Harvard psychiatrist from Healthy Gamer reacts to Joe Rogan “Video games are a waste of time” comment
Dr. K from the Healthy Gamer Twitch channel recently posted a reaction video talking about Joe Rogen’s recent anti-gaming comments. During his discussion on video games, Dr. K pointed out the difficulties of someone supporting themselves through gaming.
Healthy Gamer on the statistics of going pro
Although Dr. K was supportive of players who are interested in going pro, he made sure to present the actual statistics and likelihoods of a random individual going pro. One of the things he was able to point out that the research done by Healthy Gamer found that only 2% of pro players in DOTA 2 take home 98% of the prize pool.
Although the odds of becoming a successful pro gamer were always assumed to be bad, Healthy Gamer is taking the lead in finding accurate, quantifiable data needed for prospective players to take into account when making these kinds of decisions.
This makes a lot of sense as in any professional competitive sport or game, success creates further success. This is because, as a player performs well they earn attention in addition to prize money. This attention is another form of monetization which is not available to the overwhelming majority of hopefuls.
As a player continues to earn money, however, they will continue to develop their skills backed by the financial security of their earnings and with the resources allotted only allotted to players at the top.
So it becomes clear that for many pros and hopefuls alike, success (or failure) is cyclical. The more successful you are, the more successful you are likely to be, and vice-versa.
Healthy Gamer on what it takes for gaming to become financially viable
One of the other angles Healthy Gamer intends to take on this dilemma is what skill percentile a player needs to achieve in order to make $100,000 a year. Although this research is still ongoing, Dr. K is highly invested in providing the gaming community with accurate and reliable information.
Although Dr. K seemed to disagree with the sentiment and tone of Rogan’s comments, he reiterated the need for good information to be publicly available for these prospective gamers to make informed decisions.