Those who love “Overwatch” know it can also be easy to hate “Overwatch” because depending on when and who you play with, it can not only be almost impossible to win, but also stay alive for longer than 30 seconds. For those who are truly dedicated to winning their matches, and getting better as they go along, there appears to be a new, only slightly creepy, solution. Those who want to have some real success in Blizzard’s console FPS are finding they can hire teammates by the match, hour or day on the website Fiverr.com.
‘Overwatch’ heroes for hire
Earlier this week, Kotaku writer Cecilia D'Anastasio decided to delve into what is apparently a burgeoning market. There are a number of people on the site, most who appear to be Young Women, that are using the temp hiring site Fiverr in order to add to their regular income. This isn’t a situation where people who just picked up the game yesterday are trying to rent themselves out. “Overwatch” Heroes For Hire are billing themselves as among the best of the best.
Considering the Blizzard title is going to be among the very favorite eSports games in the world, it should surprise no one that those who are playing it for fun, are still playing to win and win often.
Fiverr is the perfect website to advertise a player’s skills because there are no rules for just what past time or profession you can bill for (as long as it’s legal)
Fiverr is the preferred ‘Overwatch’ companion destination
There is the added benefit of a site like Fiverr not being as sleazy as if a young girl was peddling her wares as an “Overwatch” coach and teammate somewhere like Craigslist. It appears there are plenty of people who had the same thought. At last check, there were over 200 listings on the odd jobs site for paid companions.
Dozens of the listings have pictures showing young women offering up their video game services. Most of the listings will give those willing to pay the option to either offer up $5, 10 or $15 depending on how many contests they want to take on.
The biggest questions surrounding this burgeoning business are just who first came up with this idea, why, and how big is it going to get?
We may never know who the absolute first ‘Overwatch’ companion was, but it’s actually pretty easy to figure out the why. “I have free time and I’m using it to game. So why not play and get paid for it?” One 25-year-old woman told Kotaku. It seems likely that the more people who pay to play, the more people who will be offering their services for a fee. The sky appears to be the limit, at least for now.