Xerin's Faves from SOE Live and eSport Retirement at 27

By David Piner -

SOE Live is now over and with a limited amount of streaming videos and coverage across the net, I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about what I liked. Yeah, I know, Star Citizen hits 50 million in crowdfunding. Big whoop. My angst at the idea that people are still buying imaginary spaceships can hold off a day.

The first thing that I like is EQ: Next being an actual thing that is happening and it’s still, 100%, different than most genre MMOs. It’s incorporating a lot of ideas that have existed and have been implemented, but that’s like saying this new idea involves a wheel so it’s an old idea. I’m not going to bother you with the extensive list of really cool different stuff, I’m just going to say I like the concept that it’s still going to be something completely different than what we’ve seen of MMOs so far and it’s going to be good.

The next thing I liked was PvP in Landmark, which is going to rock. I’m no Landmark pro, I’m actually not even a huge SOE fan, and I found Landmark to be kinda dry with little to do if you don’t have really elite building skills.

I’m not a creative type, if you notice, most of the pictures in this column are of sandwiches. It takes me an infinitely much longer period of time figuratively to to be create than to make a cup of coffee in the middle of an oasis 7 sextillion light-years from here.

H1Z1 and DCUO are still kind of eh to me, I’m not big fans, so I don’t have an opinion, but hey, PvP in Landmark!

Retire at 27

Well guys I’m officially just a few years too old to be a true eSport star. I don’t know, I’m not the world’s foremost eSport expert, do you become bad at games? I’ve watched our Editor-in-Chief Reuben stomp people and he’s a hair over 279,000,000,001. I consider myself to be really good at games. The vast majority of people that I know that can own me in half a second are older than 35 and some are even in their 50s.

Is age discrimination a thing? Is it like, seriously, a thing in the world of professional gaming? Do you start off as a teenager and move through the world until about 27, when your hands give out and your brain isn’t fast enough to click at the levels mobas require?

I’m actually gonna do some real research, I’ll be right back. Alright, what I thought was true according to the Internet. You start “aging” around 30, and don’t REALLY start atrophying until 75. You know, about how old the normal grandparent is when it starts. Ya know the cure? Exercise. Exercise helps stop aging.

So what we can conclude here is that by playing video games, by the age of 27, you will be forced to retire because your muscles and nerves and everything will atrophy to the point that you will lose .001 DPS and then be a lame newb.

What’s the real reason? Know what? You actually get better with age because of muscle memory. You practice, you get better, and you improve. Baseball players retire at the age of 32, but can go up into their 40s and still be the height of their career. Baseball players generally retire due to the fact they either have or have not made their millions in professional sports, their game keeps getting worse due to psychological issues (i.e. been there, done that too much), and just physical strain.

It also depends heavily on the sport, you can retire in your 20s or 40s in the NFL based on your position. Quarterbacks will last a lot longer than running backs because they take fewer hits. Kickers can go well into their 40s. These are all people who train and engage in hardcore physical sports that involve people rushing into them.

Doing some research, I’ve come to a lot of interviews and a lot of writing about how sport retirement ages are actually extended, due to the fact that many professional sport players, like tennis players, want more money saved up for uncertainty, and our science and medical care is getting better.

What I’m saying is, 27 seems like kind of a dumb number and I don’t know, I’ll collect my thoughts about it and look at it later. I’m guessing people make enough, people lose interest in them, and it’s their time to go.

I will say good for Riot though for having a program in place to talk to people about what to do after you leave eSports and you’re no longer some kind all-start sport hero, although eSports in the west has only been popular the last few years.

Tomorrow, maybe, I don’t know, we’ll see I’ll talk about my ideas for college eSport teams. You won’t need to worry so much about retirement if, like a lot of professional players, you get your degree in the process of becoming a legend.

See you guys tomorrow.


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David "Xerin" Piner

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