Making money playing computer games

Originally edited years ago, updated 6:32 Tuesday 16th of May 2023

Here is the phrase that rings of whimsical delight to many a teenager - and frustrated ambition and despondency to multitudes of parents.

This article was inspired by my siblings and my sincere desire to look into every possible legitimate way of increasing my monthly income so I have money to save for retirement, my child's schooling and all the extras we want in life. 

As a teacher to teenagers, I met a full stop at the question:

Why is there such an opinion divide about computer games and their purpose and why is it a cause for so much concern in our families; especially relationships between parents and children?

For a start I was unable to convince my 6th grade student to do her homework, and I realized she had a gaming addiction. She was bordering on becoming overweight, even though there are computer or console games also aiming at fighting this condition.

Fast forward a few years, I meet this 5th grader who is incapable of paying attention long enough to practice his math or do well at school - so everything just slips away from him - zero retention. The only way I can get him to practice his tables, or trignometry or word sums etc, is by assigning him games and ensuring he plays and shows me. I have yet to get him to diarise his progress, since this would strengthen his literacy development. 

For this article I signed up for Zareklamy, downloaded the app and started to investigate one stream of making money for playing a game on your mobile device.

Apart from the initial R250-something'ish deposited to my account, for points well earned, I realized that the physical act of handling my phone whenever my child saw me, was irresponsible. She needs to know that she is more important to me. 

This ate away at my motivation for earning cents per points for completing games online. 

It felt more immediate and rewarding when I took a few 1,5 liter and 500ml bottles to the nearby store in exchange for R30. 

In addition to this, there was a glitch in the payout since they could not verify my address the second time -I could not understand why authorization 'lapsed' in the first place.

I wrote on their feedback wall after carrying around the stress and unhappiness for a few months. They responded kindly and I still have to muster the energy to request payout again.

This is also demotivating.

So I turned outward and asked my brother why he would not consider monetizing his talent and love for strategy computer games. Something like starting a YouTube channel and attempt getting paid for doing something you love. 

His answer came somewhere along the lines of that he did not think his playing was thát good, and that he did not feel like making his very enjoyable hobby into a business.

To end off, the answer to my question about the dichotomy of gaming as pasttime is that even though it has many possible negative outcomes or influences, it may also motivate learning when used correctly. In addition to this it also has a real impact on parents who can continue with small tasks to earn money while children are occupied. But the caveat here is that parents set a timer and install "no-tech-time" as well as "real-connection time" to work on their relationships in a healthy way.

Edit 17 Jan 2025

This pasttime, even though it seems lucrative and you have a threshold for depositing your money as Solano cryptocurrency, the $35 that the R400 odd made was not of enough value to buy USDT, and so the funds were stuck in limbo. After 6 months, the Solano/WORKEN (WORKEN is the Bitcoin currency Zareklamy/Paidwork pays you in) the value of the funds had depreciated to $2. 

I literally had not earned enough to get my bitcoin out to Dollars and then to my Paypal account.

I deleted the apps from my phone swiftly and promised myself that this mistake would not be made by myself again.

Swiftly moving on.