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How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

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161–170 of 202 posts

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#161
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

OWL definitely has a weird, heavy-handed feel to it -- it's almost as though Blizzard is trying to forcibly create a competitive 'scene' that emulates a traditional sports league, rather than allowing the scene to evolve naturally as it has in other games. By far the weirdest part of OWL for me has been Blizzard's insistence on having teams represent cities -- up to the point of renaming existing teams to fit their n…

> OWL definitely has a weird, heavy-handed feel to it -- it's almost as though Blizzard is trying to forcibly create a competitive 'scene' that emulates a traditional sports league, rather than allowing the scene to evolve naturally as it has in other games.

Bingo. Which is why so many competitive gamers are simply not interested in it. The way esports has generally grown is "bottom-up" -- local competitions spring up first and then larger, more well-funded tournaments take place. Blizzard is going for the "top-down" approach. We'll see what happens.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" The vast majority of humanity as a whole is just not capable of sitting down and chewing through a deep learning textbook or anything of the sort." they don't currently, and probably we don't need millions of data science major, but somehow grinding through the game for thousands of hours is doable. I'd say let's gamify learning and we will have a whole new supply of world class scientist streaming their research o…

I've recently been watching EEVBlog videos, mostly for the sake of watching someone else route PCB's. Learned lots of good tricks that way too.

The EEVblog is great. Some of the older videos have some DFM, switcher layout, etc that is equally invaluable.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#163
post #9

What I think is crazy is that this industry exists at the scale it does. It has replaced reality TV for a segment of the world population. There are legions of people that watch these streams, just to watch someone doing something that they could do themselves (but maybe not win as much). This isn't like F1 racing where I'll never be able to afford a racecar, or football where I don't want to exercise. Most of the ki…

I watch streamers every now and then, I mostly watched starcraft 2 and mostly watched during a time I played a lot. I played fairly competitively and committing to a ladder match is committing to anywhere from 5m to 1h. Playing a sc2 match is extremely demanding, if I wanted to engage with the game and make dinner at the same time the only option is to watch a stream. If I wanted to clean my room and engage with it, only option is stream. If a friend was coming over and I'd need to stop engaging with the game I'd be hesitant to start a match that could last an hour.

Not to mention I wouldn't play if I was out of it in any way (sick, drunk, tired etc)

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#164
post #90
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…

I said at a professional level.

Streaming for Fun:Professional Streamer = Football for Fun:Professional Football Players

Not everyone who makes enough money to stream as their primary source of income is competing in tournaments/esports, sometimes they are just entertaining/informative. Regardless of if they are entertainment or skill based, it takes a lot of time and effort to build up enough of a fan base to make it into a primary source of income.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#165
post #79
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Those effects can't really be considered to be "your several-hundred-dollar experience", because you get them all, even the on-screen "thanks", for a much lesser tip. What people are getting out of the large tips is something else.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#166
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of the kids watching these streams own a decent computer and can play. Youre making it sound not only as if only kids watch this, but also like playing any sport at all is so much different - and then compare it to Reality TV instead of live sports. Actual WTF? Some of the streamers (variety streamers) do play for just entertainment value, but most stick to just one game. A lot of it is also being able to live…

This is where I disagree, and I know I'm in the minority (clearly) by how popular streaming has become. Professional athletes are marvels because they look so much bigger, better and are faster than the average joe. That's their appeal - they're real-life super heroes. LeBron, Jordan, Ronaldo, Ali, Jim Brown - they guys are living, breathing physical specimens who can do what no normal person, no matter how much trai…

Faker from LOL Korea is more LeBron James to me than LeBron James, he is phenomenally talented. There are many others like him and many more like me that feel more connected an in awe of esports professionals than their traditional athletic analogues.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Many people watch streams to learn new tactics and strategies. You don't get that from reality TV at all. No one is watching Survivor or The Bachelor and then using what they learned in real life.

> No one is watching Survivor or The Bachelor and then using what they learned in real life

Never say never. I am sure there are people who do, probably not with much success.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#168
post #123
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, liv…

Again, this is nothing new. Some streamers are even dipping their toes into game development (Reynad, for example; he's making a competitor for Blizzard's Hearthstone).

The iPhone presented nothing new.

The Dr is a 2 time world champion (back to back-93/94, no less!) as well as an industry VETERAN! He designed half the maps in COD Advanced Warfare. He's a 6 foot frickin 8 athletic powerhouse too.

Ya'll mask your jealousness poorly.

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#169

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…

Let's not forget former Call of Duty level designer and 2 time Blockbuster 1993-1994 Video Game Champion!

back to back!

Re: How to Get Rich Playing Video Games Online

#170
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 totally agree, Dr D. is funny as hell and PUBG is something else.

I never got the attraction to Twitch/game streaming. Before I came across Dr D/PUBG, I used Twitch to see if a game was interesting & simple enough to grasp, to assist in the purchase decision.

The Dr D/PUBG combo (and a few other lesser-known faves, e.g. BananaMan, P4wnyhof/Larsen) have made it fun to watch, actual entertainment, that I tune into. Daily...

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