By Clafton Siddharth & Florine Roche

Mangaluru, Aug 8: What comes to our mind when someone talks about computer games? We may remember how our parents used to shout at us for wasting so much time sitting in front of the computer or we may associate it with what we did as kids. I remember my dad telling me that my playing games would make me reach nowhere in life. Well, times have changed now compared to situations a few years back. Gaming is now a multi-billion dollar industry and is set to be the biggest upcoming field for growth and investment. It earned $108.9 billion in 2017 and is set to grow to at least $128.5 billion by 2020. Games, like songs and movies have different genres such as Racing, sports, adventure, shooting, sci-fi, open world just to name a few. Every year companies release thousands of games each catering to the individual tastes of the masses. We would like to recall that there was a cyber near Milagres and many school children used to spend time playing games like Road rash, Mortal Kombat and quite a few other games. Games like Most-wanted, GTA San-Andreas were so popular we can ask any youngster and they would tell the joy and happiness these games gave them. Gaming was a big part of almost everyone’s childhood especially for those born in the 90s.

The Rise of Gaming

The first game to be ever created was a simple tennis game made by a physicist William Higinbothan in 1958. This was followed by the arcade games. An arcade game is a game machine found in places like malls, amusement arcades and include games such as pinball, pac-man etc . The 70s and the 80s were the golden age of arcade games. Slowly gaming consoles came into the fray and gaming took a whole new form and became quite popular among the kids. Handheld consoles such as Gameboy and Atari consoles, gave rise to games like the infamous Mario, Donkey Kong and many other games.Soon gaming computers came into the picture followed by a ton of modern gaming consoles like the Play Station, Xbox, Nintendo-Wii and much more. From simple tile graphics and simple controls, gaming evolved into a whole new dimension with graphics making them look so realistic – making us think we are actually watching a movie. The latest development in gaming now, is ‘Mobile gaming’. It is set to be the biggest game changer the world has seen since almost everyone nowadays has a smartphone with internet connectivity. Mobile games are mostly online games and the game developers can earn the most when compared to other platforms since they include advertisements within the game.

With the rising number of kids (And adults too) hooked to gaming, gaming cafes (cyber) have become the norm of the day. Almost every city even in India has at least one cyber dedicated to gaming. Online gaming requires fast and stable internet connectivity which is provided by these cafes. Also many games are team games and require team work and co-ordination. These cafes provide the right set up for those interested in games and one can take out all their anger and frustrations out here. There are two cafes in Mangaluru that I know of, one at empire mall and the other at Balmatta.

Gaming as a Career

You may not believe it but many youngsters nowadays, take gaming as a career. Gaming which was initially a recreation activity which helped kids cope with stress and as a source of entertainment has now become a serious business. People may scoff at them and think whatone can earn by playing video or pc games. Actually one can be can be a millionaire. I am not joking. There are so many millionaire gamers around now. Originally seen as a boys thing, even girls are venturing into gaming now. It is quite a lucrative career and there are opportunities for one to shine just like any other field. There are even colleges offering degrees in gaming. A career in gaming does not necessarily mean you only have to game. You can be a game tester, a developer, a game host or a commentator (Just like TV cricket commentary), you can also give tips and guides on platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and earn money. India is a little left behind when it comes to gaming but it is slowly catching up with the rest of the world. In February, Cobx gaming, one of India’s leading Esports Company, held gaming tournament, with a prize pool of Rs 1 crore for Counter strike and Dota. As I mentioned before, there were a lot of non-gamer participants as game analysts, designers, programmers etc. Most of the gamers earn a lot by streaming their gameplay on YouTube or twitch to the masses and they get donations from the viewers for performing well or showing them something innovative and cool.

Another source of income for gamers is participating in gaming tournaments. Tournaments are held regularly at various cities and international tournaments are also held in different countries. My friends have played at a few local tournaments earning cash prizes of Rs 20-25k regularly. In the international level the prize pool ranges from at least $25000 which goes up to $20-25 million. In august this year, an International Dota tournament is going to take place in Canada with the total prize pool being a whopping $21 million. These tournaments also create employment opportunities for commentators, game analysts, technical and hardware analysts and much more. Who ever thought one could be a millionaire clicking a few buttons and a mouse? Well now you know.

One may be inclined to think “Wow, gaming as a career seems so lucrative and highly rewarding”. Agreed! However, one should know that the path leading to becoming a successful gamer is quite arduous. Just like any other sport it requires talent, hard work, dedication, sacrifice, teamwork and patience. In western countries especially for games like Dota, International teams usually build a gaming house and live together to get to know each other better and improve their game play and co-ordination. They practice 12 to 13 hours a day, with no breaks and meet their families, their friends very rarely. Many of them receive no support from their family and they take a huge gamble by venturing into this field, because failure here means they have no option of getting regular jobs unless they have a basic degree. Gamers undergo a lot of physical and emotional stress and also have to perform constantly or they get kicked off the team. It is simple - with high risks come high rewards.

In this fast paced world, we need to be updated with changing scenarios. What we want to highlight here is that gaming is not necessarily a waste of time. We Indians usually focus only on making our children an engineer or doctor. There are various other fields in which kids can showcase their potential and can lead a good life. Yes, gaming is a new concept and it is a risk taking it as a career. But what is life without risks? With such a huge youth population I am sure soon we will see the names of Indians in the media winning an international gaming tournament. Let us break the negative stigma associated with games and encourage kids to play games. We are not saying one should neglect education but one can strike a balance between the two. Hope we soon see more youngsters venturing into this field and reaping in rich rewards.