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Ninja, the Fortnite streamer who's one of video gaming's biggest stars.

zwiggelbig

Member
I’ve never understood understood the appeal of streams. I mean, other than the girl streamers. The appeal is obvious in that case. Both of them. But I just don’t understand, fundamentally, what the appeal is of watching someone play a game. It’s like watching someone eat a ham sandwich. Sure, they get a ham sandwich, but all I get is a hankering for a ham sandwich.
If u play pubg for example, then watching one of the best and good streamers like shroud is amazing and really fun
 

Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
Good grief, there's a whole lot of "kids these days" going on.

There are various reasons for watching live game streamers, but for Ninja in particular it's about his level of gameplay. Yeah, most anyone can play Fortnite, but you probably can't play with his degree of skill. It's exciting to watch if you know what's going on. And yes, it helps that he can recruit well-known players and celebrities now and then.
 

Durask

Member
I definitely couldn't stop after just that one year. A single $10M year can obviously set you up for life, but even if the next year is a decline, another $7M to add to it would really solidify things. I doubt he'd be laying in his death bed wishing he didn't work that one extra year before never working again.

Plus $10 mil that's before taxes. It is all W2 income so will be taxed to the max.

So that's 37% federal tax, 5% Illinois state tax, 3.8% medicare tax with surcharge, so at least 45.8% in taxes (I am ignoring his income under 600K since won't make much of a difference adjusting for taxes under 600k)

So 10 mil turns into 5.42 mil which is awesome money but you will need a lot more if you want to retire early and do nothing given your life expectancy.
 

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
I'm old so I will never understand or likely watch, but good for him. I couldn't imagine being chained to my PC and being in the public eye for most of my waking life like he does.
 
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Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
10 Million for playing video games? That is absolutely asinine. I mean, good for him and all - but what the hell.
 

Iorv3th

Member
I don't really envy the guy with how much he ends up playing one game every day. I don't think I could manage a game I really liked for 12 hours a day for even a week straight.

I’ve never understood understood the appeal of streams. I mean, other than the girl streamers. The appeal is obvious in that case. Both of them. But I just don’t understand, fundamentally, what the appeal is of watching someone play a game. It’s like watching someone eat a ham sandwich. Sure, they get a ham sandwich, but all I get is a hankering for a ham sandwich.

I don't understand it really but I'll watch some streams when there is something new out and I want to check it out and see how it plays before purchasing it. At the same time I might sometimes watch good players at something like cs:go or something to try and learn some of the things they do to win and how they approach different situations.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I don't really envy the guy with how much he ends up playing one game every day. I don't think I could manage a game I really liked for 12 hours a day for even a week straight.
Same. At that point its no a longer fun hobby and more like a job. I rather keep my job and my hobby separate.
 

mekes

Member
Let’s plays and game streaming hasn’t caught on big with me. I know the appeal, but I don’t like most games enough to pay it much mind. I watch one streamer, Smug, who plays Street Fighter 5, and that’s it. I watch because we play the same character and I learn a lot from watching him play. I’d be lying if I said his sense of humour didn’t contribute to me watching, but he is the only streamer I watch.

Other than him I’d always rather play a game.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Lol at his 12 hours a day and 8 years long. Dude can take easily days off. But the greed for money is real so he won't and instead acts like a victim.

Stop acting like a victim.

Also more interesting is how youtube/twitch allows these people under contract to have longer then 40 hours work weeks is beyond me. If you see it as a company, then act like it.

Loads of streamers that stream only for select days, nobody cares. Dude is just pinacle of greed and even with 10m shills himself out for more and more money because somehow it's never enough.

Capitalist at its finest.

Can't wait for his heart attack at his 30's because of his blood infusion of red bull that will totally fuck him over if he keeps going this way without much rest.

Or his eventually melt down and depressions that will be incoming shortly after that. The dude is a classic example of a train wreck in the make.
 
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Virex

Banned
Ninja is the most cringe mofo out there. So are most streamers and twitch whores. I spend my time playing games and not watching other people do it
 
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this disgusts me
743009.jpg


:messenger_grinning_squinting:
 
I don't follow any of these guys but can appreciate the importance they have for the industry. Videogames are not a thing for geeks anymore, it's something cool and fashionable and it's generating billions in profits for all the involved parties. Even in an indirect way, the traditional gaming hardcore gamers like us enjoy is beneffited from this, too.
 
Can't stand the clown, but then again fartnite is one of the most basic worse shooters for me. I laugh when kids call him skilled or even pro. Really worried about our future generation.

He gets his ass whooped in any lan he has been a part off. [that I've seen]
 
I’ve never understood the appeal of streams. I mean, other than the girl streamers. The appeal is obvious in that case. Both of them. But I just don’t understand, fundamentally, what the appeal is of watching someone play a game. It’s like watching someone eat a ham sandwich. Sure, they get a ham sandwich, but all I get is a hankering for a ham sandwich.
Yea. I tried watching this clown and couldn't last more than 5 minutes. I found him repulsive in just few minutes. Then swithed to shroud and while he's not as annoying , but simply plain boring even though obviously infinitely more skilled.

I just can't imagine myself subbing to anyone just to watch them play and I guess I'll never understand why anyone would also. It's just too boring. However I would gladly watch DOTA2 finals even though I barely ever play that game anymore. Very professional cast, really awesome entertaining last years finals btw.
 

roflcaust

Neo Member
I've thought about trying to get into the streaming thing but to be honest it sounds like taking what should be fun and making it work.

It's like when Ivan Drago flips out in Rocky 4 when told to win for Mother Russia and says "I FIGHT FOR ME! FOR ME!!!!" well "I GAME FOR ME! FOR ME!!!"

I don't like the idea of having to game "for an audience" and worry about entertaining anyone other than myself, I'd rather work just actually be work because at least then you can spend your free time doing what you want how you want to, turning your hobby into your job just sounds like taking the fun out of it to me.

I streamed for about 5 months and only because I became friends with a top WoW PvP player at the time who encouraged me to stream as well.

I didn't have a good time doing it.

A couple of reasons:

1. I felt that whenever I had 10-15+ people watching me, I had to put on a show. I had to constantly be entertaining, read chat, and try so hard to keep up with someone better than me at the game. Sucked the fun out of it.
2. The moment I wanted to play something other than WoW, whatever small viewership I had plummeted to less than 5. Only the few guys that actually liked me for my personality stuck around and I'm sure two of them just left the window up with the sound off and watched other streams (totally okay, still appreciated the support).
3. My best summary of being a streamer is that you're essentially DJ'ing/ providing commentary on a game. You have to make an interactive experience of something that is inherently interactive but becomes non-interactive once you start watching it instead of playing it (a bit confusing, sorry).

Unless you really like attention, like to engage with random people on chat, and like producing content in general that you can share with others, then streaming is fun.

It wasn't for me. Gaming is a personal experience and I like to do it in private, by myself, without having to entertain anyone else.
 
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okiemok

Member
On Twitch, more than 12.5 million users follow him, and almost 40,000 pay to watch, subscribing to three different tiers and forking over either $4.99, $9.99 or $25 per month to watch Ninja blast his way to big bucks.

This video will give you some insight into how much he is making off subs and adds on just Twitch alone. It's pretty incredible.

 

Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
I streamed for about 5 months and only because I became friends with a top WoW PvP player at the time who encouraged me to stream as well.

I didn't have a good time doing it.

A couple of reasons:

1. I felt that whenever I had 10-15+ people watching me, I had to put on a show. I had to constantly be entertaining, read chat, and try so hard to keep up with someone better than me at the game. Sucked the fun out of it.
2. The moment I wanted to play something other than WoW, whatever small viewership I had plummeted to less than 5. Only the few guys that actually liked me for my personality stuck around and I'm sure two of them just left the window up with the sound off and watched other streams (totally okay, still appreciated the support).
3. My best summary of being a streamer is that you're essentially DJ'ing/ providing commentary on a game. You have to make an interactive experience of something that is inherently interactive but becomes non-interactive once you start watching it instead of playing it (a bit confusing, sorry).

Unless you really like attention, like to engage with random people on chat, and like producing content in general that you can share with others, then streaming is fun.

It wasn't for me. Gaming is a personal experience and I like to do it in private, by myself, without having to entertain anyone else.

This is why it's rather sad to see people deride Ninja for making $10 million a year by 'just' playing games. Even as someone who isn't the most social streamer, he's still putting on a show -- and for 12 hours a day, that's a lot of work. This also isn't including off-stream work like show development, promotion, ad and licensing deals... I'm sure he has people for some of that, but what you see on-screen isn't everything he's doing.

If you want to treat Twitch as even a side hustle, let alone a full-time job, you have to pour a lot of energy into it... and let's face it, most people don't want to do that.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I watched his stream with Drake and I don't get it. Its cool that they're playing together. I just can't sit there while someone shoots large projectiles at another person- hoping that they'll kill them. Then Drake talks a few times. I'd rather turn on a game and engage with an actual video game. I have nothing against what he does. Its good that other people besides teens and young adults play video games.

It takes some effort to play games over the years. Especially telling friends and family about games. Even having people over at the house to play Halo or Smash took some effort. None of us really cared that we didn't get paid for it. But now a days its all summed up with streams and people making a lot of money from it. People quit, stop caring, and you'll see a lot of younger people come up to actually make something out of playing video games.

To me, I can't justify spending money to support someone else playing video games. Between time management, spending money to own video games, and having a lot of knowledge about video games. It doesn't feel good. It sums up the enjoyment of video games for someone else. Frankly, I'd love to see people play games versus watching someone do it. I've supported streamers before, but I feel like I've not done myself the service.

I realize its kinda illogical to think like this, but what if something were to happen to my own collection of games. They get destroyed, someone steals them, or I just want a new game to play. All that support to someone else doesn't make me feel better about my own game(s) or even my ability to play games in general.
 

Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
Yea. I tried watching this clown and couldn't last more than 5 minutes. I found him repulsive in just few minutes. Then swithed to shroud and while he's not as annoying , but simply plain boring even though obviously infinitely more skilled.

I just can't imagine myself subbing to anyone just to watch them play and I guess I'll never understand why anyone would also. It's just too boring. However I would gladly watch DOTA2 finals even though I barely ever play that game anymore. Very professional cast, really awesome entertaining last years finals btw.

In many cases it's about the community. With big-name streamers like Ninja and Shroud, that's hard simply because there are thousands of people and the chat often blows by too quickly to be useful. But there are a lot of mid-tier streamers (Littlesiha, Halifax, Annemunition, people like them) whose communities are small enough that it's as much about hanging out as it is watching someone playing Fortnite, PUBG, Just Dance or whatever else. Less like watching TV and more like being a regular at a good bar.
 
I think a lot of people questioning how anyone could enjoy watching someone else play a videogame, are forgetting that millions of people pay $90+ a month to watch people in tights tackle each other to the ground in an attempt to move a ball across a field.
 
I want to be excited for him, but Twitch, YouTube, and MLG have moved video games in a direction that I’m not a fan of. So I’m just going to be petty and hate him. I also think he acts like a brat.
 

johntown

Banned
Ninja and Fortnite are what is wrong with gaming right now IMO. Why because every developer will start developing these souless cash grab games and the worst part is people buy them and gaming seems to be heading in that direction. Yes Fortnite is free to play but the average gamer ends up paying around $85 just for cosmetic stuff and other things.

If you are a developer why wouldn't you want to copy this model?
 

Grinchy

Banned
Ninja and Fortnite are what is wrong with gaming right now IMO. Why because every developer will start developing these souless cash grab games and the worst part is people buy them and gaming seems to be heading in that direction. Yes Fortnite is free to play but the average gamer ends up paying around $85 just for cosmetic stuff and other things.

If you are a developer why wouldn't you want to copy this model?
That sounds awesome to me. I’d love to see free AAA games come out where suckers who choose to spend $85 on cosmetics are the reason I got to spend $0.
 

jadedm17

Member
Can't stand the clown, but then again fartnite is one of the most basic worse shooters for me. I laugh when kids call him skilled or even pro. Really worried about our future generation.

He gets his ass whooped in any lan he has been a part off. [that I've seen]

So you're saying he's only 97th percentile when he should be 100% the best? There's a variety of reasons to watch streamers beyond just abilities and Ninja is top notch, high energy, PG13, always streaming, no ridiculous drama... I don't care for the guy but I can certainly respect the hustle and understand the appeal, he is a quality streamer for many reasons.

Ninja and Fortnite are what is wrong with gaming right now IMO. Why because every developer will start dev....

We really disagree here.
First and foremost you're disregarding Fortnite's quality : You can argue you don't prefer the shooter mechanics but from whacky weapons to map updates to a variety of ways to even play any given match, the game is solid.
Then there's the fact it's opened doors and one of the first games to push for crossplay, a feature so incredible yet I'd have never imagined it playing Call of Duty on my Xbox 360 years ago. One playerbase. Fortnite.
And lastly of course is the idea is Fortnite's system for revenue works for them and games simple copying it have been massive failures except those that are, again, also quality - AS the love for Black Ops seems to be.
 
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Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
I think a lot of people questioning how anyone could enjoy watching someone else play a videogame, are forgetting that millions of people pay $90+ a month to watch people in tights tackle each other to the ground in an attempt to move a ball across a field.

That's the funny thing. Yeah, I'm sure some of those who don't like game streaming also don't like sports, but I wouldn't be surprised if a large chunk of those "why wouldn't I just play games" types are also the sort who regularly watch sports and have a favourite team.

For many people, and not just kids, game streaming is like TV sports. Especially since it's hard to play as well as someone like Ninja or Shroud without lots of practice.
 
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