Can you make money with video games? - Videogame History #51 - Retro Review

More than four decades ago, video games were considered a passing fad, only the enthusiastic and curious people of technology were the ones who proceeded to use the different implements for that peculiar entertainment that was like a "tabu" in society, among the In the 80s and 90s this great franchise obtained quite attractive profits in the economic field, many companies were interested in creating, designing or investing in video games because of the great growth between supply and demand that these were achieving.

However, players at that time dreamed of working within this big industry, being a video game tester, writing for a magazine or even designing a game and publishing it were quite complex tasks to accomplish, in addition many people disapproved of video games as a method of income (especially parents and representatives) so the big companies only enjoyed the profits of all annual sales.

Thanks to a tool called the Internet this has changed over the years, at the beginning of the year 2000 countries such as Japan carried out one of the best events in the gaming area, the eSport, which were simply events organized by certain companies that licensed to expert video players to participate in tournaments, in this way to recognize their skills in competitions monetarily.

Many companies realized the great potential this had, so they decided to support this great movement which spread all over the world, giving monetary recognitions to many players from different countries, however, to be an official player currently sponsored is a task that requires a lot of time and dedication, many people have different activities so they do not have enough time to devote exclusively to this.

It is important to mention the eSport as this marked a before and after in the way of making money with video games, many companies including Google noted that this movement would grow over the years, so it secured this by buying YouTube, turning it into a main source of income for many players today, uploading their gameplays, comments, reviews, opinions, unboxing and lots of content which is a main source of entertainment for many people today.

But not only Google with YouTube could achieve this, a recognized company called Twitch was one of the first to transmit live the gameplays of many gamers, they could generate profits through donations that the same users of the community gave, accumulating a good amount of money in a short time, currently this is one of the most used ways to generate income with video games.

Also online games joined this movement, the sale and purchase of objects became one of the largest investments that has moved millions of dollars over the years, there are people who only engage in foreign objects, gold (or videogame currency), upload characters to the highest levels among other activities to sell them either for dollars, euros or another currency, achieving quite significant figures in the short term.

Then, with the invention of cryptocurrencies, it allowed a new way of generating income through videogames, services such as paypal or neteller went to the background, now many companies pay for different activities in videogames through these new electronic currencies, As is the case of Runescape, many of its users sell the accumulated gold to obtain Bitcoins, as well as this there is a variety of video games that profit in this way.

There are also online video games where they have their own currency and economy generating millions of dollars annually, a proof of this is Eve Online, one of the most talked about video games in recent years, because their economy has been growing by leaps and bounds , to mention another that has a similar system to this is Second Life, where we can pay for real money if we enhance jobs within the game itself (a little crazy but true).

In case all this seems a little crazy or think that this is completely false I will indicate at the end of 2017 the world tournament of a videogame called League of Legends where the best teams in the world competed, apart from being broadcast live by the different social networks and be "famous" within the community, if you win the first place your team will take a total of 1 MILLION DOLLARS, this being one of the most acclaimed and recognized awards in the gaming world, that's why these players take their work very seriously, they know there is a lot of money involved.

Thanks to cryptocurrencies you can also generate income through this great hobby with one of the social networks that for me at this time has been one of the most important, Steemit, the gaming community within this great platform has grown in a way impressive, with the birth of Dlive and Dtube opened the possibilities to many people, if this is the beginning I do not want to imagine in a few years what can become the gaming community within Steemit.

It is impressive as over the years something that was considered "almost impossible" happened to be something very ordinary and easy to see on the Internet, are many players who every day join the large revenues that the videogame industry receives , for my part I support 100% because there are exceptional gamers with incredible abilities, this is a great incentive for them, allowing them to recognize themselves worldwide, making money with your favorite hobby nowadays is something as simple as clicking on a link.