I played two entirely different video games professionally for multiple years. That is, I traveled around the country often on a sponsor's dollar and competed in video game tournaments for money. I believe I can provide good insights into professional gaming. If you want to know more just ask!
I'm now lead developer at LiveNinja an internet startup that I will shamelessly promote here.
I played Shadowrun and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. With those games I started playing both of them right when they were released so I didn't have too much catching up to do. I played them both about 4-8 hours a day. With Brawl I started going to tournaments right away but, it took about a month for me to get good enough to do well at the tournaments. Shadowrun the tournaments were about a month after the games release and I was on tournament level at that point.
The competitive stuff is all multiplayer so you are always playing with other people. That still tends to be a somewhat isolated crowd from standard social interaction so social skills often do take a bit of a hit. As for gamers who do just play single player games hardcore I'd expect that would hurt social skills.
Pretty uncommon. This can vary a lot from game to game but, generally speaking the games and settings are selected to be as skill based as possible with very few random factors. So big upsets can happen but, whenever they do happen they are usually a fairly big deal within that games community.
This is actually quite common. To give you example here is a site where you can hire pro Starcraft 2 players to coach you http://www.gosucoaching.com/content/lessons. Prices vary from $15-$300 an hour depending on how top of a player you want to coach you. I don't know many lessons these people actually sell but, it does exist and lessons do seem to be bought. Similar sites exist for most of the big games.
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Which cuddly-seeming animals are actually dangerous to be around?No, most games have a clear best player/team but, no one can really be the top of more than one game at a time so it is different from game to game. That and it is hard to compare different games so I can't really say who is better the best Starcraft player or the best Halo team.
The best players at the biggest games are all millionaires. A good portion of their money is from sponsors. That said the money distribution is very top heavy, while the very best do make a lot of money the near the very best make a lot less money. I was never the very best and only made a few thousand dollars, but I was also able to compete in cool places around the country on sponsors dollars. As for any big wins, honestly not really. I won a lot of tournaments when I was playing Super Smash Brother Brawl but they were not huge tournaments. When I was a kid I was never allowed to play as many video games as I liked but I was a big fan of Goldeneye, MarioKart 64 and Halo 1. Also, soccer if we are not just talking about video games.
I would guess about 8-10 hours, although that would be with a couple breaks in there for food and such. Also, yes, the game images in my mind before going to bed does happen.
My parents hated when I played video games as a kid. I had a daily limit of a couple hours of screen time; this includes video games, tv, general computer use and so on. I already moved out before I started winning money at that point they became at least more neutral on the topic.
For people who play games competitively I'd say the stereotype is not that true. Not the coolest people in the world by any means but, professional gamers in my experience tend to be much closer to "normal" than some of common stereotypes portray. For the random gamer, I don't know. There are definitely gamers who play single player games or mmorpg non-stop that fit that description, but those aren't professional gamers.
Beta testing is pretty public these days, so I've beta tested several games but that didn't require me having a pro graming background. For earlier stage game testing the job tends to be a lot of look at every wall and report if it is there. That is to say not that fun. I've heard of pro gamers being recruited to test some games that were designed to be competitive but that is pretty rare and I've never been specifically recruited.
For very top players but, not that many. That's assuming when you say groupie you mean more then just a very dedicated fan. If we are just calling groupies super dedicated fans then there are a lot.
I've never actually discussed it with another gamer. I personally don't believe violent video games lead to behavioral problems in kids or at worse the media exaggerates the effect. I think the research on the topic is mixed but, I haven't ever seriously looked into the research so consider that more of an uneducated view on the topic.
I like the xbox 360 and you can't go wrong with a good pc. It really just depends on what games you or your kid wants to play.
I do try to break up my sessions with exercise and such. Besides being healthier, I find if you take a break and come back you're generally more refreshed and can get more out of the game.
I've never seen a gaming tournament where you have to stand. I've known a few players who prefer to stand while they play but, in my experience sitting is always an option.
I do play some of my old n64 favorites for fun and nostalgia from time to time. N64 was my first real introduction to video games (deprived childhood I know) so I don't go much older than that.
I have never seen a physical fight happen in a gaming tournament. I heard that once around 5 years ago there was a fight between Gears of War teams at a major tournament and that was a big part of the reason the game got dropped from that tournament circuit. That is just hear say and could be incredibly wrong, to focus on the question physical fights are somewhere between very rare and non-existent. I have seen a few people break their controllers or keyboards when they lose a very important match or lose to a tactic they think is "cheap." Although, that too is rare.
I would like for games to be cheaper, but games do cost a lot to make so the price makes sense at least to some degree. A variety of different pricing methods are now emerging, these vary from subscription models to significant games that are free but, sell aesthetic features.
That is pretty common for most big game release. I'm more of the play one game really, really well type. So I've never taken a day off for a game release, but I have taken a day or two off from school to give me time to fly to a major tournaments.
They react positively but, mostly more of a polite positive than anything. Most people don't understand and I rarely go beyond explaining yeah I was super good at games people would fly me around the U.S. to play tournaments. My girlfriends knows I used to play professionally but, I don't think has a good sense of what that meant.
Adderall and similar drugs are fairly common. I'm not aware of any tournaments where Adderall is formerly banned but, that is mostly due to testing for it and having to make exceptions for those with prescriptions would be a nightmare. It is generally frowned upon at least by those players who don't take Adderall or something similar.
There are other games out there but, the first person shooters do seem to be the big budgets with lots of advertising lately. I guess they are just selling well.
Asians definitely are over-represented and do well. The exact level of Asian domination varies a lot depending on the game.
There are a few methods, I'll list the ones I've seen work there are probably more I don't know about. 1) Get a local sponsor. I've seen a few lan centers throw a tournament with the prize being a trip to a major tournament, tickets and some other expenses covered. This isn't exactly the best sponsor, but if you aren't that good they are a reasonable stepping stone. The main problem being that they are unlikely to stick with you. 2) Join a sponsored organization. This really depends on what game you play, but if you are good enough or noteworthy enough you can join a top team and they'll likely sponsor tournaments. These often come with a group to practice with and most of the top players in will know the organizations that sponsor lots of players for their games, so you get some reputation although, it's not always good reputation. 3) Get a corporate sponsor. Companies like to sponsor people in everything competitive. Again you'll have to be noteworthy and good but, if you reach these thresholds perhaps win an online tournament or something else of note it is possible to get a corporation to directly sponsor you or your team.
I didn't play many games when the controllers were that simple so I'm missing out on the nostalgia.
Carpal tunnel is pretty common among PC players. I think the general plan for preventing it is just good posture. For the players who get carpal tunnel there is a surgery that allows for pretty quick recovery.
I've seen three routes of people being disqualified. 1) You can be disqualified for an annoying technicality, for an example at the mlg national championship pro teams can't have roster changes but, this detail isn't very well advertised. 2) You can be disqualified for bad sportsmanship. A while back a top Starcraft 2 player killed all his units without really trying to win. He was already out of prize contention so he didn't want to waste his time but, the tournament host make their money by broadcasting those tournaments so they wanted a game and banned him for a month from that tournament series. The community was fairly split on whether the ban was deserved. 3) For cheating and basically really obviously not legit stuff. People have been banned for having modded games that give them an unfair advantage. The worse case I'm aware of is in South Korea there was serious game rigging going on where players worked with online gambling sites to coordinate games they would purposely lose. All the players involved were permanently banned and legal access was also taken against them.
It varies depending on what game you play but, googling something like "[your game name] tournaments" will probably get you the information you are looking for. Most tournaments have an open session so you can start playing competitively with no connections then if you do well in a popular game you can look for sponsors.
I'm currently finishing my Master's degree in Computer Science. Once I graduate gaming-related work area is a real possibility.
Honestly, I don't know. I don't live in the city so there aren't any around me. I think they still exist but, are far more rare than they once were.
Honestly, so far I haven't heard too much hype for the PS4, so I guess it could live up to the hype. I won't be in line for the PS4. I've never gotten a console on release date. Games are nice to have on release date because those first few days where everyone is still learning the game can be some of the most exciting, but I normally hold off on consoles until they have a few games I'd actually want.
I'm partial towards LoL, but I'm bad at RTS games so that factors in a lot.
Black ops is a team game so he'll have to find a team. He can do that by playing wiht a group of friends or going on forums finding a team looking for players and trying out. If he played with a group of friends it can be a lot of fun, but he has to have a good group of friends that are able to play a lot and around the same skill level. If he were to try out online they'd play a few games with him online and then if they thought he fit with them they'd add him to the team. I generally find teams that assemble this way do better than groups of friends.
After he has a team he needs to actually do some tournaments. There are lots of online tournaments he can play. If you live in a big city there are likely some local tournaments you can find too. His success in those tournament are the stats you should watch for. If he does well in them he should try going to major national/international tournaments. That said there is likely going to be a good bit of losing before there is winning. That's just how it goes. Going to tournaments and losing still can be a great learning experience.
They would need to have two of the same console.
It varies a bit game to game but, basically the big cities and population centers in the us. Your best bet is finding a forum for competitve play in your game and they will have tournaments listed. There are often lots of local tournaments for a game and then major tournaments that the top teams/players go to. The top tournaments are at various cities.
It's tough, I played professionally while I was still in school. Now that I have a job I would not have enough time to play professionally. For finding a sponsor unfortunately you have to already have good tournament placings and to have proven yourself. If you have an exciting personality you may be able to find sponsors with lower tournament placings than otherwise, but still need significant success. Be warned that very few people make enough money playing competitively to live on. Although, there are more every year.
I don't know the Call of Duty scene very well, I also haven't ever played a game that didn't have one dominant console. So, I'm not that familiar with the situation. My best advice would be to attend online tournaments/ leagues. A quick google makes me think those exist even for pc. Use the online leagues to get good at the game figure out pro level tactics and such. Then once you've had reasonable success and confidence get the console that has the most tournaments. That or if you have the money just skip to getting the console that has the most tournaments so you don't have to relearn controls. Sorry there isn't an easier/cheaper solution.
This could be too many things for me to really give you a good answer. Best I can say is make sure you have a quality computer and quality internet. Don't have needless programs running at the same time you play. Some games may also be dependent on the server and other factors, generally tough to take care of that. Sorry, I couldn't be more helpful.
I was playing professionally my freshman year of college but, stopped playing because it was too much. For me I couldn't keep my grades up while playing competitively, but there are lots of examples of top players who also do well in school while playing.
If you want to play competitively I would recommend something in the MOBA genre. Probably League of Legends, but DotA 2 is also a good option. Those games have a very large competitive scene that is growing fast.
He'd make more money learning how to program (I ultimately stopped gaming to do development work). Professional gaming is fun, and you can make some money on it, but you shouldn't count on it as a career. The top top players do make it as there career, but that's not long lasting and most players don't make enough to call it a career. That said if he can keep his grades up it actually is great for building valuable skills, you are playing with a team needing active teamwork as well as planning, problem solving skills, and likely even learning to network if he is working on getting sponsors to send him to events.
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