By KORDELL DAVIS
Sheridan High School Student
Editor’s Note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams.
I’ve been playing video games for pretty much my whole life. Gaming keeps growing and growing. More and more people are playing them every day. People used to think that they were bad, but now people are starting to see that video games are just another hobby. Some people, though, make it more than a hobby. There are a couple ways you can have a career through video games. You can become a streamer, Youtuber or an esports player.
A streamer is a person who streams the games they are playing straight to a website like Twitch or YouTube and people watch them play. The people watching can interact with the streamer by talking in a public chat box that the streamer reads and responds to with things such as emotes, which are like the emojis on your smartphone.
These people make money by the people watching and advertisements. Once you get big enough, people can put advertisements on their stream so they make money off of them. Also, the people watching can donate money to the streamer if they want, or they can buy a subscription for their channel to unlock emotes and a subscription badge by their name to show support.
A Youtuber is a person who makes videos and uploads them to their channel. These people make money off of advertisements and sponsors. Patreon is a place where people who enjoy the content that they make can give them money to support them. They can make extra money off of this. Usually, a Youtuber will upload on a schedule and will send out notifications to their subscribers so they will know when it gets uploaded.
They don’t get a set amount of money per video because the money they get depends on how many people watch. They could be still making money off of a video they made two years ago. Sponsors are the last way that Youtubers make money. Youtubers can take money from sponsors and then they make a bit about that sponsor inside one of their videos. Usually that bit is about two to three minutes. Another thing a sponsor can be used for is to fund something that they are doing in a video, like a tournament or something like that.
Lastly, you could be an esports player. An esports player is someone who plays video games professionally. Different games have different leagues. When you become an esports player, you don’t play multiple games, you only play one. This might seem weird, but it’s called esports because it is like an online sport. For example, imagine watching football and the team you are rooting for scores a touchdown. That is about the same thing as a person making a good play in a competitive game. And don’t think that being a pro football player takes a lot of skill and being an esports player doesn’t.
Being an esports player is really hard, too. People put thousands of hours into a single game to get that good at it and to play it professionally. Esports players don’t make their own money; instead, the team gets paid and then the players get paid. Esports teams make about 90 percent of their money from sponsorships and advertising.
This as well is just like sports. In racing, for example, cars will have brands on the side. It is the same in esports, but the players would have that brand on their jersey. Also, you know how there are halftime breaks and pregame advertisements? That is the same in esports, which is how they get their advertisement money. Lastly, when a team takes part in a tournament there could be cash prizes. This is how they make that last 10 percent of their money.
Gaming is going to keep growing, probably opening new job opportunities along with it. I am really excited to see where this will go and how big it will get.