[YourFather]

Came upon this short write-up by a Singaporean:

"Just asked a late baby boomer if he would be supportive if his child decided to quit studies one day in order to be a professional gamer (provided he is really talented in it and winning championships).

His reply was more then predictable. When I rephrased the question, if he would be supportive if his child decided to quit studies to be a professional golfer/basketballer/bowler/shooter and is good at it. A definite yes.

These are the challenges that the local eSports community face in South East Asia. Negative associations, poor public understanding, wrong perception, just like how the 10 pin bowling and snooker community was viewed 3 decades earlier?

We have some of the world's tightest firearms control, poorest sailing conditions and yet produce notable shooters and sailors. On the other hand, we have some of the best internet connectivity in the world, supportive local companies like Razer and endless supply of cool techy geeks, perhaps we need not import players just for the sake of winning medals in future.

Hopefully it doesn't take another 3 decades for us to have an active and well understood eSports community here in Singapore." - Ken Gwee

What are your views? Singaporeans or not, feel free to share your views of your local scene.

[mGGMueX]

For me, the main reason I wouldn't want one of my kids to be a progamer is that it's not very realistic to actually make a living off it. There are lower odds of making it as a progamer than an athlete or musician, but even if you make it the income's six figures at best, so you can't earn enough for your whole life in the limited lifespan of your career.

[YourFather]

Originally Posted by mGGMueX

For me, the main reason I wouldn't want one of my kids to be a progamer is that it's not very realistic to actually make a living off it. There are lower odds of making it as a progamer than an athlete or musician, but even if you make it the income's six figures at best, so you can't earn enough for your whole life in the limited lifespan of your career.

True, as most people want to excel financially. But I feel for a athlete or musician in Singapore, it is about the same case. Depends on your talent, hardwork and passion

[nirvAnA]

I just have to say although Razer is a local company they are still a business that makes business decisions in their best interests. They do not support local clans / teams anymore than foreign teams and they only do so if they make business sense. Was quite disappointed about it when I learnt that, I thought as a Singaporean founded company they would favour local teams more or at least help grow the local scene. As sometimes it does require some capital to grow things, you can't always expect to be making profitable decisions from the get go.

Anyway my view is that all athletes in Singapore suffer because of how education and getting a degree is so rooted in our systems that there isn't any place for passionate hobbies or failures (aka not getting a degree). I wish it was like in Australia where you could still live a very decent life without a high level of education.

[YourFather]

Originally Posted by nirvAnA

I just have to say although Razer is a local company they are still a business that makes business decisions in their best interests. They do not support local clans / teams anymore than foreign teams and they only do so if they make business sense. Was quite disappointed about it when I learnt that, I thought as a Singaporean founded company they would favour local teams more or at least help grow the local scene. As sometimes it does require some capital to grow things, you can't always expect to be making profitable decisions from the get go.

Anyway my view is that all athletes in Singapore suffer because of how education and getting a degree is so rooted in our systems that there isn't any place for passionate hobbies or failures (aka not getting a degree). I wish it was like in Australia where you could still live a very decent life without a high level of education.

Razer is really taking this direction? Oh man, a part of me just died if that is true. I have the same thoughts as you cause we all know the CEO is Singaporean... Now I look at my Razer gears and am feeling a little weird inside...

Such a pity, cause from all our interviews with foreign pro gamers, they do feel Singapore has the infrastructure - being a modern city with high internet speed access and generally in Asia (Good access to Korea and other servers). But I guess that leads to your second paragraph...

Agree with you on the second paragraph... I really do hope eSports SG can change that by not forcing culture and society to fit gaming, but the other way round. We are constantly analysing our demographics and statistics so we can create a sustainable and structured eSports Community that businesses will be attracted to.

GLHF to us, haha

[Cyanide]

I could write an essay on this.

I believe there's a systemic bias towards the paper chase because we are a relatively young country. Four decades of fast tracked societal upscaling has made getting a good education a cornerstone in our values. The key to growth in developing countries has always been education and infrastructure, imo. Both of which Singapore developed really quickly.

I guess that hammered in the idea that a good education (degree at least), is a great thing! I'm not disagreeing with that at all, but unfortunately that has a side effect on our perception of the proverbial "road less travelled". Coupled with the fact that Singapore has a "face" (面子, mian zi) culture, anything other than the more "prestigious" degrees (read non-arts) is held in less high regard.

Thus brings the point of Sports as a whole, as a career. It's difficult, we don't have the history of a sporting nation, and together with the fall back option of an education, we'd prolly train like our lives DIDN'T depend on it. See why our foreign sporting talents usually do better than the locals?

We'd most likely need bigger events to come down for the perception to change about esports in Singapore. IEM was a good starting point. People like iceiceice is doing a good thing too by devoting his time fully into Dota2. But until the sponsorships come in, it'll be a very long road ahead.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

wowo such good writing!!!!

[yongming]

esports or traditional sports its the same. no sponsorship money unless you are imported talent. might see a change in the near future since sports association are developing local youths. as for esports, wait long long until theres some foreign $ injection.

[ProAnnn]

We need to import foreign talent to Singapore. Then government will probably support. They love foreign talent more than local talent.

Quick Comments

	MooZfY:	+1
	nirvAnA:	+1 come here king kong

[YourFather]

Originally Posted by DM.MCZ.ProAnnn

We need to import foreign talent to Singapore. Then government will probably support. They love foreign talent more than local talent.

What are your views on import foreign coaches to train local talent?

[ProAnnn]

Originally Posted by YourFather

What are your views on import foreign coaches to train local talent?

It will be totally redundant. I remember from a interview FlashBlitz said something that i really agree with.
Something like "Singapore's best players has no motivation to get alot better as the skill level in Singapore is very low and it does not motivate you to get alot better."

Another thing is that we need more regular local lan tournaments to encourage the players from keeping their skill relevant. I dont mind small prize pools but i would want regular lan events to keep the players motivated.

Quick Comments

YourFather:

icic, interesting :)

[Fishology]

Thanks for re-posting, was just ranting on FB.

I was going through some of the IEM voice recordings of interviews when I stumbled on Jared talking about putting studies on hold for pursuing his passion. Personally it made excellent sense to me because as long as you have a strong interest, you can make it work instead of entering and leaving the "factory" system of university, degree, office work.

Spoke to my much older colleague on this and the points he raised (as I had ranted on) are mainly the same as in this thread.

If we look at professional sports like golf, you can roughly see that the reason why eSports and Pro Gaming isnt that well supported is simply due to it being in its infancy stage, especially here in Singapore. Imagine if no one is watching golf games, and boycotting NBA matches, there would be no commercial interests supporting the whole industry, which would come crashing down.

So it makes perfect sense for us, to generate better tournaments, to promote and encourage greater viewrship. Once the sponsors realize the exposure they have and more is done to support the scene, Pro-Gamers and the industry as a whole gain so much bigger growth.

Imagine a day where it will be cool for your children not to attend golf or piano lessons, but spend quality time with pro-gamers taking SC3 traning sessions. Where instead of dragging you to the next Twilight type movies, your other half cant wait till bring him or her to the next IEM/WCS/WCG event.

Anyway with current small viewership here in Singapore, it does not make financial sense for companies to invest much in local gaming scene, lets do our part and build it up. Really cheers to IEM for hosting it in Singapore this time round.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	Welcome to the site, thanks for posting this!
	YourFather:	Upz upz upz

[Delraich]

Originally Posted by YourFather

"Just asked a late baby boomer if he would be supportive if his child decided to quit studies one day in order to be a professional gamer (provided he is really talented in it and winning championships).

I think a lot would depend on the exact circumstances, although I am pretty much leaning to "no" unless there were exceptional circumstances or opportunities that could only be achieved with this approach.

If my kid is already really good and already winning championships (e.g. code S), what is the advantage of him/ her quitting their studies?

By studies, are you thinking about school or university? If school, I would definitely not support my kid quitting school to pursue any kind of sport - they would have to adapt and excel in both areas. When they finish their final year in school, I reckon I would be fine with them doing a year or 2 of pro gaming provided he/ she is demonstrating exceptional talent but not if they are just "good". Depending on how this goes would depend on how long I would be supportive. Basically, I would approach the situation in a rational way and go through a bit of a reality check with my kid with respect to be able to earn a sustainable living for the next ~45 years doing this type of work. This is fine because I think it is healthy to try things in your life in between school and uni anyway (approx. 2 years is no worries at all, 3 is probably getting tight, and after 4 years+ I would think they need to have a sustainable strategy in place) and it will not really set you back in life. If already in Uni, then it would depend which year and how old my kid is (e.g. if in year 3, I would encourage them to complete their degree first).

[OSL0rd]

I totally agree with what Fishology said about the impracticality of companies investing here, the scene here is too small.

However I also think Singapore is held back by the gamers themselves. I read in an article about the immaturity of gamers here that totally stain the reputation of the scene in Singapore. Examples are young gamers being very unprofessional about the way they showcase themselves, their maturity, constantly engaging in flame wars with other people and just bm in general on almost every aspect.

The article also mentioned gamers being brainwashed by games like Sudden attack or blackshot, but they are games also so the scene evolving here may be on those instead of Sc2 which is unfortunate but still, it is a section of the eSports scene nonetheless.

My input is that the general values of Singaporeans are the biggest thing that holds back the growth of eSports here in Singapore. When mentioning gaming to anyone on the street, one is immediately inclined to think about gaming addicts, no lifers, nerds. When mentioning pro gaming, people just think its a joke and impractical. Like mentioned in the top of the article, people can accept professional golfers, soccer players etc, but not gamers? They are pretty much on the same terms. So the prime factor here? Values.

I personally have no solution to fixing the value system of people in general towards gaming, i guess the only way is to actually have a large number of outstanding people who do well in studies and as well in gaming. One such prime example (not in SG) is EGSuppy who is a full time student in the University of California, Berkeley and is in one of the premier NA teams EG. He performs well both in academics and gaming, balancing his life well. I guess Singapore needs more people like that to be able to change the value system of the the people here in Singapore in order for eSports in SG to really start to take flight.

P.S all these are my own opinion and do represent anyone nor any organization. I am solely answerable to this.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

well said!

[Zakattack]

well here in the u.k i feel like there is very little or none as far as esports goes (apart from tl ofc) we have no events or barcraft held here (to my knowledge)

also i have a degree in computer game development and its stupid crazy how hard it is to get a job as a game developer not to mention make an athletes salary.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	lol @ athletes salary hahaha
	YourFather:	Haha but I feel you guys will grow fast :)

[YourFather]

Originally Posted by OSL0rd

I totally agree with what Fishology said about the impracticality of companies investing here, the scene here is too small.

However I also think Singapore is held back by the gamers themselves. I read in an article about the immaturity of gamers here that totally stain the reputation of the scene in Singapore. Examples are young gamers being very unprofessional about the way they showcase themselves, their maturity, constantly engaging in flame wars with other people and just bm in general on almost every aspect.

The article also mentioned gamers being brainwashed by games like Sudden attack or blackshot, but they are games also so the scene evolving here may be on those instead of Sc2 which is unfortunate but still, it is a section of the eSports scene nonetheless.

My input is that the general values of Singaporeans are the biggest thing that holds back the growth of eSports here in Singapore. When mentioning gaming to anyone on the street, one is immediately inclined to think about gaming addicts, no lifers, nerds. When mentioning pro gaming, people just think its a joke and impractical. Like mentioned in the top of the article, people can accept professional golfers, soccer players etc, but not gamers? They are pretty much on the same terms. So the prime factor here? Values.

I personally have no solution to fixing the value system of people in general towards gaming, i guess the only way is to actually have a large number of outstanding people who do well in studies and as well in gaming. One such prime example (not in SG) is EGSuppy who is a full time student in the University of California, Berkeley and is in one of the premier NA teams EG. He performs well both in academics and gaming, balancing his life well. I guess Singapore needs more people like that to be able to change the value system of the the people here in Singapore in order for eSports in SG to really start to take flight.

P.S all these are my own opinion and do represent anyone nor any organization. I am solely answerable to this.

Yup. We need to start letting people know it is okay and perfectly awesome to hang out in the LANshop and having a nice takeaway over the GSL being streamed.

[AssyrianKing]

I would give my child probably a year, depending how well he does with his results, would decide my decision

Quick Comments

YourFather:

That's nice... open minded to give it a shot :D