That would be a terrible substitute for actual universities.

Is there an ACTUAL video game university? Because God knows if there is I need to cancel my English college application right now and apply there instead. 😀

This is the kind of post you'll have to give God an account for.

Horrible idea.

Oh... 🙁

Would you care to elaborate, though?

Well, it's useless, it takes the fun out of developing your skills and it uses social media.

There's Digipen, The Art institutes, and even freaking Full Sail. You've never heard of any of those?

Those universities don't teach you how to become better at games. They teach you how to make them. That's a whole different deal. You don't seem to get my point. Read my OP again, carefully.

leileilol wrote:

There's Digipen, The Art institutes, and even freaking Full Sail. You've never heard of any of those?

Aren't those for learning game development rather than gaming skills?

How, exactly, would you propose to teach someone to get better, at, say, Smash Bros?

Yasashii wrote:

Those universities don't teach you how to become better at games. They teach you how to make them. That's a whole different deal. You don't seem to get my point. Read my OP again, carefully.

Yeah, after you edited it. But even then, going to a university to get better at a freaking recreational hobby is a very stupid idea.

The only genre where it could really solidly apply is fighting games only because the games became a bit convoluted in their variances of concepts of combos, zoning and resets, etc. and I refer to Vampire Savior, not Smash.
and besides, a degree in playing videogames won't get you a long-term career either 😀 Arthritis will kill that ambition eventually.

Professional video gaming (thinking South Korea right now) is a bit like gymnastics, where you only get a few short years as a pro, and if you hit the jackpot before reaching the decrepitude of your 30's and pay for your house, I'd call that profitable. The arthritis may or may not get you, but your reflexes shall surely diminish.

Ok so you guys took my idea too seriously. The purpose of this would not be to make someone a pro gamer. Certainly not as in making it your life career. The purpose would be this: So you like a certain kind of a game but when you play online there's always some people beating you. You want to be the best on the server. You want guidance. You sign up at VGU.

Get it?

leileilol wrote:

Yeah, after you edited it

I merely made "how to get better at it" bold. It was there before.

Jorpho wrote:

How, exactly, would you propose to teach someone to get better, at, say, Smash Bros?

I don't know. I'm rubbish at fighting games. But I'm quite good at arcade racing games and at sandbox games. I could give a lot of advice to people looking to get better at those. I'm sure a person good at fighting games has some advice to give as well.

I thought people put up youtube videos for that sort of thing.

Yes, but that would be like watching a tutorial on how to do good on your final exams rather than hiring a tutor.

I see YouTube catering for this. Walk troughs, strategy guides, game tips. Some of the COD or Battlefield channels are great to showcase this.

If I understand the idea correctly, I think Phil's response is most apt, and that what you (Yasashii) are proposing probably exists in some form already, but the kind of campy (again, if I understand the idea correctly) way you're intending to approach it could be a somewhat unique "hook" that would serve a YouTube channel (or some other social media "thing") quite well. Of course there's also the chance it crashes and burns, or that it becomes the next big thing - I say that just thinking about some of the crazy dot-com ideas that've come about over the years.

Yeah, ok I give up. Another one of my "brilliant" ideas turns out to be something that's already done, only differently. Next time, Yasashii, write a goddamn memo.

It's usually worth sitting back when you've had a good idea to think about the context, the alternatives, why your idea is better than what already exists and above all whether there is really any point to it - including whether it is specific to a time, place or situation. But sometimes you just have to suck it and see. And just because a few people on a forum say they wouldn't do it doesn't make it a bad idea.

Yasashii wrote:

But I'm quite good at arcade racing games and at sandbox games.

And these are things that when some people play online they find there's always some people beating them, and said people want to be the best on the server..?