By Rachel Yeo
“Good Games, Fun Times” is how the Vice President of Gamers United, William Luft, GSB ’15, would describe the heart and mind of Gamers United at Fordham University Rose Hill. The club meets every other Wednesday at 4 p.m. in Hughes 208 to play and discuss games, talk about what’s going on in the competitive scene of electronic sports (e-sports) and much more.
Members of the club are part of the huge viewership of e-sports, which can include more than 32 million people for such popular events such as the League of Legends Championship. It is not surprising that universities are starting to recognize games as more than a pastime and rather as a stimulating mind-body interactive activity that might even be worth money or award opportunities.
The prospect of making money off of games is an interesting one. Whether it is through subscriptions, donations, advertisements, participating in tournaments (physical or virtual) or maintaining personal channels, there are many ways to enter the world of mingling gaming with personal financial gain. Members of Gamers United have collected their shares through winning small online tournaments, and Luft has earned donations from online streaming.
Live-streaming and using YouTube are two of the most efficient and well-known methods of reaching a wide audience quickly and effectively. Each has its individual merits. With live-streaming, commonly through twitch.tv, gamers can watch others play and learn techniques and strategies by watching how they are executed in real time. On twitch.tv, viewers can also actively affect the game by shout casting and commentating on a live stream. Twitch.tv also allows the gamer to choose to take the viewers’ advisement into account as well as charge a fee for subscriptions.
YouTube, on the other hand, features edited videos in which people review games, demonstrate skits of games, or simply film themselves playing. The “edited” element benefits video posters who aim to teach or review; selective cuts allow them to focus on one or a few aspects of their gameplay, and gamers can search for what specifically addresses their needs or interests. The ease of using these sites has given birth to the idea that anyone can live-stream, anyone can create a video, and, in response, anyone can choose to contribute financially to those gamers who are building up the gaming community.
A famous YouTuber who goes by the name “PewDiePie,” for example, is well known for the variety of games he shows himself playing along with his humorous reactions. In addition to what he earns as a YouTube star — YouTubers make 55 percent profit for video depending on subscription numbers and views — PewDiePie’s 34 million plus subscribers opens a different financial opportunity.
His ability to influence the games his viewers play caught the eye of game-makers who hired PewDiePie to play their games and use his funny quirks to advertise their products. This is the edge PewDiePie has over the industry to make his two cents count.
Bringing it back to Fordham’s very own, perhaps if members of Gamers United were to find and be granted a huge computer room that could easily be reserved on campus, they could host larger LAN tournaments that would reward participants with cash and glory. Seeing the cooperative efforts of online tournaments that have already taken place within Rose Hill’s Gamers United and Lincoln Center’s Gamers Guild, they are more than ready to host such events if given the equipment and opportunity.
President Robert Butler, GSB ’16, hopes that “anyone could have fun playing for or watching these tournaments.”
Samuel Kim, GSB ’16, a member of Gamers United says, “There’s no such thing as a non-gamer; it makes you think when you see kids growing up playing games to stretch their imaginative horizons and parents deciding at some age that those creative barriers are no longer to be pushed through.”
Games are not limited to video games; a game is any world in which one can devise one’s own rules and outline an alternate reality.
When asked if they could see themselves playing games for life, members of Gamers United unanimously stated, “for the foreseeable future, yes.”
“Honestly, I could play the Wii with my grandchildren,” says Luft.
One can observe social conventions such as healthy teamwork in competition by taking turns, being forced to make quick decisions, adapting to situations and working with spontaneity in these microcosms that we supposedly diminish by assigning the all-encompassing term, “games.”
Yet, the poor connotation of the word “games” can easily be shifted, and it should be, considering how deeply embedded they are in any one person’s childhood and advancement thenceforth. Games are fun for all. They are more than just entertainment, and according to the growing digital world, games can bring in the bucks.
