How To Hire an In-Game Bodyguard, and Why You Should (+Video)

[beer]

Games like Battlefield and Call of Duty are worst when they are played by casual fans, people who may enjoy the occasional match but who don't take the time to daily hone their skills.

I fit neatly into that category. Despite being a big fan of military shooters, I'm not very good at them. But I am good enough, I have played enough, to sense the peril I'm in the second I drop into a bout.

That's why the idea of hiring someone better than me to protect and train me in live matches has some appeal. I wrote about gamers Toby Smith and Roman Vysotsky earlier this week. Both are proficient first-person shooter gamers who hire out their services as bodyguards.

I stumbled upon the story weeks ago, noticing the online ad on a site and tracking it down to two people in Europe. I decided the best way to write about these different sorts of pro-gamers was to hire each of them and see how they did. The hiring process was very easy. Both used a site called fivesquids.com. I just paid the converted $7 or so through PayPal and received an email with instructions within an hour.

I started with 30 minutes of in-game time with Smith, a 15-year-old kid from England, who guided me through Battlefield 3's many multiplayer maps expertly, giving me advice as we played. It was obvious from the get go that I was going to be a challenge for Smith. I managed to die a handful of times before our first ten minutes in the game wrapped up.

It was an odd-experience, meeting virtually a person you paid real cash in the real world to play with. It also took me a bit of time to get used to the idea of having someone so fixated with protecting and healing me. Good to his word, Smith jumped between my avatar and approaching bullets more times than I could remember. When he didn't die for me, by accident or fluke, he was apologetic. As we played he kept up a constant patter of techniques and tips. Stay aware of your surroundings, he kept telling me. Know your weapon and its limits. Talk to your squad, he said.

An hour later I met with Vysotsky on the PC version of Battlefield 3. Instead of communicating with headphones, we used text to chat. Vysotsky was a man of few words, more of a brute bodyguard than a guide and tutor. I found myself using Vysotsky as a sort of second skin, letting him take the bullets meant for me before returning fire, sort of like a living flak jacket.

I sent him ahead into buildings to scope out the area for me. I cowered in corners waiting for him to respawn before charging into battle.

Where Smith felt like an instructor, someone who could over time improve my abilities in the game, Vysotsky was muscle, a player who could help stack my stats and clear rooms for me.

While both serve a purpose, if you plan on hiring an in-game bodyguard you might want to know what you're getting from the service before you drop the $7 or so for 30 minutes of gaming.

If used right, in-game bodyguards aren't cheating, at least that's how I see it. What do you think? Would you ever pay someone to teach you how to play a shooter inside the game, or to protect you as you play?

This story starts, as so many great ones do, with a classified ad: "I will take bullets for you," it read.

And he did.

Contact made, cash transfer confirmed, Londoner Toby Smith met me on a bluff overlooking the border between Iran and Turkmenistan on an early December afternoon armed with an M416... More »

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Almost sounds like you die in real life if you die in the game. Correct me if i m wrong, but I thought making your own mistakes and dying in games is how you get better. If you can't take the heat then don't play with the fire!!! suckaaa ^_^

[T0nyB]

Nice service, I much say. The bodyguard in the video seemed very professional :)

[Nemesis]

pass. id rather not pay someone to play a game with me.

[beer]

What if the person who hired the body guard is a team killer :blink:

[grouchysmurf]

ROFLMAO....

I give credit where credit is due,

as long as the contract is fulfilled, it is legit,

I wish I had thought of it :tank:

[beer]

You got a point. I guess if the person paying for the service feels like he got what he paid for then who are we to say... THEY TOOK OUR JAAARRRBS

[grouchysmurf]

Lol, no, now look at it this way, they did not take our jobs...they created a whole new industry.....

Virtual BodyGuards B)