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How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

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111–120 of 202 posts

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#111
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 foolish. The lead up time to become an expert at deep learning: Probably 6 years minimum.

No one hires people to do deep learning with 0 years experience.

Very few people with the skills you assume by default (basically anyone with programming skills) would be convinced to leave their cooshy jobs, but plenty of people with no skills or prospects would.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#112
post #85
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…

> Some digital items obtained from loot crates have sold for over $1,000. That's been happening for years. Hats in Team Fortress 2 sold for ~1500 (Burning Kabuto was around there IIRC), and a knife in CSGO went for 24k (apparently, http://read.navi-gaming.com/en/team_news/Rarest_and_expensiv... ).

I think the point was that PUBG is still in early access, and has been out for less than a year.

CounterStrike and Team Fortress have been full fledged releases for many years prior to reaching those numbers.

Its not the absolute number that is impressive, its how quickly it has reached comparable values with these longstanding behemoths.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#113
post #101

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…

OWL is a great example because there was a $20m buy in for I believe 8 teams. That's $160m in funding, with significant participation by organizations like the Kraft group. Whether it'll go anywhere is like asking if a specific well funded start-up will go anywhere, but its definitely being pushed hard.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#114
post #39
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…

One of the reason Dr. Disrepect is so good at what he does, is that he makes his fans absolutely obsessed by him. He is the only streamer that I know that can be talked about in other channels without reprisal. The OP is just an example of his talent.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#115
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…

Not to mention that the article is four year late at least. The market for top streamers is almost saturated and the low hanging fruit places are filled with softcore pretend-to-be-drunk “opsies”

And as far as mentions go, there’s no word on pewdiepie either, he’s one of the pioneer of the genre along with videogamdunkey...

The whole article reeks of “I know nothing about it so must be new” mentality.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#116
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly, livestreaming == reality TV.

It's too easy to turn off my brain and be 'entertained' for hours. I've recently forced myself back to watching films/TV instead. The difference in creative stimulation is like night & day.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#117
post #101

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…

OWL is a great example because there was a $20m buy in for I believe 8 teams. That's $160m in funding, with significant participation by organizations like the Kraft group. Whether it'll go anywhere is like asking if a specific well funded start-up will go anywhere, but its definitely being pushed hard.

I personally don't think Blizzard has any idea what they're doing in the esports scene. They destroyed SC2 and fumbled HotS, I don't think Overwatch will be any different. I was at Blizzcon last weekend and even though everyone there seemed excited about Overwatch, the numbers just weren't there. Barely breaking 300k viewers for a world championship (when DOTA, LoL, CSGO all break 1M+) -- the state of the game is not looking great at the moment.

Not sure who invested like $20M per team but that seems like quite the gamble.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#118
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…

Until you hear an outburst like this: https://youtu.be/33sUi8r-PDI?t=557

Is that funny? To me it just sounds racist...

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#119
I think it's just good timing now because we have the tech to do it. The demand was always there.

Back in 1999 and the early 2000s you could make over $100,000 if you won a single Quake 3 tournament.

Live streaming (with professional commentators) was available back then, but there were no platforms for it so it never caught onto the masses. You had to really be in the know to watch them.

But I do remember people being rabid fans and highly engaged back then. Just as much as now, just at a smaller scale.

I made a little bit of money playing competitive Quake 3 and helped develop and run the most popular gaming ladder for a certain mod of that game. Good times.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#120
post #103
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…

He's involved with boom.tv, which is creating a suite of tools streamers can use to interact with viewers in real time. He's not necessarily the best player or the most highly-paid streamer, but the production value of his stream is unmatched. He's innovating how people use the medium that is streaming. He uses live transitions with synchronized music, pre-configured greenscreens for his character's various gags, live viewer-triggered replays, and many other small touches that really do give the stream a better feel. Other streamers are going to have to match pace.
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