Back in the ancient era of the 80s and 90s, making a living playing video games was a pipe dream for many. Since then however, fantasy has seemingly become reality in many ways: dozens of games have their own dedicated esports leagues with thousands of dollars on the line, games journalism has blossomed as a profession, and even the barriers to entry for game development itself have gradually weathered away. One internet company, however, wants to take it one step further.
Frontier, an internet service provider based in the United States, is leaning hard into its recently-awarded title of "Best Internet Provider for Online Gaming of 2021" by offering a handful of lucky gamers a bountiful opportunity. To celebrate the various gaming anniversaries and milestones this year, along with the big releases like Resident Evil Village and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the company is offering to pay selected applicants $2,000 just to play games.
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Hopefuls must apply as a pair, and Frontier will be selecting two sets of two winners from its pool of applications, with each one receiving $2,000 split between them upon playing 21 hours of games together and providing feedback on the experience. On top of that, each set of winners will also receive a Nintendo Switch Lite, copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a Switch Online membership, and some snacks for good measure. The competition will no doubt be fierce, but the rewards certainly seem generous.
Naturally, with so much on the line, there are a few caveats at play here. Regrettably, the promotion is only open to United States residents, so anyone living outside of America is out of luck right out of the gate. All applicants must also be 18 years or older, but they don't need to be a Frontier customer to apply. Winners also don't have to play together in person, if pandemic concerns are still running high: online gaming is perfectly allowed, even encouraged. Applications close on June 18th at 11:59pm PDT, with the winners announced no later than June 25th.
The offer essentially seems like a roundabout way of gathering feedback and data about online gaming from some dedicated members of the community, but the rewards are so good that it certainly seems worth entering for anyone who has a reliable gaming buddy who fancies making a quick buck (well, after 21 hours at least). It's definitely a little more exciting, and a lot less depressing, than Nintendo's feedback survey about whether gamers ever cared for Mario.
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Source: Frontier