Game Coaching for the Win

1up.com has a feature on the growing business of videogame coaching. From the article: "This is where Tom Taylor comes in. He's one of the rising stars in the Halo 2 world and leading the charge for one of the first console videogame coaching sites: gaming-lessons.com. 'I've given lessons to people who [are] looking to go to tournaments or people who are just looking to brag to friends,' Taylor says, adding that he guarantees I'll beat Shoe after my training session. He's gotten offers from gamers in Europe and Australia for some schooling-his rate: $40 for a one-hour session-but today he'll be training a simple guy who just wants to beat his boss once."

I used to write for Warcraftstrategy.com

[CrazyJim1]

I got paid $50 for a couple page article. It was ok money, but mainly I did it because it was well recieved. People always liked my strategies as I got tons of tells about it. I've done some MMORPG selling too. Theres money in video games... But I think Korea has it best with making video gamers super stars on par with pop stars... I really should have went out there when I was invited, but I never knew it was that big.

Very interesting.

[bynary]

While part of me thinks that this is wrong, that games should "just be played", part of me says "Hey, you can hire a coach for everything else. Why not video games?" The problem is now those of us who had found our niche in videogames are being pushed out. Gaming is quickly becoming just another thing that "cool" people do. What will we nerds come up with next?

Be yourself

[xplenumx]

The problem is now those of us who had found our niche in videogames are being pushed out. Gaming is quickly becoming just another thing that "cool" people do.

What's wrong with gaming becoming 'just another thing that "cool" people do'? If you enjoy gaming, great - why is your enjoyment so dependent on how other perceive gaming? If gaming becomes "cool", are you all of a sudden not 'counter culture' enough? Are you afraid that you're friends are so shallow that they'll abandon you for, in their eyes, 'trying to be cool'?

Way back when I was still in high school I had a friend that was a huge Nirvana junkie and owned all of their albums (and tons of bootlegs) prior to the band hitting the mainstream. The day my friend heard a Nirvana song on the radio, he tossed out all of his Nirvana tapes and gave up on the band. It's funny really - he was trying so hard to be counter cultural that he ended up being more of a slave to the culture than the people he was fighting against. If you enjoy gaming, then enjoy gaming. Don't let others dictate what you like and who you are.