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So with the GSL's testing of various casters over the last few months, there's been a lot of discontent and arguments over the merits and the drawbacks of certain code A casters. I'm not here to talk about who's the best or why they're better than others.
What I do want to discuss are some of the things I've seen in comment threads or TL posts regarding casters, and why certain arguments are simply never going to be good.
Argument 1: If you don't like the way they're casting, cast it yourself.
This one is just stupid, for obvious reasons. We aren't casting it ourselves because we don't have any delusions about the fact that we can't cast well enough to work for the biggest tournament in the world. We're upset because the casters don't seem to understand that.
Argument 2: Just mute the sound! Nobody's making you listen to them.
Yes, that's an option, but we're paying customers who are missing part of the experience when we don't have anything to listen to. If we could have game sounds or music that might be something to work with, but even then having no casters to listen to makes the game much less exciting. And when we pay for something, we do have the right to give feedback.
Which brings me to my most important point:
Argument 3: Quit complaining. If you don't like it just go away, nobody's making you pay for it.
or
Argument 3a: It's only ($5/$10/$20), stop complaining.
Here's the main point I want to make. I don't personally care about the money. I'm not going to cry that I have to pay $10 for many, many hours of entertainment in a month. Sure, I could vote with my wallet and not give my money to GOM, but why should I do that?
I'd much rather give constructive (or less than constructive) criticism to GOM and have them adapt to provide us the best tournament possible. GSL has what in the business world might be called a Barrier to Entry - that is, not just any tournament XYZSL can throw together a tournament and be on the level of GSL. What this means in terms of our experience is that we can't just walk away and pay another tournament to do better than GSL. There simply isn't anyone who can do it.
In conclusion/TL:DR: in a market where there is not 0 startup cost, it is not always feasible to simply "vote with your wallet". If there is not fair competition, it is extremely difficult for someone even get started competing with the GSL in Korea, so we have to work with what we have. And in the case of GOM, working with what we have means giving criticism on the forums and doing whatever we can to have them improve the product they have.
It's absolutely acceptable to voice your opinion and complaints to an organization like GOM. They want it, they need it, and it's better for everyone if we can help them out.
  
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Except the forums are a case of the vocal minority most of the time, you shouldn't do anything based upon a forum, much less an incredibly biased Tastosis one.
Infact, the only data you should ''get'' is the poll which is up on the Forums as a survey, and even that is stretching it.
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On May 20 2011 17:23 Kipsate wrote:
Except the forums are a case of the vocal minority most of the time, you shouldn't do anything based upon a forum, much less an incredibly biased Tastotis one.
That's a good point, and that's on GOM to make correct decisions based on user input. However, polls on team liquid, unscientific as they are, have shown that Tasteless and Artosis are vastly more popular. At some point, even if a forum is biased, the community should be the ones that decide what the product is. That's what the entire concept of this post is about.
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On May 20 2011 17:21 lolsixtynine wrote:
Argument 1: If you don't like the way they're casting, cast it yourself.
This one is just stupid, for obvious reasons. We aren't casting it ourselves because we don't have any delusions about the fact that we can't cast well enough to work for the biggest tournament in the world. We're upset because the casters don't seem to understand that.
I think this is a completely valid agreement.
Us as viewers don't seem to understand that casters like Moletrap have years of experience in casting, and eventually got to the position of casting Code A because of it. Sure viewers should have an opinion, but it's up to the casters or GOM to reflect change with those opinions.
You're kind of saying that a silver level player can tell a pro to do something with their gameplay, but no one can argue it?
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On May 20 2011 17:21 lolsixtynine wrote:
In conclusion/TL:DR: in a market where there is not 0 startup cost
A lot of what you're saying here is silly. You're complaining about barriers to entry and unfair competition, when, guess what, there is none, other than perhaps the modest cost of owning a computer that can handle what you need to do (and if you're reading this, you almost certainly have shelled out for most of that cost already).
There is 0 startup cost to running a Starcraft tourament. You don't even need to offer prize money, people will happily play against each other for free, for fun. There are dozens of random Starcraft tournaments every day. If you can get together a modest prize pool you can get yourself on the 'upcoming events' page on teamliquid, and you can attract better gamers to your event to compete with. You don't even need any networking infrastructure at all. Just get yourself a streaming setup with justin.tv or ustream or whatever and you can get the word out to the Starcraft-hungry masses for free. If you get enough eyeballs, and fire up an advert or two, you might even make money doing this sort of thing.
There is 0 startup cost to becoming a Starcraft caster. Just record yourself talking over a Starcraft game, and there's you, and there's youtube. Go for it!
The barriers to entry and competition here are so low, that most Starcraft fans, far from complaining that the GSL has a monopoly on the Starcraft scene, are complaining that there's too many good tournaments to watch. The big leagues are having to collude with each other just to stop their schedules clashing and losing viewers to one another. The biggest "barrier to entry", if you can call it that, is just the limited amount of time that Starcraft fans have in the day to watch Starcraft. Sure, you might have a problem becoming the next Husky, or Day9, or SCReddit invitational; that's just down to your skills and your ability to compete in the market - there's nothing at all stopping you from actually being in that market.
Oh, I actually believe that it's good for GOM to have feedback (as opposed to massive floods of aggressive or passive-aggressive caster-hate, which I, unfortunately, see a lot of these days) but there's absolutely no way that GOM are a monopoly or that there's unfair competition going on.
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I agree that you should be able to criticize casters and offer feedback to GOM. The problem is that there’s a time and place for everything, and complaining about casters is something that I see all the time across threads that have nothing to do with the casters themselves. It’s no wonder why people get upset that nearly every tournament announcement thread gets derailed because their favorite caster is not casting and formulate arguments just to make you be quiet.
I suppose my point is to take your criticism to the correct venues where they will be read and taken into consideration. For example, create a thread with a topic about a specific casting duo and how they can improve. Send an email to GOM when you have an issue. This thread is also a correct venue and I’m happy you took the time to create it.
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On May 20 2011 19:24 Aim Here wrote:Show nested quote +On May 20 2011 17:21 lolsixtynine wrote:
In conclusion/TL:DR: in a market where there is not 0 startup cost
A lot of what you're saying here is silly. You're complaining about barriers to entry and unfair competition, when, guess what, there is none, other than perhaps the modest cost of owning a computer that can handle what you need to do (and if you're reading this, you almost certainly have shelled out for most of that cost already).
I don't think you understood what I was referring to by barriers to entry. We're talking about putting on a STARLEAGUE here, not just any tournament or a youtube channel. You need a studio, a production team, a huge prize pool, and the ability to attract the top Koreans in the world to your tournament and make it their top priority.
What you're saying essentially is equivalent to saying, "There's no reason you can't compete with GM. All you need is a wrench, and a little bit of cash to shell out for some metal. And you probably already have a wrench."
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On May 21 2011 01:50 lolsixtynine wrote:Show nested quote +On May 20 2011 19:24 Aim Here wrote:On May 20 2011 17:21 lolsixtynine wrote:
In conclusion/TL:DR: in a market where there is not 0 startup cost
A lot of what you're saying here is silly. You're complaining about barriers to entry and unfair competition, when, guess what, there is none, other than perhaps the modest cost of owning a computer that can handle what you need to do (and if you're reading this, you almost certainly have shelled out for most of that cost already). I don't think you understood what I was referring to by barriers to entry. We're talking about putting on a STARLEAGUE here, not just any tournament or a youtube channel. You need a studio, a production team, a huge prize pool, and the ability to attract the top Koreans in the world to your tournament and make it their top priority. What you're saying essentially is equivalent to saying, "There's no reason you can't compete with GM. All you need is a wrench, and a little bit of cash to shell out for some metal. And you probably already have a wrench."
Exactly the opposite. The DIFFERENCE between competing with GM and competing with GOM is that you need a shitload more than a wrench to make cars. You need a huge-ass factory with hundreds or thousands of workers, a bunch of contracts with suppliers to make all the bits you need and an expensive science laboratory to do all the crash testing the government needs before it'll let you put anything on the road (as well as make a better car than the other guy). Those are serious barriers to entry and entirely different from competing with GOM.
TSL3 and SCReddit invitational proved that you don't need much more in the way of resources than a few dedicated nerds and their computers, and someone with the skills to persuade a sponsor to give out a prize pool, to compete with the likes of GOM. NASL is about 6 nerds in a warehouse who managed to persuade someone to sponsor them with enough money to attract a whole bunch of top players, Korean and otherwise. TSL3 finals got about 70,000 people watching the live stream.( and in terms of critical acclaim, TSL3 won hands down). We don't know GSL's livestream numbers, and yes, it's almost certainly more, but if VOD views are anything to go by, TSL is getting about as many viewers as the GSL code A.
You can't say that it's impossible for a small group of people with not many resources to provide a top-level Starcraft tournament to tens of thousands of fans, when it's quite easy to rattle off the names of tournaments that do just that. And if that isn't being competitive in the same racket as GOMTV, what on earth IS?
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EPT
