Professional Video Gamer?

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Cruzerthebruzer

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I spend a decent amount of video games and currently make money from streaming and youtube videos. Is this something I shouldn't mention anywhere on my application or ps? I'm unsure of how it looks.

Thanks,

Ctb

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Of course you do. Put it right next to the area where you would write down that you were an exotic dancer.
 
Unless you actually went to several real-life tournaments, and won $$$, I really wouldn't put it down.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I was constantly asked about my hobbies at med school and residency interviews. Video games is definitely one of them...and I definitely never mentioned it. The majority of adcoms and people alike are not very understanding of video games as a hobby and look down on it...I'm assuming it's because it's before their time? Either way, better to play it safe and not mention it.
 
I spend a decent amount of video games and currently make money from streaming and youtube videos. Is this something I shouldn't mention anywhere on my application or ps? I'm unsure of how it looks.

Thanks,

Ctb

I actually think there's a pretty good case to be made for including it. If I were to list this on an AMCAS application, I would list it as "employment, non-medical." It would probably turn an eye or two in a good way. I think you've turned your hobby into something quite valuable.

One caveat, though: Be prepared to share your Youtube channel name if you want to put this experience down. If you can't based on the content of your videos, this experience might not belong on your application at all.
 
There was a recent study put out that played up the benefits of video games for surgeons so I don't think it is entirely bad. If you can spin it to sounding like you are making money of something you like to do in your spare time I don't think it can hurt. Instead of saying that you play video games for money perhaps say that you operate your own You tube channel and make money from that.
 
If adcoms had any idea how hard and complex Starcraft 2 is to play at high levels, you'd have a lot more video gamers in medical school :)

Of course there's also LoL ;)
 
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Well Obama appointed a video game czar....
 
Just write your personal statement about how Hotshotgg calls you an idiot. Also, if you win Hanover it's an automatic acceptance into Harvard medical school. Good luck!

Edit: To actually answer your question, no you should not put it (maybe you couldve if you had won a big tournament, which you haven't). My advice would be to stop playing LoL entirely, use the time to do something productive.

Edit Edit: I would actually put it down. Could help and don't see it hurting.
 
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Like tantacles mentioned, I would actually include it if you went to big league tournaments and actually did this full-time productively. If you were more of a semi-pro or just did it as an involved hobby I would leave it off.
 
Just write your personal statement about how Hotshotgg calls you an idiot. Also, if you win Hanover it's an automatic acceptance into Harvard medical school. Good luck!

Edit: To actually answer your question, no you should not put it (maybe you couldve if you had won a big tournament, which you haven't). My advice would be to stop playing LoL entirely, use the time to do something productive.

How dare he pursue something that he's interested in as a hobby
 
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If they know what's best for them, they won't call it a negative.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220012341.htm

My question is- you're getting paid to play video games? And you want to go to med school?

The earnings you get from youtube postings are pretty nominal. He's not paying off any loans with this kind of money unless he's getting upwards of 10,000,000 hits per video, and most video game playthroughs get around 50-100,000 views maximum, from what I've seen.
 
How dare he pursue something that he's interested in as a hobby

I agree it's stupid and not fair, but adcoms probably won't see this hobby as an admirable pursuit. Maybe a few generations from now, but I don't see the current old farts putting alot of stock into being a pro-gamer. But you never know, I'm changing my mind and am going to say put it under the hobbies section. Can't see it hurting.
 
I spend a decent amount of video games and currently make money from streaming and youtube videos. Is this something I shouldn't mention anywhere on my application or ps? I'm unsure of how it looks.

Thanks,

Ctb

Wait wait wait! Important question that no one has asked! What games do your youtube videos feature?
 
The earnings you get from youtube postings are pretty nominal. He's not paying off any loans with this kind of money unless he's getting upwards of 10,000,000 hits per video, and most video game playthroughs get around 50-100,000 views maximum, from what I've seen.

You have no idea how that works nor how many views people can easily get.
 
League of Legends.

www.cruzerthebruzer.com Shameless plug.

Anyways, what about doing something like lessons for it? You can get paid a decent amount to do them.

My brother used to play that game day in and day out. The sounds are so annoying!

I'm more of a console gamer myself.

However, the teaching part actually sounds extremely interesting. I'm obviously not an admissions committee member, but if I were, I would find that an extremely interesting part of an application. I'd want to investigate more.

I still say include this under employment, and if you can start doing lessons, do it.
 
There are already grown up prima-donnas (or athletes, whatever!) making millions and being adored by millions, as f-ng heroes, for playing children's games in full stadiums (or stadia, whatever!). People will even watch professional poker on ESPN. Why not video games? People will watch anything and even develop a passion for it. It's better than boredom and easier than keeping busy with actual activities.
 
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You have no idea how that works nor how many views people can easily get.

There are multiple models of payment, but they all roughly correlate to how many people view your page. And while I know that it's possible for a video to go viral and get a bajillion hits, those videos are few and far between.

Take for example, thekillernacho, one of youtube's top pokemon battlers. His most popular video has over a million hits, but his other videos often don't even break 100,000. For those interested, the 1,000,000 hit video is below:

[YOUTUBE]ye7b3bOQ6lY[/YOUTUBE]

And for the record, this kind of popularity generally only comes when a gamer does something extremely novel, as shown in the video above. Those of you who have never played pokemon likely won't get why that video above is abnormal, and that's fine. It's kind of ridiculous that I watch these videos in the first place, and I know that. No need to remind me. :laugh:

Playing a game well, though, isn't enough; you have to do something really novel to get that many hits.

In addition, OPs channel is posted. He's at about 100,000 hits per video, though I really didn't look through too carefully to see what variance existed.
 
Hot damn, you're a 2000+ elo player? damnnnnn

I was gold bracket last season and i definitely did not mention it on my app haha
 
Hot damn, you're a 2000+ elo player? damnnnnn

I was gold bracket last season and i definitely did not mention it on my app haha

Yeah I probably could join a team and end up traveling and stuff if I put my mind to it and accepted one of these invites to teams, but I think missing blocks of my current ochem/physics schedule would be detrimental to my GPA :p

Any other opinions on getting paid for lessons and employment?
 
If I give you you my LoL username, will you be on my team?

I wish I was that good. I'm decent, but don't do as hot when I play with my high-elo friends. I've gotten really good with akali, though its easier against lesser competition.

Do people really pay you for personal lessons or is this just something everyone was tossing out as a possibility?
 
Most of the currently popular streamers used to give lessons, but now that their stream is so huge they don't want to do lessons as much. I'm pretty well-known, one of the more well-known teamless players, so I don't think I'd have too much issue finding a customer base.
 
Zwitterion, I remember missing a question about you on one of my first ochem tests cause I couldn't remember what zwitter meant -.-

Thanks brotha.
 
nerds.jpg
 
I would not include video games no matter how good you are at them. It would be like giving them a list of your favorite TV shows. I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the ECs that adcoms dislike. If you were an adcom who disliked video games, then you would dislike the full time traveling video game champion even more than the guy who plays video games a few hours per weekend.

Do you think there are any adcoms who are hostile against religious applicants? Do you think those applicants who worked or volunteered for religious organizations left it out of their applications?

Anything that makes you stand out is a gamble, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should try to fit into whatever mold you think adcoms might want.
 
If I give you you my LoL username, will you be on my team?

I wish I was that good. I'm decent, but don't do as hot when I play with my high-elo friends. I've gotten really good with akali, though its easier against lesser competition.

Do people really pay you for personal lessons or is this just something everyone was tossing out as a possibility?


Play Kennen. You'll **** your pants, he's so fun! I mained Akali until I bought kennen, now I don't touch her..
 
would you say I like video games when applying for jobs?
 
Yes I do.



No I do not.

However, I believe they should have left it off, had they believed the average adcom would dislike it. Most people in the US are religious, so that one is a safer bet than video games.

Maybe. But what percentage of medical professionals are religious? How about in the northeast? And the fact is that this poster doesn't just LIKE video games. He's turned his (awesome) hobby into an arguably productive endeavor.

It's kind of like a lesser version of being a video game writer for game informer. Not to diminish the awesomeness of your channel, OP. but I still think it would be a respectable gamble to take.
 
As an addendum to my previous post I wanted to say that I included singing at a church as one of my ECs and didn't put anything about video games. I wasn't really talking about doing actual religious activities, rather just working with a religious organization.

I think what I'm ultimately trying to get at is that OP's activity is less about video games and more about the fact that he created a successful YouTube channel, parallel to the way that my church work was unrelated to religion and was, in fact, an artistic endeavor.
 
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