[deleted]
They’re not gamers, they’re entertainers playing video games. Gamers who earn money are really pros, in which case they’re comparable to athletes.
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Submitted 3 weeks ago by GrumpyCat@leminal.space to [deleted]
Comments
piyuv@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks ago
And in most cases don’t make much
msage@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Just like the rest of us
GrayBackgroundMusic@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Don’t ruin a hobby with money. You will lose all enjoyment of it. Something changes when you get paid for it.
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Myke Hurley said in some episode of Cortex podcast, that he doesn’t want to turn his new mechanical keyboard hobby into a jobby. He wants to keep some things as just hobbies. He has enough jobbies as it is, and he doesn’t want to ruin something he enjoys.
Although, it sounds more like OP has no jobs or jobbies, so having at least one should be ok.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
This right here
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
No. The people making money are content creators. They are churning out multiple videos a week or streaming for hours and hours, gathering thousands of followers/views and sponsorships on top of the YouTube/twitch ad streams.
You don’t make any serious money from a casual hobby. These people treat it as a job, because it is one.
whoisearth@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I will challenge this
You don’t make any serious money from a casual hobby. These people treat it as a job, because it is one.
Many streamers start while either in school or working full-time until they reach a point where they can hopefully quit their job and stream full-time. Many don’t get there.
It is possible.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
The reality is that they don’t. Only a small percentage of them gain a big enough following that they can get by with streaming payouts, donations, and sponsorships.
There’s so many people to watch and hardly anything unique about them to make them stand out.
moakley@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You should prepare yourself to get a real job.
You can game on the side. You can even try to build up a following and turn that into something that replaces your job. But you probably won’t get that off the ground before needing a real job.
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
IMO gaming is in the same category with art, music, racing, football, photography etc—fun things to do, only very few can make a living out of them.
Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
If you want peace of mind find a job that you toletate well. You don’t need to love it. You’ll develop a deeper interest for whatever it is as time goes on. The important thing is that it’s something you don’t find completely overwhelming. The other important thing is that you can leave it at the door when you go home. Every hour of your free time you spend thinking about work is an hour of unpaid overtime.
Just try different things until something sticks and don’t forget that you can still fine-tune your career or do something else entirely if you wake up one day and realize that’s what you want.
jj4211@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You’ll develop a deeper interest for whatever it is as time goes on.
This is so insidious. Working a job and one day you realize you actually care about something you don’t understand why you should care about it. I know I it’s stupid due me to care about something in my with and yet I do.
FilthyHands@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
My sister streams MMOs and JRPGs as a hobby. She has a very modest following and doesn’t do much to promote herself. She gets a check of $100-$300 every few months. I think it’s a pretty good deal for the effort involved. I tried it for a bit but found out quickly I have nothing meaningful (and barely anything meaningless) to say.
blarghly@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Essentially, no.
Basically every job in gaming is going to be a shit job. Because everyone likes gaming, so there is a massive applicant pool, so companies can pay you terribly and treat you terribly. There are a tiny, tuny handful of actually good jobs in gaming - top level streamer, game storyboarding, pro gamer - that actually pay at least somewhat decently and have their enjoyable moments. But to get these jobs, you’ll truly need to be the best of the best. You cannot be “casual” - you must be beyond excellent, and charismatic, and lucky. And then you will always be stressed that someone will dethrone you as top dog.
The best way to turn a gaming hobby into a job is to start modding games. This itself wont really make you money either, but it is a good way to learn software. Then you can get a software job.
Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If you look at most popular streamers today you will notice that they have years of doing it, and the reason is that it’s difficult to gain followers, and even if you to viral for some random reason it’s difficult to maintain the followers engaged. And without followers ads or sponsors are not going to give you too much money, and trying to charge your followers is more likely to lose you followers than earn you money.
In short, take a “normal” job that’s okay with you doing that as a side gig, and with time you might earn enough on your streaming that you might be able to quit your job. Good luck, it’s a hard market to get into.
expr@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I assume you’re young?
Big streamers can make okay money, but to be honest it’s not really something to aspire to generally speaking. It’s not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. When you spend all of your time doing something that’s supposed to be relaxing/fun as a job and you can’t even necessarily do what you want anyway, it’s not really fun anymore. And beyond that, only a very small portion of people that attempt it actually make money from it and it’s much more about how you can manipulate social media platforms than it is anything about gaming.
Nemo@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
Personally, I wait tables.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I wait chairs.
Klear@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I just wait.
zxqwas@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In any entertainment business the top 1% takes home most of the money. The rest gets a few dollars here and there.
Most people are better off with a normal job and just do it for fun on evenings.
SolidShake@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m a master mechanic and Indy edm producer. Most my money comes from my mechanic job. 15% maybe is from music
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I think the only game where you can make IRL money is Eve Online.
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
At that point you’ll have more fun working for a bank. You’ll be looking at less spreadsheets at least.
AltheaHunter@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
For the most part they work normal-ass jobs like everyone else.
sundaymidnight@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
short response: you will take a real job
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
If you’re really good at a competitive game like Counter-Strike, you could do tournaments for money. But unless you’re in Asia, the payouts are absolute shit and it wouldn’t be enough to be your only job.
sundaymidnight@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
translated: “I’m a game tester”
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
I wish… That would be dope. As long as my boss isn’t J. P. from Grandma’s Boy. Unless he also stole my game and my grandma has to best his as in said game to prove it’s mine and not his. That would be fun.
neondragon25@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
It is not easy, I’ve made little over $1k in about 6ish years of doing it as a hobby. It takes time, dedication, and an amount of knowledge about different systems. My advice, if you want to do, do it! But keep it as a hobby unless you get a winning ticket. Also important, don’t fake it (viewbots / chatbots) and dont steal it (art or assets). Making online media content is pretty fun and can help flex the creative muscles!
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
No you can’t. Go touch grass.
POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Howdy.
I was paid to help people in games for a while.
In non online games I would win quite a lot at Warhammer/ Magic tournaments.
But none of these will entirely pay the bills.
Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
you have to have a personality that people like, and thats the non negotiable part. the rest is work ethic. other than that, do not go into the field expecting to make money playing games, unless you live in a place with a low cost of living and you happen to collect bounties on difficult challenges which no one should be doing for a living.
Randomgal@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
No. And you just pointed out why. The people you see on YouTube and Twitch rolling in the dough aren’t playing games, they are producing content. These are two different things to do.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Hmm, no, but you could get really really good at trucking or farming sim or bus sim and apply those skills to real life. That is something people have actually done.
BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
Read this: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand
moody@lemmings.world 3 weeks ago
The 3 ways to make money in gaming are to a) be exceptionally good at games, b) have an entertaining personality, or c) do something that nobody else does.
For a) either you’re good enough to make it in esports, or you’re good enough that people want to watch you stream. For b) gaming is really just a small part of what brings people in. c) might be doing things like challenges or other niche gaming related stuff.
wildcardology@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
B is the only criteria that matters to me.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
It takes time to grow an audience, and if you’re very lucky maybe 5% of your audience will actually give you money to do what you do.
Even if you manage to stand out in what is a fairly saturated market, it will be years before you have enough people following you to make enough to live on. And to grow that audience you will have to put in constant steady effort all those years while seeing little to no return for it. If you waver, if you stop putting in that effort, the audience will start to go away and any momentum you had going will fade. And even if you do keep it up, there’s no guarantee that you will make a decent living from it.
It is not impossible, but keep in mind that turning it into a job will mean that it is a job. You will not spend most of your time playing video games and having fun. Most of it will be spent doing things to manage and grow the business - all of the technical details that go into setting up a quality stream, all of the social media aspects of interacting with your fans, all of the bureaucratic details that go into running any business.
Lucky_777@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you want to make money in games, then start MAKING games. Learn python, C, or some Unreal engine. Playing games is just entertainment, like going to an art show.
You can try to stream, but you have to be funny, really amazing or female showing off your body. If you start to play around with making games and learning code. You can get a real job using it and make games on the side.
Game tester will kill your love for games. You get a small segment of a title and play it probably 5k times. Walking around, finding bugs, and recording what you found. It’s not “fun”.
Code. It’s the best option.
CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Work hard, learn to code, master the fundamentals, excel beyond your peers and you might have a real chance at… being laid off by embracer, microsoft or ubisoft. Sigh.
MurrayL@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sounds about right. 41% of game devs got laid off last year, and there have been more since.
Statistically, this is a terrible time to try and join the industry.
hahattpro@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Coaching Streaming (game is just a medium to perform, like if you are singer, you performed it via a song, …) Go pro (competitive esport) for prize, or sponsorship (which your team pay you maybe percentages or fixed salaries or both) Farmer (play for stuff in MMO and sell it) Sitter, booster (login someone account and play for them)
baggins@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
They get a job.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
No. You have to be dedicated to this and push for years to maybe, just maybe make actual money. Not only do you have to be a gamer, but you also have to have a personality people like.
Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And talk about games critically, playing for personal enjoyment is different compared to playing for game reviews, walkthroughs ect. its a job now, not a hobby.
Jesusaurus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s not true. Plenty of personalities on YouTube just play games and provide it as an experience that others can follow along with. Granted, not all of them make much money, but a number of them at least make some supplementary income from it.
Brosplosion@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Can’t find the quote, but a similar vein when talking about Counterstrike pros. Basically if you have the question of “should I try to go pro” you already aren’t dedicated enough to make it.