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Esports Live Q&A with James Fraser-Murison and Peyton Pocock

Join James Fraser-Murison and Peyton Pocock as they answer all your live questions from our Esports CareerCon live online event!

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Peyton: Hey everyone, thank you for watching our CareerCon monthly event all about esports so far. Um, I hope you've enjoyed our roundup of insight from all of our speakers so far today. Uh, we're glad to have a little bit of a live Q& A section, uh, with some questions from the audience now. Um, so I'm here with James from hundo. Um, James. 

James: How we doing? 

Peyton: Very well, thank you. 

James: Good. It's going rather well today, isn't it? 

Peyton: Yeah! A little look, uh, at some questions and hopefully answering some, uh, more final insights, uh, from today. It is indeed. Uh, let's have a little look.

Um, so we've got a question here. What is the best place to keep updated on esports and gaming news, trends, and any upcoming events, entertainment, etc? 

James: Hmm. Okay. Um, well, some really obvious places I think would be to maybe follow the, the pro players and the teams themselves of those that you have an interest in as if you were, You know, using social media to follow your, your favorite footballer or what have you.

Um, particularly in eSports, um, and the gaming community. They're actually, um, they have a really kind of healthy competition with one another, some of the orgs and the teams. Where during games and competitions, they, they kind of are quite active. They try to out meme each other. It's quite funny. Um, and the players themselves are quite active on social media, which has a, as a professional, sporting person, if you will. That's quite a rare thing. Um, if you compare it to Premier League footballers, they might, yeah, I don't know, show you their latest Rolls Royce or something or walking into training or be really sad when they've suffered a heavy loss and that's it. Whereas within the kind of esports community, as I say, they're quite active.

They're quite I'm keen to kind of promote and give a bit more of an affinity and a story to them as well. So that's quite cool. I'll definitely follow them. If it's more kind of news and business side of things or even grassroots, then there's some really good publications out there such as, um, Esports Insider, um, Esports News, um, the British Esports Federation, as well as other kind of national teams out there. Esports Wales particularly are really good at keeping everyone up to date, sharing their journeys, what they're up to. Um, particularly from an educational side of things. Um, there's rightly a big push for, uh, supporting women in games. Um, The LGBTQAI plus community, um, within kind of eSports is very active, quite rightly so with all of the events that are going on.

And again, you kind of look at those people and you, you're able to follow them and kind of have a more of a kind of human feel to what they're up to. I would say that any one of the, you know, the Kardashians or anything horrific like that, um, events wise, there's always stuff going on. It's again, fantastic.

If you've got an interest in it. Then follow the teams, follow the orgs, um, see what's happening with, um, eSports in the Olympics, and say no more about that. Go and have a look. Um, there's also opportunities for you to be able to, particularly on things like LinkedIn, and this is what I'll say to my students is if you're looking to see what David Beckham and Guild are up to, or g2, 100 Thieves, or I don't know, Fanatic, then actually using LinkedIn as a kind of almost like a professional tool, you can see the people who work for them as opposed to the company itself. And therefore you, you get a flavor of what they're up to and therefore what the community and the industry is up to.

And of course, you're more likely to get a response from an individual than a, you know, a mega organization worth hundreds of millions of pounds or whatever. Um, there's a website called Hitmarker, which is really cool for esports jobs as well. So again, depending on your approach, there's lots out there that you can look at.

Peyton: And I suppose just sort of really engaging with, um, those folks online. Really, uh, networking, I would imagine is a very important aspect of... finding out about those events, getting invited to those events. I know personally, I've got some friends that, um, find out through, uh, about lots of things just through friends of friends. Um, so really just trying to keep in touch. 

James: Absolutely, yeah and, you know, we've touched upon it in some of the talks we, you know, we've seen this afternoon and, the kind of previous Career Cons as well is, um, networking is, I don't know, it's wrongly, sometimes wrongly looked at as almost being dismissive or whatever, but actually.

You know, being out there and grafting and following fellow people that you've got an interest in or you want to have an interest in that is the best way to get noticed. Um, having a, an online portfolio, particularly what hundo are offering is the best way to do that in terms of showcasing your talent to future employers and e sports and the e sports community is a really good place to do that because you can showcase your video editing skills, video production, much like you've been able to demonstrate using these career cons yourself Peyton.

Um, music, soundtrack, um, script writing, um, casting, coaching, pro play, all of these things are kind of nice little assets that you can go on to digitally showcase and add to your portfolio. So yeah. 

Peyton: Totally. And from what I've seen, it seems to be a really supportive community around that. So I think you shouldn't have too much issue hopefully keeping up with, um, everything that's going on.

Yeah. Now we've got another little question in here. Uh. Yep. All right. Is there an age restriction or any barriers to entry to joining the eSports industry or any eSports and gaming tournaments? 

James: Um, kind of similar to... I guess kind of going to watch a particular classification of a film at the cinema, I don't think that's the cinema anymore, uh, or watching something, you know, that maybe they shouldn't, or there's PEGI ratings of particular games, um, which is again equivalent to the film classification board.

Um, there are, there's games such as CSGO, CS2, um, which are, Warzone, which the games themselves are a particular restriction. And you have to be a certain age below that to be able to, to kind of view those things. So when, when we teach and discuss esports here in education at college, we don't allow the students to play PEGI rated 18 games, um, particularly, um, in year one or of six form for obvious reasons.

Majority will be 16, 17 year olds. We know lots and lots of people, uh, will be watching things online or in person that they shouldn't necessarily be doing. So that's a judgment call on yourself, I guess. Um, but things like Rocket League are really accessible and sort of, dare I say, family friendly. Um, the, the professional casters, the professional players that you see, they shouldn't be, for obvious reasons, any kind of bad language or toxicity, if you will.

Because they're pro players, so it depends where you get your content from, of course. Um, and any parents listening to this always make sure where you can, you know, what your young people are watching. Um, but for the most part, it's, you know, I think it's, it's like, you know, 12 certification to go and watch live events or I get, it depends which and where you're going to go.

Um, and if in doubt, look the game up yourself, but if you've got an opportunity to go to a live e sports event. Absolutely go and do it. It is phenomenal. Um, many people don't even know they exist. I wouldn't have thought, um, hundreds and thousands and millions of people will watch live, um, during the actual event or will watch it after the event on the likes of Twitch and YouTube and what have you.

So the appetite is there for it. Absolutely. So if you've got an opportunity to see it and it's appropriate, definitely do that. 

Peyton: Awesome. Thanks for that. It's good to hear that, um, those events are sort of becoming increasingly more and more accessible, um, to sort of as wide an audience as possible. Um, and talking of a digital audience, um, how do you think, uh, esports engages fans differently, someone asks.

Um, and they ask in comparison to, uh, traditional sports, such as football, rugby, etc. 

James: Um, I mean, there are professional players and organizations that have millions of followers and, you know, similar to Premier League footballers, but the vast majority will not. Um, and those that are growing up in the eSports world or the eSports kind of particular tournament or they're heavily involved in Worlds or anything like that.

Um, they, they kind of grow organically. They grow from an early age. And people follow them because of the content that they put out from an early age and do so regularly before they're signed up or snapped up again, you know, showcase their talent to a wider audience because they've been picked up, Circular Life, if you will, um, and because of all the technology that's out there and you think of what Twitch can give you or, um, you know, OB broadcasting staff or using El Gato or stream decks or whatever.

It means that you don't have to be a genius in the nicest possible term to be able to look incredibly slick and fast and entertaining. And the way that you get noticed is grinding, grinding, grinding and grafting consistently and making sure that the output you put out there is either consistent, so you have a theme, you have a kind of motif, you are a particular individual who is known for doing the same thing.

Or... You know, you can go the other path of which you become almost an streamer outright where you're, you'll be famous for this one thing, but you might do a night of. A cooking element to your, to your community and then you'll scrim one night and then next night you're in Apex Legends and then you're on Fortnite and then you're doing Fall Guys or whatever.

It's keeping the variety going, but having the regular kind of streaming opportunities to do so. And because of that, I think people will flock to you and they can identify you readily. Um, and kind of go, you're very good at what you do, but you're also quite human. And that's quite a nice feel. You know, you take, again, you know, not wishing to constantly kind of, this is a pun, I'm telling you now, there's a pun coming, um, where you don't have to deliberately stick the boot in to Premier League footballers, tick, um, but they either don't have the time or they're not allowed or realistically don't even run their own accounts, where you're not going to see Jude Bellingham or, um.

Let's think Roderick from Man City. They're not going to go and have a really intense 90 minutes and then two days later or six hours later they're doing their own YouTube cooking channel. Alright? They just don't. Um, they're in their own little bubble where the majority of gamers and eSports players and the eSports community folk put themselves out there knowing that 99 percent of people really enjoy what they do and follow them for a reason and it's just the silly 1 percent minority who are like, well this is rubbish.

You go, right, well don't follow them then, you know, ignore you, whatever. Uh, and so all of that kind of builds itself and because it's, because it's gaming and esports and because it's so engaging and it's almost short form media as well that it kind of brings all these people in and whatever. And it's, it's exciting like that.

And. As I say, the technology, the stuff you can do on your phone now, you don't need a massive kind of PC to do it now. You can look pretty damn professional with having not much capability other than what's beyond your phone now. And that's a cool thing. It's good for accessibility. 

Peyton: That's good. And I think the sort of real key takeaway for me at least there was, um, that the, a lot of the esports entertainment is quite, um, quite narrowed in on individual personalities and individual players and really sort of having a follow around, although you do play quite often as part of a broader team, and there's a huge amount of team sportsmanship involved.

Um, really sort of, uh, having a, almost like a cult like following to an individual player sometimes, um, is, I think, quite a valuable thing to have there. Um, let's have a little look through. 

James: Yeah, let's have another question there. 

Peyton: Starting to get a lot of questions. Um, What strategies prove most effective in building and retaining a dedicated fanbase?

Uh, and I think we sort of just covered a little bit of that in our last question. 

James: Yeah, um, I think being authentic. Yeah, I think being authentic, genuine, consistent. People want to follow people they can sometimes relate to. I mean, it's exciting to watch the escapism of, you know, you're a 12 year old watching, you know, a woman or a man smash it around in a Ferrari somewhere.

That's exciting for a point, but equally if they're arguably more relatable because of the trials and tribulations that you know, you both went through or whatever. And they started here and now they're here. That's playable. That's, that's good stuff. And again, it comes back to just being consistent and short form media, you know, obviously dear old Tiktok's good for things like that.

Bite sized stuff before you move on to something else. It's, good. 

Peyton: And I suppose those individual personalities we were just mentioning then become a lot more relatable and then you can really build that dedicated fan base on a more personal level with your audience. 

Um, we have another viewer that asks, can you explain the concept of esports streaming and content creation and how it has influenced the industry?

James: Um. So, so streaming is, um, several ways, I guess, um, of being able to describe it, explain it. It's, this is in essence streaming. I guess what you and I are doing, isn't it? Um, in terms of, of eSports and, and gaming. It is. You put your game play live out, out there, um, into the world for people, viewers, fans, to basically watch, ideally enjoy, more often than not, critique and criticise negatively. Uh, that's the world, sadly. Um, and then that's, comes back to the previous question, that's how you gain followers and have a bit of a, a kind of shtick and a theme to yourself and personality. Um, but you can stream your own gameplay, you can stream yourself watching other people, people's gameplay and, and talking about that and kind of commentating on, on previous things.

Um, you know that kind of, being an influencer and a content creator means that, in essence, you can stream and make passing and sweeping judgment on anything. If the output's already there, then you can easily put yourself in the bottom corner of a screen, showcase someone else's work, and critique. Um, and content creation is all of that plus being a, you know, a vlogger or a blogger.

Anything that you contribute or you edit or you amend or you create originally. You are creating content. What you do with that is up to you. Ideally, safely and sensibly and of course legally. Um, you chuck it out there and you chuck it out there for judgement and then you're away on this rollercoaster where you want to put more stuff out there because you want to be loved and you want to be liked.

Um, and you've then got to keep grafting to be consistent. Um, but it then makes a really interesting industry and field because you'll have... particular influences and casters or commentators, I guess. Streamers of a particular game. So if you're a streamer for, if you're an esports streamer, it absolutely doesn't mean that you are qualified enough or experienced enough to go, well there's Counter Strike, there's Apex, there's Fortnite, there's Warzone, there's Rocket League, there's League of Legends, there's whatever, whatever, whatever.

It doesn't mean that because I'm a commentator I can talk about all of them nonchalantly in the same way, a football commentator probably won't be able to discuss rugby or hockey or basketball or tennis. You've got to be very good in your field. Now, starting as an amateur or as a semi pro, semi pro caster, influencer, great, do what you like you're starting your journey, but you will, you will become very famous for being, you know, very knowledgeable on a certain thing. That's the same in any industry. But again, we come back to the consistent message is, A, do what you enjoy, and two, A and two, A, do what you enjoy, B, um, go and um, go and do, do the things that you've then got that passion for, but is also quite unique maybe to go, go stand out and do something and all the technology's there to be able to do that quite readily now.

Peyton: Totally agree, and I suppose quite specifically there's some really good platforms, at least I'm aware of now, that allow for, I mean, pretty much streaming of anything. I know Twitch, YouTube, you can stream literally anything. I watch some live streams of different games and things on there sometimes. 

And correct me if I'm wrong, uh, is Kick... kick.com, another website as well, specifically for... 

James: Yes.

Peyton: I'm sure there's many others. 

James: There are many, yeah, yeah, everyone, you know, So, YouTube's the OG, right? To use this particular vernacular. Um, and Twitch is doing a, you know, Twitch rightly has its, um, criticisms. Um, I think it was this year, tried different kind of methods and, um, sort of financial outgoings, particularly, like they said, they got into a bit of hot water, as I'm sure everyone does, where the more famous you are, the more that you should be rewarded for that, because you're pulling eyes on the content of the platform without getting too deep into this rabbit hole.

Um, and it's often the case sometimes there's different business models which could, let's say, be seen as nothing more than a marketing material promotion or a way of just becoming richer. Not saying any platforms have done that, of course, right? . Yeah. . I can't afford a lawyer. Um, so let's, let's assume that, uh, Kick right, which is, which is an alternative, um, as is Facebook, um, Amazon gaming at the moment it's in a bit of, bit of trouble, but, um, the better you are, the more competitors will eventually try and topple you. Of course. I think if you look at this in a constructive way, in a positive way. Actually, you've just got different methods and different ways of being able to get your voice across. Twitch may not be for you, try Kick. Kick might not be for you... whatever, whatever, whatever. Just see what's out there. See what works best. As and when you become sort of mega rich because of your viewing figures are going through the roof, then find a business model that works for you. And there's, you know, that again, similar approach to any industry, really.

But, you know, you take bog standard Facebook or Instagram, whatever. You can stream and do short form however you wish, um, as a influencer, content creator, and gamer. Um, but absolutely the OG in this conversation is dear old Twitch for Gaming. 

Peyton: And I suppose, um, almost sounds like there's an opportunity there for some new players to, um, come in with some eSports, uh, content and really have a look at what is out there. I'm not super, super familiar with other than, uh, my little bubble, my little world of YouTube. So, yeah 

James: But there's nothing wrong with your little world. That's why, you know, we, we, this exciting, you know, era we live in, um, where it went. When I was your age, or much, much younger, I didn't have the opportunities of other worlds.

I had what was available in them, there and then, and that was it. And if I didn't like them, I didn't, I didn't have a choice to go elsewhere. What I have now are various opportunities to go on something, a multi million pound conversation, uh, sorry, multi million pound, um, conglomerate, corporate machine like YouTube or Twitch. And in that, find something incredibly diverse and niche to me. And that's fantastic. The irony being that there is very rarely anything that is niche these days. Niche might now mean a hundred thousand people. As opposed to a million people, whereas actually they should be near a ten. But again, because of the fact that there's this, all these global products now allow you to pretty much see whatever you want, whenever you want.

You've just got, if anything, better individuality and sort of stakeholderness of your own little content and piece. And that's actually a really cool thing. 

Peyton: Hmm. Yeah, it's fantastic. Um, cool. Let's have a little whizz through some more questions. Um, What are the major challenges facing the eSports industry and what opportunities exist for further expansion?

James: Um, hmm, well, depending on whom you follow or read or watch at the moment, we are either in or heading into, or neither of those things, um, in an eSports winter. There are lots of organizations. Sort of some mega ones, uh, which I won't name and some sort of below mid tier where people are running out of money There is an eSports bubble that has alleged to have burst if again depending on your views on this There never was in the first place or it's a bit Wild West whatever whatever, where people are struggling to Invest or find investment or find sponsorship. And although e sports companies and organizations and teams are quick to say, Hey, look, we've partnered with Gucci and BMW and Prada and Porsche. And they have, and they will continue to do so. The more that is kind of taken by existing orgs, the less there is for other people.

And the reliance on having to use big brands means you've got to do more. regularly, then you've got to come up with more unique selling points and you've got to do something niche again and you've got to do something that's get their content eyes on because it means if you're watching their content and platform, you're not watching anyone else's.

So there are kind of things falling apart and there are people falling by the wayside that is the, you know, that is the business world. Um, I think there's also a lot of people out there going, well, it's eSports, it's never going to work. Um, and they are quick to, to kind of put the boot in, but actually those are business models that fail for anyone and everyone, wherever you go and you can't rely, um, well, you couldn't predict, I should say that there was a worldwide pandemic.

You couldn't predict, you know, there are various issues in the UK at the moment with funding and money and revenue, um, but to kind of answer the other element of your, of your question is, well, then. If things are removed, then there should be an opportunity for things to be replaced. And that could be you, that could be your team, that could be your organization.

Well structured, well thought out, good personality, great business model. Get in there, swoop, do these things. Um, and you know, for every kind of downturn and negative, which there is in everything, then there's always an incline coming as well. So you, if you're lucky and it, you know, and you work hard, then when the incline kind of starts to rise again, you're at the top. You're good to go. So there's always opportunities. There's always cyclical stuff in any business. 

Peyton: So it almost sounds like there's a little bit of overlap between the challenges and the expansion might, that might be some of where the tension lies. 

James: Um, yeah, absolutely.

I think there's lots of, yeah, but there's loads of people out there who see esports as a cash cow and because depending on. Again, who you are, how old you are, people will say, well, esports has only been there for five years or 10 years or 20 years or 40 years or whatever, depending on you could argue any of those answers.

Um, but as businesses are seeing that there's loads of essential skills that come from understanding the esports industry and business, more and more people are saying, well, hang on, let's, let's use young people's talent to make our business better. Great. Nothing wrong with that. But also there's lots of people going.

Let's make some quick money and those are the ones that tend to fail first 

Peyton: So really be diligent I suppose if you're getting into the industry and double trip triple check everything um especially if you start looking into things like contracts and stuff 

James: Always comes down to contracts

Peyton: Yeah I can imagine, um, and I think we've got a another question here, um We might make this one of our final questions. Uh, how do you anticipate future trends and technologies shaping the eSports industry and what impact might these changes have on the landscape things like game development and viewer experience future trends 

James: Future trends.

Okay. Well, I mean It's an interesting question. I mean particularly when I think there's always, there's always things out there. There's always things that are going to replace existing things or new things come out. So I'm going to leave sort of VR, AR within the eSports world to one. Sorry, I'll try not to talk about that.

Um, although it is relevant. Uh, this week, I think, um, for a mere 200 pounds, you can buy the PlayStation Portal. Um, and then, which is a handheld, it's a funny looking thing. Uh, it's kind of got the PlayStation 5 controllers, but a flat screen in the middle. So it's like a weird. Um, it might be cool if anyone wants to give me one, no problem.

Um, so that will have due to those technologies and capabilities that will have an influence on, um, e sports because of the games that you can play on it whilst being mobile, you won't get the same experience obviously, but it's another avenue, it's another way to kind of help with differentiation and accessibility, no bad thing.

Um, mobile gaming, which separate to e sports, but that's consistently on the rise and you could argue. That I'm not a mobile gamer, and then I say, have you ever played Candy Crush, and you go, yes, I have, and I go, right, okay. Uh, not in esports, but again, within the gaming, online, uh, mobile gaming community.

Um, I think one of the big things that's going to change it, which is exciting, is, um, Unreal Engine, who are basically wedded to Fortnite. Along with Epic and this thing. So, um, it means that you can create and that you can, for a while, you can come, become your own content creator, which kind of goes back to the, to the questions we had at the start. Where you can, you can have this market where you can create Fortnite levels, put them into the Fortnite world to get people that you're never going to meet to bounce around your levels and have wonderful kind of opportunities and fun. And what an exciting future of game design that is. Whenever. Epic and Fortnite and Unreal are going to want to pay you to create levels for them.

I mean, what an exciting world um It's interesting that also a couple of weeks ago. Um, the original Fortnite map is back now Is that because they're running out of ideas? Is that way of kind of refreshing the market? Is that, I mean, it's interesting that it's been selling some layoffs over there with dear old fortnight themselves.

So is this a way of kind of bringing people back in, bringing new people back in, are they running out of ideas? I doubt that. Um, it's just a way to kind of sort of start again, away we go. And. Any one of those things I can't answer properly, so I'll never know, but keep an eye on it, I think, and as I say, with, with, with more studios, organizations, and businesses looking at using customers to create their own levels is a genius, and let's face it, cheap marketing tactic, um, they're making the product for you, brilliant, um, but also gives complete ownership to the, to the players and the, the people who buy the product themselves, so that's quite cool, and um, I think we, we're probably going to see AI have more and more, obviously going to have more and more input and control over script writing, game design, character design, advertising, in game live content creation. Um, GTA six, I think. Um, we're probably still 30 years away from that. Um, it's a trailer allegedly dropping next month.

Um, who knows even then, that will be able to give you based on the advancements of, of, you know, software and particularly AI at the moment. 

Peyton: Even, um, even, uh, this morning I was reading a quick sort of insert from, The CEO at Take Two, um, uh, one of the sort of developers of GTA and he's giving a real sort of excitement from him about the future of AI.

He didn't let on that, you know, suspiciously didn't let on about GTA specifically, but, um, said that, you know, they were working on some internal, um, AI character NPC development stuff. Um, and I'm not sure I've really seen anything lean too heavily into that in any other game. Um, so far, so that might be a, a sort of big grand first.

And that's something that, um, I know at least really excites me. 

James: It might, it really might. And I doubt, I don't know, it may not be almost 10 years on or it's 10 years on since GTA 5. Um, that they planned it to coincide with this big AI vanguard approach, right? I doubt they would have said 10 years ago, let's just sit tight for a decade.

Right, it's called AI and it's going to make our life easy, watch this. Um, but they might just coincide it beautifully. Um, but also it's, it's never been easier to be a game designer or software developer or script writer. And I don't mean that disre I'm nowhere near talented to do any of those things. I don't understand Python, Unreal, Unity. I need to sit down and learn it clearly. Um, but actually, it's never been easier for an average person to have zero knowledge on a product, go to, you know, ChatGPT, other AI platforms that are available, you know, whack in a prompt, read the answer, take the output, and then go, look, I'm going to change my LinkedIn or X profile, I'm now a game designer, I'm now a script writer.

You might be , yeah maybe. Now, that's not wishing to offend the hundreds of thousands of people in the industry who have been there, done that and do brilliant jobs, that's not what I meant, but hopefully you get a flavour of that anyway. And I think probably a really good place to leave the live questions now anyway, before I do actually get myself in trouble.

Peyton: No worries. And I've got one final, very quick question from me. Um, any games you've been enjoying recently? Uh, I know I've, uh, I've been... into Fortnite for the first time. I've never never ever played it. Um, before last week. I got roped into it with some of my friends uh, and It pains me to admit but it's actually really quite fun.

So are there any other games you've been enjoying recently? 

James: Yeah, I mean well, I have I have a whatsapp group of three or four um three or four of my of my male friends who we've known each other since early teens called Warzone. All right, we are professional grown ups who do relatively important jobs, allegedly, and we play Warzone, right, and we get really annoyed when we lose, and we get absolutely elated when we win, and that's the buzz.

And That's the joys of gaming. It's got actually got nothing to do with age at all or experience You can play pretty much any game of any experience age age rating permission and just have some fun I get far too stressed playing warzone. I do play fortnight with my with my son. He is now 10 We have the best times with that Because actually fortnight's a lot of fun fortnight is a beautiful game It is a genius game and it is beautiful and it's far cleverer than most people probably give it credit for But I love it. I love Fall Guys. Um, I'm not very good at what was FIFA. Um, I can do alright at League of Legends. I would do, I really like, it's not an esports, but I really like things like The Last of Us and God of War. I like role playing games. Games with narrative, rich narrative, that's my escapism, that's, that's what I like, so yeah.

But I'll, I'll, I'll jump in with you mate, I'll see you in Fortnite. 

Peyton: Yep, let's give it a go, um, we, we might end up in quite an easy lobby, uh, if you join me. 

James: Even better, I can look even better. 

Peyton: We'll be catching easy wins and I won't be getting many kills. I don't imagine, well. 

James: Lovely. 

Peyton: Lovely time to round up.

Thank you, um, James for, um, joining us for a few questions, uh, from our audience today, James is our resident eSports, um, expert at hundo. Um, and where can we catch more about you, uh, James, and where can we catch more about hundo? 

James: Um, well, uh, thank you very much for having me. Thank you for the questions. Uh, good questions.

Thanks everyone. Um, so, um, Head of Education for hundo, please reach out because, uh, more than happy to talk about how eSports and gaming can help with future careers and also be brought into curriculum whether that's SEND schools, level 2, level 3, what have you. Please reach out You can find me on LinkedIn with the name you'll see on the screen.

It's a ridiculous name. There's any one of me You can find me on X, the artist formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram as The Esports Teacher. Um, I'm more than happy to, to kind of have similar chats like this as well. And just before we go, um, many, many congratulations to everyone behind the team at hundo to get this, um, up and running again. This has been one of many Career Cons that we've done now. This is our, unfortunately, um, our last one of the year. Probably a good thing. Everyone needs a rest now and recoup for what's coming in January. We've done Career Cons in Digital Fashion. Uh, we've done Work Tech, we've done e sports, we've done an Artificial Intelligence, uh, Career Con.

Please go and check those previous ones out. And with regards to the AI one, um, please go and check out our socials as well on hundo because we have a Kickstarter campaign. which was launched last week. We've already smashed that target audience and money. So thank you very much. Feel free to continue to support us because these, um, AI Kickstarter campaigns are for actually helping students, but actually in particular parents who will hear AI and AI in school and why it's good, why it's bad and ChatGPT and Dante and Bard, but they won't know what it is.

So this is an opportunity for you to kind of work with us, join us. Have some fantastic sessions on what it is and how you can use it to support your, your young people, maybe even yourselves as well. So please go and look at that. And also final thing for me, other than a huge thank you and have a great seasonal break.

Join us in January for the next Career Con, where we will be launching, uh, Climate Tech. Uh, with some very, very special news with some ridiculously special guests of a huge global name, which I'm not going to mention right now. 

Peyton: Uh, yeah, look out for more information, uh, come the new year. Um, from hundo there.

Well, thank you very much James for joining us today and thank you for, um, everyone else for watching. Uh, we'll see you in the new year for Climate Tech. Take care.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Peyton: Hey everyone, thank you for watching our CareerCon monthly event all about esports so far. Um, I hope you've enjoyed our roundup of insight from all of our speakers so far today. Uh, we're glad to have a little bit of a live Q& A section, uh, with some questions from the audience now. Um, so I'm here with James from hundo. Um, James. 

James: How we doing? 

Peyton: Very well, thank you. 

James: Good. It's going rather well today, isn't it? 

Peyton: Yeah! A little look, uh, at some questions and hopefully answering some, uh, more final insights, uh, from today. It is indeed. Uh, let's have a little look.

Um, so we've got a question here. What is the best place to keep updated on esports and gaming news, trends, and any upcoming events, entertainment, etc? 

James: Hmm. Okay. Um, well, some really obvious places I think would be to maybe follow the, the pro players and the teams themselves of those that you have an interest in as if you were, You know, using social media to follow your, your favorite footballer or what have you.

Um, particularly in eSports, um, and the gaming community. They're actually, um, they have a really kind of healthy competition with one another, some of the orgs and the teams. Where during games and competitions, they, they kind of are quite active. They try to out meme each other. It's quite funny. Um, and the players themselves are quite active on social media, which has a, as a professional, sporting person, if you will. That's quite a rare thing. Um, if you compare it to Premier League footballers, they might, yeah, I don't know, show you their latest Rolls Royce or something or walking into training or be really sad when they've suffered a heavy loss and that's it. Whereas within the kind of esports community, as I say, they're quite active.

They're quite I'm keen to kind of promote and give a bit more of an affinity and a story to them as well. So that's quite cool. I'll definitely follow them. If it's more kind of news and business side of things or even grassroots, then there's some really good publications out there such as, um, Esports Insider, um, Esports News, um, the British Esports Federation, as well as other kind of national teams out there. Esports Wales particularly are really good at keeping everyone up to date, sharing their journeys, what they're up to. Um, particularly from an educational side of things. Um, there's rightly a big push for, uh, supporting women in games. Um, The LGBTQAI plus community, um, within kind of eSports is very active, quite rightly so with all of the events that are going on.

And again, you kind of look at those people and you, you're able to follow them and kind of have a more of a kind of human feel to what they're up to. I would say that any one of the, you know, the Kardashians or anything horrific like that, um, events wise, there's always stuff going on. It's again, fantastic.

If you've got an interest in it. Then follow the teams, follow the orgs, um, see what's happening with, um, eSports in the Olympics, and say no more about that. Go and have a look. Um, there's also opportunities for you to be able to, particularly on things like LinkedIn, and this is what I'll say to my students is if you're looking to see what David Beckham and Guild are up to, or g2, 100 Thieves, or I don't know, Fanatic, then actually using LinkedIn as a kind of almost like a professional tool, you can see the people who work for them as opposed to the company itself. And therefore you, you get a flavor of what they're up to and therefore what the community and the industry is up to.

And of course, you're more likely to get a response from an individual than a, you know, a mega organization worth hundreds of millions of pounds or whatever. Um, there's a website called Hitmarker, which is really cool for esports jobs as well. So again, depending on your approach, there's lots out there that you can look at.

Peyton: And I suppose just sort of really engaging with, um, those folks online. Really, uh, networking, I would imagine is a very important aspect of... finding out about those events, getting invited to those events. I know personally, I've got some friends that, um, find out through, uh, about lots of things just through friends of friends. Um, so really just trying to keep in touch. 

James: Absolutely, yeah and, you know, we've touched upon it in some of the talks we, you know, we've seen this afternoon and, the kind of previous Career Cons as well is, um, networking is, I don't know, it's wrongly, sometimes wrongly looked at as almost being dismissive or whatever, but actually.

You know, being out there and grafting and following fellow people that you've got an interest in or you want to have an interest in that is the best way to get noticed. Um, having a, an online portfolio, particularly what hundo are offering is the best way to do that in terms of showcasing your talent to future employers and e sports and the e sports community is a really good place to do that because you can showcase your video editing skills, video production, much like you've been able to demonstrate using these career cons yourself Peyton.

Um, music, soundtrack, um, script writing, um, casting, coaching, pro play, all of these things are kind of nice little assets that you can go on to digitally showcase and add to your portfolio. So yeah. 

Peyton: Totally. And from what I've seen, it seems to be a really supportive community around that. So I think you shouldn't have too much issue hopefully keeping up with, um, everything that's going on.

Yeah. Now we've got another little question in here. Uh. Yep. All right. Is there an age restriction or any barriers to entry to joining the eSports industry or any eSports and gaming tournaments? 

James: Um, kind of similar to... I guess kind of going to watch a particular classification of a film at the cinema, I don't think that's the cinema anymore, uh, or watching something, you know, that maybe they shouldn't, or there's PEGI ratings of particular games, um, which is again equivalent to the film classification board.

Um, there are, there's games such as CSGO, CS2, um, which are, Warzone, which the games themselves are a particular restriction. And you have to be a certain age below that to be able to, to kind of view those things. So when, when we teach and discuss esports here in education at college, we don't allow the students to play PEGI rated 18 games, um, particularly, um, in year one or of six form for obvious reasons.

Majority will be 16, 17 year olds. We know lots and lots of people, uh, will be watching things online or in person that they shouldn't necessarily be doing. So that's a judgment call on yourself, I guess. Um, but things like Rocket League are really accessible and sort of, dare I say, family friendly. Um, the, the professional casters, the professional players that you see, they shouldn't be, for obvious reasons, any kind of bad language or toxicity, if you will.

Because they're pro players, so it depends where you get your content from, of course. Um, and any parents listening to this always make sure where you can, you know, what your young people are watching. Um, but for the most part, it's, you know, I think it's, it's like, you know, 12 certification to go and watch live events or I get, it depends which and where you're going to go.

Um, and if in doubt, look the game up yourself, but if you've got an opportunity to go to a live e sports event. Absolutely go and do it. It is phenomenal. Um, many people don't even know they exist. I wouldn't have thought, um, hundreds and thousands and millions of people will watch live, um, during the actual event or will watch it after the event on the likes of Twitch and YouTube and what have you.

So the appetite is there for it. Absolutely. So if you've got an opportunity to see it and it's appropriate, definitely do that. 

Peyton: Awesome. Thanks for that. It's good to hear that, um, those events are sort of becoming increasingly more and more accessible, um, to sort of as wide an audience as possible. Um, and talking of a digital audience, um, how do you think, uh, esports engages fans differently, someone asks.

Um, and they ask in comparison to, uh, traditional sports, such as football, rugby, etc. 

James: Um, I mean, there are professional players and organizations that have millions of followers and, you know, similar to Premier League footballers, but the vast majority will not. Um, and those that are growing up in the eSports world or the eSports kind of particular tournament or they're heavily involved in Worlds or anything like that.

Um, they, they kind of grow organically. They grow from an early age. And people follow them because of the content that they put out from an early age and do so regularly before they're signed up or snapped up again, you know, showcase their talent to a wider audience because they've been picked up, Circular Life, if you will, um, and because of all the technology that's out there and you think of what Twitch can give you or, um, you know, OB broadcasting staff or using El Gato or stream decks or whatever.

It means that you don't have to be a genius in the nicest possible term to be able to look incredibly slick and fast and entertaining. And the way that you get noticed is grinding, grinding, grinding and grafting consistently and making sure that the output you put out there is either consistent, so you have a theme, you have a kind of motif, you are a particular individual who is known for doing the same thing.

Or... You know, you can go the other path of which you become almost an streamer outright where you're, you'll be famous for this one thing, but you might do a night of. A cooking element to your, to your community and then you'll scrim one night and then next night you're in Apex Legends and then you're on Fortnite and then you're doing Fall Guys or whatever.

It's keeping the variety going, but having the regular kind of streaming opportunities to do so. And because of that, I think people will flock to you and they can identify you readily. Um, and kind of go, you're very good at what you do, but you're also quite human. And that's quite a nice feel. You know, you take, again, you know, not wishing to constantly kind of, this is a pun, I'm telling you now, there's a pun coming, um, where you don't have to deliberately stick the boot in to Premier League footballers, tick, um, but they either don't have the time or they're not allowed or realistically don't even run their own accounts, where you're not going to see Jude Bellingham or, um.

Let's think Roderick from Man City. They're not going to go and have a really intense 90 minutes and then two days later or six hours later they're doing their own YouTube cooking channel. Alright? They just don't. Um, they're in their own little bubble where the majority of gamers and eSports players and the eSports community folk put themselves out there knowing that 99 percent of people really enjoy what they do and follow them for a reason and it's just the silly 1 percent minority who are like, well this is rubbish.

You go, right, well don't follow them then, you know, ignore you, whatever. Uh, and so all of that kind of builds itself and because it's, because it's gaming and esports and because it's so engaging and it's almost short form media as well that it kind of brings all these people in and whatever. And it's, it's exciting like that.

And. As I say, the technology, the stuff you can do on your phone now, you don't need a massive kind of PC to do it now. You can look pretty damn professional with having not much capability other than what's beyond your phone now. And that's a cool thing. It's good for accessibility. 

Peyton: That's good. And I think the sort of real key takeaway for me at least there was, um, that the, a lot of the esports entertainment is quite, um, quite narrowed in on individual personalities and individual players and really sort of having a follow around, although you do play quite often as part of a broader team, and there's a huge amount of team sportsmanship involved.

Um, really sort of, uh, having a, almost like a cult like following to an individual player sometimes, um, is, I think, quite a valuable thing to have there. Um, let's have a little look through. 

James: Yeah, let's have another question there. 

Peyton: Starting to get a lot of questions. Um, What strategies prove most effective in building and retaining a dedicated fanbase?

Uh, and I think we sort of just covered a little bit of that in our last question. 

James: Yeah, um, I think being authentic. Yeah, I think being authentic, genuine, consistent. People want to follow people they can sometimes relate to. I mean, it's exciting to watch the escapism of, you know, you're a 12 year old watching, you know, a woman or a man smash it around in a Ferrari somewhere.

That's exciting for a point, but equally if they're arguably more relatable because of the trials and tribulations that you know, you both went through or whatever. And they started here and now they're here. That's playable. That's, that's good stuff. And again, it comes back to just being consistent and short form media, you know, obviously dear old Tiktok's good for things like that.

Bite sized stuff before you move on to something else. It's, good. 

Peyton: And I suppose those individual personalities we were just mentioning then become a lot more relatable and then you can really build that dedicated fan base on a more personal level with your audience. 

Um, we have another viewer that asks, can you explain the concept of esports streaming and content creation and how it has influenced the industry?

James: Um. So, so streaming is, um, several ways, I guess, um, of being able to describe it, explain it. It's, this is in essence streaming. I guess what you and I are doing, isn't it? Um, in terms of, of eSports and, and gaming. It is. You put your game play live out, out there, um, into the world for people, viewers, fans, to basically watch, ideally enjoy, more often than not, critique and criticise negatively. Uh, that's the world, sadly. Um, and then that's, comes back to the previous question, that's how you gain followers and have a bit of a, a kind of shtick and a theme to yourself and personality. Um, but you can stream your own gameplay, you can stream yourself watching other people, people's gameplay and, and talking about that and kind of commentating on, on previous things.

Um, you know that kind of, being an influencer and a content creator means that, in essence, you can stream and make passing and sweeping judgment on anything. If the output's already there, then you can easily put yourself in the bottom corner of a screen, showcase someone else's work, and critique. Um, and content creation is all of that plus being a, you know, a vlogger or a blogger.

Anything that you contribute or you edit or you amend or you create originally. You are creating content. What you do with that is up to you. Ideally, safely and sensibly and of course legally. Um, you chuck it out there and you chuck it out there for judgement and then you're away on this rollercoaster where you want to put more stuff out there because you want to be loved and you want to be liked.

Um, and you've then got to keep grafting to be consistent. Um, but it then makes a really interesting industry and field because you'll have... particular influences and casters or commentators, I guess. Streamers of a particular game. So if you're a streamer for, if you're an esports streamer, it absolutely doesn't mean that you are qualified enough or experienced enough to go, well there's Counter Strike, there's Apex, there's Fortnite, there's Warzone, there's Rocket League, there's League of Legends, there's whatever, whatever, whatever.

It doesn't mean that because I'm a commentator I can talk about all of them nonchalantly in the same way, a football commentator probably won't be able to discuss rugby or hockey or basketball or tennis. You've got to be very good in your field. Now, starting as an amateur or as a semi pro, semi pro caster, influencer, great, do what you like you're starting your journey, but you will, you will become very famous for being, you know, very knowledgeable on a certain thing. That's the same in any industry. But again, we come back to the consistent message is, A, do what you enjoy, and two, A and two, A, do what you enjoy, B, um, go and um, go and do, do the things that you've then got that passion for, but is also quite unique maybe to go, go stand out and do something and all the technology's there to be able to do that quite readily now.

Peyton: Totally agree, and I suppose quite specifically there's some really good platforms, at least I'm aware of now, that allow for, I mean, pretty much streaming of anything. I know Twitch, YouTube, you can stream literally anything. I watch some live streams of different games and things on there sometimes. 

And correct me if I'm wrong, uh, is Kick... kick.com, another website as well, specifically for... 

James: Yes.

Peyton: I'm sure there's many others. 

James: There are many, yeah, yeah, everyone, you know, So, YouTube's the OG, right? To use this particular vernacular. Um, and Twitch is doing a, you know, Twitch rightly has its, um, criticisms. Um, I think it was this year, tried different kind of methods and, um, sort of financial outgoings, particularly, like they said, they got into a bit of hot water, as I'm sure everyone does, where the more famous you are, the more that you should be rewarded for that, because you're pulling eyes on the content of the platform without getting too deep into this rabbit hole.

Um, and it's often the case sometimes there's different business models which could, let's say, be seen as nothing more than a marketing material promotion or a way of just becoming richer. Not saying any platforms have done that, of course, right? . Yeah. . I can't afford a lawyer. Um, so let's, let's assume that, uh, Kick right, which is, which is an alternative, um, as is Facebook, um, Amazon gaming at the moment it's in a bit of, bit of trouble, but, um, the better you are, the more competitors will eventually try and topple you. Of course. I think if you look at this in a constructive way, in a positive way. Actually, you've just got different methods and different ways of being able to get your voice across. Twitch may not be for you, try Kick. Kick might not be for you... whatever, whatever, whatever. Just see what's out there. See what works best. As and when you become sort of mega rich because of your viewing figures are going through the roof, then find a business model that works for you. And there's, you know, that again, similar approach to any industry, really.

But, you know, you take bog standard Facebook or Instagram, whatever. You can stream and do short form however you wish, um, as a influencer, content creator, and gamer. Um, but absolutely the OG in this conversation is dear old Twitch for Gaming. 

Peyton: And I suppose, um, almost sounds like there's an opportunity there for some new players to, um, come in with some eSports, uh, content and really have a look at what is out there. I'm not super, super familiar with other than, uh, my little bubble, my little world of YouTube. So, yeah 

James: But there's nothing wrong with your little world. That's why, you know, we, we, this exciting, you know, era we live in, um, where it went. When I was your age, or much, much younger, I didn't have the opportunities of other worlds.

I had what was available in them, there and then, and that was it. And if I didn't like them, I didn't, I didn't have a choice to go elsewhere. What I have now are various opportunities to go on something, a multi million pound conversation, uh, sorry, multi million pound, um, conglomerate, corporate machine like YouTube or Twitch. And in that, find something incredibly diverse and niche to me. And that's fantastic. The irony being that there is very rarely anything that is niche these days. Niche might now mean a hundred thousand people. As opposed to a million people, whereas actually they should be near a ten. But again, because of the fact that there's this, all these global products now allow you to pretty much see whatever you want, whenever you want.

You've just got, if anything, better individuality and sort of stakeholderness of your own little content and piece. And that's actually a really cool thing. 

Peyton: Hmm. Yeah, it's fantastic. Um, cool. Let's have a little whizz through some more questions. Um, What are the major challenges facing the eSports industry and what opportunities exist for further expansion?

James: Um, hmm, well, depending on whom you follow or read or watch at the moment, we are either in or heading into, or neither of those things, um, in an eSports winter. There are lots of organizations. Sort of some mega ones, uh, which I won't name and some sort of below mid tier where people are running out of money There is an eSports bubble that has alleged to have burst if again depending on your views on this There never was in the first place or it's a bit Wild West whatever whatever, where people are struggling to Invest or find investment or find sponsorship. And although e sports companies and organizations and teams are quick to say, Hey, look, we've partnered with Gucci and BMW and Prada and Porsche. And they have, and they will continue to do so. The more that is kind of taken by existing orgs, the less there is for other people.

And the reliance on having to use big brands means you've got to do more. regularly, then you've got to come up with more unique selling points and you've got to do something niche again and you've got to do something that's get their content eyes on because it means if you're watching their content and platform, you're not watching anyone else's.

So there are kind of things falling apart and there are people falling by the wayside that is the, you know, that is the business world. Um, I think there's also a lot of people out there going, well, it's eSports, it's never going to work. Um, and they are quick to, to kind of put the boot in, but actually those are business models that fail for anyone and everyone, wherever you go and you can't rely, um, well, you couldn't predict, I should say that there was a worldwide pandemic.

You couldn't predict, you know, there are various issues in the UK at the moment with funding and money and revenue, um, but to kind of answer the other element of your, of your question is, well, then. If things are removed, then there should be an opportunity for things to be replaced. And that could be you, that could be your team, that could be your organization.

Well structured, well thought out, good personality, great business model. Get in there, swoop, do these things. Um, and you know, for every kind of downturn and negative, which there is in everything, then there's always an incline coming as well. So you, if you're lucky and it, you know, and you work hard, then when the incline kind of starts to rise again, you're at the top. You're good to go. So there's always opportunities. There's always cyclical stuff in any business. 

Peyton: So it almost sounds like there's a little bit of overlap between the challenges and the expansion might, that might be some of where the tension lies. 

James: Um, yeah, absolutely.

I think there's lots of, yeah, but there's loads of people out there who see esports as a cash cow and because depending on. Again, who you are, how old you are, people will say, well, esports has only been there for five years or 10 years or 20 years or 40 years or whatever, depending on you could argue any of those answers.

Um, but as businesses are seeing that there's loads of essential skills that come from understanding the esports industry and business, more and more people are saying, well, hang on, let's, let's use young people's talent to make our business better. Great. Nothing wrong with that. But also there's lots of people going.

Let's make some quick money and those are the ones that tend to fail first 

Peyton: So really be diligent I suppose if you're getting into the industry and double trip triple check everything um especially if you start looking into things like contracts and stuff 

James: Always comes down to contracts

Peyton: Yeah I can imagine, um, and I think we've got a another question here, um We might make this one of our final questions. Uh, how do you anticipate future trends and technologies shaping the eSports industry and what impact might these changes have on the landscape things like game development and viewer experience future trends 

James: Future trends.

Okay. Well, I mean It's an interesting question. I mean particularly when I think there's always, there's always things out there. There's always things that are going to replace existing things or new things come out. So I'm going to leave sort of VR, AR within the eSports world to one. Sorry, I'll try not to talk about that.

Um, although it is relevant. Uh, this week, I think, um, for a mere 200 pounds, you can buy the PlayStation Portal. Um, and then, which is a handheld, it's a funny looking thing. Uh, it's kind of got the PlayStation 5 controllers, but a flat screen in the middle. So it's like a weird. Um, it might be cool if anyone wants to give me one, no problem.

Um, so that will have due to those technologies and capabilities that will have an influence on, um, e sports because of the games that you can play on it whilst being mobile, you won't get the same experience obviously, but it's another avenue, it's another way to kind of help with differentiation and accessibility, no bad thing.

Um, mobile gaming, which separate to e sports, but that's consistently on the rise and you could argue. That I'm not a mobile gamer, and then I say, have you ever played Candy Crush, and you go, yes, I have, and I go, right, okay. Uh, not in esports, but again, within the gaming, online, uh, mobile gaming community.

Um, I think one of the big things that's going to change it, which is exciting, is, um, Unreal Engine, who are basically wedded to Fortnite. Along with Epic and this thing. So, um, it means that you can create and that you can, for a while, you can come, become your own content creator, which kind of goes back to the, to the questions we had at the start. Where you can, you can have this market where you can create Fortnite levels, put them into the Fortnite world to get people that you're never going to meet to bounce around your levels and have wonderful kind of opportunities and fun. And what an exciting future of game design that is. Whenever. Epic and Fortnite and Unreal are going to want to pay you to create levels for them.

I mean, what an exciting world um It's interesting that also a couple of weeks ago. Um, the original Fortnite map is back now Is that because they're running out of ideas? Is that way of kind of refreshing the market? Is that, I mean, it's interesting that it's been selling some layoffs over there with dear old fortnight themselves.

So is this a way of kind of bringing people back in, bringing new people back in, are they running out of ideas? I doubt that. Um, it's just a way to kind of sort of start again, away we go. And. Any one of those things I can't answer properly, so I'll never know, but keep an eye on it, I think, and as I say, with, with, with more studios, organizations, and businesses looking at using customers to create their own levels is a genius, and let's face it, cheap marketing tactic, um, they're making the product for you, brilliant, um, but also gives complete ownership to the, to the players and the, the people who buy the product themselves, so that's quite cool, and um, I think we, we're probably going to see AI have more and more, obviously going to have more and more input and control over script writing, game design, character design, advertising, in game live content creation. Um, GTA six, I think. Um, we're probably still 30 years away from that. Um, it's a trailer allegedly dropping next month.

Um, who knows even then, that will be able to give you based on the advancements of, of, you know, software and particularly AI at the moment. 

Peyton: Even, um, even, uh, this morning I was reading a quick sort of insert from, The CEO at Take Two, um, uh, one of the sort of developers of GTA and he's giving a real sort of excitement from him about the future of AI.

He didn't let on that, you know, suspiciously didn't let on about GTA specifically, but, um, said that, you know, they were working on some internal, um, AI character NPC development stuff. Um, and I'm not sure I've really seen anything lean too heavily into that in any other game. Um, so far, so that might be a, a sort of big grand first.

And that's something that, um, I know at least really excites me. 

James: It might, it really might. And I doubt, I don't know, it may not be almost 10 years on or it's 10 years on since GTA 5. Um, that they planned it to coincide with this big AI vanguard approach, right? I doubt they would have said 10 years ago, let's just sit tight for a decade.

Right, it's called AI and it's going to make our life easy, watch this. Um, but they might just coincide it beautifully. Um, but also it's, it's never been easier to be a game designer or software developer or script writer. And I don't mean that disre I'm nowhere near talented to do any of those things. I don't understand Python, Unreal, Unity. I need to sit down and learn it clearly. Um, but actually, it's never been easier for an average person to have zero knowledge on a product, go to, you know, ChatGPT, other AI platforms that are available, you know, whack in a prompt, read the answer, take the output, and then go, look, I'm going to change my LinkedIn or X profile, I'm now a game designer, I'm now a script writer.

You might be , yeah maybe. Now, that's not wishing to offend the hundreds of thousands of people in the industry who have been there, done that and do brilliant jobs, that's not what I meant, but hopefully you get a flavour of that anyway. And I think probably a really good place to leave the live questions now anyway, before I do actually get myself in trouble.

Peyton: No worries. And I've got one final, very quick question from me. Um, any games you've been enjoying recently? Uh, I know I've, uh, I've been... into Fortnite for the first time. I've never never ever played it. Um, before last week. I got roped into it with some of my friends uh, and It pains me to admit but it's actually really quite fun.

So are there any other games you've been enjoying recently? 

James: Yeah, I mean well, I have I have a whatsapp group of three or four um three or four of my of my male friends who we've known each other since early teens called Warzone. All right, we are professional grown ups who do relatively important jobs, allegedly, and we play Warzone, right, and we get really annoyed when we lose, and we get absolutely elated when we win, and that's the buzz.

And That's the joys of gaming. It's got actually got nothing to do with age at all or experience You can play pretty much any game of any experience age age rating permission and just have some fun I get far too stressed playing warzone. I do play fortnight with my with my son. He is now 10 We have the best times with that Because actually fortnight's a lot of fun fortnight is a beautiful game It is a genius game and it is beautiful and it's far cleverer than most people probably give it credit for But I love it. I love Fall Guys. Um, I'm not very good at what was FIFA. Um, I can do alright at League of Legends. I would do, I really like, it's not an esports, but I really like things like The Last of Us and God of War. I like role playing games. Games with narrative, rich narrative, that's my escapism, that's, that's what I like, so yeah.

But I'll, I'll, I'll jump in with you mate, I'll see you in Fortnite. 

Peyton: Yep, let's give it a go, um, we, we might end up in quite an easy lobby, uh, if you join me. 

James: Even better, I can look even better. 

Peyton: We'll be catching easy wins and I won't be getting many kills. I don't imagine, well. 

James: Lovely. 

Peyton: Lovely time to round up.

Thank you, um, James for, um, joining us for a few questions, uh, from our audience today, James is our resident eSports, um, expert at hundo. Um, and where can we catch more about you, uh, James, and where can we catch more about hundo? 

James: Um, well, uh, thank you very much for having me. Thank you for the questions. Uh, good questions.

Thanks everyone. Um, so, um, Head of Education for hundo, please reach out because, uh, more than happy to talk about how eSports and gaming can help with future careers and also be brought into curriculum whether that's SEND schools, level 2, level 3, what have you. Please reach out You can find me on LinkedIn with the name you'll see on the screen.

It's a ridiculous name. There's any one of me You can find me on X, the artist formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram as The Esports Teacher. Um, I'm more than happy to, to kind of have similar chats like this as well. And just before we go, um, many, many congratulations to everyone behind the team at hundo to get this, um, up and running again. This has been one of many Career Cons that we've done now. This is our, unfortunately, um, our last one of the year. Probably a good thing. Everyone needs a rest now and recoup for what's coming in January. We've done Career Cons in Digital Fashion. Uh, we've done Work Tech, we've done e sports, we've done an Artificial Intelligence, uh, Career Con.

Please go and check those previous ones out. And with regards to the AI one, um, please go and check out our socials as well on hundo because we have a Kickstarter campaign. which was launched last week. We've already smashed that target audience and money. So thank you very much. Feel free to continue to support us because these, um, AI Kickstarter campaigns are for actually helping students, but actually in particular parents who will hear AI and AI in school and why it's good, why it's bad and ChatGPT and Dante and Bard, but they won't know what it is.

So this is an opportunity for you to kind of work with us, join us. Have some fantastic sessions on what it is and how you can use it to support your, your young people, maybe even yourselves as well. So please go and look at that. And also final thing for me, other than a huge thank you and have a great seasonal break.

Join us in January for the next Career Con, where we will be launching, uh, Climate Tech. Uh, with some very, very special news with some ridiculously special guests of a huge global name, which I'm not going to mention right now. 

Peyton: Uh, yeah, look out for more information, uh, come the new year. Um, from hundo there.

Well, thank you very much James for joining us today and thank you for, um, everyone else for watching. Uh, we'll see you in the new year for Climate Tech. Take care.

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