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Gaming grows up

Advertisers and players cash in at competitions

By DAVE GUSSOW
Published June 13, 2005

	[Times photo: Dave Gussow]
	Kyle Goodman, 15, left, and Ryan Hillyer, 17, play a video game while waiting for a tournament to start June 4 at Orca Game Centers in St. Petersburg. Orca is one of 150 centers around the country that are involved in the first rounds of the World Cyber Games.

ST. PETERSBURG - Rob Tyre and his D5 teammates are looking to score big with video games. It's not just to vanquish opponents, but also to gain attention and maybe a little cash along the way.

"We want to eventually become a nationally ranked team," said Tyre, 18, of St. Petersburg. "It's a good way to make money on the side, and it's a good way for (getting) respect (in the gaming community)."

Make money? Playing games? Actually, yes. The best of the best, while a relative handful, are earning five- and six-figure incomes between tournament winnings and endorsement deals. Some have signed on with agents.

Tyre and D5 are not in that category, though they are gaining a bit of a rep in these parts as a top team in tournaments, and they are seeking sponsors to help defray the costs of traveling to competitions.

If it sounds as if gaming is going from a teenage wasteland to something more, that is what organizers of events such as the World Cyber Games are hoping. Businesses big and small hope to cash in on the popularity of video games.

"The WCG is a 21st century digital entertainment festival," Hank Jeong, chief executive of International Cyber Marketing, said by e-mail from Seoul, South Korea.

The company began the games as a test in 2000 with competitors from 17 countries. This year, the World Cyber Games expects 1.25-million competitors in 70 countries, with 800 finalists competing in Singapore, where more than $400,000 in prize money awaits the top guns.

Local competitions have begun, with D5 winning a round this month at the Orca Game Centers in St. Petersburg. It's one of two centers in this area that are involved, and part of 150 centers around the country.

Another round is scheduled for early July at Orca, with the winners facing off for the right to advance to the Florida regional (the location will be announced soon).

The regional winners then go to New York in September for the U.S. championships, and winners there go on to Singapore. Total prize money this year for national and world events is $2.5-million.

For the local rounds, competitors pay to play ($5 at Orca). The regional is free, but players have to make their own travel arrangements. In New York, the players get free hotel and food and help with travel costs. Those who qualify for Singapore get an all-expenses paid flight and place to stay. Corporate sponsors pick up the tab.

"This is a highly competitive program," said Mark Nielsen, executive director of iGames, one of the sponsoring groups in the United States. "Professional players end up winning."

One of the first big names in pro gaming is known as Zyos (real name: Matt Leto of Dallas), who plays the game Halo for a living. He earned $80,000 one year, according to the Dallas Observer, after dropping out of college.

Leto signed with the Major League Gaming professional organization, which holds tournaments around the country, according to the Observer.

Yet competitions are also about getting some PR for cyber gaming, which some consider a sport. "At the end of the day, the objective is to increase overall participation," Nielsen said.

Along with iGames, an organization made up of local game centers, International Cyber Marketing has teamed with the Electronic Gaming Association, which puts on trade shows, to build and run the competition.

It also has gathered sponsors, mostly related to gaming and electronics, such as Samsung, Intel and Nvidia, which makes graphics cards. The sponsors' money provides much of the cash prizes.

Jeong says it initially was difficult to get the attention of sponsors beyond the affected industries. That is changing, he says, as companies involved with lifestyle products learn about the event and its target market of 18- to 34-year-olds, mostly males.

For example, energy drink Red Bull was one of the sponsors last year at the finals in San Francisco.

"It is just a matter of time when cyber gaming globally blossoms as an effective marketing tool targeting (the) digital generation," Jeong said.

The event's first and biggest sponsor is Samsung. It sees the cyber games as an opportunity to drive the gaming industry, according to Peter Weedfald, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Samsung Electronics America.

"There are people who have grown up on gaming and who live and breathe for gaming," Weedfald said. "Samsung would love to own the first inch of the glass" where games are played, such as TVs, monitors and cell phones.

Samsung has teamed with Microsoft on the upcoming Xbox 360 game console, and Microsoft will use 25,000 Samsung high-definition TVs at retail kiosks to show the graphics quality of the console.

"This is actually going to help us drive sales of high-definition televisions," Weedfald said.

While gamers and the companies that cater to them know about the cyber games, most people do not, says Victor Starsia, president of the Electronic Gaming Association, which is in charge of the U.S. finals in New York.

Starsia, whose background is in organizing trade shows, has reserved a 15,000-square-foot hotel ballroom, where 150 computer terminals will be set up and vendors and sponsors will have booths. The world finals in San Francisco last year attracted 30,000 people.

"Sponsors and exhibitors like that it's not just another trade show," Starsia said.

Because contracts hadn't been signed, Starsia could not name companies that will be sponsors, but he hinted that more lifestyle companies would be involved because of the size of the market.

"It's a gigantic worldwide community," he said, "none of which seems to be known to the general public at all."

Indeed, reaching that market can be a challenge even on the local level. Linda and Joe McFarland opened Orca in March, in the same storefront where they build, sell and repair computers.

The game center is slowly building a clientele based on word of mouth, though it is far from profitable at this point. One challenge for the McFarlands is figuring out how to market to gamers. While many are teens, McFarland says, the center has attracted even a few in their late 40s.

They invested $80,000 in 20 high-end gaming PCs, with the fastest processors, best video cards and speediest Internet connections.

"We offer what they can't have at home," McFarland said. "That's a powerful system and a good time."

Plus, it lets gamers get together in a more social setting instead of playing online at home, McFarland says.

That takes some getting used to, says Tyre of D5, whose team practices 20 hours a week. (The cyber games have individual and team competitions.)

Tyre works 40 hours a week at Sears. He will be attending St. Petersburg College and hopes to eventually transfer to the University of South Florida to study engineering. He has been a wrestler.

He believes he's good enough to be competitive in gaming, but not at all costs. He's familiar with players such as Zyos in Dallas, but dropping out of college for a pro gaming career is not for Tyre.

"I'll put full-time effort (into gaming)," Tyre said. "But I'm going to make sure I get a degree."

Dave Gussow can be reached at 727 771-4328 or gussow@sptimes.com

iGames: www.igames.org

Orca Game Centers: www.orcagamecenters.com

World Cyber Games: www.worldcybergames.com

In video game competitions, players can compete head-to-head as individuals or as a team.

At the Orca Game Centers in St. Petersburg this month, the first round was in the popular Counter-Strike game. Other games in the World Cyber Games this year include Starcraft, Warcraft III, Warhammer 40000 and Halo 2.

Here's how it works: Each game goes 30 rounds of about 2 minutes each. For 15 rounds, one team is the bad guys trying to plant bombs, for example. The other team tries to stop them. If the bomb goes off, the bad guys get a point. If not, the good guys get the point. The first team to 16 wins.

Here's a snapshot of who plays and buys video and computer games:

75 percent of heads of households play.

30 is average age of players.

37 is average age of most frequent game buyer.

19 percent of Americans older than 50 play.

55 percent are men.

53 percent expect to play as much or more 10 years from now.

6.8 hours a week on average spent on games.

23.4 hours a week spent on exercise/sports, volunteering, reading and cultural events.

The parents' view:

92 percent are there when games are bought or rented.

32 percent play games with their children weekly.

63 percent says games are a positive part of kids' lives.

Source: Entertainment Software Association 2005 consumer survey

[Last modified June 11, 2005, 09:11:02]