Teen Gamers on Gaming

An interesting panel comprised of male and female high-schoolers ages 14-17 and moderated by Jacquie Lane, VP of C&R Research, was given to take a look into the lives of actual teenage gamers. I say “interesting” in reference to the concept, in actuality the takeaway was rather small. The crop of teens didn’t seem to have a good range of interests and the moderator didn’t really direct discussion towards areas of real relevance. Still, a few tidbits eeked out:

• A majority of the kids voted gaming as one of their top 5 activities, said it was better than just watching TV
• If they didn’t have any games to play, they would probably be outside instead
• The Wii was generally accepted as a “cool” console, the Xbox was a bit too core for some of the female gamers
• One girl mentioned how she liked playing co-op with her brother so they could psyche each other up while playing together
• Some said they didn’t like playing online because there was no storyline to follow
• A lot said they still like to play their older consoles, like N64
• ne girl said she only joined Facebook because she learned that Pokemon was on it
• A majority of them did not download much in the way of online content, a few were even unaware you could do so (on a Wii)

The Life of a Pro Gamer

Another seemingly off-track session was by pro gamer Kyle “ksharp” Miller, who was interviewed on the stage by Michael Kane, an entertainment features writer from the NY Post. I’ll be honest when I say that I really did want to be a pro StarCraft player back when I was in high school – but sneaking a few hours on the computer every few nights just wasn’t cutting it for me. Kyle was lucky enough to have parental support, and his mother even drove him to his first tournament in Dallas. He started as a casual Counter-Strike (CS) player when he was between 14 and 15, then joined a team and started playing online once he got wind of competitions.

Kyle was on the scene when competitive gaming was just getting its start, and so he rode the wave once he had become a successful CS player and joined up with a sponsored team. Back then team prizes were only around $5,000, but when you’re only in your late teens with little or no expenses, that’s a decent chunk of change to pocket. He did various competitions around the world up until the age of 22, when he retired. It was time to seek richer pastures in the workforce.

He only worked government contracts for a year or so before being called back to pro gaming by the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) to be a part of their New York 3D team playing Counter-Strike: Source. Although he got out of gaming because the money no longer matched his lifestyle, the CGS was a new breed of tournaments, and case in point – this year’s world finalist team took home 100x the amount of prize money Kyle used to be fighting for. He now practices 3-4 hours a night with his team mates.

Ahhh the good life…

Image Gallery