Girl gamers: The women who earn six figures playing consoles on camera

[Tennis]

girl gamers are making a killing online but the price for these high earners should not be underestimated. While reaping six-figure salaries from advert revenues, sponsorship deals and fan donations, the live-streamers repeatedly face vitriolic harassment from online trolls.

The gamers earn by streaming themselves playing video games live from the comfort of their couches, but often the anonymous viewers comment with abusive remarks during the interactive game play.

On '60 Minutes’, an Australian current affairs program, gamer Kathleen cited the range of insults and abuse she meets every streaming session.

Kathleen, known online as LOSEFRUIT, spoke of the harassment she faces when streaming through the platform Twitch.tv that enables people from all over the world to watch one another play games.

Phrases such as ‘attention whore’ and insults such as ‘you’re not good, because you’re a girl,’ are not uncommon. Kathleen also remembered comments such as ‘you have a nice body’ and ‘I’d like to see you with your clothes off,’ from online viewers.

But there is also a more realistic fear from the male gamers. “I’ve had friends that have been stalked at events. But it’s the one per cent, if that,” Kathleen said.

Pope Francis urges young people to give up gaming for activism

The largely anonymous online harassment campaign Gamergate, involving rape threats targeting women in the gaming community including developer Zoe Quinn and the critic Anita Sarkeesian, further demonstrated the darker side for female gamers.

“It’s a lot of money for playing games. It is a dream. So it would be kind of hard to go away from that. So I would like to be doing it as long as possible until I burn out” she told The Guardian.

Kathleen has received single donations in the region of $1000 and $5000 from online subscribers who make up the site's 9.7 million active users every day, according to Twitch.

‘This industry is booming and it’s out of control” she added.

Another gamer, Chelsea, known as XMINKS in the gaming world, earns a six-figure salary from her live-streams. Previously studying pharmacy at the University of South Australia, Chelsea now has over 350,000 followers who tune in to watch her live-stream gaming.

In 2013 after experimenting with YouTube and making Call of Duty montages, she began live-streaming on Twitch. With her audience continuing to grow, by 2014 she was able to make live-streaming a full-time occupation.

But, Chelsea echoed the unequal realities for female game players, telling The Guardian that “women’s appearance plays a bigger role [in their success] than their actual gameplay.”

Streamer Mia added that vitriolic online abuse is coupled with ‘cam-girl’ pornographic associations.

”What I am doing is very different … I have a legit career as a gamer and you can’t take me seriously as a gamer? You see me on camera and all of a sudden I’m a cam girl?”, she told The Guardian.

Twitch partners with popular streamers to install a subscriptions feature that charges users $4.99 a month. “It becomes a base salary for streamers, instead of just relying on tips, which one month could be $100, which next month could be $4,000 – you never know,” Mia added.

From the comfort of their homes, the girls are able to make fortunes. 'This is a very unique opportunity that we have that people before us did not necessarily have,' Kathleen says. But alongside the ample financial opportunities, the negative risks and online abuse in the gaming industry clearly cannot be ignored.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a7786001.html

Sounds like a terrible "career choice" to me. Meanwhile others are actually in University getting an education and then going out there and earning work experience to put on their resume as well as networking.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a7786001.html

Sounds like a terrible "career choice" to me. Meanwhile others are actually in University getting an education and then going out there and earning work experience to put on their resume as well as networking.

Do you make 6 figures a year in your career?

[derpkitteh]

hey, easy money is always good.

using the endless stream of pathetic internet dudes for money is just as legit of a job as any.

[Moralgy]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a7786001.html

Sounds like a terrible "career choice" to me. Meanwhile others are actually in University getting an education and then going out there and earning work experience to put on their resume as well as networking.

Idk, people like markpilier are making bank playing video games and he dropped out of college. Not a "terrible career choice" if it works. If you find a market that makes you money why would you not go for it, these girls in your OP found a way and they are doing better than most people that go to college.

[primalmatter]

Are we talking about the semi retired strippers on twitch?

[ghotihook]

Who says they can't earn money and go to school? You know, like a normal human.

[Tennis]

Are we talking about the semi retired strippers on twitch?

I am not into twitch or watching streams. Who are the ones with the most views/followers usually?

[Xandrigity]

I see nothing wrong with it although you can't make it a job for life. At some point the cute girl thing will fade.

[ImpTaimer]

Oh boy another shameless shill thread from Tennis.

How many cents on the dollar did you make today so far?

Anyway, if you need to face-cam to stream you're an attention-seeking cam-whore. This includes men. If you can't maintain views without face-cam you're not legit.

[urasim]

Who says they can't earn money and go to school? You know, like a normal human.

It's only been normal to attend college since the 70s or maybe 80s. Before that it was highly irregular for a normal person to go to college. Times change.

[Kathandira]

What are we exactly outraged about here?

Is it a "It's unfair that streamers make more than a college graduate"?

Is it, "Streamers have to put up with a lot of sexual harassment"?

Is it, "Streaming is stupid"?

Where do we point our outrage compass at with this?

[Nihilist74]

They should have interviewed kaceytron, that would have been a funny interview.

[Orcs]

Sounds like a terrible "career choice" to me. Meanwhile others are actually in University getting an education and then going out there and earning work experience to put on their resume as well as networking.

Doing what you love and making money off it, isnt a terrible career choice. I'm also glad this article decided to, instead of being gender neutral, it decided to put the emphasis on female streamers.

[Stop Pretending]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a7786001.html

Sounds like a terrible "career choice" to me. Meanwhile others are actually in University getting an education and then going out there and earning work experience to put on their resume as well as networking.

Sounds like jealousy to me. Tell us again, what do you for s living? How much do you make?

[chazus]

Where do we point our outrage compass at with this?

The article, it's "Girl gamers face harassment", because we somehow didn't know this.

For Tennis, it's "Girls are making good money before getting a college degree and this is unacceptable"

[cubby]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a7786001.html

Sounds like a terrible "career choice" to me. Meanwhile others are actually in University getting an education and then going out there and earning work experience to put on their resume as well as networking.

Six-figure income playing video games is a "terrible 'career choice'"? Really?

Stocking up all the cash for essentially doing what they would do in their free time is a bad idea? I'm not sure you read the article, honestly. They could save up a huge sum of money and still do what you "think" is a good career move - but pay for their college/university and come out debt free.

[Elim Garak]

"The largely anonymous online harassment campaign Gamergate"

Here it is folks, the whole article is a pile of shit.

[cubby]

The article, it's "Girl gamers face harassment", because we somehow didn't know this.

For Tennis, it's "Girls are making good money before getting a college degree and this is unacceptable"

Rofl, yeah - he's a hoot.

I wonder how many hours they play each day?

[Kathandira]

Oh boy another shameless shill thread from Tennis.

How many cents on the dollar did you make today so far?

Anyway, if you need to face-cam to stream you're an attention-seeking cam-whore. This includes men. If you can't maintain views without face-cam you're not legit.

There is 1 particular female streamer that I really enjoy watching. She does have her cam on. But she doesn't dress skimpy, nor does she have the downward facing cam or anything. She's just a chill chick who is really good at interacting with her community.

https://www.twitch.tv/foxylovelace

Give her a watch to see what I mean.

[urasim]

The article is a bunch of victim card bullshit, btw. Male streamers get far more death threats, but, nooooo, we can't talk about that shit(I concede that females get more sexualized threats.. because.. duh). "Won't you think of the poor women" that feminists keep trying to push is nonsense(and it's totally not a sexist thing to assume the females can't take it but the males can /s).

They should have interviewed kaceytron, that would have been a funny interview.

Her trolling is what the article is. She parodies them well. It's like how some of these "journalists" are starting to look like the onion.