For the right price, these gamers will die for you

The classified ad read, "I will take bullets for you." And he did.

Londoner Toby Smith met me on a bluff overlooking the border between Iran and Turkmenistan on a recent afternoon armed with an M416 assault rifle. One minute and 15 seconds later, he was dead. He died the second time 3 minutes and 37 seconds after our meeting. His third death didn't come for an additional 5 minutes or so.

While the many deaths weren't real, the money that Smith charged for the protection was. The 15-year-old high school student is one of several gamers who have begun to hire out their services as virtual bodyguards, digital guns-for-hire in popular military first-person shooter video games.

I recently tracked down and hired two of these in-game bodyguards, teens who excel at "Battlefield 3" and advertise their services online, charging other gamers about $8 for a half-hour of in-game protection.

The services the two provided went far beyond just protecting me as I tried to kill other online players. They offered tips, revived and healed me when I was injured and brought me to their favorite in-game sniping spots, like hunting guides.

Smith, a well-spoken high schooler from Southampton in southern England, said he came up with the idea of offering his services as a hired gun after struggling to survive in matches of "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield" when he first started playing online.

"I used to think, 'I wish one of my friends would go 'round the game with me and give me a hand,'" he said. "And that's all it is, really! It's been the trend for games at the moment to encourage personal gain vs. good teamwork, so my service allows customers to feel like they are part of a well-oiled machine, not a walking bullet magnet."

Smith was good to his word. I hired the teen to escort me through 30 minutes of "Battlefield 3" online matches. We met up online and appeared together on the battlefield.

Smith took plenty of bullets for me, becoming a sort of human shield during the many times I wasn't observant enough to notice an enemy drawing a bead on me. He was even more useful as an in-game guide -- suggesting weapons, equipment and play styles to me over headsets as we played.

As our online session wrapped up, I told Smith I was interested in trying my hand at being a sniper.

"Follow me," he said, guiding me expertly through the map, cutting his way through an in-game fence and finally bringing me to a perch overlooking a small cluster of buildings and cross streets. From his hidden vantage point I could see the tiny movements of enemies crossing the field, hunkering down in cover and engaged in firefights.

I never would have found that place on my own. It gave me the opportunity to pick off distant enemies. When the ones I missed noticed my shots, Smith took them out before they could return fire.

Where Smith was like an instructor, Vysotsky was purely a bodyguard, sticking close to my side as I worked my way toward enemy positions. He provided covering fire, or when things got tough, he would take a bullet.

Vysotsky said he decided to start hiring out his services about two months ago after hearing about someone else offering the service. He's had three customers since, he said. Smith said he hasn't had many customers, either, but that he expects that to change soon.

"I think a lot of people have been hesitant for one reason or another, perhaps because they can't quite see how it would work," he said.

While hiring an in-game bodyguard might seem unfair to others who play without assistance, neither Smith nor Vysotsky thinks it's cheating.

"If I thought it was cheating, I wouldn't be doing it," Smith said. "Cheating would imply that someone's playing the game in a way that it shouldn't normally be played. I'm just looking out for another player."