Hire a Game Coach Online 179
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Expert videogame players, many of them teens, are forging professional careers as coaches, finding clients — many of them in their 20s or 30s — online, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some gigs pay $65 an hour. From the article: 'Gaming-lessons.com says its youngest "Halo 2" instructor is 8-year-old New Yorker Victor De Leon III — better known by his online gamer name, Lil Poison — who has given several lessons a month since late last year, fitting the classes in after he has done his homework. His father, also named Victor, says his son has used some of the money he earns from lessons (hourly rate: $25) to buy a hamster, named Cortana after a character in the game.'"
I've heard of life coaches.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I've heard of life coaches.... (Score:2)
community-based and bot-based help (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:community-based and bot-based help (Score:2)
Re:community-based and bot-based help (Score:2)
This made me ponder how I aquired my own (moderate, granted) gaming skills, and I did realize that a degree of mentoring did have a roll. I remember the Total Annihilation strat forums rather well (and the odd philosophical conversations...), and the UT forums also helped. When it came to console FPS games, the learning curve more involved getting myself killed 8000 times in Halo DMs (to my freinds amusement) before mastering those nasty little controller things.
It seems that in gaming, (good) pla
Why? (Score:2)
What gets me is why anyone would want to pay? It's like paying someone to eat chocolate for you.
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Guess it's a sign of maturity for video games that now rich nutjobs decide they can buy their way to the top since they don't "have the time" to really practice (plus they're getting annoyed that 8 year olds can beat them). And it's not like your Halo character can be PL'd...
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Too bad it's just shooters (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Too bad it's just shooters (Score:2)
Re:Too bad it's just shooters (Score:2)
Re:Too bad it's just shooters (Score:2)
What you're suggesting is more like paying someone to do your homework for you, but it is not the same as training one how to do something.
Re:Too bad it's just shooters (Score:2)
Cust: Yes
Coach: Ok, work your way to where the enemy spawn point is. Camp there and kill anyone who appears before they can orient themselves. Thank you for hiring "l33t ski11z Game Coaches".
Training Fee Schedule (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Training Fee Schedule (Score:2)
Re:Training Fee Schedule (Score:2)
I have no problems on lvling a char till max or shoot a player or two. But those ghosts always got me one way or another.
Re:Training Fee Schedule (Score:2, Funny)
Wow. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wow. (Score:2)
By the way, when you think of how many hours you'd have to play to become good enough at a game so that you can sell your knowledge it probably works out to less than you'd make bagging groceries.
well now (Score:1)
Re:well now (Score:2)
Kids these days!
This was happening way back in Starcraft days (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This was happening way back in Starcraft days (Score:1)
NO KIDDING! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:NO KIDDING! (Score:2)
Re:NO KIDDING! (Score:2)
-
Re:NO KIDDING! (Score:2)
Why? (Score:2)
Example: A lot of RTS games now have replay features. Want to get better? Every time you get stomped, watch the replay and see what the other guy did. Try to emulate it in sandbox or skirmish mode. After a few dozen replays you'll be playing like a compete
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
I started doing it. I noticed immediate results. I kept doing it until I got proficient at the technique. I later learned a whole bunch of varients on it through expriemntation, but always ha
Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's also rewarding.
I don't know why I should be at all surprised that people are spending money on getting better at games. The solution to everything these days is to throw money at it; that's why I quit playing CCGs like Magic: The Gathering a decade ago...I wasn't able to spend the thousands of dollars required to even have hope of competing in the tournaments.
I suppose we're just forgetting the joy of doing things for ourselves. Our soci
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Coaches in every sport imaginable
2) Exercise consultants in the gym of your choice
3) Music teachers
I mean, to learn piano, all you need is to buy a piano and then just plunk away at it until you're playing Chopin, right?
This begs the question... (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, to learn piano, all you need is to buy a piano and then just plunk away at it until you're playing Chopin, right?
You seem to be implying that learning to play a video game well is equal in difficulty to learning to become a skilled pianist. For that matter, do you think that becoming a skilled basketball player or swimmer is no more difficult than becoming skilled at Halo 2?
I don't think all activities are equal in difficulty, particularly given that video games are created specifically to be playable. The piano wasn't created to be easy to learn. Video games are.
Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
How do you teach a person to anticipate what their opponent will do? How do you teach them how to tell the difference between a player running away from a fight
Re:Why? (Score:2)
1) What do sports coaches teach? The rules of the game (because real-life sports rarely come with manuals and tutorials included), how to not get yourself physically hurt (stretching, properly exercises, proper technique in executing the physical comp
Re:Why? (Score:2)
I believe the thinking would be:
But that takes time and effort. I want to be better RIGHT NOW! (and I don't mind paying for it)
No different that people who buy gold (Score:2)
Internet (Score:1)
Re:Internet (Score:2)
I hired a game coach. (Score:4, Funny)
Jolt Cola, Mountain Dew, Coffee.
Hamburgers, Tacos, Pizza - lot's of pepperoni and sausage - need that protein!
Skittles, Gummi Bears, etc... - sugars for the brain.
Cross training across platforms: alternating days of: PS/2, PCGames, Nintendo, etc...
Re:I hired a game coach. (Score:2)
How much things change in a day. (Score:2)
Re:How much things change in a day. (Score:2)
One thing's for sure... (Score:3, Funny)
The minute gaming is this important in my life.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Mercenaries (Score:2, Insightful)
Hear that? Jack Thompson just came in his pants. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hear that? Jack Thompson just came in his pants (Score:2)
That said, imagine the uproar had Halo been M-rated for boobs instead of violence! Gasp! Shock! Horror!
I, for one (Score:1)
Talk about spectrums! (Score:2)
I think people are just confused about what to do with the enthusiams games generate.
Legal? (Score:2)
Regardless, allowing children to be employed this way seems short-sighted on the part of parents. Service jobs at least teach kids to deal with people they may not like. Employment of this s
Re:Legal? (Score:2)
As a parent myself, I would have no problem with my kid doing something like this. Charging an hourly fee for coaching someone teaches quite a few useful skills. They learn that they have to keep a customer
Hurm... (Score:2, Insightful)
But, ah, this is ridiculous, in its own right.
Hamster (Score:2)
Games going more mainstream (Score:2)
Fairly useless (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm concerned for that kid (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm concerned for that kid (Score:2)
Re:waste of money (Score:5, Funny)
Re:waste of money (Score:4, Funny)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
I don't know how popular those would have been for action games or such things, but LucasArts used to have a hint line you could call for their adventure games where you could get the solution for a puzzle that had gotten you stuck. I'd b
Re:waste of money (Score:3, Funny)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Back in the day the competition level wasn't as stiff. I never felt the need for any of that extra help because video games were just something me and my buddies played. When Quake hit I felt like I was pretty good at it for a few years. But the level of competition started ramping up due to the regional and then global competition pool.
The
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Heh. I was good at Quake when everybody only had the *original* DOS Quake (with the mpath TCP/IP support) and a modem. You could feel the lag then, and I had gotten pretty good at manually compensating for the delay.
Then QuakeWorld came out, and then people got high speed Internet (as did I), and I've sucked ever since.
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Actually, for a long time, Nintendo had a free (meaning only long distance charges, not toll-free) line that would give you help/hints if you were stuck. I remember being disappointed when they phased that out in favor of 900 numbers. I never used it much, but it was nice to have if I rented a game and really couldn't figure out what to do next.
Bizarrely, I still remember the phone number (206-885-7529!), long after I've completely forgotten my home phone number from back then, which I used much more ofte
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Upppppppp, uppppppppp dowwwwwwwwn, dowwwwwwwwn, leeeeeeeeeft, riiiiiiiight,leeeeeeeeeft, riiiiiiiight, beeeeee, aaaaaaa, selllllect, staaaaaaaaart.
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
or is it up down up down left right b a select start ? Something like that worked for level select in TMNT 2 for the NES back in the day. I loved kicking crang's ass in that damn technodrome.
Oh, Pur-Leeze! (Score:3, Insightful)
that is the gheyest thing I've ever heard. Paying a kid $25 to get good at Halo is pathetic to say the least.
For the past two decades the second highest market behind selling the games themselves has been the selling of magazines with cheatcodes, screens, etc. All of which may not actually make you a better player. Having someone to actually point out the things you do which are wrong and better ways to achieve results is nothing less than Big Business spends tonnes of money on every year, so why not
Re:waste of money (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
Re:waste of money (Score:2)
You learned Perl during the dot-com era, didn't you?
Re:Pathetic (Score:3, Funny)
For the degrees, you don't need coaches. You just buy them from grade-farmers in China.
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
They spend extraordinary effort to get straight A's throughout high school and undergrad in the hopes that someone will pay good money for them later. Sadly, they often get hooked on the intense rush of grade-grubbing and end up spending the next 10 years of their life wildly chasing the next big enlightenment high.
I've seen it happen. It ain't pretty.
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Re:Pathetic (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Pathetic (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people enjoy their leisure activities more if they're good at them (especially when the activity is competitive). Stands to reason the market would provide facilities to help people improve. I wouldn't spend my money on something like this, but I'm not going to disparage the people that do.
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Re:Pathetic (Score:5, Funny)
Not if you have a groundhog digging up your yard and you can't seem to chase it off. It doesn't see the golf ball coming. The surprise shot usually sends it off for days.
There are other cross sport uses, too. For instance, baseball helped improve my bowling skills. Ever since I started bowling overhand, I'm not wasting frames trying to adjust to the lane conditions.
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Weren't you the groundskeeper in Caddyshack? Watch out for those Baby Ruths.
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Actually, yes it is.
jfs
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Has the thought ever occur to you that some people have way too much money?
I've seen people put $100 bets on each hand of Rock Paper Scissors without much second thought.
For normal people it would be like betting a penny.
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
This is more an issue in the UK though. Sad thing is we already have land that you can't develop, hard to develop, normal and then you have sites you pretty much get paid to develop (ex-indus
Re:Pathetic (Score:2, Insightful)
Counter-Strike (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pathetic (Score:1)
Imagine, some time later, when you ask a kid what he want to become when grown-up, he'll answer "I wanna be a prof. of Counter-Strike!"
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Re:Pathetic (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, I don't know about that. I've found it useful to chuck a few grenades into a room before I enter. Other than the janitor at work getting royally pissed it has served me well.
Re:Pathetic (Score:5, Funny)
So it's mostly just like college, then.
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Yup.. just like my forced elective... "Lexicography".
Re:Pathetic (Score:2)
Re:No kidding! (Score:2)
Re:Money has all the easy answers: (Score:2)
There are some useful items like basic tactics and positioning, wonky things that are particular to the game physics engine, scripts, etc, but mostly you can pick those up from a couple days of play and visiting