Thoughts on eSports and pursuing pro gaming

Well something being worthwhile is all relative.

I love the idea of people simply chasing the things they like in life and magically succeeding but that's not how life works. Whatever happened to people respecting the effort of their parents, appreciating the work of thousands of people smarter than them that came before them, understand their roles in society?

Shouldn't you pick something realistic and with long term reward in mind? I know, I know. Sports players do that. But the difference is that being a sports player takes years of hard work that acts as a gate that keeps people from believing that they can achieve pro status as easy.

The most comparable example would be pro gamers with pro chess players, and the amount of chess players who make money solely by their ability. An article at chess.com says:

"The beauty of chess is that it is cross-disciplinary. It is an art, a science, a game and a sport. Because it has these multiple personalities, it will never garner the big $. However, all of us who love chess know that you invest innumerable hours for the sheer, transcendent beauty and intellectual thrill it provides. The fact that some individuals can make a living from it is wonderful, but besides the point IMO. "

You can admire beauty all you want, but still, I got to eat. Becoming the next Carlsen is gonna be something that I do in my free time, unless I lucked into a rich family and can afford the luxury of pursuing what I want. That's clearly not where gamers featured in documentaries about Dota 2 are in life.

And don't get me started on the ridiculous idea of "follow your passion" and "time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time".

/r/StopGaming Thread Parent Link - youtube.com