EPTThis blog post will be directed primarily towards people that are new in the SC or the gaming scene all together.I am quite new too stacraft myself,a SC2 fan from the beta and through SC2 i got introduced to TL and the BW scene and one of the events I have grown to love-the BW prolegue,so I will try to explain how I see the current events regarding MBC game and its effect on SC2 and gaming in general.My views may be completely wrong,all information i base my knowledge on is from what i have gathered on TL,TL wiki,etc.
Warning:
Incoming wall of text.
This blog represents my own opinion and my own views and may have nothing to do with the reality as it is, but just how I interpreted it.
So what is MBC game?
MBC game is one of two Korean cable television channels that specialize in broadcasting video game-related information and matches.
The most notable game broadcasted,of course,being SC:Brood War,MBC game hosts one of the 2 biggest player tournaments in Korea,the MSL(MBCgame Starleague) and broadcasts half of the majority of the porelegue matches.
This means that by shutting down MBC Game the BW tournament scene would be literally cut in half.
MBC Game also directly sponsors a BW team MBCGame HERO.By shutting down MBCGame it would mean that Hero would loose its sponsor and vanish as we know it.
This would have carry on to effect the proleague,as loosing a team in a well organized and planed system is not a small thing.
The First Blow
Here I would like you to watch this video if you haven't watched it yet.
The match fixing scandal was the first huge blow to the BW scene in Korea.How is that related to this subject?
In that video one huge point is brought up.The company's that sponsor BW teams in Korea(MBC game,Hwaseung,Air force,SKT Telecom,etc.) are all company's inside Korea which have no direct co-relation to gaming(unlike Steelseries,Razor,Kingston HyperX,etc. which sponsor teams in the west)
They are mainstream company's that got involved in gaming because they saw a good opportunity for marketing and improving their image amongst the population.
These company's do not make huge amounts of profit out of gaming.
The fear after the match fixing was that,now that the image of the league has been tainted,company's would want to maybe back out of gaming because image and good marketing was the things they look for in the first place.
For a big company or corporation to invest money into something they need some form of profit going back to them naturally.Also,they need a safe environment where they would be almost guaranteed to make profit in one form or the other.
The Bubble
Historically in the west,the efforts to put a single game into the main stream and to have it thrive in a safe sustained market has failed,every single time.Quake,CS,PK,BW,WC 3,etc.
All of these games have or had their steady scenes which worshiped them.But none of them were able to sustain the money put into them and the scenes imploded one after another.
I still have the copy of my local gaming magazine about Fatal1tys success,thinking that he would be the one that brings games into the mainstream where everyone could see how many cool things you could do with these boxes of plastic and metal. When Grubby was standing like a rock for the west in golden era of WC 3,I hopped that we finally found our hero,that will lead the way for others to go the same path and become,at least a challenge for the ever so dominant players from Asia.When player's have been given insane contracts that only a teenage boy could believe that they were justified.
And here I am now.11 years after the that RazerCPL Tournament Fatal1ty won and his article in the magazine i hold in my hands right now.
The same hopes i had in all of these games are now directed towards Starcraft 2.As much as i wish for it to be THE game,you can't fault me for being slightly sceptical about us creating a bubble AGAIN,and not being able to sustain it.
Right now,SC2 has no major corporation or company backing up the teams with major funds(which have nothing to do with gaming,hardware or the things alike).
Why a Flood Wouldn't Help the Plant Grow
Every time on TL when a article about BW pops up,you can not avoid the occasional post about how cool it would be if Flash,Bisu,Jaedon,Stork,Sea,etc., would switch over to Starcraft 2.
Lets assume the BW scene would suddenly die tomorrow and every BW pro would switch over to Starcraft 2.The competition would skyrocket,the games would be better and the masses would be pleased.
But lets look at the negative sides,and these that i will mention are only the biggest ones i feel and there are lot of other problems beside these.
The company's that invested a decade into BW and now find the scene completely abandoned,do you really expect them to naturally move on to the next game?
Don't you think they would have a meeting and say:"Well we put our money and faith into this gaming thing,but it doesn't really seem sustainable.Do we want our company's image to be put into hands of the ever changing gaming industry and hope that it won't fall apart.Yes these kids train hard,but so do the kids in football camps.Lets start our own little kids football team and league and finance them.The sport has a long time line of success and we wont have to worry about it becoming outdated".
This is all hypothetical but you seriously have to sit and wonder which of these company's doesn't think in a similar way when they consider about investing into E-sports.
The west is not blind and uninformed about Korea and someone that goes to invest into Esports,I would imagine takes a look at how it was done there and what is going on now with the market.
In a world where i need to update my PC every 2 years to be able to play new games and new games constantly emerging its almost impossible to expect a major company to invest long term in something like that.
Out of all this goes my next question.Where do you get the money to pay Flash?Or Bisu?Or Jaedong?All of the together?
I understand that these players earn the most of their salary off tournaments and marketing but how would you finance the enormous swell of new players in a new market that isn't even established yet.Remember,the company's that used to finance the teams have decided to go somewhere where the market is more stable.And what happens with the old player's we had,what happens to the new players that did not even play yet and can't get exposure?And most importantly,what happens to the old fans of these players.Do they just accept the new game of their favorite player,or loose interest because the scene that they loved broke down,leaving them with a sense of powerlessness.
Starcraft 2 needs its own Heroes.
The Vulture
Starcraft 2 cannot become a vulture.It cannot feed off the carcass of BW and expect for it to become what BW was in terms of success in Korea.BW has to survive in order for Starcraft 2 to have a shot to become big in Korea and mainstream in the world.
It needs to build a infrastructure where it will feel safe for the investors and where a non-awkward transition from BW to SC2 is possible in Korea.For myself i believe that SC2 will be the next game that BW players can go to,transition to rather.Where the same people that invested in BW would feel safe and natural to start investing in a SC2 team.
Any BW fan and player that thinks that BW will always be there as it is now is kidding himself,and I for myself do not believe that SC2 will be able to live forever.
SC2 needs BW and not the other way around.If BW was to die,and SC2 would be the prime reason,it would do irreparable long term damage to the gaming scene.
The BW to Sc2 transition may never happen at all,but that's not the point.
A Utopia for Gamers
We will never,ever,EVER see a single game becoming a long term,and by long term i mean over a decade,or more,long time span success in the west.The environment in which games are created in the west does not allow for such a thing.The best thing in my opinion to do would be to have a market of competitive gaming,with teams that are involved,to have a organization(not exactly like KESPA) in which the transition from an older fading to a newer game would happen slowly and not violently.We can't have a environment where for BW,sc2 is the boogie man,or the FPS or fighting games.A world where new investors would get attracted into gaming not based on which game is in place right now as the main thing,but rather by the diversity of games and where there wouldn't be fear of a new game taking its place,but rather anticipation of the next best thing where we would see a new breed of pro gamers and old ones mastering it.
In order for company's to stay with gaming there needs to be state of mind where they would not invest in a particular game,but with the organization and infrastructure in place,rather they would invest into gaming in general and based on the major consensus and state in gaming,there would be a game that currently is the dominant flagship of E-sports,alongside other smaller ones.Personally,I believe this is the only path to mainstream gaming.
I am a gamer for the majority of my life now and I have no illusions anymore that a game will live forever.I loved Quake.I was really excited about Warcraft 3.When i think about them i feel a sense of nostalgia.It would be awesome to still be able to watch Grubby vs Moon matches.But things move on.As sad as I am to see negative things happen to BW,I think we should all respect it for the greatness it is in Korea still to this day and hopefully will still continue to be.We should try to understand how it came to be and what we can do to learn and create a similar place where not only our game can thrive but also the ones that follow.When I'm 50 years old I hope to see a system in place and I hope i will still be enthusiastic about gaming as I am today.
Until then good luck BW and Starcraft 2 as well.I hope the community's will find mutual understanding and enthusiasm for each others(very different) game,as I have.
Its never the end,just a new beginning.
