I am only a few years younger than the guy who is 37... And believe me, your priorities shift and change once you hit 25.
Playing games for a living sounds great if you're a teen, or in your early 20s. But once you get more life experience and see what is out there you'll find sitting in front of a computer for 12+ hours a day, clicking away at virtual representations of people to get a simulated head shot will be the farthest thing from "fun" you can have.
Yes. There are kids around the world who play games for living, but who really WANTS to do that for the rest of their lives? Who CAN do that for the rest of their lives? As much as these kids might not want to admit, as they get older their reflexes begin to slow. This is true of any kind of athlete. Even the quote-un-quote cyber kind.
If these kids are smart they will get an education in programming or game design and then take their experiences playing pro games and become developers. It is a natural progression, but one I don't see too many CPL pros making the move to... Because they are constantly thinking about the here and now and not 10, 15 years from now when they can't react as fast as the 15-year old sitting across from them on a LAN.
This is why Fatality got into marketing his own hardware and other things that don't rely on his twitch reflexes. Because he knows sooner or later those reflexes are going to slow down. He's smart. And I have no doubt he will move into the business side of the games industry and become a marketing person, PR person a.k.a sales person once he retires. There is nothing wrong with this and it's a natural progression for someone like him.
What I don't like is people like Angel Munoz, and the CPL promoting gaming as a healthy sport. It is not.
Sitting idle at a PC for 12, 15 hours a day so these kids (12-18-year olds) can practice to go "pro" is not healthy. He puts false dreams in kids heads and is partly responsible for why there is so much immaturity in a lot of on-line games: These kids want to be "hardcore" so they can go "pro", so they treat what is a recreational activity as a second job... And all the casual and more mature gamers who view games as a hobby...The way games should be viewed in my opinion... Suffer because of it. This is rampant in the CS/CSS community and it is mostly because of the CPL and CAL.
There is a big difference between practicing and training to become a professional athlete like a baseball, or basketball player and sitting in front of the computer for hours on end fooling yourself into thinking you are training yourself to be a better player than the other guy. This is something most kids don't understand, but they fall for it every time. And it is why I blame the CPL most of all.
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