As gaming and eSports grows the interest in this market is increasing day by day. More and more non-gaming related companies and organisations are investing in different organisations and teams related to eSports. One type of those non-gaming related organisations are governments in different countries. Different organisations that are linked and funded by the governments has been investing money in gaming for the past years and nowadays even more governments are trying to reach out to teens through gaming.

Not long ago Global Gaming League announced cooperation with the US Army, into which the Army is investing nearly 2 million dollars, to find possible recruits for the “fight against terrorism”. According to information the Army’s eyes are set on finding 17-24 males through GGL and since almost 80% of the GGL members fit that demographic they aren’t stopping just there. They are creating a new league, in addition to the advertisement, from which they are hoping to find the best of the best that might fit the army. “In general, I don’t think it's a bad opportunity for eSports. A few years ago, E-Sport was only available to people who were actively involved. Now the situation is completely different”, said Chul “Garf1eld” Jung about US Army’s involvement. “Marketing people need to get in contact with eSports if they want to promote products/goods efficiently to young people. This shows that E-Sports developed very well over the few years. eSports itself, has become a platform for companies/governments to 'talk' to the people.”, he continued.

US Army’s game America’s Army is one of the games that will be used in the league and potential tournament champions may be given the chance to check out the actual computer simulations of combat situations at Army bases and be recruited to the army. Gary Bishop, in charge of Army marketing and advertising, said that gaming presents an opportunity “to tell the Army story. It’s not all about combat. Being in the Army is about driving trucks, welding, nurses and computers. If we have an opportunity to tell the Army story, we may have better influence”. But is this strategy really more influential than regular methods that big companies use today? “Young people these days are better reachable through gaming than through mainstream ads. So in that way, definitely yes” said Joris “sizah” van Laerhoven. “Telling the Army story in a game, rather than a book, paper or movie is also more of today. Movies obviously still have great impacts, but actually taking a role in a virtual war, which really happened, could have a greater impact and bring a better feeling regarding a story. It could give people a greater knowledge about a real story that happened” he said.

A few years ago Lim ”BoxeR” Yo-Hwan put his mandatory military service on hold to continue his gaming life as a professional StarCraft player making hundreds of thousands dollars a year. But like every eligible South Korean male he is forced to spend over 2 years of training in the army. Last year he got his draft notice and had to go through the first basic training which led to him being drafted and assigned to the South Korean Air Force. Thousands of fans and reporters showed up at the airport to say good bye to their national hero since he had to quit his gaming career due to joining the Air Force. Not long after he joined, the Air Force initiated a project giving the opportunity to some professionals to join an electronic sports team powered by the Air Force. The players were given computers and a few hours a week to practise and once in a while attend tournaments. “It shows the state of professional video gaming in Korea. Celebrities usually get special treatments. And I believe that's the case with this happening. This happens with mostly every star in the world in their own nations” said Joris “sizah” van Laerhoven.

After the formation of their own eSports team a tournament was hosted where they played against 11 teams sponsored by South Korea's big media, telecom and shipbuilding corporations in Seoul's Jamsil Indoor Stadium for top prizes. The reasons behind all of this were not revealed but one can take the assumption that the amount of good publicity for the military had something to do with it even though they bent a few rules for a few professional gamers. “Boxer shouldn't be compared to any other gamer in the world, as well as [the game] Starcraft. Starcraft and Boxer are industry platforms for the company. Without those two platforms eSports wouldn't be as developed as it is right now” said Chul “Garf1eld” Jung.

A few months ago the Swedish Armed Forces announced that they are heading in to the same market as the US Army trying to find new recruits. The Swedes are however not creating a league but they are going to be present at the youth gaming festival DreamHack later this year in an attempt to entice youngsters to apply for the Swedish Armed Forces. “Going to DreamHack is probably the perfect way to find people that are not very interested in the military”, said Tomas “gREYKARN” Hermansson, writer for Rakaka.se. “People at DreamHack can't be found through the general mainstream marketing channels, that's why the Swedish Army probably tries Dreamhack to reach out to more young people”, he ended. According to Martin Sachs, a captain in the Army running this project, their target is similar to the US Army’s, 15-25 year old males who are hopefully going to be interested enough to apply and work in foreign countries or the Nordic Battle Group. Nordic Battle Group is a new project initiated by the European Union who wants to have troops ready within 10 days to send out to areas where there are sudden conflicts.

Governments’ investing in gaming opens up for a whole new level of investors. Who else is loaded with money if not the governments themselves? In a way you can say that the society is actually helping the eSports community to evolve through their tax money in spite of all efforts in trying to stop the increasing amount of teenagers playing computer games. According to an article on Fragbite over $130’000 was given to big Swedish gaming organisations last year through game associations that are funded by the Swedish government, through tax money. Yes, this might not be as much as the US Army is investing in GGL but considering that Sweden is a small country and tough $164 million was invested in in-game ad revenue last year in the U.S. (according to consumer tech researcher The Yankee Group) $130’000 through governments money is always a positive start.

“I believe its positive, since it shows that they finally see gaming as something positive, instead of just negative. They actually see that they can benefit from it as well. As long as it remains on a free will basis, I believe it’s all good” said Joris “sizah” van Laerhoven about governmental investments in general.