When the first human throw the first stone, the second tried to throw further and thereby gain the attention of females, respect of the tribe and a better place near the fire. Since then and up to the competition of hairdressers, every human activity is a subject that its participants are trying to improve and make it more significant so that a victory brings more - fame, money, bloody mammoth meat or roller. Video Games are basically just a new medium for old types of competition in reflexes, skills or intelligence, and it is quite natural to serve as an arena for battles. In this blog you'll learn how much that competition has the character of "professionalism", ie can the competitive playing of video games anywhere in the world be called a job.

Professional gamer
Can video games be a professional sport?

Emphasizing that it is "pro" by itself turns light for warning because, when you need to highlight that something you're doing is professional, is already a sign that the professionalism in that activity isn't included by itself. A combination of "progaming" is even stranger because it connects the label of professionalism, something you're doing as a profession, ie a job, with the word "gaming" that stands for something that is done for fun. Or, in short, games are by their nature activity's for fun and rarely someone will pay someone else to have fun. Sports like football, tennis, basketball, and others have the advantage that many viewers are enjoying while they watch and are ready to pay for it. But watching someone play video games is not particularly attractive - or at least not enough for a large number of spectators, which would showing video games make more profitable. What does remain? Of course, advertising, as one of the main drivers of the majority of media products in the world. In short, gaming is professional as long as it serves for advertisers.

How much money is that? Awards may sound big, but there are problems with payments and the money will receive only the first three places, which is not easy to win

Pay me to play

We should not ignore the fact that a large number of "real" sports would not survive without advertisers, so that video games are not special by that characteristic. However, tracking the players of video games and competitions in them are only in the begins. And that makes video games as a professional activity highly dependent on the marketing plans of companies that want to connect their products to this activity. Such are, for example, manufacturers of computer hardware, or telecommunications companies. On the other hand, players are mostly youngboys from 15 to 20 years, who love playing video games even if they are not payed, but a chance to make some money on there hobby would certainly not be rejected. Power of players is measured in APM (actions per minute) and that is why in this work you are going in the retirement very early. As we getting older, our APM fall down and we barely have a APM of 180 if not lower, while the champions, for example, in Starcraft have an APM of 460, about four and half hits per second. These three elements: the dependence on the good will of advertisers, a large number of players who are ready and wants to play for small money and lack of audience that would rate the quality of what is and what they like to watch - those are the key elements for observation of the professional sphere of competition in video games. Organizations that deal with the preparation of competition in video games are spending most of their time on attracting advertisers, because they know that there will always be gamers - and they are ready to play for relatively small money. There are a lot such organizations - especially in the U.S.. Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) and Major League Gaming (MLG) are companies that currently are organizing the most popular league and bringing together individual players and clans on the tournament, whose maintenance and rewards are mostly payed by sponsors - advertisers.

Two is Two No, even pro gamer does not need two pairs of headphones, but any opportunity to show the product of sponsor is always good

You need to know how to earn

One of the few examples of western pro gamers who managed to turn his love for video games (and skill in them) into a profitable business is Johnathan Wendel, better known as Fatal1ty. With victories in tournaments, which were mostly organized by CPL, he earned more than $500,000.00 in cash and other prizes, managed to make sponsorship agreements with various hardware manufactures and now under his own name, he is selling specially designed PC hardware. Good management of its name and character led him to the pages of many magazines and brought him appearance in various TV shows - and Fatal1ty know how to cash it by the sponsors. While some admire his skills in FPS, the other murmur against him, saying that he went in the commercional waters, forgetting that playing at the professional level means exactly - playing for money.

Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel According to many commercially the most successful player in the world, he plays good as well as he finds sponsors with whose products he binds his name

Korean Big Brother

Even further competition in video games has gone in South Korea, where digital conflicts are transferred on specialized TV channels and watched by over thousands of fans. However, even there it all depends on the money for advertise so the best players aim to join clans which are sponsored by the largest telecommunication companies which are making from that something like a "Big Brother". Those clans then are accommodated in houses equipped with computers on which they constantly play and prepare for the tournament, while their faces and the successes (along with sponsors logos) are pumped to fans from which one half are teenage girl that are easy to impress, and the other half are teenage boys who themselves want be "pro-gamers". But such glory is fleeting, and it's possible to count on fingers those who for their path in a demanding and highly competitive environment earn substantial sums of money. However, only a few such "heroes" is enough that many young boys (and some girls) conceive reverie that they can earn for life by holding the mouse or controller in there hand.

Is there discrimination? Although there is no reason that girls are worse gamers than men, usually the competition are divided by gender

Evolution of professionalism

But even football players didn't always earned millions. Korean StarCraft-heroes are one example of the possibilities of profit on video games, while in Europe and U.S. we have Quakers and Counter-Strikers. Neither one nor the other nor the third have many pro gamers, but every year there is more. However, there are not many large tournaments so that hundredths of players could live from the reward fund, and companies that are organizing them are notorious for delay of payment or even complete non-payment. But most large companies such as Intel, Samsung, or nVidia have teams or individuals that are sponsored by them to compete. And not only that they give them a computer, equipment and nice uniform, but they also (more or less) regularly pay them for gaming. The second half of the puzzle are competitions that are organized by software manufacturers themself such as Electronic Arts, Konami, or Blizzard. Competition in the games like FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer, or Warcraft, which are organized by the publishers, often does not carry great financial rewards, but for the sponsors of teams and individuals, there are an excellent opportunity for promotion. All this is, however, is short-lived because the sponsorship contracts for players and teams are rarely made for a period longer than one year, so you can hardly say about competitive gaming as a profession. Only few players manage to penetrate to the place where with they hobby can earn a little, and even less of those who succeed to earn big money. There are estimates that throughout the world from competitive playing of video games currently live (ie earning for life) only somewhat more than 1000 games. And again - it is much more than a few years ago. Or, more graphical, about ten years ago to earn enough money for a car playing video games was equal to get the biggest prize on the lotto, but now this is about as you hit 10 doubles in the bookmaker. After ten years, perhaps playing video games get possible earnings similar to popular sports today - in which, remember, only a small number of participants earn, while stars, same as in any activity, are extremely rare.

Rare among the rare Women are not common in the pro-gamer circles, although in fact, there is no reason why in games they would be worse than men's

When it all boils down...

Now would be the turn to respond to the question which every gamer asked themself: "Can I earn enough by winning other people in this in what I am so good?". Because when we defeat artificial intelligence, we all tend to think for ourself that we are the best in the world. And the answer is: harder than some other activity. Penetrate to a position where someone will sponsor you and pay monthly to play, requires time and energy and has a small chance for success, and going to tournaments without sponsors is expensive so you would have to win a lot to manage to live from that money. Of course, if you happen to win in WorldWideWeb Games, then you won one million dollars in one turn from which you sure can live. But such reward, so far, is paid only once. So evaluate your chances. But before I end this attractive theme, we should look into the future - does video game have a chance to become an electronic sports and by paying of players stand side by side with "real" sports? I do not have a crystal ball, but considering that more and more people play video games and concern for them, the interest is bigger, so it is not impossible that - just as in Korea on TV where they transmit StarCraft matches or in Germany Counter-Strike and Call of Duty - that soon everywhere we are going to see competition in digital football or fight of virtual boxer or a race where a car collision only result with bunch of scattered pixels. And those who will manage the digital football players, fighters and cars will be that, now rare in the future maybe wide scattered type - Pro Gamers.

Anel Zukic
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in the hope for better times...

It passed some time since I was on GS. Summer holiday already started (June 9th) all way to September 1st. I enjoyed the warm weather, went on walks and trips with my friends played a lot of Fallout 3 and Sims 3. But the reason for this blog is that I'm kinda back, but I'm going again sometimes soon, don't know when. June was always hectic for me. The end of May, when I took this short break wasn't special either, aside of Eurovision song contest nothing interesting was going on. The spotlight right now is going to FIFA confederation cup.

E3 passed, showed us some great things. I did got just the Microsoft emblem, and the reason is that I was underaged for watching Nintendo and Sony live (you need to be 17+ and I need 4 months for that ), so I needed to log out to watch. Again I didn't posted a monthly blog, so I'm again going to fuse two months in one the next I post a MB.

I did already posted a blog today, but that one doesn't matter, mostly to finish the last one by adding my opinion of Nintendo's and Sony's conference (couldn't edit that one, since it would have over 20K characters, over the allowed limit). After posting this blog I'm probably going to read friends blog's and post a bit in the unions.I'm already planing to post a blog (editorial) tomorrow.

So till then have fun and see ya .

Nintendo

"Nintendo? Bah, I hate them, they have forget the core gamers. Went too much to casual."This was the reason why I couldn't wait for the conference. And it started with a new Mario game!! And it's for Wii, entitled New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It will allow 4 players at the same time to play it and it looked like a lot of fun. GameSpot provided us some hands-on impression of the game so go and check it out.

After that, we saw something that many have feared. Wii fit is going to have an expansion called Wii fit plus. Nintendo spoke big words about Wii Fit, and that some analysts are even considering it as a console for himself, with more then 20 millions unit sold.

Wii Motion plus is finally coming out and that with Wii sport resort. We all hope that the expansion for the Wii remote will really allow a lot of more freedom by moving the remote controller. It's coming out at the end of Juny.

Now 4 RPG games are coming.

The first was the long anticipated Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for Wii entitled FF CC Crystal Barriers and it looks like a lot of fun. The graphics are great what is normal for Square Enix. I was really happy to know that the game is finally coming, after a long time in silence.

The long anticipated game from Square Enix for Nintendo DS, and the game which will explain more about the daily life of Organization. After Chains of Memories, the next Kingdom Hearts game is coming to the Nintendo handheld console. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days is set between KH I and KH II and will have Roxas as the main character. The game looks fantastic and it's coming out on my birthday this year, on September 29 2009.

We are going inside, in Bowsers inside in the new Mario & Luigi RPG game, called Mario & Luigi Bowsers Inside Story where Mario and Luigi are going to be sucked inside of Bowser and will probably try to find the Princess which is also sucked in and then try to escape from there and this adventure will finally come to us in fall 2009.

After some years in silence, Golden Sun is finally coming back to Nintendo in the new game Golden Sun DS. We are finally going to have some more adventure in this great RPG saga.

What would be Nintendo without a bit of casual. Women's Murder Club Games of Passion will try to bring something like poesy to the gaming culture, but doesn't we, the gamers, taking games as art. After that game, Cop: The Recruit has been showed. Guess that Nintendo wants good connection to the police department.

After those two games, Nintendo showed us 4 games which will get use of DSi new features. Sty1e Savvy is a game, that according to them, made people to sty1e there buotique and shops after it. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is coming back in Minis March again. This time you will be able to create your own levels in it. And who rather prefer already made levels will be happy with the next game.

The legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is again be set in the word of Wind Waker with cell-shade graphics and hopefully a good and entertaining story and gameplay.

Finally Iwata showed on the stage and stated some statistics, like that there are 295 million of active gamers in the USA, Japan and 6 countries in Europa and that there are some 149, some that means half of the active numbers, would maybe play games. And after a little talk he presented Wii vitality sensor. For what we will use it, I don't have an idea.

Super Mario Galaxy was great and even won the award for the game of the year on GS for the year 2007 and now it's getting a sequal entitled the same just with a 2 on the end. Super Mario Galaxy 2 will hopefully provide some more features and entertaining then the first one and hopefully will even be better.

"When people wants more then that means some third party games." a sentences said by Nintendo thereself. First game which was showed was the soon released shooter from Sega called The Conduit. After him we saw Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles, now how will this game look like. And if you want to find more about Dead Space, you will need to get a Wii and the game Dead Space Extraction, which will be set before the settings of Dead Space, the critical very good game from EA's Redwood shores studio. Metriod is finally getting a new adventure after the set of all 3 game from Metriod trilogy is coming in one set. Metroid: Other M is coming in 2010 and will probably try to be better then the before ones.

Sony

My expections were the highest for Sony and the presentation was fairly great. Sony's first game on the stage, after a talk, was the game from Naughty Dog and the sequal to one of the best games for PlayStation 3, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. They showed us a fairly big part for a presentation, as Drake is trying to escape from a helicopter chase.

256 reasons to own a PS3 is the next game called MAG (Masive Action Game). They showed us a real time battle between 256 peoples. The game looks great and big, a normal battle will probably take something like an hour.

After those two great games, Sony started to present the new version of PSP, called PSP Go!. It say goodbye to the UMD drive and that's the reason why it won't replace the PSP 3000. It's going to have a 16GB of internal flash memory, built in Wi-Fi, and it's on slide. The start price is going to be the same as when the PSP came out, so that means $249,99/€249,99. And every new game that comes out on a UMD will also be able to be downloaded.

The first game showed for it was Gran Tourismo which will provide over 800 cars, 35 tracks, 60 layouts of those tracks and the best part is that it's coming out on October 1.

Kojima is coming to the stage, and of course he speaks on Japanise. But whats more important is, that he has a new game to present and it's coming out for the PSP called Metal Gear Solid Piecewalker. Kojima say that it's not a spin-off or an enchanched title, it's a part of the main series. It's set 10 years after the happenings of MGS 3 and will fill the gap.

After that a commercial for the PSP/PSP Go! was showed on which you can see games like Resident Evil, LittleBigPlanet, Mottorstorm, Harry Potter, Monster Hunter, Jak & Dexter, SoulCalibur, some sport games, Unpluged, Assassin's Creed Blood Lines, all games which are already on or are soon coming to PSP.

PSN already have 24 millions of registered users and over 475 millions of downloads. Even FF VII is coming to the PSN which created a loud wave of "oooooooo" and "juuuuuuuhuuuuuuuu". Home, the interactive PSN game which allows you to creat your own character and live with other players ahs already 6.5 millions of user and 85% of them are returning users.

Then we saw a PS3 montage and games like Uncharted 2, InFamous, Madden NFL 10, FF XIII, Batman Arkham Asylum, Brutal Legend, White Knight Chronicles, Dirt 2, Ghostbusters, Ninja Gaiden II: It's Sigma time, Mafia II, Buzz Quiz World, God of War III, Dark Void, Modern Warfare 2, Lost Planet 2, etc, all games which are coming to PS3 soon.

Sony spoke big words about the PS3 and exclusive games for it like Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet and saying that the mark "Only on PS3" doesn't just show us that the publishers are taking the best partner, it also means that the game is of high quality that only can be run on PS3 as it has the best hardware. They said that many franchises started on the PS, or at least got a great popularity, like Rockstar's GTA, Square's Final Fantasy, Gran Tourismo.

Agent, a PS3 exclusive game from Rockstar, is going to show us, as Sony say, what you can do with the PS3. After it, we saw again a demo of Assassin's Creed II, as the new main character is going to get help of Leonardo da Vinci and the story will be set in the Renaissance Italy when the modern world is been created. Again the cities are full of peoples, what is an important part of the game. next game is Final Fantasy XIII and one more trailer was shown and once again they said that the game is coming out in Spring 2010. While introducing the next game, Sony said that the next game from Square Enix is going to be a PS3 exclusive again and it's Final Fantasy XIV andeveryone was excited. After some incredible landscapes were shown and as it is usually for Square Enix, great graphics, everybody was probably even more excited and as the trailer ends while some people with chrocobo stand at the endof a cliff, the name of the game shows and it contains online and probably everyones excting fall down. After, on Square Enix conference, they said that the game is comingalso for the PC and maybe for X360.

"The best kept secret of E3", as Sony said, came to the stage. PlayStation 3, after the Sixaxis and Dualshock 3, is getting one more controller and the one they showed us is a prototype which looks like a stick with a sphere on top of it. The guy who used it, Anton, was a great choice since he was a bit funny. Unlike what Microsoft said, better say Steven Spilerberg: "It's not about reinventing the wheel. It's about no wheel at all!!!" Sony said: "Can you imagine playing some games without any buttons, I can't." After presenting the controller they moved forward.

Mod Nation Racers, is an arcade driving game in which you can create your own track with easy and the upload it to PSN and letother people play it.

ICO finally presented a new game. The Last Guardian looks great, and as many I myself can't wait for it anymore. It feature something older same boy and a young griphon and the boy fed him with barrelsfull with food. Anyway the great looked great.

Gran Tourismo taking the stage, as the best game driving simulator. I don't think I need to talk a lot about since anyone who can't wait it anymore will need to wait a bit more and I just hope not too much more.

And the final game is the game that I, along with Final Fantasy XIII and FF Versus XIII, am awaiting for some time and can't wait anymore. I'm talking about God of War III, one more PS3 exclusive game, which looks great, and Kratos still know show to kill on an intresting way. The game is coming out in March 2010.