I was just saying that to show how stupid the argument was.

Well now, I could understand other games like Halo 3, GoW, or COD4....but rythm games? that would be kinda tough in my eyes to be honest.

It's never a good idea to leave school without a backup plan, even if it's only passing grades in English, Maths and Science (or High School Graduation etc).

If you can only get $25k for being in the top 1% for two massive games that have staying power, theres no chance of a career from a single game or franchise which has unusual game mechanics and controls that are unlikely to be useful in any future games.
In other words, there isn't even a backup for him in the world of professional gaming if you specialise in a single game with a unique controller.

His parents at least owe him enough to yell at him until he takes his future seriously - if they haven't even tried to find him another school then they haven't done nearly enough for him.
Almost all kids want to leave school - where would we, or they, be if we all let them do what they wanted providing they complain loudly and for long enough?

We have a family friend who lets her kid eat chocolate cake for breakfast, he's eight and hasn't had one piece of fruit since he was two. He also has ten fillings and has twelve chocolate bars or bags of sweets or crisps each day, and a litre of fizzy drink. It's apparently easier than making him eat well. He's also going to be kept down a year because he can't concentrate, or be bothered to. My money is on him getting Scurvy in the next two years.

There's a difference between letting a child follow his dreams and copping out.

That's just shitty parenting

hah i could probably beat him

lol but seriously why all the hate?? if he turns out to be exceptionally good at it then why not give him a chance to compete
i think that's what the parents are doing, they're giving him a chance to spread his wings and try new things to see if he can find his path
at least before he gets shoved down the road of adulthood

thebobmaster:
if you are a professional gamer that specializes in FPS, why not just join the Army?

Because you cant accuse the other team of hacking when you lose.

I would at least like to add that his parents hired a home tutor that requires him to do some work. How much is questionable, and I doubt it's equal to attending school, but he is at least receiving an education, just not in school.

And if his parents can afford an academy, they probably also hired a pretty high-end tutor.

HomeAliveIn45:
I'm more appaled at the fact his parents allowed him to leave school than the fact that... well, just everything else.

Geez, parents these days.

thebobmaster:
I find it appalling that the parents allowed this. Seriously, what the hell? And to everyone who is mocking the fact that there are professional GH players, let me say this: if you are a professional gamer that specializes in FPS, why not just join the Army? I mean, if you've wasted enough time to play a FPS well, you might as well have learned to shoot a real gun in a real war by now.

The difference is that in a FPS you don't kill real people. I'd much rather spend the rest of my life doing nothing than playing FPS's than that I would go into the army so you can help doing the dirty work of some politician.

The big problem I see is, being a professional gamer alone really won't make you a living, specially off a game like Guitar hero. FPS games maybe, because if you are really good at them, you can basically be good at most of them.

I personally think the idiot is making a horrible decision. I mean, at LEAST finish high school, so when your ass fails, you can still find a few decent jobs.

What. An. Idiot.

How can he possibly expect to go far like that? Then again he could be really really good. However until I see him 100% Constant Motion on Rock Band, I don't care. You can't do something like that for a living. Bring on the people who FC'ed TTFAF to kick his ass to hell and back at these tournaments.

Also, just imagine all the babes hanging off him, he's so cool...

Eagle Est1986:
Fantastic! Only South Park could have possibly predicted it!

yeah dude, I love that episode

i hope he gets carpal tunnel, cant play any more, then realizes he cant get a job because he dropped out :)

Cheeze_Pavilion:

Jak The Great:

Amazing, two grown submissive adults who pay the bills and have allowed themselves to be dominated by their own son.

Woah hey--no incest bdsm fanfic on the forums!

LMAO!

yourkie1921:
People forget, not everyone uses their education. People act as if the only way to get a half-decent job is to go to high school and do all this crap, while my dad dropped out of highschool and makes more than 55% of them. You're never guranteed success until you have a job or it's lined up for you. and you're not guranteed a life of failure if you don't go through high school.

Jak The Great:
Hooray for negligent parenting

"He always told me school was a waste of time"

Yeah, any kid is going to say that jackass

True, but the fact that they mentioned "christain academy" can mean one thing or another
1: the person who wrote that is a moron who has no idea how to use adjectives
2: there's something we're not getting.

In my opinion a school that teaches religion is a worse spot to start off than a pro-gamer.....or as a prostitute....or a drug seller.

At 16, you're not qualified to say you're not good anything. What a dumbass. But hey, he's living the American Dream, right? To do whatever you want with your life (within the legal confines of the law).

Bull, if you suck at math, leadership.........and about 150 other traits/subjects you're not good at anything

Sure maybe he's convinced them that he's gonna earn money doing this, what about in a few years when the GH fad has moved on and he can't keep up with the moves in 'Bassoon Legend'?

I think he's relying on games like this happening periodically for the next......40 years I guess.

Hope his parents enjoy having their son living in their basement for the rest of their lives. Cant say I see GH & no qualifications taking him any further then that

Fuck you. For all you know GH will be like madden comming out every 1 or 2 years and these tournies will always be going on.

I find it appalling that the parents allowed this. Seriously, what the hell? And to everyone who is mocking the fact that there are professional GH players, let me say this: if you are a professional gamer that specializes in FPS, why not just join the Army? I mean, if you've wasted enough time to play a FPS well, you might as well have learned to shoot a real gun in a real war by now.

Fuck you more.

Yeah, I have nothing against Guitar Hero, but people who take it that seriously need to be beaten with their tiny plastic instruments.

do you think those working at MC. Donalds take it "that seriously" the kid never claimed to take it seriously, he claimed to be good at it.

ps. This kid should've entered a few real tournies before he did this.

Wow ummm...well. After that, you seem like a real asshole. But anyways, I never thought to myself "Hey, I'm awesome at FPS's time to drop out of school to pursue this as a career!" Honestly, gaming to me is a hobby, it will never be my life. I just don't see this as being anything more then a 1-2 year fling for this kid.

Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

GodsClown:
The big problem I see is, being a professional gamer alone really won't make you a living, specially off a game like Guitar hero. FPS games maybe, because if you are really good at them, you can basically be good at most of them.

I personally think the idiot is making a horrible decision. I mean, at LEAST finish high school, so when your ass fails, you can still find a few decent jobs.

I hope the devil bones you with the same instrument he did for Hitler for saying that all decent jobs come with high school degrees. For all you know this is one of those kids who'd rather work in a coal mine than have an office job or be a teacher or fit into your definition of a "good" job

Wow ummm...well. After that, you seem like a real asshole.

GOod defense.

If you can only get $25k for being in the top 1% for two massive games that have staying power, theres no chance of a career from a single game or franchise which has unusual game mechanics and controls that are unlikely to be useful in any future games.

These games will probably be out in the future. Also, is that 25K a week, month, or year? If it's a month, half of that is 12k and half of that is 6k since I'll say it's half as popular as most FPS's.
If that's 6 grand a week, sweet.
If that's 6 grand a month, still sweet.

He will never earn the average wage playing GH tournemants - and its going to cost him to get to the tournemants - but what The Escpist didn't post - was that he has private tutition and is doing better in all his subjects, so maybe its a good thing for him.

He must have gotten his parents a 'lot' of money from tourneys to even consider dropping for a musical VIDEO GAME. As much time as he's spent on GH you'd think he'd just learn to play a guitar...

Ehh, why?

The game is funner and hurts your hands less.

yourkie1921:
Ehh, why?

The game is funner and hurts your hands less.

So he actually has a chance of getting laid. I mean seriously, do you think women would jump up and down and scream at him for pretty much pressing buttons?

But video games are not immortal.
I mean Guitar Hero will probably wither away in a few years and lose its popularity because of more new-gen games (Unless it innovate itself).
He will probably live off his parent because he lacks a backup plan.
Having a gaming career is hard.

There's acutally such a thing as playing Guitar Queer-o professionally!? Wow, there must be something wrong with the parents to let their children drop out of school to do something that is not long term and secure. I can't descirbe my reaction to this pure absurdness. Even if he does win big from some gaming tournaments, it doesn't mean he will keep winning, so his income will probably depend only on the game. If he doesn't acquire any additonal education aside from playing Guitar Hero, who know's what will happen once there aren't any tourny left for GH. Oh wait, I know what happen. He'll have to make up for his wasted years in community college and part time jobs with low wages. Wow, just wow...

yourkie1921:
The kid never claimed to take it seriously, he claimed to be good at it.

Droping out of school to start playing professionaly sounds pretty serious to me.

Hunter:
"We couldn't take the complaining anymore," said Hunter. "He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time."

These are the people that give America and video games a bad name. Please believe me in that not all of us are this stupid. I think the Christian Academy might have something to do with it.

Echolocating:
Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

Nope, just the de-evolution of the species. Well... I suppose that could be the apocalypse.

Here is a link to a more thought out and full description of the reason I was home schooled: http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71726&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=75
Read the last post on the page by phoenix4417.

Here is a smaller description... and no it didn't go down like everyone thinks. I didn't just say "This sounds like a fun career. I get to play video games and make money!?!?"

Most of you don't know the whole reason behind my decision. I didn't even drop out, I am still getting home schooled. I have heard of people that dropped out to play sports professionally and don't make it yet no one gives them and crap at all. It is just something about gaming that pisses people off I guess.

I wasn't a loser in school and I still am one of the coolest people that used to go there (4 of my friends switched schools and one of them was home schooled the same year I left). There was just some stuff going on that we really didn't agree with at that school and we all chose different schooling paths.

There are plenty of kids that are home schooled and do just fine so I don't know what problem everyone has with me other than the reason I am home schooled is to have more time to dedicate to being a professional gamer.

I am great at almost all games I play and I am the best at FPS games. I am using Guitar Hero to get my name out there and for publicity since tournament money isn't all that much from that game. I am good at Rhythm, FPS, Fighting, etc. I know how much the best make and it definitely isn't ~12,500k from one game a year. The top 8 teams in Halo get more than that just for placing in the top 8. 1st place gets 20,000 I believe which is split 4 ways but there are a lot of tournaments during a years time so the end up making a lot. They also have sponsors and make money from some other things.

Some people are even making 6 figure incomes. Gaming is growing at a pretty fast rate too so I doubt it will die any time soon.

When Guitar Hero dies I will be playing one of the bigger FPS games professionally probably.

I have a back up plan too for people who think I don't. I don't feel like explaining myself any further here so just look at this post if you want to see what I really think...

http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71726&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=75

TheNecroswanson:
Wait you men that's you? personal attack time: Tu esta loser.

More then likely someone trying to stick up for him, but this makes me feel good about a lot of things, and sad that someone would try and devote life to games. I personally think it's a waste of time.

Good to see the parents are going outta there way to let him fail in life. Wouldn't have killed him to stay in school

I can't wait until this whole "plastic guitar game" phase ends and this guys ends up living in a gutter somewhere.

I lol'd at his parents...

Somehow I do hope he'll fail and understand pro-gaming is hard, unforgiving, and quite likely to make you sick from games...

Jumplion:

yourkie1921:
Ehh, why?

The game is funner and hurts your hands less.

So he actually has a chance of getting laid. I mean seriously, do you think women would jump up and down and scream at him for pretty much pressing buttons?

He probably has a fair bit of dexterity in those fingers. Maybe if he started pushing their buttons. And by buttons I mean...well, you see where I'm going with this.

Not that I believe that, but some people might.

Amnestic:

Jumplion:

yourkie1921:
Ehh, why?

The game is funner and hurts your hands less.

So he actually has a chance of getting laid. I mean seriously, do you think women would jump up and down and scream at him for pretty much pressing buttons?

He probably has a fair bit of dexterity in those fingers. Maybe if he started pushing their buttons. And by buttons I mean...well, you see where I'm going with this.

Not that I believe that, but some people might.

Still, I think the point is this career doesn't lead him anywhere good.