The Wall Street Journal

[s]starcraft[/s]When mainstream media, none other than The Wall Street Journal, starts talking about Starcraft and APM you know that those who talk about this game 'dying' just might get the message this time: Starcraft refuses to die. Blizzard may just get the message soon enough too. If they do not Vivendi will. Luckily, at this stage gamers across the world who love this game do not need Battle.net, Blizzard, Vivendi or even a CD to play this wonderful game. An estimated 20 million gamers are living proof of this. Maybe in a few hundred years apart from chess and monopoly, there will be also still good all Starcraft in the closet to play with.

There is nothing really new about the content except of course the high quality of the source and the journalistic writing.

» The Wall Street Journal.

A few highlights:

"It's work, not fun," says Mr. Lim, who trains 10 hours a day with his eight teammates and their coach in a two-bedroom apartment, where they also live, in southern Seoul."

"The team apartment is nearly bare, with some pizza boxes and a bank of computers where the players spend most of their waking hours. Mr. Lim rolls out a mattress to sleep on and keeps most of his clothes in boxes and bags. His team uniform and other clothes for public appearances are made of crease-free nylon."

"A DVD detailing Mr. Lim's winning plays sold 30,000 copies in South Korea last year, outselling the movie "Matrix Revolutions."

"The Korean Pro-Gamer's Association has 170 members, though only about 50 make enough to support themselves, earning on average $20,000-$30,000."

"Somewhere on the lower rungs is Australian Peter Neate, 23, a computer science major who dropped out of Griffith University in Queensland to try making it as a pro-gamer in Seoul. He makes $300 a month now, less than what fast-food workers earn in his native Brisbane."

Thanks Alex "orka" Smith for the tip!

Links
Online.wsj.com - The Wall Street Journal