| Name | Income* | Game(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Seo 'ToSsGirL' Ji-soo | $5,753.13 | 3 tournaments - Starcraft |
| Mirlet 'Hitomi 1' Delgadillo | $6,000 | 3 tournaments - Dead or Alive 4 |
| Samantha 'Ricochet' Whale | $7,000 | 1 tournament - Dead or Alive 4 |
| Jennifer 'jso' So | $7,000 | 4 tournaments - Counter-Strike |
| Christine 'potter' Chi | $7,800 | 5 tournaments - Counter-Strike |
| Alice 'ali' Lew | $7,800 | 5 tournaments - Counter-Strike |
| Alana 'Ms.X' Reid | $10,000 | 1 tournament - Quake III Arena |
| Livia 'Liefje' Teernstra | $14,000 | 2 tournaments - Dead or Alive 4 |
| Jamie 'Missy' Pereyda | $15,000 | 1 tournament - Quake III |
| Rumay 'Hafu' Wang | $16,200 | 5 tournaments - World of Warcraft |
| Vanessa 'Vanessa' Arteaga | $20,000 | 2 tournaments - Dead or Alive 4 |
| Sarah 'Sarah Lou' Harrison | $50,000 | 1 tournament - Dead or Alive 4 |
| Marjorie 'Kasumi Chan' Bartell | $50,000 | 1 tournament - Dead or Alive 4 |
| Sasha 'Scarlett' Hostyn | $81,282.44 | 30 tournaments - Starcraft II |
| Katherine 'Mystik' Gunn | $122,000 | 3 tournaments - Dead or Alive 4, Halo:Reach |
*All amounts are listed in USD
When it comes to a livable wage, those amounts aren't very much at all - but pro female gamers do exist! Also, I'm really playing the wrong game as Dota 2 is nowhere to be found on that list. I can understand how hard it would be to continue being a professional gamer if they're the winnings you can get from tournaments.
So let's look at another potential source of income for gamers: streaming. Streaming on sites like Twitch allow you to broadcast yourself playing a game, and others can watch and comment in the chat. Some streams have donate buttons so spectators can donate to the streamer. There is also an option to subscribe to certain streamers (I think they need to be a partner), and you get special benefits in exchange for donating money to them monthly. One of the theories (if the MagicAmy is really a male playing thing is true) for why someone would go to so much effort to have a girl show her face during tournaments, is that it's much easier for a female streamer to gain a following than it is for a male one. I don't have any statistics on this to back it up though.
However, having a successful stream doesn't mean that you are a good gamer. It just means that you are entertaining. Looking at some of these lists of top female streamers, itsHafu (the same Hafu who is #6 on the highest paid female pro gamer list) and a couple of others are generally the only ones who is credited with being highly skilled at the game - one of the articles says Hafu puts a crazy 60-80 hours per week into her stream, that's way more than my full time job (for a bit of a laugh, check out this ridiculous question about how to make programmers work 60 to 80 hours a week). The rest are described as charming or caring of their fans. Or hot - although Twitch's new dress code means you cannot stream nude, or wearing sexually suggestive clothing.
Having streamed a little myself, I find it incredibly hard to be able to think about the game and remember that I need to talk to spectators (I had 1, hahaha) at the same time. It's a really tough thing, to be able to focus on the game so you don't play badly, but also try and think of things to say so that your stream doesn't get boring. I wasn't even streaming a real-time game, it was a slow turn-based game and I still struggled! Although I'm hoping that's something that gets better with a bit of practice.
While there aren't that many skilled female gamers around, that doesn't mean they don't exist! It's probably just a reflection of the number of females playing games overall. If you think about it, if only 0.1% of the population can reach professional level play (I just pulled that number out of my ass), and the population is predominantly male (for now), then it makes sense that you only see a small number of females in that 0.1% - assuming all other things are equal. And if you think about it, if skill is normally distributed, there are fewer people at the higher end of the skill ladder. Even if you are only in the top 5% of gamers, that still makes you an incredibly skilled player.
It's so easy to watch someone else play and pick up all the mistakes that they make. They are the ones playing under pressure - your analysis can be performed in the comfort of your squeaky computer chair, and if you're wrong, you might have a few people on the Internet argue with you, but no big loss. They are being watched by hundreds or thousands of viewers. When kyxy (male Dota 2 player) denied the Aegis at The International 3 (which was one of the contributing factors that lost them the game), so many people freaked out, called him a noob, etc. Yet he managed to make it to the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year, a feat many of the armchair analysts have never even come close to.
So next time you are watching a girl stream, and you think, "She's not even that good, people are only watching because she's a girl," think about this: 1) she is practicing, and likely to be improving, even if only a little, 2) you are judging her from a spectator's point of view, where it is much easier to pick up mistakes, 3) it's tough to talk and play at the same time. Most importantly 4) if you don't enjoy the stream, just leave - the people who are there are there because they want to watch (or are curious, but they may leave if they realise it's not their cup of tea). I don't see the point in going to someone's stream to abuse them for being bad and only getting attention because they're a girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment