Professional Gaming: A New Sport

There is a new type of sport becoming increasingly popular: Professional, competitive gaming. with streaming services like Twitch dedicated to hosting players’ streams, fans can watch tournaments in progress from home. Fans can also donate directly to streamers to support them, and Amazon will give half of the money made from advertising to the players. Because of this, gamers can make enough money to live comfortably by playing the games they love. According to this article on Mashable, professional gaming first became popular in places like South Korea, but it took longer to become popular in the West because people didn’t think gaming could be a full-time job, at least not one that could pay the rent. Now, people are dropping out of college to pursue a professional gaming career. I may not be a gamer, but I think it’s great that professional gaming is taking off. For some people, the traditional 9-5 job might work, but for others, it might not. This could also provide opportunity for people who might not necessarily enjoy the college experience. Who knows what the implications of the popularity of professional gaming will be? We’ll just have to see. The article compares professional gaming to professional sports, but I see it being like professional blogging. For those people who stream their gameplay, they are broadcasting themselves playing the games they love, and that’s how they make their money. Some people blog for a living, and even though they are broadcasting their views through a different medium, they are still putting themselves out there.