EPTOn May 28 2010 05:21 HonestTea wrote:
KESPA does NOT equal the old gamers, does not equal the organizers, does not equal fans.
Kespa is Kespa.
Show nested quote +
On May 28 2010 04:15 QibingZero wrote:
Blizzard retaining that much control over SC is simply a terrible thing for eSports. It's really as basic as that. You might want to believe that this is 'in their rights' and that they're the victims here, but in reality you're not talking about strictly US laws which have a precedent set (Valve and CS). Because the issue is not black and white, and also because legality should always be discussed regarding it's supporting logic (not just the fact that this or that law exists and makes things 'right' ), you guys are being completely ridiculous when you just give blanket statements of 'Blizzard right, KeSPA wrong'.
When companies like Blizzard refuse to cater to their market, you know you have a problem. Blizzard knows a metric fuckton of people will buy SC2 no matter what, and thus they can make design decisions based on anti-piracy and anti-KeSPA concerns only. In a reasonable world, Blizzard would realize they need to include features like LAN support to satisfy the demand coming from nearly everyone who is following SC2 (as well as promote it's future playability as an eSport). However, they can weigh the options and easily decide that fucking us over is much preferred to having an eSports scene surrounding SC2 pop up in, say, China. You know, somewhere they fear that the draconian US copyright laws won't be in effect to force everyone to pay them even more money than they're already making off their products.
It should be plain to see that the restrictions placed on anything regarding SC2 that is 'beyond the game' (lol) are completely hazardous to the game's future playability. Custom content is limited to the point of being crippling, as posters like IskatuMesk have pointed out. Region-based play splits the community and badly hurts growth - what kind of community would TL be if we didn't play on iccup with people from around the world? Lack of LAN support makes any 'offline' events a shell of what they once were (this alone is disastrous for eSports). And now we have Blizzard wanting to shove their list of demands in anyone's face who dares try to make their game better than it started out. This is amazing hubris - to believe they're actually going to continue to succeed with this kind of philosophy. This is Blizzard in the post-WoW gaming world.
In the end though, what Blizzard is doing in Korea is a slap in the face to everyone involved. Not only is it complete and utter arrogance, it's also about the most dick way you could find to repay the people who have given you an unimaginable amount of free advertising and publicity over the years.
Hell, these are the people who made Starcraft into the only real eSport anywhere in the world. Yes, they made it that way - not Blizzard. They hacked the limited map editor and made maps that were actually balanced for high level play. They were able to obtain huge sponsors both for the leagues and for actual teams. They've gotten to the point where they can hold the Finals of a league in a fucking airplane hangar because they had the sponsorship of the largest airline in Korea. They've fought the exact kind of stereotypes about gaming that we have to face in the rest of the world - there was even a mention of this in the latest After Talk. And you know what? They've made huge strides. They have two TV stations who devote the majority of their airtime to SC, while we're happy in the US if fucking Halo gets a 30 minute spotlight on ESPN. What right does Blizzard have to come back - after largely leaving the game to die - and claim control? The eSport of SC is most certainly not 'owned' by Blizzard.
I can't help but feel you guys are way too caught up in your 'fuck KeSPA' game to realize that this kind of thing is absolutely terrible for eSports. It's not KeSPA getting fucked over, it's all the old gamers who have worked incredibly hard to make eSports in Korea what is is - the guys who are either still playing (like Boxer) or who have moved on to commentary/coaching. All the organizers who have been mostly behind the scenes for the past 10 years. Hell, all fans of eSports as well. They thought the match-fixing scandal was damaging to the infrastructure, but now Blizzard wants them to throw it all away and start anew. Blizzard is saying to each and every one of them: 'We don't give a shit about what you've done for the game, or eSports, or anything'.
Blizzard retaining that much control over SC is simply a terrible thing for eSports. It's really as basic as that. You might want to believe that this is 'in their rights' and that they're the victims here, but in reality you're not talking about strictly US laws which have a precedent set (Valve and CS). Because the issue is not black and white, and also because legality should always be discussed regarding it's supporting logic (not just the fact that this or that law exists and makes things 'right' ), you guys are being completely ridiculous when you just give blanket statements of 'Blizzard right, KeSPA wrong'.
When companies like Blizzard refuse to cater to their market, you know you have a problem. Blizzard knows a metric fuckton of people will buy SC2 no matter what, and thus they can make design decisions based on anti-piracy and anti-KeSPA concerns only. In a reasonable world, Blizzard would realize they need to include features like LAN support to satisfy the demand coming from nearly everyone who is following SC2 (as well as promote it's future playability as an eSport). However, they can weigh the options and easily decide that fucking us over is much preferred to having an eSports scene surrounding SC2 pop up in, say, China. You know, somewhere they fear that the draconian US copyright laws won't be in effect to force everyone to pay them even more money than they're already making off their products.
It should be plain to see that the restrictions placed on anything regarding SC2 that is 'beyond the game' (lol) are completely hazardous to the game's future playability. Custom content is limited to the point of being crippling, as posters like IskatuMesk have pointed out. Region-based play splits the community and badly hurts growth - what kind of community would TL be if we didn't play on iccup with people from around the world? Lack of LAN support makes any 'offline' events a shell of what they once were (this alone is disastrous for eSports). And now we have Blizzard wanting to shove their list of demands in anyone's face who dares try to make their game better than it started out. This is amazing hubris - to believe they're actually going to continue to succeed with this kind of philosophy. This is Blizzard in the post-WoW gaming world.
In the end though, what Blizzard is doing in Korea is a slap in the face to everyone involved. Not only is it complete and utter arrogance, it's also about the most dick way you could find to repay the people who have given you an unimaginable amount of free advertising and publicity over the years.
Hell, these are the people who made Starcraft into the only real eSport anywhere in the world. Yes, they made it that way - not Blizzard. They hacked the limited map editor and made maps that were actually balanced for high level play. They were able to obtain huge sponsors both for the leagues and for actual teams. They've gotten to the point where they can hold the Finals of a league in a fucking airplane hangar because they had the sponsorship of the largest airline in Korea. They've fought the exact kind of stereotypes about gaming that we have to face in the rest of the world - there was even a mention of this in the latest After Talk. And you know what? They've made huge strides. They have two TV stations who devote the majority of their airtime to SC, while we're happy in the US if fucking Halo gets a 30 minute spotlight on ESPN. What right does Blizzard have to come back - after largely leaving the game to die - and claim control? The eSport of SC is most certainly not 'owned' by Blizzard.
I can't help but feel you guys are way too caught up in your 'fuck KeSPA' game to realize that this kind of thing is absolutely terrible for eSports. It's not KeSPA getting fucked over, it's all the old gamers who have worked incredibly hard to make eSports in Korea what is is - the guys who are either still playing (like Boxer) or who have moved on to commentary/coaching. All the organizers who have been mostly behind the scenes for the past 10 years. Hell, all fans of eSports as well. They thought the match-fixing scandal was damaging to the infrastructure, but now Blizzard wants them to throw it all away and start anew. Blizzard is saying to each and every one of them: 'We don't give a shit about what you've done for the game, or eSports, or anything'.
KESPA does NOT equal the old gamers, does not equal the organizers, does not equal fans.
Kespa is Kespa.
That's all you can say to my post? Even when I made it abundantly clear:
It's not KeSPA getting fucked over, it's all the old gamers who have worked incredibly hard to make eSports in Korea what is is - the guys who are either still playing (like Boxer) or who have moved on to commentary/coaching. All the organizers who have been mostly behind the scenes for the past 10 years. Hell, all fans of eSports as well.
