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Video games, for most people, are a source of entertainment and distraction. When we're children, we play them as much as we possibly can until our parents intervene and tell us to switch them off. When we're adults, we play them as a way to unwind after a long day at work, or as a diversion from the more stressful elements of day to day life. Apart from the people who make video games, very few of us consider them a way of making money.
Should we think again about that point, though? We ask because something every Football Manager fan has dreamed of for as long as they've played the game has begun to happen. Football Manager – a soccer management simulation – is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world. Many of those people know the joy of taking Morecambe from the foot of the English football league table to European Champions or achieving a similarly unlikely feat. It makes us feel like we should know a thing or two about football management if someone ever gave us a chance at a real club, but we don't actually expect to be offered a job.
Now, however, it's actually happening. There's a 22-year-old analyzing performance at a Serbian second division team after sending them a resume full of his Soccer Manager achievements, and he’s not alone. Players who dedicate themselves to the game often have a better understanding of monitoring statistics and identifying trends than real-life scouts do, and teams are increasingly calling on their services to identify weaknesses – as well as to find players who could potentially improve the team. One day soon, it’s possible that a successful Football Manager player might actually be handed a management role in real life.
That got us thinking – are there any other areas of life where video game skills could cross over into real-life work? We think there are – and these are the roles video gamers could be targeting!
Professional Gambler
Not all gambling is down to chance. There are some aspects of gambling where skill is just as important as the cards in your hand, or the chips on your table, and if you're adept at the games, then you can become a professional gambler. With so many online slots UK and online casino websites available, it's not like you don't have places to practice. Mobile slots would be a difficult avenue to go down, but even with that, there's a mathematical formula that governs the probability of success in every mobile slots game. Find a place where you could play poker or blackjack for free or for low stakes, though, and you could stay there until you've truly honed your craft. Once you're winning regularly, you could start playing for real money, and the sky is the limit from there. The world's best poker players earn millions of dollars per year.
E- Sports Player
With apologies to non-soccer fans, we're using the sport as an example yet again here. It's estimated that up to fifty million people around the world buy the latest installment of EA's FIFA Soccer game every year, so the worldwide player base is huge. Officially-organized tournaments have earned huge audiences on YouTube and Twitch, and have even sold out small stadiums. Now, real-life teams are signing E-Sports players and paying real money to have them represent the team at these tournaments, and the prize money involved can be staggering.
Competition is so fierce that there have even been players transferred between clubs with money changing hands in the process. If you’re always beating your friends every time you play FIFA, you could be the next big thing in E-Sports. There’s even a guide right here which shows you how to get involved in the sport. Be warned though – only the very best need apply!
Live Streamer
This is the easiest career choice to get started with, and the least limiting. You don’t even have to apply for a different job if you want to break into live streaming – all you have to do is pick a game that people want to watch other people play, and become really good at it. Even that isn’t necessary all the time – some viewers deliberately go looking for players who are so bad that they’ll get a laugh out of it! Both YouTube Gaming and Twitch exist as forums for people who want to try their hand at streaming video games, and neither of them will cost any money to sign up with. The most important attribute you need with streaming, though, is patience.
Don't give up your day job immediately. Building viewership is difficult – it could be weeks or even months before you're able to surpass 100 viewers regularly. Once you're above that level, you'll start earning advertising revenue, and the amount will increase as you pull in more viewers. You could even open a Patreon account so viewers can donate to you directly if you wish, although you generally have to offer a specific service in return for the money. There are people currently earning millions of dollars per year just for playing Fortnite. When the next game goes viral, make sure you're ready and waiting to start streaming it before anyone else catches on.
As well as the existence of direct routes into earning money from video games, there are also avenues that could open up simply because of your love of video games. You could become a gaming journalist or a play tester. You could take your love of games to the next level by studying how games are made, and get involved as either a graphic designer or a story editor. Making games is about more than just programming – the programmers do the hard work, but they still need input from people who can tell a compelling story, so they know what to program! If you've ever come to the end of the story mode of a game and thought you could have done it better, there's nothing stopping you from putting that idea to the test.
If you’re a great video gamer and you wish you could spend all day playing, you have the opportunity to make it happen for yourself. Why not give it a try?
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