Gaming for a Living Aug 7, 2007 You ready to put your money where your mouse is? UK-based Tournament.com plans to launch a service this month that will let gamers pony up an entrance fee, play a first person shooter match, and then divide the money among the winners. After the house gets its cut, of course. At launch, you'll only be able to play Counter-Strike and Half-Life 2 deathmatches. Tournament.com founder Marcus Pearcey wouldn't comment about any publishers who might have declined to participate, much less any upcoming deals. "We look forward to signing new companies in the very new future," he said, stressing that this isn't gambling and therefore shouldn't be objectionable to any of the larger publishers. "Gambling rewards a player based purely on luck, while Tournament.com is a service that rewards players based on their skill. They're two very different models." for the complete article: http://us.i1.yimg.com/videogames.yahoo.com/feature/gaming-for-a-living/525568 What really pisses me off about THIS is I've played some of those video games and a LOT and I mean a LOT is "luck" based - more so that TBJ or poker. What do the think the odds of a TBJ game being found on Tournament.com is? Any guesses
Fps I've played a fair few of these FPS's in my time and I can assure you that the luck element is fairly small. When you play these games against others in a deathmatch/gladiatorial style, in teams, or a Capture the Flag format, you don't stand a chance against more skilled players/teams. Sure the games are pretty frantic, not that realistic, and you will get killed loads of times; success is a question of killing your opponents more than you get killed and skilled players will slaughter the competition! Funnily enough I was surfing the minor satellite channels the other night and happened to stumble on a televised FPS tournament; the best players won almost all of the time and it was surprisingly entertaining TV. Almost made me go and buy an Xbox 360 and Gears of War! There are plenty of "professional" full-time computer gamers out there who get loads of sponsorship and make decent coin out of these sorts of games, far more than most blackjack professionals do Food for thought... Cheers Reachy
Video Games as a Professional No I understand that video gaming is BIG business, especially overseas. I mean see this article: Don't Tell the Kids: Computer Games Can Make You Rich Players in South Korea Do It Full Time, and Lucky Few Have Six-Figure Incomes By MEI FONG Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal SEOUL, South Korea -- At age 24, Lim Yo-Hwan plays computer games all day, makes a six-figure income doing it and has thousands of adoring fans. Computer games have become a spectator sport here, and Mr. Lim is a star. In a packed Seoul television studio recently, Mr. Lim stood combat-ready in a military-style white tunic with epaulettes, his spiky hairdo set off by shiny silver headphones. Tapping frantically at a keyboard, Mr. Lim built a virtual empire and launched a daring attack on enemy forces in an imaginary electronic galaxy -- and was defeated -- all within five minutes. Broadcast on cable TV, his moves were also displayed on screen before 300 fans in the studio, who cheered, cried and smacked noisemakers to show support. "I never miss a match" of his, said Jung Eun-young, 28, who stood in line for 14 hours for her front-row seat. http://www.mongabay.com/external/pro_video_gamers.htm What ticked me off what seeing that Golden Palace was starting something in which players were playing "tetris-like" games with the high scores winning. I guess the UIGEA is forcing these operators to find loopholes in the system and who gets hurt? Click on this link to "skill games" (ok no direct links but it is www.skillpalace-dot-com) such as Solitare and solitare BJ. So why are they skill games but touranment BJ isn't? I just don't get it
I think you are reading too much into this. It's very unlikely to have anything to do with the UIGEA. Lots of operators split up their offerings into 'Sports Betting', 'Casino', 'Poker', '[Skill] Games', etc. The categories don't exist to separate games that fall foul of the UIGEA from those that don't; they are simply a way of organising things. I'm not aware of any operator that is applying only a partial ban on U.S. players, allowing them to play 'skill games' only. It's all or nothing.
