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Games Entertainment

Paid to Play Video Games 250

Posted by CmdrTaco from the pay-me-to-play-the-sims dept.
acehole writes "This would have to be every gamer's dream, to get paid for playing games. In South Korea gaming has taken off to an extent that companies sponsor gaming teams (some earn up to $100k per year) to play games up to 12 hours a day."
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Paid to Play Video Games More

Paid to Play Video Games

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  • we have this here. don't we? (Score:3, Informative)

    by musikit ( 716987 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:28AM (#7734256)
    their are q3a tourneys. UT tourneys. i didn't RTFA but over here it seems you make money off of game when you have skill. of course your skill doesn't matter when your title is "Game Tester"

  • The next best thing (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kulaid982 ( 704089 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:28AM (#7734259)
    I get paid to Slashdot all day! (Don't tell my PHB)

  • Now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Undaar ( 210056 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:28AM (#7734261) Homepage
    Now if only someone would pay me $100K a year to look at pr0n 12 hours a day...

  • Maxis employees need luvin' too (Score:5, Interesting)

    by corebreech ( 469871 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:29AM (#7734267) Journal
    Over at Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com] they are talking about little girls who make money renting their virtual asses out on Sims Online [ea.com]. And not play money either, real money.

    Not the same thing... or is it?

    (And here I was feeling guilty over being a karma whore.)

  • And then you die (Score:2, Interesting)

    by KamuSan ( 680564 )
    Wasn't there a guy in South Korea who died after playing a game for a whole weekend?

    I guess gaming must be really big in South Korea, otherwise I don't see why you should sponsor people.

  • What the hell? (Score:5, Funny)

    by nertz_oi ( 596157 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:32AM (#7734288) Journal
    Is it a prerequisite to own a futuristic jumpsuit to join a professional gaming team or are they forced to wear that thing?...shoulder pads and all.

  • crap (Score:2)

    by POds ( 241854 )
    Damn, at this time of unemployment, i wish i had "wasted my life" playing video games instead of... WTF have i done with my life?

  • Yet another example of the end of our civilation.


  • Reads like a nursery rhyme (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TopShelf ( 92521 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:36AM (#7734324) Homepage Journal
    In case anybody is tempted to RTFA, here's a synopsis.

    1) Guy finds out he can get paid to play games, can't believe his luck.

    2) Guy discovers that he is actually expected to play all the time, and very, very well, in order to keep getting paid.

    3) Guy stresses out under the pressure and ponders his sorry fate.

    I say, quit your crying, kid! You should come over to the US of A, and see how talented youth are really exploited [indystar.com]...

  • worst nightmare (Score:5, Funny)

    by s20451 ( 410424 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:38AM (#7734341) Journal
    It might be a dream for some, but getting my ass handed to me over and over and over, for twelve hours a day, by some fifteen year old nerd whose nick is "H3lld0g_69", is pretty much my worst nightmare. The only move I have ever been able to perform successfully in any game is "mash all the buttons at once".

  • Not just in South Korea... (Score:5, Informative)

    by NiKnight3 ( 532580 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:40AM (#7734360) Homepage
    Team3D [team3d.net] is sponsored by CompUSA and nVidia.

  • ill pass... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by i88i ( 720935 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:40AM (#7734372)
    there's no way i'd like to earn my money playing games. I play em for fun, not to pay the bills.
    Imagine getting evicted just because you missed that headshot in the tournament playoffs. That sort of pressure would stop me enjoying the games, which sort of defeats the purpose of playing them in the first place.
    • That sort of pressure would stop me enjoying the games, which sort of defeats the purpose of playing them in the first place.

      I wonder if professional soccer, baseball, [insert pro sport here] atheletes develop this same attitude? Aren't they also getting paid to play a game and the pressure is on to play well? And these vid gamers are getting paid a fraction of what top earning physical sport players pull down.

      • Re:ill pass... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cowscows ( 103644 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @12:34PM (#7735676) Journal
        You don't even have to be a professional to stop having fun, it's just when these things become such a huge part of your life that when they don't go well, you're depressed.

        I went bowling yesterday with a couple friends, and we all suck, but we had lots of fun. A couple lanes down, there was a teenager there all by himself, scoring 230+, but getting all pissed off at himself whenever he missed a strike. He didn't look like he was having a good time.

    • Re:ill pass... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @12:51PM (#7735847) Homepage Journal
      People always say this about computer shit and I never get it, I guess they're not geeks. They say that they work on computers all day and don't even want to look at one when they get home. Well, okay, I can see not coming home and doing your systems administration shit, which is why there's perl and cron etc etc etc, but avoiding extracurricular websurfing, playing games, or downloading porn, because you spent the day fighting with lookout express? That's just madness. In my opinion, it's the mark of someone for whom computer geekery is not an adventure, it's just a job.

      I think it's safe to say that the same goes for games, whether it's computer games, or pro sports. You just probably wouldn't typically play the same shit in your off time as you do for money. (Though I know that pro football (no, not soccer) players who don't hate each other will play on the beach or whatever as well as for money.

      Besides, any decent manager of any team in any sport, on or offline, knows that it's not one person who makes or breaks a game, it's a whole team. If it comes down to that one headshot, then the rest of the team hasn't been doing THEIR job. If you're missing all your shots all day, then that's one thing, but if it's just one miss, it could happen to anyone. Video gaming has one thing in common with auto racing (besides that you might be playing a racing game) in that there is a lot of hardware between you and your goal, and it has to cooperate with you as well. In soccer you might blow out a shoe, but in racing you might lose any one of many critical parts, and in the case of a computer there are just as many things which could go wrong, on both sides of the hardware/software barrier.

      The definition of a great job is one in which you do what you love.

      • No, it's the mark of a person who has a life outside of computers. Someday, if you're lucky, you'll have one. It's not healthy to spend your life in one pursuit, no matter what it is.
        • Amusingly enough, I do have a life outside of computers, but I also find that when the weather is shitty (as it generally is this time of year) they are quite helpful. Of course I can also read, or watch "TV" - but since we shut off our cable for lack of use, "watching TV" consists of using a computer, namely the Xbox. Actually, it's sort of using two computers, since I'm streaming video from my desktop machine most of the time, though of course I can load files from CD/DVD as well.

          I know you were just tr

      • How about the eye strain? I think it all depends on WHAT you do at work. When I had a job, I really didn't like to do certain things when I came home because it was doing almost the same thing.

        If you spent your whole day programming, I don't know if you want to come home and do some programming too. Or if you spend your whole day installing, configuring and supporting computer systems, I don't know if you want to come home and mess around with Linux.

        Sivaram Velauthapillai
  • After about two weeks, I think I would be so bleary-eyed and fatigued that I would not play a computer game again for months. I get tired enough just working on a computer for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. To go 12 hours a day would kill my already lousy vision.

  • Tonight, Live on TV: Starcraft Tournament Finals (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rcastro0 ( 241450 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:43AM (#7734404) Homepage
    I heard in Korea they broadcast computer games over cable tv, with comentators and the full suite.

    "It seems Li-hun should have sent a few more Zergs to that narrow pass, what do you think John ?"
    "You are right, now watch as the Protoss break through in a classic destroy-the-Hatchery offensive. He used this in last year's finals to great effect."
    "Right -- but wait -- Li Hun opened up a second front down in the SE corner of the map !"
    (...)

    I never did watch such a thing on TV here in the west, but I guess it would be interesting to see some pro-guys playing a game which I have tried to master, and figuring out how they think.

    Once that happens, well, sponsors are the natural next step.
    • I heard in Korea they broadcast computer games over cable tv, with comentators and the full suite.

      Ok, call me a geek but I think I would actually find this interesting. Of course, they'd have to be able to freely spectate within the game so that they could fully show the audience what was going on. And I actually want them to talk to the participants and get the lowdown on what their strategy is for the current game. Of course, this means you can't let the other team overhear them.

      I'm thinking Iro
    • ...but the guys aren't getting paid to play, afaik.

      Ruger

    • I was teaching English over there.... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It is pretty interesting. There are two channels in Daegu (central Korea) that broadcast games all day. Besides matches, they also have review roundup shows, shows that show off the latest in hardware, etc. They also show the odd in-game movie, and sometimes even re-enact a player going through a level in some adventure game, with voice-over dialogue which I assume is meant to be comedy (not knowing the language really well, I only have tone of voice to work with...).

      Starcraft: They LOVE Starcraft. Besides
    • I didn't watch this year's QuakeCon, but last year, you could actually log on QuakeTV (which broadcast a feed from spectators in the game) and watch the finals live with two commentators. Hmm I think it was Lexer versus Fatal1ty, I got the demo somewhere.

      Well it sounded almost as you imagined (though Q3 is much more fast-paced than SC).

      "Fabulous shotgun action here from Lexer"
      "Fatal1ty now has 138 armor, 167 health and on his way to grab that red armor again"

      etc. etc.
    • on G4 (the all video game network). I rarely watch the show, but basically they get 2 teams of 4 players and pit them against each other in best of 3 matches. Games I've seen them play include Counterstrike, perhaps an Unreal and a Mechwarrior-type game. Plus live commentary (if I'm not mistaken Wil Wheaton was a commentator for a while, but last time I watched I don't recall him being on).

      These teams clearly aren't pro and often don't even really use teamwork (occasionally they split screen between the
    • I quit because people started hacking.
      If I didn't quit, I guarantee I'd be over in Korea now.

      They treat gamers like popstars, so you not only make money, all the fine honeys want you.
    • I don't care too much about the commentary, I'm more curious as to how they take patches, updates, and balance changes. Is abusing a bug grounds of disqualification? If an update causes a big enough change in the game, are matches suspended for a certain period of time until players can reorientate themselves? Is there any concern regarding certain unit balances in the game? (ie. If a balance change in Starcraft fu*ks up a pro's strategy, is that player allowed to withdraw from the league/tournament without
      • Is abusing a bug grounds of disqualification?

        Usally not. The league will have a list of known forbidden bugs, which can get you ejected (they try to get them patched or modded, so the game software can referee instead of a human). But someone who finds a new "bug" (more likely a balance oversight by the game designers) isn't often penalized. (The bug may be added to the forbidden list, of course, but they don't seem to punish retroactively)

        (ie. If a balance change in Starcraft fu*ks up a pro's strat

  • 12 hours a day, every day? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ancient Devices King ( 469802 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:45AM (#7734433)
    Sounds like my freshman year of college.

    More seriously though, 12 hours a day at a job in Korea doesn't seem like such a big deal. I have a friend from Korea who moved here about 25 years ago. He says he gets calls from friends at home who are about to go back to work at about 1am their time, having just worked MORE than a full day already. It seems like adults there do almost nothing BUT work -- literally, not like "workaholics" over here. 12 hours a day doesn't seem so bad compared to that.

  • How do you goof off? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:47AM (#7734451)
    Is that a spreadsheet, Mister??????

  • Games for money.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JavaLord ( 680960 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:48AM (#7734457) Journal
    When you start playing this seriously it isn't fun anymore, and you realize how limited the rule-set/skill level needed for most games is.

    • Re:Games for money.. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by GodHead ( 101109 )
      Not fun when you play for money? Tell that to any pro-athlete. Sure it's work, but it's the best work you could hope for.

      Honestly, do you think they are doing some double entry accounting at night to blow off steam from playing games all day?

      • Not fun when you play for money? Tell that to any pro-athlete. Sure it's work, but it's the best work you could hope for.

        I would venture that pro-athletes for the most part know they are going to make enough money to support themselves. If a pro-athlete has a bad season, loses a fight, etc they still get paid. If you are a pro gamer and you fly out to these tournaments and you have a bad day? You get nothing. You lose the money you spent on a plane ticket

        When I was playing on the OGL ladder [slashdot.org] for Unr
    • Erm, for some of us, it doesn't even take that.

      I'm by no means a hardcore gamer (for instance, I haven't even touched my gaming machine in over a month - and I don't have a console other than the NES). The thing is, I get incredibly bored with most RTS games within 10 to 15 minutes due to their sameness and lack of anything different. I played WarCraft 1 and 2 nearly obsessively, and Starcraft nearly as much - they were all fairly large leaps gameplay quality over anything prior and anything at the time. I
      • I find myself nitpicking the inadequacies in most games nowadays. It's not hard to. Take C&C Generals, for instance. How was the AI in that game any different than what was available in the =very= original Command and Conquer? It isn't.

        C&C generals was actually the first RTS I played more than once or twice. I found after playing for 1-2 weeks the AI was painfully dumb. Are most RTS games that bad?

        And, despite all the 'cool' 3D rendered models and cutscenes, Generals still wasn't as graphi
        • C&C generals was actually the first RTS I played more than once or twice. I found after playing for 1-2 weeks the AI was painfully dumb. Are most RTS games that bad?

          Yes, most of them are that bad. However, it seems to me that Westwood is a particularly bad proponent of bad AI. I suspect they get away with it for several reasons.

          One, most people aren't intelligent enough to notice. It's much more difficult to distinguish bad tactics (especially when 90% of what your opponent does is hidden from you)

  • ouch (Score:5, Funny)

    by dema ( 103780 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:49AM (#7734466) Homepage
    The only thing you have to sacrafice, is your dignity [bbc.co.uk].

  • A new low... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Mephie ( 582671 ) *
    The competition is played at a downtown game centre with a live audience, big screens and two commentators. It is televised by a cable TV network.

    And I thought it was bad the day I turned on ESPN2, only to see the exciting Scrabble championship being televised, complete with commentators.

    Even better, now, instead of actually playing a video game myself, I can turn on the TV and watch someone else play a game! From this day forward I will live vicariously through professional video gamers.

  • Job wanted! Will make games, not play, for $100K (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mustangdavis ( 583344 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:53AM (#7734505) Homepage Journal
    They get paid $100k/yr to PLAY games .... Hell, I wish I could make $100k just programming them!!!

    I'd be willing to provide something tangible for my salary!!!!

  • They're going to be opening video game sweatshops [ananova.com]!

  • Aha! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ba3r ( 720309 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @10:59AM (#7734590)
    So thats why those obsure 120 ping Counterstrike servers always have people jabbering away in Korean (at least I think it is, my ability to differentiate between Asian langs in limited). Now if only the Indians would pick up heavy gaming addicitions, I wouldn't have to worry about my application being off-shored

    • Re:Aha! (Score:5, Funny)

      by zulux ( 112259 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:43AM (#7735059) Homepage Journal
      my ability to differentiate between Asian langs in limited

      That's easy

      Lotts of circles and ovels: Korean

      Looks like french with little squiggles: Vietnamease

      Has a little goldfish looking character about every ten letters: Japanese

      Everything else is probably Chinese.. Or will be Chinese when China invades them in 2013.

  • That's nice and all... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mysticalfruit ( 533341 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:02AM (#7734618) Homepage Journal
    Playing video games all day long would get very old very quickly...

    It's that old addage. Never turn your favorite hobby into your job. It'll stop being your hobby and it'll stop being your favorite thing todo.

    • Re:That's nice and all... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Syberghost ( 10557 ) <syberghost@@@syberghost...com> on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:54AM (#7735174)
      It's that old addage. Never turn your favorite hobby into your job. It'll stop being your hobby and it'll stop being your favorite thing todo.

      Yeah, 'cause look at all those programmers who get a job doing it, then hate programming and quit doing it. Oh, wait, that doesn't happen very often.

      Well, look at the kids who love to play football, then wind up in the NFL, hate football and quit playing. Oh, wait, that doesn't happen very often.

      Well, look at all the guys who love to fly, then get jobs as commercial pilots, so they hate flying and quit. Oh, wait, that doesn't happen.

      Every example I can think of where people turn an avocation into a vocation, it's by and large their dream job.

      Wait, I know; what about that guy who started a little geek news web site, then get hired by big software companies to run it and decided he hated it and shut it down.
      • I know a lot of programmers who hate their jobs, but the money's too good to quit.

        Many football players, judging by their whining interviews, hate playing the game, but are blessed with good genetics and, well, like the money.

        Working for a major airline, I met a lot of pilots who hated flying, but loved the money.

        What's the common thread? Money. I don't know of anyone who wanted to be a fry cook at McDonald's that's still a fry cook at McDonald's strictly for the money.
        • if you had the same genetics you would also be in the NFL right now.
          • Damn right.
            • he didn't wake up one day and find himself inside an nfl uniform. He had to push himself all his life with no guarantee he would make the nfl. It worked out for a guy that his body turned out to be good enough for the NFL and good enough to support his hard training. However, only %.004 of people will as hard at putting effort towards their unknown fate of starting a business or other risks as that guy did to get where he got. Nobody knows what their genetics let them do until they GET TO THE POINT WHERE
      • I worked in the IT department of a school district here in the upper midwest, and to a man (well, person) every single one of us could no longer stand computers after about a year on the job. The two or three people we had that were absolute Macintosh fanatics--me included--were ready to burn anything with an Apple logo. One of my colleagues quit so that he could do "anything but work with computers."

        Almost everyone I work with now hates the damn things as well. For me, the only reason I stay is because I'
      • Yeah, 'cause look at all those programmers who get a job doing it, then hate programming and quit doing it.

        Yes, but how often do they do it outside of work? I used to love coding fun stuff in my spare time, playing with hardware, etc... now I try to avoid such things as much as possible outside of work.

  • Yeah, but... (Score:3, Funny)

    by cspenn ( 689387 ) <financialaidpodc ... .com minus punct> on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:03AM (#7734625) Homepage Journal
    That sounds good until you realize you'll be playing Daikatana for those twelve hour days... then you may be tempted to claw your eyeballs out.
  • Or does Lee Ji-hun, pictured in the article, look like he's wearing one of Five Star's costumes circa 1986?

  • The CPL (www.thecpl.com) has a winter event that is just about to begin in Dallas, TX, USA as we speak, with around $200,000 USD in winnings. Games are Counter-Strike and Halo PC. They generally have 2 events a year, of at least this caliber. There are also similar organizations holding equally large tournaments. Pro gaming is becoming a reality in the US and Europe too!

    For those interested in finding out what happens, who wins, etc - the play-by-play is at www.gotfrag.com [gotfrag.com] (a tiny plug)!

  • Novelist Christopher Brookmyre [bbc.co.uk] dedicated his last-but-one novel to his Quake II clan, POTZW. I could tell you the name of his online persona but you'd only look it up on CLQ and embarrass him ;-)

  • Smithsonian's Korea Article "did" this (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:07AM (#7734672)
    Smithsonian magazine had a sort of overview of Korean history and culture a few months back [si.edu]. (That's a big pdf of the whole article. The link page at http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issue s03/jul03/korea.html doesn't mention the gaming angle.)

    The article's framed as a look at the time since the Korean war, so the modern "PC bang" culture in the South makes a nice contrast. Detail:

    "With 400 computer terminals, Megawebstation, located deep in the COEX mall, is one of the largest PC bangs. It is also the site of tournament matches for Starcraft, an on-line game. Oh's cable station broadcasts the matches to a nationwide audience of millions. Why in the world, I wonder, would so many people watch televised games they could play themselves? "For the same reason people watch championship golf," says Oh. "They want to see the best athletes and maybe pick up techniques to improve their own game."

  • What's interesting is the difference in cultures (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Chitlenz ( 184283 ) <chitlenz@ch i t lenz.com> on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:09AM (#7734700) Homepage
    I play everquest, pretty much at a competitive level , that is I've been playing for 4 years and have multiple high lvl characters. In the time I've been online, I've watched public opinion of 'ebaying' go from being loathed, to accepted, to welcomed (by the players). I never bought or sold virtual items over ebay, BUT, I know several players who have to great success. In fact the guy that owns monkly business (a game information site) is reputed to turn 7-figures through his player auction store that sells in game money for real world money. I also seem to rememeber some sweatshop named blacksun entertainment that was farming out the 'work' of playing everquest to china, where they had like 30 employees that farmed items all day long for sale.

    What I find interesting is the different approach the koreans have to the western 'under the table' idea. The korean channels broacast Lineage, warcraft, starcraft, and several other types of games on multiple tv channels with full commentary. I don't know, but I'd bet that online auctions of lineage crap are known and accepted as well. It seems like here we still believe that games are for kids, and that the resale of virtual items or profiting from gaming is some kind of taboo. What's funny is that this is the classic setup for something that's destined to be 'cool' and accepted in the future (starts as a taboo).

    I'm betting that its only a matter of time before this becomes the norm in the US as well. I know it seems alien, but most folx who have played the high end (or aspired too) of these games knows that it CAN be entertaining to watch how people setup strategies and outthink the environments. The next generation of Blizzard game (world of Warcraft) has the potential to bridge this gap between the us and the koreans quite quickly, and I'll be interested to see if these 'odd' parts of their culture don't become more common here as well.

    see you online - chitlenz
    • You realize, of course, that buying stuff for these online MMORPGs is always going to be outrageous to a lot of people. New games are coming out all of the time, and as a game gets older, its items almost invariably devalue. What's the point of playing the game if you're just going to buy what would take time to get? The game doesn't sound awfully fun if you need to use real money to get something; if you have less time, the game should still find a way to make it fun.

  • This is great until.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by zoid.com ( 311775 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:20AM (#7734811) Homepage Journal
    They start outsourcing all of the game playing jobs to India for 1/10th the cost.
  • This would be like the current situation i've gotten myself into.

    I loved doing web development as a hobby. I got a job doing it, and now it all seems just like work to me, I dont even really do any for fun anymore, all the 'fun' aspect of it seemed to have bled out of it.

    I wonder if the same thing would happen if I were asked to play games as my job though.

    But... it is games.... and 100k a year..so it's hard to say.

  • Not the direction I'd like to see... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:40AM (#7735037) Homepage Journal
    I was just talking to my partners in a retail store we own about this fear... We provide skateboards, paintball supplies, and BMX equipment -- all mostly outdoor sport.

    We've seen sales in these markets slide a bit (of course helped by Internet companies) which I can partially attest to the fact that a lot of our regulars spend much of their afternoons with video game systems rather than going outside.

    As each year progresses, I see more and more fat and lethargic kids who have less and less desire to really do anything. I remember my days (I'm 30) of video games back with Atari and Intellivision and Coleco, and they rarely occupied more than an hour an evening, if that. Sleepovers might be all night of video gaming, but those were rare too. We preferred skateboarding or laser tag in the evenings.

    My thought the other day was that we'd soon see corporations sponsoring video game teams like my shop sponsors skate, BMX, and paint teams. This article brings that fear to fruition.

    Of course, this is what the market wants, so I support the decisions that those people make, even if I disagree with the general movement. I just hate seeing kids en masse dropping any kind of athletic activity because of laziness. New video games ARE cool looking, but nothing woos the young ladies better than extreme sports!

  • fun? (Score:2)

    by Tom ( 822 )
    I very seriously doubt that this'll be fun after you've done it for a few weeks.

    One: Choice is one of the most important factors for fun. If you can't choose anymore what or when or how or how long you do something, then the fun will evaporate quickly.

    Two: 12 hours? In most of the western world, as a workday that'd be illegal. And spending that time in front of a screen will damage your health.

    Three: One word: Managers.
    If there's a company involved, then there are managers involved. I don't think I need

  • All play and no work (Score:5, Funny)

    by minus9 ( 106327 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:49AM (#7735114) Homepage
    I used to get payed to play games but I was sacked when my boss caught me working on a financial report.

  • I bet (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dar ( 15755 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @11:56AM (#7735199) Homepage
    I bet once you have to play it's not nearly as much fun.

  • I've done something similar (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Garwulf ( 708651 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @12:19PM (#7735499) Homepage
    My first professional publication was a review of Myth II for Computer Gaming World, which was published in April 1999. In order to write it and make my deadline, I had to play Myth II from start to finish - in a week.

    I literally spent 8 hours a day for five days playing that game. By the second day, my eyes were burning at the end of the day. Once I finished playing it, I put it down, and to this day I have never played it again. I've played Myth I, but never Myth II.

  • Not just computer games (Score:3, Interesting)

    by danger42 ( 302987 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @12:52PM (#7735854) Homepage
    They don't just play video games in Korea. There are over 250 BOARDGAME cafes in Soeul alone, where people meet and _pay_ to play boardgames. Not Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, but so-called Euro- or designer boardgames like those shown on Spielboy.com or Boardgamegeek.com.

  • See sig...

  • tournaments (Score:2, Interesting)

    by DroidBiker ( 715045 )
    This sort of thing is starting to show up in the US as well. Mainly in "arcade" machines. You can enter nationwide or local tournaments for real cash. It's most common on golf machines in sports bars. This sort of thing has taken off to the extent that there are now professional video golf players in the world.

  • ..better than getting paid for playing video games:

    Getting laid for playing video games.

  • Sounds fair (Score:3, Interesting)

    by poot_rootbeer ( 188613 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2003 @01:48PM (#7736424)
    If I had the money, I would gladly hire "Morimoto" to do nothing but create more of "Time Attack Videos" like the ones floating around for Super Mario Bros 3 and Megaman 2.

    Watching someone tear through a classic game you used to spend hours on as a kid and go from start to finish in under 30 minutes has got to be worth $100K/year.
  • Remember him? Way back when, he was the red-headed guy who was reportedly "Played video games for a living." He was employed by Nintendo. He was basically a pro-games advocate.

    "Why do you think video games make children violent?"
    "They don't."
    "Let's try again. Why do you think video games make children violent?"
    "They don't.

  • not soo much different (Score:2, Interesting)

    by NetMagi ( 547135 )
    No huge shocker. It'd be like someone saying hey wanna get paid to throw that ball around back in 1900.

    Look where baseball and football are today.

    Maybe all these hours of rtcw enemy territory will pay off :P

  • Whenever I hear about people getting paid to play games I always think about people who have game review websites or magazines. I have often wished to be someone in that position, but then I realize that they have to play crappy games like the "Mary Kate and Ashley" games as well as all the other ones, and I don't. So in the end, I guess I win.
  • Myself, and many other people in the counterstrike community, smoke weed and take pills to fuel long sessions of late night counterstrike. I have read articles about this in various places, exploring the connection between counterstrike and drugs. it is an interesting take on "doping" in proffessional sports. Will you lose your sponsorship if they catch you taking speed or smoking weed? ZERG RUSH KEKEKEKE

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