This last weekend I went to a bar in midtown to watch the finals for DOTA2 International. Winner took home 1.6 million and the loser took home 600k. I think it’s awesome how far competitive computer games have come since I’ve been playing (which is over a decade). I saw OHAI reference SC2 on the forums. What other games do you guys play? Doesn’t have to be strictly competitive, but MUST be computer games. DEATH TO CONSOLES.
My list is: DOTA2, CS (GO/Source/1.6), SC2
As a former gamer (albeit not a good one), I find this fascinating. As a parent, I find it scary as I don’t want my kids to aspire to being professional gamers.
I thought this was a South Korean thing only.
I stopped playing video games when i got to college (w the exception of halo II) but back in grade school i played diablo II and medal of honor.
Why not? As long as it’s not their only aspiration playing video games competitively has a lot of benefits. There are a lot of articles that show that gamers have above average speed when it comes to tasks that don’t have to do with games, but the same rate of correct outcomes. I also think (don’t know how old they are already) that in the next few decades we’ll start seeing it turn into more of a sporting event.
Nope. Usually the best gamers come from Sweden too.
I kick some serious arse in WordFeud. That’s about it for me.
DOTA2, SC2 and other games are all about micromanagement. I perosnally never played DOTA2 but definitely something worth looking into.
I played Age of Empires semi competitively and i played UT2k3 and UT2k4 competitively.
I am really upset with demise of pure 1v1 shooter games like Quake, UT etc. Nothing beats 1 on 1 adrenaline rush were you coming up on spawn of power up knowing that opponent is there. It is also the most challenging form of game where you have to have great reflexes, keep track of 3-4 power ups + weapons spawns and knowing your opponent position and strneght and weakness.
The nice thing about multiplayer games is everyone has the chance to compete against each other. The pros play in the same games (if you’re good enough to get matched with them) the rest of us do. It’s not like sports where you see guys on tv and think “I could do that.” In online ranked matches you know exactly where you fall in the grand scheme of things.
Very hard to believe you’re good enough to compete against the pros unless you are, in fact, that good.
I also played Age of Empires… but the game that wiped the floor with AoE was Empire Earth. That game was the ish, but the mutliplayer wasn’t nearly as popular. I was one of the best at that game. But I haven’t played anything competitively (ie vs another real person) in I don’t even know how long, it was probably Madden or NHL 09.
warcraft 2 was lots of fun. get 4 friends in a LAN party against the computer. game session can last for hours and hours.
I played Warcraft 2 and Diablo II. I was a beast at both. Actually my best “trade” was on Diablo II. I just had an economics class in high school about the requirements of money – one of which it is stable. I noticed the in game currency (290 poison charms or something) was disappearing randomly and knew that people would end up switching to a more stable item cuz of this . It so happened those charms were worth like 8 SOJ’s (a ring). So that seemed like the clear winner in terms of money. I liquidated all my characters, 290s, and items into SOJ. A month later it was two 290’s per SOJ and I was a made man. And I made an insane ROI which was able to equip 8 very powerful characters fully. And after that, i was untouchable!
I just started playing (pubbing) 1.6 again when I built my new computer.
Used to play competitively (CAL-M).
Never really played many others.
my man, this is all i did was trade. remember wug?
I never played Diablo 2, but this is cool. I like that you guys traded your way into sweet gear rather than farmed endlessly. I’m not really into games where you need to farm up items. Would rather sharpen some kind of micro/macro skills.
Stupid concept. Sports are for chumps. I played lacrosse in HS, but I don’t really do much anymore. Joining a dodgeball team in the fall.
Video games for the most part are for the socially inept dregs of society. These games where tools put on headsets and go on “raids” and collect gold and battle goblins are for complete losers. I cannot be more clear about this.
I use to like the EA line of sports games but when the PS3 came out for whatever reason I just completely lost interest and have never played again.
I’ve mentioned this several times on this forum already but my favorite video game story is something that came out of China about 5 years ago. Apparently, if this is true, in certain Chinese prisons, inmates are forced to play World of Warcraft 20 hours a day to harvest gold and sell it for real cash online, enriching the prison guards. Prisoners who don’t meet quota are beaten daily.
I’m neutral on video games but I laugh every time I remember this story.
Video games actually helped with where i am career wise today. I was your typical jock and bc of that I associated myself with other people of similar interests. Video games introduced me to a totally different world of people, both online and at my school. Those people at my school were socially ackward but highly intelligent and because of them i ended up taking ap courses instead of basic math like my fellow jock counterparts. Today those jocks are just townies living in the past.
Playing video games taught me to read and write in English. I went to non-English school but scored 800 on SAT writing. I’m pretty sure I have the the Baldur’s Gate series to thank for that.