The player

Gamers can now make a living from their hobby. Some even get rich, writes JOE GRIFFIN

When Wade McGilberry won a million dollars by playing a videogame, he proved that there's no such thing as a useless skill. The 23-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia pitched a perfect game in Major League Baseball 2K10recently.

The developer, Take Two, had promised the big money prize to the first person to pitch the perfect game. Jason Argent, vice president of marketing at Take-Two’s 2K Sports business, said the company didn’t know how many times the feat has been accomplished in the video game: “We knew it would be difficult but not impossible.”

While I have yet to see it on an Irish recruitment site, “professional gamer” is increasingly becoming a viable job. In Korea, for example, many gamers are public figures, celebrated like popstars and earning the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of euro annually in endorsements, salary and prize money.

They take their games seriously in that corner of Asia, where gamers such as Lim Yo-hwan (aka, The Emperor) play in arenas before thousands of onlookers, ranging from admiring young men to teenage girls. Arguably the biggest gaming star in the country, Lim has already published an autobiography, (Try and Be) As Crazy as Me. His 2007 return to gaming after completing his military service was compared by the LA Timesto the post-army return of Elvis.

State-side, the website Progamertraining.com (or PGT) offers tutorials and advice from professional gamers to those who wish to follow in their footsteps. Users can book international tutors (who charge up to $40 an hour) who make their livings playing games as diverse as Rockstar, Street Fighterand Halo. Gamers with sufficient skill can also offer their services and make money as a tutor, with PGT taking a small commission from the tutor's hourly rate.

So you’ve got the skills, your joypad has practically become an appendage, and you don’t like your day job. What next? Well the bad news is that you’ll probably be competing with people who play games even more than you do (no matter how much you think you play). The good news is that, unlike most other pro sports, virtually anyone can compete with a world-class gamer.

Gamers' usernames (or "tags") are usually public, so with just a little research you could be playing, say, Haloon Xbox Live opposite a world-class gamer. You can build your reputation on online tournaments without so much as changing your pyjamas. theplayer@irishtimes.com