26 PLAYING GAMES FOR A LIVING

   Did you ever think about quitting your job to live the life you always dreamed of? This week's Tech Watch features a 25-year old London man who did just that. And now his life is a game.

    Meet Sujoy Roy. He studied physics at Cambridge University and had a promising 1 career as an investment banker with J.P. Morgan. Then he gave it all up for a higher paying job. He's a professional video games player.

   “Last year I had something like seven or eight tournaments all over the world from what Singapore, Korea across America and all over Europe and you know prize moneyfor all those tournaments together. The prize pool was over a million dollars easily.”

   Many parents may think video games are a time-wasting hobby, but they're big business. Worldwide, the electronic games industry will earn an estimated $50 billion this year. Experts at London-based Informa Media Group say that could 1)skyrocket to $86 billion by 2006.

   And the traditional image of the 2)nerdy video games fanatic 2 has seen a dramatic transformation 3. They now call themselves cyber-athletes and operate their own world-wide professional league with offices in the Unites States, Europe and Asia, running tournaments worth thousands of dollars in prize money and lucrative 4 sponsorships.

   “The sort of people that come here to play are not what most people would think which is like nerdy, geeky-type people. It's very much the opposite. They are actually all professional, semi-professional people. They are very computer literate 5. The average age of our playershere are actually 18 to 39 years of age.”

   London-based video games club The Playing Fields is full of aspiring 6 professional players. Dedication 7 and hours of practice have put Sujoy among the top ten players in the world. Apart from his own career as a cyber athlete, he runs a video games website with two other professional players. Combining prize money and sponsorships they earned about $200,000 last year.

   Global sales of games software and the 3)consoles used to play them, names like Playstation or Game Cube are 4)pegged at nearly $37 billion this year. Game revenues from players using the Internet are much smaller, only about $500 million. But analysts 8 say the potential is enormous. London-based data monitor estimates that as powerful broadband connection spreads worldwide, Internet-based video games will generate $3.5 billion over the next five years.

   What makes the potential so good is that online gamers are very passionate 9 about their pastime and they're willing to pay to play. And with the number of online gamers projected to reach more than 110 million in the next five years, a few dollars a week each will add up to some serious and lucrative fun.

25岁伦敦青年的游戏生活

    你想过辞去工作，过上你一直梦想的生活吗？本周的《科技焦点》环节介绍一个二十五岁的伦敦青年，他就是这样做的，现在他过着名副其实的游戏生活。

     见过苏乔伊·罗伊，他在剑桥大学念的是物理，本来在摩根公司做投资银行，前途似锦。然而为了更高薪的工作，他放弃所有一切，他现在是一个专业的电子游戏玩家。

   “去年，我在全球各地参加过七八次的比赛，到过新加坡、韩国、美国及整个欧洲，所有那些大赛的奖金加起来，总额很轻易地超过了一百万美元。”

      很多父母认为玩电子游戏是浪费时间的癖好，但是原来它们是一门大生意。全球的电子游戏业，今年估计能赚得五百亿美元。总部在伦敦的咨询媒体集团的专家预测，到了2006年，这数字将攀升到八百六十亿。

      以前沉迷电子游戏的人被视为怪人，这个传统形象大大改变了。现在他们自称是“电脑运动员”，拥有自己全球性的职业联盟，办事处分布在美国、欧洲和亚洲，举办奖金为上万美元和赞助丰厚的比赛。

   “来这里玩游戏的这一类人或许被人们认为是呆子、怪胎。其实恰好相反，他们是真正的专业人士，半专业人士。他们是电脑高手，平均年龄在十八岁到三十九岁之间。”

　  总部在伦敦的电子游戏俱乐部里全都是志向远大的专业玩家。专心一致和长时间的练习，使苏乔伊成为全世界十大高手之一。除了作为电脑运动员这一职业外，他还与另外两位专业玩家打理一个电子游戏网站。奖金加上赞助，去年他们赚得二十万美元。

      以全球销售计算，游戏软件和操纵台，例如Playstation或者Game Cube，今年营业额接近三百七十亿美元。来自互联网游戏收益就大为逊色，只有大约五亿元，但是分析家说互联网潜力惊人。总部在伦敦的数据监控估计随着宽频线路伸展到全球，网上电子游戏在未来五年将带来三十五亿美元的收益。

网上电子游戏前景甚佳，玩的人非常喜欢这玩意，愿意花钱去玩。未来五年里，在网上玩电子游戏的人数估计会超过一亿一千万，每个星期每人花几美元，合起来就是大数目，真是财源滚滚。

1) skyrocket   v. 突然成功；一举成名     

2) nerdy   a. 有怪僻的，有孤僻嗜好的

3) console   n. 控制台，操纵台     4) peg   v. 固定，限制，限定