If only I was going to college now instead of way back in the day. I could have been one of the cool kids that everyone looked up to and been the super preppy jocks that you always see in the movies who date the head cheerleader. Well maybe not all of that would be true, but I with colleges like Illinois university offering partial scholorships now to people to play on their school gaming teams, I could have at least not had to pay so much for college. And that it would be a much better reason to go back after class and sit in front of a computer all night instead of the lack of reasons that I had.
Really though I think this just goes to show how far competitive gaming has come over the years. I still remember the times back when you almost couldn’t tell people about the stuff you did because nobody would understand. Now not only do people understand, but you can make a pretty good living doing it. I actually wonder if this is working out better for the students then all of those football players who wont make it into the pros. Sure they get to be on tv and become more well known, but if the gamers get to keep their winnings, then at least the gamers will be making some decent money. And if they don’t get their winnings, then I don’t understand why they would even go and do it for the school when you could just as easily do it on your own and be sure to keep all the money.
Getting a little off track there so lets bring it back with the one thing that always seems to happen in gaming stories, the person who thinks games are bad for people. Yes, you can never have a story without it so let’s be glad that Kimberly Young was around in the ABC article to make her comments heard. Of course she says games are addicting and that schools shouldn’t be offering scholarships for something oh so very addicting. I’m sure she knows a lot about psychology and maybe I’m slightly biased since I play quite a few games myself but really anything can be addicting. You just have to do it in moderation. Even if this was addicting it has to be better that they are doing it with school supervision and with other people around to help monitor it, then how it was back in my day when you sat in your room doing it for god knows how long anyway.
It sounds like things are going well, and they university it going to continue to the for at least another year. That’s always great to hear and of course we will always hope that more people will find the joy of competitive fps gaming and stop focusing so much on the Leage of Legends bandwagon.
