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A Lot of Money for Playing Games
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:02 PM
from the professional-minesweeper dept.
from the professional-minesweeper dept.
knowhow writes "Tom Taylor took the risk of dropping out from high school just to play video games. The guy who is just 18 years old, was prompted to take this step; because of the reason that emerged from his love for gaming. After playing for six months on a full time basis the guy signed a contract for a staggering $250,000."
From the Article:"Now Tom taylor is known as Tsquared on the gaming circuit. He's earning six figures and has product endorsements and a video game tutoring business. He's one of about 100 professional gamers associated with Major League Gaming, a video gaming league founded in 2002. When they're playing well, pros might bring home a few grand a month."
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When the money dries up... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:When the money dries up... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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Quiting school is not a life sentence (Score:5, Informative)
None at that stage, but getting someone to offer you a genorous contract in the first place is a "marketable skill". If this kid has any financial smarts he will suck that contract dry and get a renewal, if not he will get bored, throw a "party", and watch it slip through his fingers.
I dropped out of high school at 16 (Australia), it did not stop me from renting a house, buying a car, raising a family... Sure I completed a BSc when I was 30 because by that time I had figured out what I wanted to do, now I am 47 my pay pack is well above average. To be honest, I would have to say that making a living is less "financialy challenging" when you have the right bits of paper, but that still doesn't mean your life is ruined without them.
However the notion that dropping out of school will ruin the rest of your life is false and usually promoted by those who stayed at school and have yet to find out what earning a pay packet is all about. And no, a couple of years burger flipping while leeching off your friends and relatives does not qualify.
BTW: Please excuse my spelling, as I said, I'm a high school dropout.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:When the money dries up... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
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|>oug
Re:When the money dries up... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
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That's probably because MIT has a very significant humanities requirement.... (That was a joke, btw, even though it is true.)
The joke around Boston is that you hire Northeastern grads to get the work done, MIT grads to be your CTOs, and Harva
Re:When the money dries up... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Anyways, the problem with a competition of this nature is that you can make a lot of money as long as you're at the top of your game. For every person in this league there is (probably) 100 people who are nearly as good and (if they so choose) could easily start challenging you for your spot in the league. In other words you always are at risk of not being good enough to keep your 'job'.
Growing up, I knew a few guys who ended up becomming professional snowboarders;
How about ... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Given the money he's making, he'll have no trouble putting himself through college to pick up a backup skill after the funding for pro gaming has dried up.
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Re:When the money dries up... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
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Unfortunately you don't get there's a lot more to life than money. Money is a means to various services. Everyone needs to contribute to society in order to draw on the services of society. For those who no longer work, it's simply saying you've payed your dues(in the form of time) to society equivalent to those which you're drawing back from society.
To get those IRAs or dividends to the degree which you did, if you di
Re:When the money dries up... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:When the money dries up... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's true there's a lot more to life than money... but I hardly see how you can read that he doesn't understand that from his post.
There's a lot more to life than money, so when I have enough to retire comfortably, I can pay someone to clean and do yard work. That way I can spend more time with my family - because spending more time with my family is more important the money I'm spending to do it.
So this whole "money can't buy hapiness" is true only to the point that material possessions don't bring true happiness, but financial freedom gives you the ability to DO the things you might not otherwise be able to - travel, go back to school, pay others to do the menial tasks you've had to do in the past to free up more of your time, and if you've got enough you can be a philanthropist. If you're a computer geek, you can write or finance (or both) that useful application you've been thinking people would enjoy.
But regardless, you are always being a benefit to society - that guy you pay to cut your grass doesn't have to collect welfare, for example. You still buy food and the necessities of life and pay bills and so forth, all helping the next generation of people survive without being a drain on societies resources.
Parent
Re:When the money dries up... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Women (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Women (Score:5, Funny)
Are you kidding? All they have to do is install the Hot Coffee Mod, and lawyers like Jack T. will be on them like the FBI on a criminal driven tank.
Parent
Rating (Score:5, Informative)
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Reminds me of poker (Score:4, Insightful)
As for the people who say "what's his backup skill going to be?" Assuming he can talk & isn't butt ugly, I imagine he'll be a commentator or spokesperson someday.
Hell, if there's enough drama in the industry, he can write a book too.
Ah, Superstar Economics. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Too much of a good thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are lots of things that I enjoy in moderation that I don't think I'd like anymore, if I started doing them as my day job. Maybe it's just me...but I just think that playing games for a living might take the fun out of it.
I guess maybe this is because I enjoy playing games as a way to relax, and I guess I wouldn't want to play them more than a few hours a day, regardless of the other constraints on my time.
Parent
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Nice "editing" (Score:5, Informative)
The guy who is just 18 years old, was prompted to take this step; because of the reason that emerged from his love for gaming.
Set that poor semicolon free! It doesn't deserve to be cooped up in that horrible excuse for a sentence! The semicolon is a beautiful creature that can only be appreciated in its natural habitat: a sentence containing two full independent clauses. Or certain lists.
Re:Nice "editing" (Score:4, Funny)
That should read: 'a sentence containing two full independent clauses or certain lists.'
There was no reason to separate those thoughts. It made the flow of your prose awkward. I must refer you to the old saying about glass houses and accusations.
Parent
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What? (Score:5, Funny)
Say that again, but not in Klingon.
Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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(I don't have mod points)
Don't quit your dream job (Score:5, Funny)
"... do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college." -- Kurt Vonnegut
Or, if you must, at least avoid using if you haven't the foggiest idea of where to put them (such as, say, between two independent clauses). All that does is show you've dropped out of high school to play video games.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
print "Such as at the end of the line rather than in the middle.\n" ;
Gambling with his future... (Score:5, Insightful)
Spending the enourmous amount of time required to be good at video games is a worse investment than a lottery ticket. Lottery tickets have had more winners, require less time investment, and the payoff is a lot bigger than 250 grand.
Yes, I realize that a lot of people play video games for fun and moderate their time spent well. But dont we all know people who play endlessly because they want to be the best on their server or be in a clan that wins a lot of tournaments?
a few grand a month, eh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell yea, where's the Enemy Territory tourneys with the money? C'mon guys, don't neglect good and free for everyone games! Let's see who rocks the free-world for the most cash!
How sad (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, I do believe you can love your work. But this guy took a thing that he truly loved that *wasn't* work and *made it* his work. Playing games for a living sounds great, but anything loses its luster once you are chained to it if you want to eat and have a place to live.
For all you gamers, think of how excited you are when a new blockbuster game comes out and you can't wait to get your hands on it. Now take that feeling and completely invert it, and I think that that about approximates what this guy must feel when that happens. "Oh man, a new game... guess I better start getting good at this one too. Back to ten hours of practice a day."
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I just can't see this taking off (Score:3, Insightful)
What would TV coverage of this look like? You can't just have a shot of the screen, but if you cut back and forth you miss screen action. They probably have to edit together a lot of highlights. I can't imagine this would be very entertaining to watch on live TV... ok, some stuff like one-on-one fighting games might play well... it would be like boxing without the chance of actual injury. Yes, I guess this could be watchable if done right. The missing element is that you aren't watching your friends get beat, or beating your friends, or well... gaming. Robot wars was OK TV because most of us don't have the time, money or skill to make a decent fighting bot. Everyone can game. When I was a kid and was totally game crazy, the time I spent having to just *watch* was pure agony. Gimme the joystick!!! How many kids these days get their only daily exercise fighting their siblings for the controller? You're going to take gaming and make it totally passive? Those kids are going to explode, leaving nasty bits of fat all over the walls. Hey... that'd be a cool effect in a game.
Michael Jordan (Score:5, Funny)
This is not a career (Score:3, Insightful)
Worst job in the World? (Score:4, Interesting)
For a start you're competing against millions of people who don't require any technical qualification to compete with you. Besides gaining knowledge on a subject most people go to College & University to set themselves aside from the pack, to make themselves look more attractive to employers. With pro-gaming you haven't got any of this, the only barrier to entry is sufficiently fast reflexes, a little intelligence and a competent PC.
This person is going to be a target for the rest of his playing career. The guy below him is gonna be aiming to usurp him to get his sponsorship, not to mention thousands upon thousands of upstarts actively seeking to relegate him to obscurity.
It's also the sort of industry where unless you are in the Top 10 or so players for an extended period of time you're anonymous. It's not like being a professional footballer where even if you're in the lower divisions you're still making enough money to live on. This guy has to realise that there are thousands of people below him who are making no real money to speak of just waiting for him to slip up.
No one really knows the terms of this $250,000 contract - whether he's actually been given this amount of money or whether that's essentially his "valuation" in pro-gaming terms, but if I were him I would invest all of it and work on the principal that his career could just fizzle out in a couple of years or so.
Re:Worst job in the World? (Score:4, Interesting)
But almost everyone has a degree these days, so if you want to 'set yourself aside from the pack', you shouldn't be wasting your time at university.
Parent
What what what what what?? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:QA testers (Score:4, Funny)
Parent