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EDIT/UPDATE: I still stand by everything I said below, but given some of the discussion (especially Chill's and HonestTea's points) I want to make the following things clear:
- I am not addressing not the legal issues here. As I understand it, and I believe the laws are fairly clear, Blizzard has clear legal rights to demand whatever they want of leagues and organizations using, and especially making a profit from, their games. I am not advocating a boycott or anything silly like that just because I don't like something they're perfectly entitled to do.
- I am not defending KeSPA as such, or any of their various decisions. In that I defend KeSPA I do so only given KeSPA's current state as the only existing governing body of a well-established esports league which specifically uses or may use Blizzard's games.
- My main concern here is that Blizzard is handling the current conflict, between their legal rights and the precedents they allowed to be established over the last ten to twelve years, poorly. My concern is actually inspired much more by battle.net 2.0 issues than by any negotiations Blizzard may be participating in in Korea, but the entire pattern I see from Blizzard gives me cause for concern. Again, not that they're doing anything illegal or legally questionable, but their perceived attitude I find concerning.
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So let's see. We have the only established e-sports scene in the world, which made Starcraft the best-selling RTS ever, and the company that made the game is doing an end-around the people who made the success, in order to try to get the money.
So here's Blizzard's stated cause-of-problem with KeSPA: "In 2007, we were shocked and disappointed to learn that KeSPA had illegally sold the broadcasting rights for Starcraft tournaments without our consent. With this clear violation of our intellectual property rights, we were forced to become more actively involved in the situation and make our voice be heard. Even so, we began talks with KeSPA in good faith so we could find a way to protect our intellectual property rights as well as help e-Sports to grow further," (from here).
All well and good; KeSPA really doesn't have the rights to sell Starcraft to anyone. On the other hand you could argue that they were merely selling the rights to participate in the leagues they oversee (an argument you could make from the history that Boonbag outlines). That would be a much less clear situation. Still, Blizzard wanting a piece of the pie is completely justified: they did make the game, ran it through 16 patches (the last patch update was less than two years ago - for a 10-year old game!), and have generally deserved strong support from their community.
The problem is Blizzard doesn't just want a part of the pie, they want it all - when they've done virtually nothing to support the professional aspect of the game.
Admittedly we only have KeSPA's word on this, but allegedly Blizzard wants:
"...not the right as a copyright but unreasonable demands as following.
1. Set the contract term for using its games to 1 year
2. Prior approvals about all league operations such as contracting sponsorship, marketing materials, broadcasting plan
3. License fee for running of league and all license fee of sponsorship inducement
4. Ownership of all broadcasted programs, program videos
5. Right to audit KeSPA" (from here).
In other words, Blizzard wants full control of any league run in Korea (and presumably elsewhere). Look at the list: short contracts, approval of all materials, advertising, and sponsors, ownership of all broadcasts - basically the only reasonable requirements (assuming KeSPA is telling the truth) are 3, the license agreement, and 5, the audit request.
This is all in line with what they've said before:
"What kind of business model and future do you have envisioned for Battle.net?
Paul Sams: Battle.net will be a hub for all of Blizzard's game, and help develop the community and e-sports. The specifics of our business and service model can change from game to game, and region to region.
Our basic policy is to make the games on a global basis, but thoroughly localize the services," (emphasis mine, from here).
Blizzard wants not only ownership (IP rights) but control. If there are local leagues, they want to run them.
And now we have an agreement with GOMtv. GOM basically only got through the third season of their tournament because of Blizzard support, and folded it in after that. While GOM's got much bigger companies backing it, there's little doubt in my mind that Blizzard has the clout and money to make all their requirements stick with GOM (which on relative terms is a shoestring operation in esports), and thus that this new agreement is the "total control" agreement KeSPA refused.
"Through this partnership, Gom-TV will now have exclusive rights to broadcasting e-Sports matches and tournaments that involves games such as upcoming Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, Brood War, Warcraft 3, WoW and other expansion packs that will go along with these games...
Gom-TV will host Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty tournament after it's official release on July 27th, as well as a Ladder Tournament that will be held by both Gom-TV and Blizzard Entertainment.
Also, Gom-TV will host Global Starcraft II league, Starcraft II World Championship, as well as Clan Battles and Streak (?) Battles in the future," (from here).
That all suggests to me that, not only is GOM now subject to all the exclusive and control conditions Blizzard wanted to impose on KeSPA, Blizzard is also putting pressure on GOM to make sure that Starcraft II will be the only main-line esport being played in Korea right after release. If Blizzard has to approve GOM leagues, and other leagues have to license through GOM... do you see where I'm going with this? It's almost like Blizzard is attempting specifically to kill SC:BW in order to ensure SC2's success... reasonable from a marketing standpoint, I guess, but awful PR.
Of course it has been pointed out that CJ Media owns parts (at least) of both GOM and OGN, so it's entirely possible that (under Korean government pressure if nothing else) deals will go through fairly easily, and MBC will be included to avoid appearances of "favoritism" or whatever. This is a best-case scenario though, and will probably result in OGN and MBC continuing to mainly broadcast SC, while GOM does SC2, WoW, etc. This would be great for the fans, I guess, but sort of unstable (especially if Blizz is still insisting on one-year contracts). But even though I consider that not unlikely, I'm sure it's not what Blizzard is thinking - I think they just haven't accounted for the kind of government and society Korea has.
For a company whose success was built on community, Blizzard seems to be going out of their way to disrupt that. Look at the list of battle.net 2.0 problems: no LAN, no chat channels, no multiple IDs (good/bad depending on your PoV I guess), problems with replays (although w/rewind included I guess some of that's understandable), etc. Fortunately Blizzard hasn't said anything yet about all the tournaments that instantly happened when beta was released, but I'm starting to get worried about possible stuff like:
- SC:BW getting a patch to port onto b.net 2.0
- Blizzard shutting down iCCup (like this but for real)
- TL having to pay exorbitant fees if we want to run TSL SC2.
I'm not saying KeSPA were heroes here anything, but I am saying I don't like the direction Blizzard seems to be taking and I do not trust Blizzard right now.
 
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BTW as serious as this is to all be taken I cannot help but want to view this more as Misadventures, instead of Adventures in Korea. Just putting that out there 
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United States1719 Posts
read it all, agree with everything, and you sound actually knowledgeable in this regard
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completely agreed. i dont want to see sc clones the way they cloned counterstrike, but i think it'll be inevitable at this rate. blizzard might win with the rest of the world, but korea wont be giving in this easily.
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What will happen to all the existing progamers after this season..... They pretty much shit on the existing Brood War community.
e-Sports was founded based on the love and passion for the games and now Blizzard is trying to destroy it. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
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whatever they do they better not port broodwar to bnet 2.0..or its off to boring garena for me for sc 
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Even if blizzard wins the rest of the world, it won't mean shit.
Korean players play in an better environment then any of us could dream of and there for they are ten times better then any non-Korean players.
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I agree. Blizzard is trying to bite off more than they can chew. They're basically trying to forcibly take over, control and wage war against every single thing that made their games popular.
They want a monopoly on everything related to their games.
Of course blizzard deserves some compensation for their games, and a piece of the pie, but they cannot simply have it all.
They have some lucid and twisted image of E-Sports and what it is. They see E-Sports only as another thing to milk money from. They should get a reasonable % of the income from such events and also their logo should appear on booths etc, but they are being totally unreasonable in wanting absolute and total control as soon as possible.
In the recent TL subs about the betting scandal the Korean companies all have a clear view of what E-Sports are:
A marketing tool to get their name out there, to the customers. The companies that sponsor the OSL and MSL league probably lose money for the sake of exposure instead of making it.
Blizzard nowadays is not above sacrificing fun, the spirit of tournaments, freedom and other things that moulded their image for decades just for the sake of money.
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Good post, I have always wanted to say that what Blizzard has done right in past, made it successful, now they are doing everything against their old successes. Everything now is driven by greed. Ever after the success of WOW, they saw the potential of milking more money out of their future franchise games.
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"SC:BW getting a patch to port onto b.net 2.0"
Who cares? We just dont update the game, like we did after buggy as hell 1.16.0 version.
"Blizzard shutting down iCCup (like this but for real)"
Blizz has nothing to do with iCCup, its a legal server, and even if its not, they can do nothing with a russian server.
"TL having to pay exorbitant fees if we want to run TSL SC2."
Yeah, and ppl who cheer for Blizzard now will cry back good old days
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Calgary25993 Posts
On May 27 2010 23:14 Sashimi wrote:
Good post, I have always wanted to say that what Blizzard has done right in past, made it successful, now they are doing everything against their old successes. Everything now is driven by greed. Ever after the success of WOW, they saw the potential of milking more money out of their future franchise games.
How is regaining control of your titles greed?
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Philadelphia, PA10406 Posts
My hope is entirely in that second option. I couldn't care less about competitive Sc2 right now, but I understand that it deserves a place to be nurtured and experimented with. Having that place be GOM Tv is not a terrible idea.
But it does feel like Blizzard doesn't care about the esports scene that Korea has built around their game, and it does feel like Blizzard is willing to kill BW for the sake of Sc2, which would be a terrible, terrible trade-off.
Blizzard should not be in the business of running esports, if they want royalties, that's fine, but control is not their right, and it's necessary that they be prevented from gaining it.
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On May 28 2010 00:09 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On May 27 2010 23:14 Sashimi wrote:
Good post, I have always wanted to say that what Blizzard has done right in past, made it successful, now they are doing everything against their old successes. Everything now is driven by greed. Ever after the success of WOW, they saw the potential of milking more money out of their future franchise games. How is regaining control of your titles greed?
KESPA isn't selling Starcraft.
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Blizzard should just stick to game design.
They seem too busy with money, deals and facebook implementation to produce a good game lol.
Back to basics please.
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Calgary25993 Posts
On May 28 2010 00:14 Severedevil wrote:Show nested quote +On May 28 2010 00:09 Chill wrote:On May 27 2010 23:14 Sashimi wrote:
Good post, I have always wanted to say that what Blizzard has done right in past, made it successful, now they are doing everything against their old successes. Everything now is driven by greed. Ever after the success of WOW, they saw the potential of milking more money out of their future franchise games. How is regaining control of your titles greed? KESPA isn't selling Starcraft.
Ok. What's that got to do with regaining control?
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On May 28 2010 00:17 Boblion wrote:
Blizzard should just stick to game design.
They seem too busy with money, deals and facebook implementation to produce a good game lol.
Back to basics please.
I can't blame them for wanting more money for what thay are putting out. It is in fact, their games that are so popular - so why shouldn't they be allowed to cash in on them?
At the core they are fighting piracy, because a lot of what KeSPA and iCCup does is steal what Blizzard made and give it to the community for free. That is great, and I am glad that Blizzard has been very permissive of it for the time being, but if there is money being made off that product, and that money is not going into their bank account then I think they have a right to intervene.
Alas though I think I agree with you when you say that for one, Blizzard should not try to take action in areas where no one is making money, but see a money making opportunity. Secondly, all the people outside of Blizzard who created e-sports to what it is today should not be bothered with what it may owe to Blizzard, despite it being their game.
Blizzard never sponsored any StarLeagues or players, or did much to nurse the professional scene. Players and organizations outside of the company build it from the ground up and therefore, even though Blizzard has right to their game, there should not interfere or try to bank on this side of e-Sports.
I don't know if this is exactly the case, but it does seem like it from the OP. Blizzard is going to have to decide whether to make a very friendly fan based game that is community friendly, or whether to make a bigger profit.
I really don't see a way to accomplish both ends of that statement.
And I think the right choice is just to let those profits go - which I am positive, sounds crazy to every single business person working at Blizzard.
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On May 28 2010 00:09 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On May 27 2010 23:14 Sashimi wrote:
Good post, I have always wanted to say that what Blizzard has done right in past, made it successful, now they are doing everything against their old successes. Everything now is driven by greed. Ever after the success of WOW, they saw the potential of milking more money out of their future franchise games. How is regaining control of your titles greed?
imo blizzard should make the game> sell the game and then stay the fuck out of what anyone does with it! I'm sure you can think of extreme examples where this isn't true but seriously, Kespa built e-sports. Blizzard just made a game imo they have no right to claim "a piece of the pie" from something they are already benefitting greatly from.
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Calgary25993 Posts
On May 28 2010 00:40 nttea wrote:Show nested quote +On May 28 2010 00:09 Chill wrote:On May 27 2010 23:14 Sashimi wrote:
Good post, I have always wanted to say that what Blizzard has done right in past, made it successful, now they are doing everything against their old successes. Everything now is driven by greed. Ever after the success of WOW, they saw the potential of milking more money out of their future franchise games. How is regaining control of your titles greed? imo blizzard should make the game> sell the game and then stay the fuck out of what anyone does with it!
And I and Blizzard disagree. It's not greed to protect what is yours.
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I'm honestly not really upset with Blizzard wanting some money: they made the game, it's their right to get paid for it. But demanding royalties is one thing, and I'm all for KeSPA (or whoever) paying up. Demanding control of something they didn't create (the esports scene) even if they did provide the game is what's gotten me upset. I honestly wouldn't mind if it were just SC2 they wanted control of: making something and specifically marketing it as a potential esport, and controlling that market (since you provide it) is one thing, and completely reasonable. (My complaints about their approach to the community still stand, but become personal rather than principled. But if they can make money without the community base they've always claimed to work for, more power to them.)
What I dislike is the "retro-active" part, the bid to take over stuff they had little to do with (beyond making the game in the first place). It's as if the guys who made the original Frisbee not only came out with a new-and-improved disk specifically designed for ultimate frisbee, and arranged that all leagues using it be licensed by them, but also started demanding that any league that ever used a frisbee and gave cash prizes (= making money or gambling, by most laws) start paying royalties beyond the cost of the frisbee, and submit application and league organization forms before you're allowed to play.
Before the Korean professional leagues, esports basically didn't exist. And Blizzard may have provided the game (and yes, a computer game takes way more work to make than a frisbee), but they didn't do anything to set up the league structure. Like I said, if Blizzard was just saying, "Hey guys, we've been nice so far, but please pay up on the royalties," I'd be find with it, and really not happy with KeSPA (or whoever) if they didn't. In fact, KeSPA should probably make an offer to start paying a reasonable royalty, on their own initiative, to save some face in this argument. But Blizzard is going way beyond that with what they're asking, and while that's fine for SC2 (a new game, specifically designed for esport play), trying to retro-actively take control of all SC esports like this just bugs me.
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