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."

Bobby Knight is my new VG coach.

[Errandboy of Doom]

Tournaments, Sponsors, Coaches... we're almost there. When will we get a station to televise gaming competitions with half-decent in-game footage and literate (let alone charismatic) announcers, preferably hosted by people who aren't retarded [g4tv.com]?

Re:Bobby Knight is my new VG coach.

[daranz]

Hell, now that these things happen for console games, we might even see stuff like that on TV. A tournament for Tribes, UT or CS would never get televised, but your average Joe actually knows what Halo is, and therefore if he saw a Halo tournament on TV he wouldn't be as confused as he would be if it was a CS tournament.

I've seen people offering lessons in CS before, but now it's just going "mainstream" - into the console market.

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?

Re:Very interesting.

[Idealius]

"A life?" :P

Re:Very interesting.

[interiot]

Upside-down extra-sensory skateboarding. With suction cups instead of wheels.

Oh, more realistically? Okay, convince more women to become geeks. (if even that is realistic)

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.

Re:Be yourself

[AuMatar]

Because when you get the big crowd playing games because its cool, you'll end up with mass market MTV schlock games, with crap gameplay and no innovation. Oh wait, its already happened.

Re:Be yourself

[Castar]

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'?

I can't speak for the original poster, of course, but here's my problem with it: I have nothing against gaming becoming cool, but for the fact th

Re:Very interesting.

[GlenRaphael]

Gaming is quickly becoming just another thing that "cool" people do. What will we nerds come up with next?

Don't know about anyone else, but my answer? Powerisers! [skyrunners.com] Bounce around town for a bit - you'll get the strangest looks. And if that ever catches on with the masses I'm sure I'll be able to find something else that's just as weird.

There's also using videogames to get in shape, as per my .sig - that hasn't really caught on yet either, the success of DDR notwithstanding...

Re:Victor DeLeon III.....

[Idealius]

nice one about the mac'n'cheese :P

Oh boy

[FidelCatsro]

" he guarantees I'll beat Shoe after my training session."
I don't doubt he could train someone to beat a bunch of loafers , but what about stilettos or Doc-Martins , they can be pretty tough . All he seems to be offering is map tips and a private game for 40 Per hour .. I don't really see how this can be worth the money .
Though fair play to him if there are people willing to pay this .

Re:Oh boy

[Idealius]

Any game or construct whose complexity is beyond complete human understanding which involves competition person vs person (rather than person vs cpu) deserves coaching. People tend to care about winning versus other people. The rationale is if you beat another person it's proof you're unique out of the billions of humans on earth, so you feel better with each win. The best part about this kind of reward is you automagically have an audience to confirm your godlike skills (hint: your victim.) The fact that t

Re:Oh boy

[Lucractius]

whats interesting is that ive had similar thoughts myself. Ive contemplated selling my services to teach total n00bz how to play games at a level above "smacktard" before but the problem is the market, i dont have one. I know i could do it, and i know some would pay for it, but there arent enough for me to actualy get any buisness, thefore the effort per unit $ returned by trying to get people to pay is low, low enough i dont particularly want to bother.

awesome

[Gogo0]

Good for this guy and all the suckers he ropes in.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Re:awesome

[Lisandro]

You know, i thought exactly the same. I feel kinda uneasy about it, but yes.

Uggg Waste of Money

[Reapy]

Coaching, in an fps? Arrrrg, what is this world coming to?

There isn't much to learn in an fps. Here, who would like to pay me $50 for this complete coarse to dominate any 1 v 1 fps game?

1. Learn the maps routs and where weapons /items spawn.
2. Learn the weap/item respawn times (does halo even have this? )
-------------
You can do the above on your own on empty maps. Below, you can do by joining a second player to your game and having it stand still.

3. Learn where the hitboxes are (wheres a headshot actually n