介绍:
LW: A recent report shows that a 12-year old Chinese boy video game player has become a controversial figure online. It’s reported that he earns 30,000 yuan, or around 4,700 US dollars, a month simply by playing video games. Wu You, what’s the story here?
WY: Here is a 12-year old Chinese boy so apparently he can earn a lot of money by simply playing video games. And now the boy has signed a contract with Panda TV, an online streaming platform, and also he will play game[s] for online viewers as well. The average number of viewers of his live-gaming show can reach 50,000 [LW: Wow], and the peak number could reach one 140,000. And some other professional gaming clubs even approached him for possible contracts as well.
LW: So what exactly is the problem here? It seems that this young man is a resounding success. He seems to have found something he’s really good at, and he’s, you know, prospering from that. Why are people so upset about this?
WY: There have been the same worries as his parents in the first place, that playing video games might affect the boy’s studies. But later on the parents found that he had a gift in this area – not only can he earn lots of money, [the] boy’s mother that it’s really a surprise, they’re so proud of him. You know the Chinese parents when they’re saying that they’re worried that games might affect the kid’s studies is because they’re worrying that they may not find a good job if they didn’t study hard and study well. But this time, if the boy can prove that finding a job is not a hard thing for him anymore. He can earn even more than a white collar did in modern society, and he always have lots of contracts, so the mother and parents doesn’t worry about it anymore.
BK: Well, so this is all well and good, but the question is does the boy have a future in this? Obviously he’s doing great now, he’ll probably do great for a while, but where’s he going to be in ten years? This industry is pretty new, like it’s, it hasn’t really been big until recent years. You know, for a lot of people it’s a limited time kind of thing – you play pro for a while, and then afterwards, you know, you’re kind of done with that and you gotta find another job, so if you’re doing this and skipping out on school, it’s, you know, okay for now, but after you’re done with that, whenever that is, that might make it a little hard to find a real job.
WY: Even you are saying what will he become after ten years, my argument is that ten years ago can anyone predict how e-commerce might be a booming industry like nowadays? So nobody can really predict what will happen within ten years. Maybe nowadays some industry might exist, but after ten years they might died out again.
BK: That is true. I think this industry’s gonna be around in ten years, but are people…like, again, it’s very different than pro-sports in that that’s actually very hard on your body, whereas this is not.
WY: If a kid is an exceptional piano player or excels at chess, then you should call him a genius; but if a kid is super-talented at video games, you would say he’s not studying hard, so that’s just not fair.
BK: Well, it does sound interesting to say that, oh yeah, my child is super talented at video games, because traditionally that’s not seen as a skill like playing the piano or playing chess. And this raises the question, you know, at some point, as society gonna decide that video gaming is a skill that’s worthy of respect or something like that? I heard of a story about a guy who was playing – it was either League of Legends or Defense of the Ancients, one of the two really popular ones in the US that are played pro, and he was the top player overall, in the whole world for this game. And the way he did it was, he did like all of his waking moments playing this game, like to the point where he would go shower and he would like strap an iPad or two iPads to his hands and put plastic wrap around it so that he could continue playing while in the shower.
WY: There has been the news talking about some of the internet bar in China can see some teenagers, they were just obsessed and addicted to the video games. There has been also a news featuring some kids can playing video games for two days without drinking, without eating, without talking to other people around him, so in that case it’s quite dangerous. But to him I think this is quite different is because he was good at it, and he was liking it. Not like the story that Brian has talked about, when he was just taking a computer into a shower. I think that boy’s more like controlled by the game, not really controlling the game.
LW: Yeah, I can understand. And like, this guy, this boy is not just good at it - he’s probably the best at it, for him to be this successful. He’s gotta be better than good.
