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I don't really get the point of this thread... How is it helping blizzard? TO my eyes it's just huge complaint.
1. You say Blizzard should not have abandoned Kespa, there is no way Blizzard is going back to them.
2. You say Blizzard decision to partner with GomTV was a bad idea and I say there is no way Blizzard is breaking up the partnership.
3. You say system requirements are high for Sc2. Actually it's pretty dam low for 2010 game. Deal with it. If it was possible to make sc2 system requirements lower I'M PRETTY DAM SURE THEY WOULD DO IT.
4. Once again you say that blizzard decision to partner with GomTV was a bad idea... which is number one, number two reason all over.
5. I don't get your number 5 point. If I look from casual gamer perspective Blizzard did pretty god dam good job finding balance for pros and casuals. Tell me what do you mean SC2 is not a casual game? In my eyes it's just about right - not to hard to learn, difficult to master.
6. They've said about thousands of times LAN is not coming back and therefore this point is not helping solve the problem.
Overall if I was a Blizzard reading this thread I would find god dam no suggestion of making sc2 better in Korea. It's just one huge complain.
Edit: My personal thoughts (I'm not Korean)
It's god dam fun game. System requirements are pretty god dam low for a game in 2010.
Partnership with Gom can go long way for blizzard because GOM are prepared to do anything for them.
It was said that Gom is looking for partner to broadcast tournaments on TV.
Gom getting better commentators isn't impossible.
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On August 08 2010 18:57 pedduck wrote:
SC2 is not a success in KR? How bad is it?
how many copy have they sold?
I don't think Blizzard made a report about it.
Thank you MrHoon and Rekrul
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I reall dont care what you all say.
The world is based on $$.
More $ = Better.
Yes thats true in life and thats true in eSports too.
The larger the prize pool the better, the bigger the event will be.
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MrHoon
10183 Posts
I've never said this was a suggestion thread, if I did I would've wrote suggestions
Yes it is a complaint thread, a complaint thread blizzard probably read by some other Korean member who wrote a personal mail to them.
1. You say Blizzard should not have abandoned Kespa, there is no way Blizzard is going back to them.
They won't obviously. Although it would be nicer than what's happening now
2. You say Blizzard decision to partner with GomTV was a bad idea and I say there is no way Blizzard is breaking up the partnership.
More like they have no other choice
3. You say system requirements are high for Sc2. Actually it's pretty dam low for 2010 game. Deal with it. If it was possible to make sc2 system requirements lower I'M PRETTY DAM SURE THEY WOULD DO IT.
Never said it was Blizzard's fault
Jeezes I've been getting this comment like 3 times now when did I say it was blizzard's fault my computer sucks? I just said it wasn't accessible as BW
4. Once again you say that blizzard decision to partner with GomTV was a bad idea... which is number one, number two reason all over.
Unnecessary Step, should be merged with number one and two
5. I don't get your number 5 point. If I look from casual gamer perspective Blizzard did pretty god dam good job finding balance for pros and casuals. Tell me what do you mean SC2 is not a casual game? In my eyes it's just about right - not to hard to learn, difficult to master.
Because casual gamers are all the same around the world
6. They've said about thousands of times LAN is not coming back and therefore this point is not helping solve the problem.
Okay.
Overall if I was a Blizzard reading this thread I would find god dam no suggestion of making sc2 better in Korea. It's just one huge complain.
I wanna see that suggestion thread
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blizzard/gom's prize pool is an example of an attempt to artificially boost demand in their product. What they don't seem to realize though is that the current starleague prize pool reflects the market price established by the demand of the spectators, not the players. The players do matter, but only on the supply side, as in how much scarcity is there of great starcraft players? But it's always easy to get great players, every game has relatively great players -- what's difficult is to get spectator demand.
Why is it the spectators's demand curve that matters and not the players? Because the revenue model of starcraft in Korea is based around television advertising dollars. This means it's the spectators who create the $$$ for Kespa/OGN/MBC, and not the players buying the game. When viewed in this light, it's easy to have doubts about Blizzard/GOM's strategy of paying big bucks for monthly tournaments. Such a strategy might create a lot of CD buyers but will have little effect on actual viewing preferences of the spectators. You're not going to suddenly watch sc2 just cuz someone's making big bucks from it, not if you don't understand the game and not when you have an immensely more accessible game with far more personable stars competing in a more compelling system of teams and leagues. The only way their strategy would work is if the prize spurred enough CD buyers to create a profitable spectator-base just from them. But as Mr. Hoon pointed out, this is unlikely because of the high barriers of price and inconvenience.
For Blizzard and GOM to win in Korea, they need to appeal to the spectators. And yeah, a significant percentage of spectators are those who buy the game. But the vast majority of spectators here do not play the game at all, or do so at a very casual level. This is especially pertinent to the women who make up such a strong proportion of the current BW fanbase, and as every marketer knows, it's your ability to attract females that ultimately determines your ability to persist in the market.
But given the circumstances of Blizzard/Activision, I think they're at least making a good effort in trying to win over Korea. They made the open beta to try and attract casual gamers. They created high prize pools to attract serious players. But though each individual strategy sounds good on paper, the overall strategy is a motley patchwork with no real synergy between its parts. It would have been much simpler if they had acknowledged Kespa's influence and ability to attract the casual or nongamer. But since they took this more difficult route, they're just going to have to keep throwing money at the problem and hope something changes.
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Reason why sc2 isnt gonna fail hard:
On August 08 2010 18:58 AyJay wrote:
I don't really get the point of this thread... How is it helping blizzard? TO my eyes it's just huge complaint.
1. You say Blizzard should not have abandoned Kespa, there is no way Blizzard is going back to them.
2. You say Blizzard decision to partner with GomTV was a bad idea and I say there is no way Blizzard is breaking up the partnership.
3. You say system requirements are high for Sc2. Actually it's pretty dam low for 2010 game. Deal with it. If it was possible to make sc2 system requirements lower I'M PRETTY DAM SURE THEY WOULD DO IT.
4. Once again you say that blizzard decision to partner with GomTV was a bad idea... which is number one, number two reason all over.
5. I don't get your number 5 point. If I look from casual gamer perspective Blizzard did pretty god dam good job finding balance for pros and casuals. Tell me what do you mean SC2 is not a casual game? In my eyes it's just about right - not to hard to learn, difficult to master.
6. They've said about thousands of times LAN is not coming back and therefore this point is not helping solve the problem.
Overall if I was a Blizzard reading this thread I would find god dam no suggestion of making sc2 better in Korea. It's just one huge complain.
Edit: My personal thoughts (I'm not Korean)
It's god dam fun game. System requirements are pretty god dam low for a game in 2010.
Partnership with Gom can go long way for blizzard because GOM are prepared to do anything for them.
It was said that Gom is looking for partner to broadcast tournaments on TV.
Gom getting better commentators isn't impossible.
I think sc2 is not going far as SCBW did in SK, but the rest of the World will be happy with this game.
I cant imagine what happend if Blizzard and Kespa made a deal.
SCBW will be on air as usual, but what's about SC2? i mean, SPL is 5days / week, where should sc2 broadcast placed? How would the league system look like?
So in general, it isnt so bad that Blizzard agreed with GomTV.
OGN + MBC do SCBW;
GomTV does SC2 in 2 languages; in Korean and English for global broadcast;
btw, GomTV has good infrastucture for Internet broadcasting which is utile for fans outside SK
In other hand, OGN + MBC have experience for big events.
So there is also a possiblitiy that they pull a synergy of both when there is a huge event like WCG.
btw: my 100th post!!!! I recognized it after i posted it 
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I'm sorry but I think you left out the most important reason, so let me give you number seven:
7. You have to PAY to PLAY it at a PC bang.
Now I'm not suggesting here Koreans are poor or anything but there are so many decent FREE online games that can be accessed easily from PC bangs that it's going to be very hard to suddenly force people to pay for what they're used to having for free. This is especially the case with kids and teenagers who don't have much money- remember they are already having to pay for the use of the PC bang.
Adults are a bit more used to paying for games like WOW and Lineage so they'll come around easier but many kids will probably NEVER want to pay for an online game. And without kids you're never going to have a strong scene.
BTW- I've been to several PC bangs where they hadn't even bothered adding a short cut to the SC2 homepage to the list of game short cuts on the PC bang computers. This more than two weeks after release shows how badly it's failing here.
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Thanks a lot for this post MrHoon! It's really great to get some South Korean insight! A very enjoyable read!
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nice polemic. blizzard is obviously out of touch .
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Thanks for the post it really was intresting
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I am over the moon about the best case scenario actually happening, with SC2 failing in Korea and the superior game staying dominant.
Let's hope things work out between OGN/MBC and GomTV and we can all go on with our lives and watch a real esport instead of having this casually fun but competitively shitty game shoved down our throats.
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On August 08 2010 20:04 tomatriedes wrote:
I'm sorry but I think you left out the most important reason, so let me give you number seven:
7. You have to PAY to PLAY it at a PC bang.
Now I'm not suggesting here Koreans are poor or anything but there are so many decent FREE online games that can be accessed easily from PC bangs that it's going to be very hard to suddenly force people to pay for what they're used to having for free. This is especially the case with kids and teenagers who don't have much money- remember they are already having to pay for the use of the PC bang.
Adults are a bit more used to paying for games like WOW and Lineage so they'll come around easier but many kids will probably NEVER want to pay for an online game. And without kids you're never going to have a strong scene.
BTW- I've been to several PC bangs where they hadn't even bothered adding a short cut to the SC2 homepage to the list of game short cuts on the PC bang computers. This more than two weeks after release shows how badly it's failing here.
i go to pc bangs a lot here in seoul, and many of them do have the shortcut. no one plays it though
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i though the real reason was that sc2 is still in beta down there why would any 1 buy a game if the beta is still out ?
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The OP is a good writeup and succinctly summarizes the situation. What Activision wants is a complete top-down vertically integrated structure where they're in control of every aspect of the game. I think Activision's inspiration comes from the Olympics or the World Cup where complete control means even the atheletes are not allowed to blog without permission, but they fail to realize that this is only possible because they are in control of the venue. What Activision is demanding is more like car manufacturers demanding a royalty from race organizers, or more relevantly, Valve taking a cut from every CS tournament. This is insanity and puts the cart before the horse in so many ways it's not even funny. If a race or tournament decides to run cars or a game, the manufacturers/developers should feel honoured, not to mention the advertisement effect this has for them. I don't understand the people who hope for its success as the sheer arrogance and hubris displayed by Activision should not be rewarded with anything but contempt.
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I hope Korea will eventually pick it up.
I'm just worried how the game will do, and if it can be successful as an ESPORT three years from now without South Korea.
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On August 08 2010 18:58 AyJay wrote:
3. You say system requirements are high for Sc2. Actually it's pretty dam low for 2010 game. Deal with it. If it was possible to make sc2 system requirements lower I'M PRETTY DAM SURE THEY WOULD DO IT.
They had total control over the engine. Therefore they had total control of the system requirements. It was clearly possible to reduce the requirements because there are literally thousands of games out there with lower requirements.
So despite it being possible and despite Blizzard having total control they decided to go for the current requirements. You are wrong.
The point was that BW was incredibly accessible and SC2 is not.
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I think like anything else, it was a risk for blizzard to do what they did in SK. I think if you look at the big picture, and that means the world, that it will be the right choice. Remember that they are creating a product with an expected life cycle of 10+ years.
While SK has infrastructure in place for pro gaming, why limit the worldwide scene by structuring it after the SK model. I don't think that most foreigners would EVER want to live in a house to be forced to practice 10+hours a day for minimal pay unless you are a superstar.
GomTV has the distinct advantage over OGN/MBC because they can really broadcast to the entire world not just SK. If they can get the infrastructure in place for high quality streams like the Help for haiti concert and the E3 2010 coverage, I see no reason why you would want to go back to a cable tv model. Too many contracts to make, too much money to be lost in translation. Internet streaming and on demand is not as popular yet, but when the technology of the general public catches up to the service, it will be huge. Maybe the proleague finals gets a 1.6 rating on OGN, but on the internet gets 50Million hits. In the long run i think that's the way to go globally. Hopefully in local markets, cable TV contracts will follow the success, but i think Blizzard and Gom are thinking way further out of the box.
Furthermore, as an anecdote, i'm korean, and i know that koreans are reaaaaaaaaly stubborn. It will be hard for them to give up what they know or learn something new. As a fireman, it's hard enough to convince old timers that the new trucks with better horsepower, mileage, pump capacity, ease of use, turning radius, maneuverability, clearance, maintenance costs, etc are actually better than their beat up has been rigs. Much more is it difficult to convince an entire culture to learn something new.
Superdanielman had some interesting views on the subject on his twitter, and i tend to agree with him as to how they could be doing it better. Overall though, it will take time. Commentating is the easiest and fastest thing that can change. The gobal model though, is not.
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Damn thats not good... although, attitudes can change, and GOM can improve etc. Good to hear some Korean perspective though. While realistically Blizzard has developed enough reputation and money to mitigate the consequences of making mistakes, I dont like seeing it happen nonetheless.
I'm no business expert, but I had a bad feeling seeing the size of the prizes. Its great money is being put into eSports, but I dont see how they can get a reasonable return on that. Big money, without proper business execution will still fail (eg XFL, Affliction in mma etc)
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Really good writeup for the Korean situation.
Very sad that its not hitting off in Korea, but at least BW is still on the TV!
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there was a promotional starcraft 2 setup in COEX and there were a bunch of computers where people could play SC2 and it was packed.
then i went to a PC bang nearby and there were more people playing SC2 than BW (i saw literally one screen that had BW on). The couple beside me were yelling and screaming and the girl was like, "this is sooo fun!!!" and i look at their screens and it's SC2.
for what it's worth, a bunch of people in the world (even in Korea, folks) like SC2 and to compare it to a failed video game console seems a tad unfair.
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EPT
