Can you earn 500,000 yuan in two years of playing games? Every time the reporter reveals the "hidden corner" of professional training and playing with him

National Business Daily

2024-05-29 23:07Posted on the official account of Sichuan Daily Economic News

Reporter: Wen Menghua, Ding Zhouyang, Editor: Yi Qijiang, Song Hong

The death of the 21-year-old former professional e-sports player "Fat Cat" continues to attract attention. With the police investigation, the rumors on the Internet about the woman's "emotional manipulation to squeeze out the fat cat's money" were debunked.

However, the income from game leveling and companionship is still being hotly discussed. The Weibo topic "Former professional players talk about fat cat boosting to earn 500,000 yuan in 2 years" appeared on the hot search, with 180 million views.

The Chongqing police report also shows that the "fat cat" transferred more than 799,000 yuan to his girlfriend in more than two years (note: the two parties have economic dealings with each other, and the "fat cat" girlfriend has fully refunded the difference in economic exchanges with him during the relationship). In addition, the police report also shows that Liu, the sister of the "fat cat", believes that the "fat cat" has a monthly income of 20,000 ~ 30,000 yuan for playing games.

Is it so profitable to level up and play with games?

The reporter of "Daily Economic News" (hereinafter referred to as every reporter or reporter) learned from the Bixin platform that focuses on the e-sports ecology and provides e-sports guidance, game sparring and other services: taking the glory of kings as an example, the average monthly income of part-time practitioners can generally exceed 3,000 yuan, and the monthly income of most full-time "e-sports instructors" can exceed 7,000 yuan, and the income of some head "e-sports instructors" even exceeds tens of thousands of yuan.

Visual China Diagram

With the development of the game industry, commercial boosting has long been in a gray area, and has developed from the initial paid help for others to "clear customs" to a more complex business model, and the legal risks are increasing day by day, which has an important impact on the game industry and even the public interest. The judge of the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court made it clear in a case related to the practice that the commercial training behavior was improper and should be regulated by law.

Spend more than ten yuan to experience being "taken away" by the great god

"Play games? Sister! ”

"The boss looks at me, the innocent man goes to the sea."

"Let's talk a little and our story begins."

"I want to open a ...... for the first time doing this"

Li Yan (pseudonym), who had just downloaded a game sparring platform App, had not yet figured out how to play the platform, and her mobile phone was occupied by more than a dozen dingdong dingdong messages in an instant.

Many companions took the initiative to send Li Yan a message of "self-recommendation", eager to be seen by the "boss". "Boss" is the name of the escort to the buyer, and many escorts told Li Yan that in this circle, "the boss is the biggest".

Open platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Taobao, search for "boosting", and all kinds of dazzling stores, game bloggers, and studios will appear that provide game boosting and accompanying services. Among them, the cumulative number of payments in some stores is as high as tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even 100,000 or 200,000 reviews of some stores.

The reporter of "Daily Economic News" spent dozens of yuan as a consumer to experience and found that whether you want to level up quickly, or you want to find someone to "open the black" together (a group of people in the same game, in the case of convenient communication, form a team to play the game), even if you just want to simply find someone to chat, game boosting and playing masters can be satisfied.

Take "Glory of Kings", which currently has a huge boosting and playing group, as an example, players only need to inform the other party of your current rank, the rank you want to play, choose to play with or with the mode, the other party provides the price, and after placing an order, the booster and the companion can be immediately numbered.

"It's okay for the gamer. I can teach if you don't know how to play, and if you want to learn, I'll create an account to play with you right away. If you want to find me to play on your behalf, you can hit the golden rank you want tonight. The young lady on the other side of the mobile phone enthusiastically introduced to reporters.

Booster and companion Xiao Wow (pseudonym) told every reporter: "On the game companion platform, a 'black card' is equal to 1 yuan. If it is to play with you, it is generally 6~12 yuan a game, and the specific amount is given by the boss; If it is a substitute game, 15 yuan a game, it will take more than ten rounds to hit the golden rank you want. ”

However, the level of the rank and the player's demands are different, and the price of a game is also different, often the higher the rank that the player wants to play, the higher the rank of the booster and the companion, and the higher the unit price. A number of boosters and accompaniment teachers told reporters that the main purpose of playing and sparring is to take the "boss" to play games, so that the "boss" can have fun, and it is not necessary to score points; The main purpose of boosting is to score points and stars, which is a hard requirement.

The reporter asked the customer service of a substitute store on Taobao as a consumer, is there a risk of information leakage for the booster? The other party said that it would definitely not. And further lobbied, "Glory of Kings" from the gold rank to diamonds, 180 yuan on behalf of the player, 260 yuan to play, "the package takes you to" diamond ", there is no other cost, there is no time requirement, you can play whenever you want, it is very simple, come to a single boss."

The reporter noticed that on the special game companion platform, different boosters and companions can label themselves differently according to their own level, which can attract the attention of the "boss". However, there are also some boosters and companions who only play with them and do not do boosting, Wei Lin (pseudonym), who is labeled as "Li Bai, one of the top 50 in the country in the glory of kings", said: "I only play with the king, I only play with the boss, not the substitute training; 15 yuan a game, platinum rank package star. ”

Staying up for 10 hours a day, earning 10,000 yuan a month is already a high salary

"My average monthly income is about 10,000 yuan." This year is the seventh year that 23-year-old Xu Yan (pseudonym) has been working full-time as a game booster and companion. In his self-introduction, it was written that "WB youth players" and "the top ten of the peak competition have been set many times". The income has exceeded most jobs, which is the main reason why Xu Yan has always stayed in the circle of boosting and playing.

"I was exposed to the Internet and games since I was a child, and I felt that I had a bit of a talent for games, and I started doing them when I was still in school." Xu Yan told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that he used to stay up late or stay up all night, but now "I won't fight so hard", as long as I am willing to play, I can play about 30 games a day, almost 10 hours.

"Post-00s" Xu Yan is quite satisfied with this job. "Now it is very good for college students to find a job with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan after graduation, I earn an average of about 10,000 yuan a month for this job, and I am very happy when I am free in time and place." Xu Yan said that if he has strong ability, the ability to obtain customers and is willing to "toss", he will have a higher income as a studio.

But considering the role of parents, what is the mood of children who have graduated from college not looking for "serious jobs" and doing "games to play with and level up"? When the reporter asked his family if they were against it, he said frankly: "There will be conflicts, and my parents think it is better to find a stable job, and I keep communicating with them, and now they can accept it." If you are willing to communicate, you have to get results, and if you are just playing in the name of making money from games, the nature is different, and fake efforts are easy to debunk. ”

Some time ago, the income of 500,000 yuan for two years of "fat cat" boosting made a group of workers "envious", but for the boosters and playmates who are in it, this is a very small number of "Tongtian generation" (note: refers to very skilled gamers) can earn a high salary.

Whether it's boosting or playing, the money in this job is not as easy to make as expected. Xu Yan said that the "fat cat" is an example of the "top of the pyramid", and few peers can earn more than him, because he has a high level and works very hard. "Many people say that we earn 100,000 yuan a month, but the reality is that there may not be one in 10,000 people." Xu Yan said.

Excellent technology is a "guarantee", and it will coax the "boss" to be happy and more divided

In Xiao Wow's view, if you want to make money by being a booster and a companion, it is actually not recommended, ordinary people can only work part-time, "unless you play very hard, full-time can continue to make money."

Xu Yan said frankly that many players who take the career path of game competition will also do boosting and playing. "With so many players, many of them may not be able to go to the game, and more often they just sit by the water cooler. In the past, when I went to play professionally, the basic salary was only four or five thousand yuan, and I couldn't play, and I didn't have a reputation and skill improvement. ”

Xu Chuan (pseudonym), a freshman student who has been a booster and playmaker since the Chinese New Year this year, is a "Glory of Kings" game blogger on Xiaohongshu, and he has been training and playing with him for 4 months, earning a total of 20,000 yuan. But this sounds like a good total income, but it is not very amortized to the unit price. Xu Chuan told the "Daily Economic News" reporter: "I have played the most profitable order, earned 700 yuan, and it took two days to complete the boss's upgrade task, which belongs to the 'black slave list'." Many peers will 'roll' low prices in order to receive orders, and the hourly wage becomes very low in general, so insiders call this kind of 'black slave list'. ”

If you want to earn money for boosting, in addition to "hurting your liver" all night, there is also the risk of running out of the bamboo basket. Consumers may lose revenue due to "order evasion", and if they are inappropriate or sensitive remarks, boosting may also be banned. Xu Yan said that he had lost tens of thousands of yuan in recent years due to "order evasion".

With the influx of more and more players and college students into the "gold rush" and the "gold rush" of the playing track, the industry has begun to become more and more "volume".

Xu Yan recalled that the highest income he got in the past few years was 50,000 or 60,000 yuan a month, which was when the industry was at its hottest in 2019. But now, as the industry becomes more and more saturated, on the one hand, there are more and more people who "share the cake", and the entry threshold for newcomers has been raised, making it difficult to do it; On the other hand, the percentage of some platforms has also changed from 20% to 30%.

Court: The act of commercial training should be regulated by law

Where there are people, there is a market, and where there is an active market, there is the infiltration of capital. With the rapid expansion of the e-sports game market, playing with the game has once become the "fourth track" of the e-sports industry in addition to games, live broadcasts, and events.

2014~2015 was the "embryonic period" of the game sparring platform, when there was only a market size of several hundred million, and the competition was not fierce. In 2017, a number of related APPs entered the game. In 2019, Taobao launched the "Taobao Sparring" channel, and then Tentacles, Huya, Douyu, etc. also launched sparring businesses, and industry competition entered the stage of competition among giants.

But the derivative industry chain in this game field has been controversial.

In 2021, 7 companion apps, including Hello Voice under Huanju Group, Xiaolu Companion under Huya, and Yipai Companion and Companion Companion Play, will be removed from the shelves. CCTV News reported on the incident of "online game companion play scam - defrauding thousands of people in the name of falling in love, involving more than 2 million". The game companion platform has also released the "Clean Network Action", and more than 20,000 pornographic accounts have been permanently banned.

"Minors playing games and leveling up must be strictly forbidden." A game industry expert told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that in his opinion, it is still a gray area to play with games, and it is not the game that accompanies the game, but the people, which is easy to rub the edge. As for the provision of paid boosting services, it violates the fair competition order of the game industry and harms the interests of game products.

Honor of Kings clearly prohibits "the act of helping players improve their ranks and complete corresponding achievements by third parties by playing games on behalf of others".

Tencent has also sued the "Booster Gang" client, which encourages users, including minors, to trade game boosters at scale. The judge of the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court said that with the development of the game industry, commercial boosting has long been in a gray area, and has developed from the initial paid help for others to "clear customs" to a more complex business model, and the legal risks are increasing day by day, which has an important impact on the game industry and even the public interest. The act of commercial training is improper and should be regulated by law.

Bixin responded to reporters: "Bixin does not provide boosting services, and currently mainly provides e-sports guidance services for game users. There are problems such as violating game rules and game information leakage, including but not limited to account theft, information leakage, plug-in use and other violations of laws and regulations. ”

However, the reporter found that on many platforms, there are still many game companions who say that they can take the training order privately. In Taobao and Xiaohongshu, game boosting is a service that can be sold publicly.

Reporter's note: Who broke the "play"?

In the era of mobile Internet, when games have become the mainstream entertainment method for young people of Generation Z, the service industry represented by "game play", as well as new consumption scenarios such as "game e-sports hotel" and "e-sports + cultural tourism" are also expanding.

Once upon a time, game companionship was once a new force that the head platform and capital were optimistic about. According to the "2019~2025 China Game Companion Industry Market In-depth Research and Investment Strategy Analysis Report" released by Zhiyan Consulting, the market size of mainland game companion play in 2017 was 182 million yuan, and it is expected to reach 11.01 billion yuan by 2026.

However, with the influx and ambiguity of chaos such as "making quick money" and playing side balls, behind the huge market cake, game companions have always faced many controversies, and it is difficult to tear off the label of "gray industry". In the reporter's interview, although the words "boosting" and "substitution" are "sensitive words" that are expressly prohibited on major game and sparring platforms, there are still many practitioners who will take the list of substitute training in the name of "game companionship".

Boosting is expressly prohibited, but for game accompaniment, as more and more young people enter, some platforms, manufacturers, and associations are also trying to promote the standardized development of "game sparring" to "e-sports instructors".

According to the "Tencent Helping New Careers and Employment Development Report (2022)", game companions are evaluated as a stable digital ecosystem occupation, and as a new career, they will bring about 500,000~1 million jobs in related fields of the industry.

National Business Daily

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