Did you ever think about quitting your job to live the life you always dreamed of? This week's Tech Watch features a 25-year old London man who did just that. And now his life is a game.
Meet Sujoy Roy. He studied physics at Cambridge University and had a promising career as an investment banker with J.P. Morgan. Then he gave it all up for a higher paying job. He's a professional video games player.
“Last year I had something like seven or eight tournaments all over the world from what Singapore, Korea across America and all over Europe and you know prize moneyfor all those tournaments together. The prize pool was over a million dollars easily.”
Many parents may think video games are a time-wasting hobby, but they're big business. Worldwide, the electronic games industry will earn an estimated $50 billion this year. Experts at London-based Informa Media Group say that could 1)skyrocket to $86 billion by 2006.
And the traditional image of the 2)nerdy video games fanatic has seen a dramatic transformation. They now call themselves cyber-athletes and operate their own world-wide professional league with offices in the Unites States, Europe and Asia, running tournaments worth thousands of dollars in prize money and lucrative sponsorships.
“The sort of people that come here to play are not what most people would think which is like nerdy, geeky-type people. It's very much the opposite. They are actually all professional, semi-professional people. They are very computer literate. The average age of our playershere are actually 18 to 39 years of age.”
London-based video games club The Playing Fields is full of aspiring professional players. Dedication and hours of practice have put Sujoy among the top ten players in the world. Apart from his own career as a cyber athlete, he runs a video games website with two other professional players. Combining prize money and sponsorships they earned about $200,000 last year.
Global sales of games software and the 3)consoles used to play them, names like Playstation or Game Cube are 4)pegged at nearly $37 billion this year. Game revenues from players using the Internet are much smaller, only about $500 million. But analysts say the potential is enormous. London-based data monitor estimates that as powerful broadband connection spreads worldwide, Internet-based video games will generate $3.5 billion over the next five years.
What makes the potential so good is that online gamers are very passionate about their pastime and they're willing to pay to play. And with the number of online gamers projected to reach more than 110 million in the next five years, a few dollars a week each will add up to some serious and lucrative fun.
25歲倫敦青年的游戲生活
你想過辭去工作，過上你一直夢想的生活嗎？本周的《科技焦點(diǎn)》環(huán)節(jié)介紹一個(gè)二十五歲的倫敦青年，他就是這樣做的，現(xiàn)在他過著名副其實(shí)的游戲生活。
見過蘇喬伊·羅伊，他在劍橋大學(xué)念的是物理，本來在摩根公司做投資銀行，前途似錦。然而為了更高薪的工作，他放棄所有一切，他現(xiàn)在是一個(gè)專業(yè)的電子游戲玩家。
“去年，我在全球各地參加過七八次的比賽，到過新加坡、韓國、美國及整個(gè)歐洲，所有那些大賽的獎(jiǎng)金加起來，總額很輕易地超過了一百萬美元?！?BR> 很多父母認(rèn)為玩電子游戲是浪費(fèi)時(shí)間的癖好，但是原來它們是一門大生意。全球的電子游戲業(yè)，今年估計(jì)能賺得五百億美元。總部在倫敦的咨詢媒體集團(tuán)的專家預(yù)測，到了2006年，這數(shù)字將攀升到八百六十億。
以前沉迷電子游戲的人被視為怪人，這個(gè)傳統(tǒng)形象大大改變了?，F(xiàn)在他們自稱是“電腦運(yùn)動(dòng)員”，擁有自己全球性的職業(yè)聯(lián)盟，辦事處分布在美國、歐洲和亞洲，舉辦獎(jiǎng)金為上萬美元和贊助豐厚的比賽。
“來這里玩游戲的這一類人或許被人們認(rèn)為是呆子、怪胎。其實(shí)恰好相反，他們是真正的專業(yè)人士，半專業(yè)人士。他們是電腦高手，平均年齡在十八歲到三十九歲之間。”
總部在倫敦的電子游戲俱樂部里全都是志向遠(yuǎn)大的專業(yè)玩家。專心一致和長時(shí)間的練習(xí)，使蘇喬伊成為全世界十大高手之一。除了作為電腦運(yùn)動(dòng)員這一職業(yè)外，他還與另外兩位專業(yè)玩家打理一個(gè)電子游戲網(wǎng)站。獎(jiǎng)金加上贊助，去年他們賺得二十萬美元。
以全球銷售計(jì)算，游戲軟件和操縱臺，例如Playstation或者Game Cube，今年?duì)I業(yè)額接近三百七十億美元。來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)游戲收益就大為遜色，只有大約五億元，但是分析家說互聯(lián)網(wǎng)潛力驚人?？偛吭趥惗氐臄?shù)據(jù)監(jiān)控估計(jì)隨著寬頻線路伸展到全球，網(wǎng)上電子游戲在未來五年將帶來三十五億美元的收益。
網(wǎng)上電子游戲前景甚佳，玩的人非常喜歡這玩意，愿意花錢去玩。未來五年里，在網(wǎng)上玩電子游戲的人數(shù)估計(jì)會(huì)超過一億一千萬，每個(gè)星期每人花幾美元，合起來就是大數(shù)目，真是財(cái)源滾滾。
1) skyrocket v. 突然成功；一舉成名
2) nerdy a. 有怪僻的，有孤僻嗜好的
3) console n. 控制臺，操縱臺 4) peg v. 固定，限制，限定
Meet Sujoy Roy. He studied physics at Cambridge University and had a promising career as an investment banker with J.P. Morgan. Then he gave it all up for a higher paying job. He's a professional video games player.
“Last year I had something like seven or eight tournaments all over the world from what Singapore, Korea across America and all over Europe and you know prize moneyfor all those tournaments together. The prize pool was over a million dollars easily.”
Many parents may think video games are a time-wasting hobby, but they're big business. Worldwide, the electronic games industry will earn an estimated $50 billion this year. Experts at London-based Informa Media Group say that could 1)skyrocket to $86 billion by 2006.
And the traditional image of the 2)nerdy video games fanatic has seen a dramatic transformation. They now call themselves cyber-athletes and operate their own world-wide professional league with offices in the Unites States, Europe and Asia, running tournaments worth thousands of dollars in prize money and lucrative sponsorships.
“The sort of people that come here to play are not what most people would think which is like nerdy, geeky-type people. It's very much the opposite. They are actually all professional, semi-professional people. They are very computer literate. The average age of our playershere are actually 18 to 39 years of age.”
London-based video games club The Playing Fields is full of aspiring professional players. Dedication and hours of practice have put Sujoy among the top ten players in the world. Apart from his own career as a cyber athlete, he runs a video games website with two other professional players. Combining prize money and sponsorships they earned about $200,000 last year.
Global sales of games software and the 3)consoles used to play them, names like Playstation or Game Cube are 4)pegged at nearly $37 billion this year. Game revenues from players using the Internet are much smaller, only about $500 million. But analysts say the potential is enormous. London-based data monitor estimates that as powerful broadband connection spreads worldwide, Internet-based video games will generate $3.5 billion over the next five years.
What makes the potential so good is that online gamers are very passionate about their pastime and they're willing to pay to play. And with the number of online gamers projected to reach more than 110 million in the next five years, a few dollars a week each will add up to some serious and lucrative fun.
25歲倫敦青年的游戲生活
你想過辭去工作，過上你一直夢想的生活嗎？本周的《科技焦點(diǎn)》環(huán)節(jié)介紹一個(gè)二十五歲的倫敦青年，他就是這樣做的，現(xiàn)在他過著名副其實(shí)的游戲生活。
見過蘇喬伊·羅伊，他在劍橋大學(xué)念的是物理，本來在摩根公司做投資銀行，前途似錦。然而為了更高薪的工作，他放棄所有一切，他現(xiàn)在是一個(gè)專業(yè)的電子游戲玩家。
“去年，我在全球各地參加過七八次的比賽，到過新加坡、韓國、美國及整個(gè)歐洲，所有那些大賽的獎(jiǎng)金加起來，總額很輕易地超過了一百萬美元?！?BR> 很多父母認(rèn)為玩電子游戲是浪費(fèi)時(shí)間的癖好，但是原來它們是一門大生意。全球的電子游戲業(yè)，今年估計(jì)能賺得五百億美元。總部在倫敦的咨詢媒體集團(tuán)的專家預(yù)測，到了2006年，這數(shù)字將攀升到八百六十億。
以前沉迷電子游戲的人被視為怪人，這個(gè)傳統(tǒng)形象大大改變了?，F(xiàn)在他們自稱是“電腦運(yùn)動(dòng)員”，擁有自己全球性的職業(yè)聯(lián)盟，辦事處分布在美國、歐洲和亞洲，舉辦獎(jiǎng)金為上萬美元和贊助豐厚的比賽。
“來這里玩游戲的這一類人或許被人們認(rèn)為是呆子、怪胎。其實(shí)恰好相反，他們是真正的專業(yè)人士，半專業(yè)人士。他們是電腦高手，平均年齡在十八歲到三十九歲之間。”
總部在倫敦的電子游戲俱樂部里全都是志向遠(yuǎn)大的專業(yè)玩家。專心一致和長時(shí)間的練習(xí)，使蘇喬伊成為全世界十大高手之一。除了作為電腦運(yùn)動(dòng)員這一職業(yè)外，他還與另外兩位專業(yè)玩家打理一個(gè)電子游戲網(wǎng)站。獎(jiǎng)金加上贊助，去年他們賺得二十萬美元。
以全球銷售計(jì)算，游戲軟件和操縱臺，例如Playstation或者Game Cube，今年?duì)I業(yè)額接近三百七十億美元。來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)游戲收益就大為遜色，只有大約五億元，但是分析家說互聯(lián)網(wǎng)潛力驚人?？偛吭趥惗氐臄?shù)據(jù)監(jiān)控估計(jì)隨著寬頻線路伸展到全球，網(wǎng)上電子游戲在未來五年將帶來三十五億美元的收益。
網(wǎng)上電子游戲前景甚佳，玩的人非常喜歡這玩意，愿意花錢去玩。未來五年里，在網(wǎng)上玩電子游戲的人數(shù)估計(jì)會(huì)超過一億一千萬，每個(gè)星期每人花幾美元，合起來就是大數(shù)目，真是財(cái)源滾滾。
1) skyrocket v. 突然成功；一舉成名
2) nerdy a. 有怪僻的，有孤僻嗜好的
3) console n. 控制臺，操縱臺 4) peg v. 固定，限制，限定