specifically to specific male inclinations...

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