Seems just pointless to me. So many beatuiful places on Earth, people care about some rock in the sky.

It's not just 'some rock in the sky'. Experimenting with people going to other planets is pretty meaningful if you ask me. Besides, this one way travel isn't supposed to be some kind of vacation, so it doesn't really matter if there's many beautiful places here on Earth.

As a gamer it is going to be challenging.

What?  Where did you get this?  The mission your taking about, asteroid retrievel, is only being studied.  It would cost at least $2.5 billion to try to pull it off.  The only asteroid mission currently being readied is Osiris Rex.  On that mission, a robotic spacecraft is due to launch in 2016 on an Atlas 5 rocket.

After a year or so in space, it will rendevous with an asteroid, take a sample of it, and return that sample to Earth years later.  Also, if the asteroid retrieval  mission is ever approved and succeeds, it will only capture a roughly 500' diameter asteroid and place it into orbit around the Moon.  It would be impossible to walk on such a small rock - it would have zero gravity.  Hell, even the Moon, as big as it is, only has 1/6 of Earth's gravity.

http://www.nasa.gov/content/six-new-papers-detail-nasas-asteroid-redirect-mission-on-journey-to-mars/

"NASA plans to launch an ARM robotic spacecraft to rendezvous with, capture and redirect an asteroid mass near the end of this decade. The spacecraft will redirect it to a stable orbit around the moon called a "Distant Retrograde Orbit." Astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, launched from a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, will explore the asteroid in the mid-2020s."

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/IAC-14-A5_1_1-Gates.pdf

I'd never go. I'm not sure why anyone would want to go there.

Nah.  I've read Red Mars, an incredible novel about attempting to terraform and colonize Mars.  It's a harsh place.  The chances for disaster will be high.

Presumably your lifetime expectancy is cut in half or worse on Mars, do to the cosmic radiation.

And you're probably going to be eating crap most of the time.

And you're probably going to hate the other assholes you're sent out there with.

And even if they do get steady communication to work, during certain times of the year, expect a delay of over 40 minutes, because fucking electromagnetic waves doesn't go any faster than the speed of light. How's that for bullshit.

So no, I haven't applied.

I wouldn't mind going to Mars but I wonder what type of activities they have planned for the long run and how will they go about health care. That's a life long adventure.