Should Parents Support Teens Who Want To Become Professional Gamers?

1. 2019-11-04 at 7:37 AM UTC

   #1
   

   Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Dark Matter [my scoffingly uncritical tinning]

   As a family doctor, I often hear from parents about how their kids push back at any attempt to limit how much time they spend playing video games. The parents will say, it's after midnight, maybe it's time to turn off the video game and get some sleep. But the kid – usually a teenage boy – responds that he wants to be a professional gamer. "This is my job," the boy might say… Millions of young Americans are paying real money to watch other young people play video games. Tyler Blevins, known as "Ninja," earns $500,000 a month playing Fortnite – and that was before he dumped his previous host, Twitch, where he had over 14 million followers, to join Microsoft's streaming platform, Mixer.

   https://games.slashdot.org/story/19/11/04/0013200/should-parents-support-teens-who-want-to-become-professional-gamers
2. 2019-11-04 at 7:42 AM UTC

   #2
   

   aldra JIDF Controlled Opposition
   only if the kid has a more reasonable fallback
   
   
   it's like youtube and all of these other 'new media'-type roles, very few are able to actually make a living that way
3. 2019-11-04 at 8:19 AM UTC

   #3
   

   Sophie Pedophile Tech Support
   Ninja makes over 500k a month? Wot.
4. 2019-11-04 at 1:20 PM UTC

   #4
   

   Cold Air Yung Blood
   They should support them no matter what..
5. 2019-11-04 at 2:54 PM UTC

   #5
   The Self Taught Man Black Hole
   We're gamers and the world is no place for us!
6. 2019-11-04 at 2:55 PM UTC

   #6
   The Self Taught Man Black Hole
   I mean, it depends if he's really good or if he sucks ass
   
   kinda like real sports
7. 2019-11-04 at 2:57 PM UTC

   #7
   

   Sophie Pedophile Tech Support

   Originally posted by DietPiano I mean, it depends if he's really good or if he sucks ass
   
   kinda like real sports

   
   I'd say that's fair. But i'd probably encourage a backup plan just in case.
8. 2019-11-04 at 3:17 PM UTC

   #8
   

   Number13 African Astronaut [dispute my snotty-nosed seagull]
   Being successful is like a .01% chance, how many small youtube channels have you seen? All of them want it but few have what's needed.
9. 2019-11-04 at 3:21 PM UTC

   #9
   

   HTS highlight reel
   Yes, to the same extent they'd support them being an actor, musician, painter, animator, athlete, or any number of other lofty professional aspirations that are statistically improbable to succeed in no matter how passionate about it they are.
10. 2019-11-04 at 3:32 PM UTC

    #10
    The Self Taught Man Black Hole
    
    The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!

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