Hey yo, I watch a lot of Starcraft, and I have since the release of Starcraft 1. From the first showing of a final with pictures and texts on the side.
Soooo anyway, after having established I'm a dedicated baller of a fan, let'z move on.
Isn't it super shibby, the annoying trend we're seeing with commercials? It takes out so much of the joy and makes it feel all tacky and annoying.
I'm pretty sure if you watch a full stream of one of the days in an 11 hour broadcast, there's more plugging, commercials and casters going on about their twitter accounts, other shows they're in, youtube channels, what brand of toilet paper people should use wiping their ass with and what hand to use wiping it.
I can relate to "awh, but it's siiick good for the sport, blabla, more money".
But isn't there another way of going about it? (tone it down a little, maybe have it at the side more discretly?) I've always felt Starcraft is more majestic, I know I'd get so sad if the Teamliquid site suddenly had them random pop ups, and "you're visitor number 10.000 for the day klick here to collect your prize" and shit like that infesting it. (Infesting made me think of zerg xD)
This is the reason why I never watch TV, and if there's too many commercials on in a row, I need to stop watching in fear of brain turning into shit (not literally). A few times when the stream started hanging up here and there that (blabla, I got gold 2¤"#¤ with their stupid fake smiles. You know it's fake since the tip of the eyes isn't curved, and that just makes it ten times more insulting. And then the guys with the more "herky derky lower" voices, trying to be all serious, which is also what people do subconciously when they decieve "#¤/fk#%&nhit¤&et!").
This happening every 15 minutes for 3 days straight, no wonder so many people are contemplating suicide after every MLG.
Tbh, I barely noticed it. I have a Gold membership, so I was quad streaming, and as soon as a game was finished, I switched to another stream. But the times I saw it, I do agree with you to a point.
Having said that, the way Husky advertised N0Z was amazing
I don't see the problem with casters plugging things. As far as I saw it was only between games, and the frequency is logical because at least one person turning on the stream in between each game or series isn't a far stretch. Plugging it every game (which wasn't the case when I watched) gives the highest probability of involving new people who may have only had the time to watch one or two games at the time.
For ESPORTS to succeed, there needs to be money in the scene.
If you take your ordinary sports broadcast, for example, during play they generally won't play ads but in between they'll plug the heck out of everything they possible can. This makes the sponsors happy, and in turn makes it more attractive for investors and keeps the cycle going. It's the same for ESPORTS.
It's all about promotion, really, and in the end if don't care for ads you can easily use an adblocker
At least it's not like sports here in Australia, they've started plugging betting odds whilst play is going on, and some broadcasters like to throw in random ads when they think play is slow (of course something always happens in the break). In the end we put up with it because it's free- the alternative for those of us who dislike ads is to watch a paid service.
So my question to you is, how much would you be willing to pay for an ad-free broadcast of an ESPORTS event such as the past MLG weekend? Did you take advantage of the Hot Pockets promotion for the Silver Pass? I used it, had high quality, no ads, was very pleasant for me, and in fact it impressed me enough that I'll probably pay up for next year.
Maybe you should train your mind to not be so hyper-sensitive. If you watch Husky or HD plug stuff, they're hilarious in the way they do it. Realize at the end of the day that the sponsors make it possible for these events to run consistantly.
The gold membership is also a steal for how much content you get..
On November 22 2011 01:01 acrimoneyius wrote: Maybe you should train your mind to not be so hyper-sensitive. If you watch Husky or HD plug stuff, they're hilarious in the way they do it. Realize at the end of the day that the sponsors make it possible for these events to run consistantly.
The gold membership is also a steal for how much content you get..
Husky was so funny when he was plugging that phone and the nos.
I guess that makes a lot of sense I have to admit!!
I'm still pretty moody though. I love Starcraft and unconciously spread it and always have to friends, people around me so forth. Because it's awesome. This weekend I tried to get some mates who don't watch it to watch it, and I felt so embaressed, that next hour, it was commercials nonstop, casters talking about themself, and after an hour I get on skype. "Sorry yo, nothing happening, just commercials and crap".
"I've got Gold".... Yeah, and if you would stand before me now i would like to hit you for it. Seriously... This Goldmember commercial is so friggin horrible... I really don't want "Gold" just because these guys in that ad "got Gold"...
The only thing that pisses me off is that you were lying in your bed and after every game(not bo3, but a single game) you'd have to go up to your computer, restart the stream, watch the ad and the maximize the stream again and go back to your bed.
If they'd fix their ads and actually make them after every boX I wouldn't have any problem with them!
You also have the realize that they don't broadcast something that is easy to do in traditional media. They have varying downtime that can last quite a while to set things up and get the next match moving. On top of that, they're broadcasting for much, much longer than most sporting events or television shows. They have to fill the dead-air with something, and commercials and people talking about random stuff is easy to fill it with. I'm sure they'd like to have more filler content, but there is a limit to how much you can produce on budget/time constraints of your own that are also still of a high quality.
As far as solutions? Yeah, pay for it or suck it up and try to enjoy your 2 free streams of sc2 for 3 days.
Paying for MLG membership = no brainer. Helps foreign esports so much. Would pay for GSL as well if i was interested in VOD's. I'm not. I almost never watch VODs. They lack both the excitement of live and precision of replays.
If you want to introduce your mates to SC2 viewing - you should wait for Dreamhacks next invitational. The Stockholm one was done perfectly for new viewers (at least according to those i asked). The Valencia one worked very well for barcraft. Not sure if the DH Winter event will be as good, probably not as the format is more expansive.
The dead time they can just put on a camera on things happening in the event. Like that camera on that small podum, have it a little closer, maybe have some audio so you can listen to "irl random non staged footage". Those shots are actually awesome, when you see what's going on. Then just add text "next match 15 min 27 sec" and it counts down or something.
Gold membership is worth the money since you get it for every MLG in a year and just pay once. No commercials and always a game going on. The Beta stream casters were decent, too.
I watched the red stream youtube live. The quality wasn't as good (but I have low bandwidth so it didn't matter.) but there were no commercials at all in between games, it just cut to the crowd then back to the casters. I think that was a problem with youtube though I can't imagine they wouldn't want to play adds. And on youtube there was no issue with restarting the stream. I just left it up all weekend.
I demand they use more commercials, i can understand the need for commercials BUT STOP USING THE SAME 3 OVER AND OVER. God every time i head "After this commercial break" I immediately slammed the mute button on my laptop.
On November 22 2011 01:23 ImDrizzt wrote: The dead time they can just put on a camera on things happening in the event. Like that camera on that small podum, have it a little closer, maybe have some audio so you can listen to "irl random non staged footage". Those shots are actually awesome, when you see what's going on. Then just add text "next match 15 min 27 sec" and it counts down or something.
Don't worry, we'll be getting half-time studios with round table analysis and expert reviews of replays soon enough. MLG are shaping up - their interviews and player features are getting better and better and i'm sure that's something they're gonna focus on even more in 2012.
I'd be fine with commercials if they weren't a) misogynistic (IT'S NOT FOR WOMEN) b) terribly made (creepy womancop xperia ads) c) horribly repetitive and cliche (the rest and the limited amount. Also, "get real".)
If the ads were legitimately interesting and varied (which ultimately comes down to MLG getting more sponsors, actually) they would be much more appealing imo. If Kingston HyperX occasionally popped one of their gaming ads on there? Golden.
EPT
