On my Discovered Wordsmiths podcast, I recently interviewed a couple coaches for an eSports team. I have been excited and telling more parents about eSports, and here's why.
1 - video games are bigger business that movies and pro football combined. This means there are more opportunities for careers in the video game industry.
2 - the Ohio High School Athletic Association in Jan 2023 approved for Ohio high school students to earn varsity letters with eSports.
3 - there are over 200 Ohio high schools with eSports teams.
4 - why this push for eSports? Because the Ohio colleges that have eSports teams were having the recruit from outside the state. Yes, recruit - meaning scholarships.
5 - the job position of narrative designer if relatively new in the video game industry. It basically means video game storyteller - that's their job, to write the story for video games.
6 - companies, like Blizzard and Playstation, that want to hire people for this position want experience and not necessarily college degree. Starting pay can be as much as $100,000/year
7 - Kids can build a portfolio and gain experience in video game creation and storytelling while still in school.
That all said, I'm excited that there is a high school in my area with an eSports team, and it's the school my kids attended. I recently interviewed the coaches for that team and we discussed eSports to better help parents understand what this is. Check out the full interview below. There is also a link to the Discovered Wordsmiths podcast episode and several clips to check it out.
