After 5: Professional Gamers

Others fire up the computer or video game console to shred virtual terrorists, trek through enchanted worlds or feed their fantasy of playing in a rock band.

Young professionals and entrepreneurs tell Springfield Business Journal that gaming is a great way to decompress alone or fellowship with those who have similar interests.

David Rowden, 25, is a video game enthusiast, but not necessarily a gaming purist.

“I pretty much play everything,” says Rowden, one of five sales managers at University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center.

Rowden owns an Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and a personal computer. He plays a medley of games on all three.

As a student at Missouri State University, Rowden and his friends held all-night parties to play Halo – the quintessential first-person shooter series from Microsoft that pits heavily armed human defenders against alien invaders.

While Rowden is still a hardened Halo fan, he has expanded his horizons to include Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2 and Final Fantasy XI, an online fantasy game that allows Rowden to play with a group of gamers from across the country called a “link shell.”

“The thing that makes it most addictive is you’re playing with any number of different people,” he says.

Members of the online group range in age from 13 to 50. One is an artist, another a horse breeder and, of course, there’s a computer programmer or two.

Rowden had to apply to join the online gaming team – a common practice in the world of hardcore gamers.

Paul Seale likewise had to earn his spot in an online gaming “clan.” The 31-year-old owner of Nixa-based Web site development firm Alien Media Inc. played with several clans on squad-based special-forces games such as Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, two popular series from author Tom Clancy.

Seale, who already has reserved a copy of Halo 3 for the game’s fall 2007 release, says he breaks from computer-based work with computer-based fun.

“It is a great way to blow off steam after a stressful day,” Seale says.

Seale isn’t just a gamer. He also works with game developers as a beta tester to identify glitches and drawbacks in the games before they hit store shelves. He’s hoping to get a sneak peek at Halo 3 early next year by participating in a multiplayer beta test.

PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii are the newest gaming consoles to hit the market, but neither Rowden nor Seale are swayed by the hype. Both seem content with the selection of games available for personal computers and the Xbox 360.

“They both look like they’re great systems, but I’m probably not going to buy either one,” Rowden says. “Launch systems typically have malfunctions I don’t want to deal with.”[[In-content Ad]]