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Blizzard claims to be a supporter of esports, but by connecting some dots it becomes apparent that this isn't the case at all. As expected from a corporation, all they actually support is increasing their own profits. Since its release in 1999 Starcraft had steadily been rising as the biggest esport in Korea with KeSPA at the helm. At first Blizzard didn't seem to care about esports at all, but with the amount of money being invested by major corporations reaching an all time high this was bound to change. The first hints to Blizzard's new attitude can be seen in 2007. On May 19th Blizzard officially unveils Starcraft 2 in Seoul. Unknown to the public at the time Starcraft 2 would come with Battle.net 2.0, Blizzard's insurance that they would have complete control over the game from the start. Along with this hidden trap Blizzard also begins a dispute with KeSPA over IP rights for broadcasting their games. In hindsight the plan is obvious: gain a foothold in the current industry while preparing their new product.
The next piece of the puzzle comes in 2008. The dispute with KeSPA is going nowhere so Blizzard tries a new angle. In February GOMTV begins broadcasting the first ever Korean Starcraft league with English commentary. Riding on the popularity of community figure "Tasteless" the GOM league makes serious gains with the non-Korean scene. For English speaking fans it seemed like a huge advance for esports, but KeSPA saw it differently. Seeing the new league as aggressive expansion into their territory KeSPA pulled their support in August of 2009, putting an end to Blizzard's attempts at taking over Brood War. Although KeSPA might not have realized it at the time this also put the nail in the coffin for Starcraft 1 outside Korea, setting the stage for Starcraft 2 in the west.
With 2010 came several major events. In April Blizzard's negotiations with KeSPA finally break down. Soon after in June Blizzard announces partnership with GRETECH, granting them exclusive rights to broadcast Starcraft in Korea. In July Starcraft 2 is finally released and immediately embraced by the non-Korean community. A month later in September GOMTV launches the GSL, the first and only Korean Starcraft 2 league, again with English commentary provided by community figure Tasteless. Meanwhile GRETECH demands that MBC cease broadcasting their Starcraft 1 league, claiming violation of their exclusive broadcasting rights. By December negotiations had again broken down and Blizzard decided it was time to bring out their lawyers. With Starcraft 2 in the game Brood War was now seen as direct competition in need of elimination. Like a farmer culling the herd, Blizzard must now kill its older game in favor of their new cash cow.
2011 now brings us up to our current situation. Korean courts were a harder adversary than expected and Blizzard has settled their dispute with KeSPA. Nonetheless Blizzard's campaign against Brood War has seemingly been taken up by the community. While "supporting esports" has become the new big thing, apparently Brood War doesn't count as far as non-Korean fans are concerned. While community figures can't stop talking about Quake and Street Fighter, Brood War is limited to "nostalgia only" status as though it were already dead. Meanwhile Blizzard continues to stonewall the progress of their current game with no LAN, horrible map pools, and balance changes made for 2v2 players.
Will Blizzard's strategy be successful? Will esports prosper along with their revenue or will their plan backfire with the community paying the price? 2012 will be the ultimate test with the fate of KeSPA and Heart of the Swarm's release as the key items.
 
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It's like I just read a summary of the discussion a guest on Coast To Coast Am did. Only with Blizzard and Esports. I'd contradict most of this but to be honest, I've a feeling you already know but choose to ignore it and if I don't someone far better then I will explain things to you.
I will however point out that your missing the whole the Korean broodwar scene wanted little to nothing to do with the westerners and let us pretty much do whatever for ages and only now have they recently put up a channel to watch vods(at the end of 2011 not english or even dub'd mind you just the raw vods) and that doing so knocked off a few of the remaining English commentators for abit and caused myself and many others a great deal of worry. So remember, ineptitude and greed isn't limited to one particular boogieman.
For the record, still a broodwar fan, also a fan of many other games and watching them on a competitive level.
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I can't say I like blizzard's approach to competitive starcraft 2. On one hand they want it to grow, but on the other just for their own profit. Taking 50% of all revenue from tournaments over a certain threshold can only hurt the scene, and it doesn't seem like they're doing much at all with the money except a few balance tweaks here and there which, in my opinion, don't even have that much thought behind them.
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On December 16 2011 18:27 Parnage wrote:
I will however point out that your missing the whole the Korean broodwar scene wanted little to nothing to do with the westerners and let us pretty much do whatever for ages and only now have they recently put up a channel to watch vods(at the end of 2011 not english or even dub'd mind you just the raw vods) and that doing so knocked off a few of the remaining English commentators for abit and caused myself and many others a great deal of worry. So remember, ineptitude and greed isn't limited to one particular boogieman.
Of course kespa isn't faultless and ignoring the west was probably short sighted, but it's clear to me that Blizzard is more at fault here. Imagine where we would be now if instead of coming at kespa with legal disputes they had approached them with the idea of setting up an English broadcast for proleague. What would we be talking about now if Blizzard had invited MBC to hold their finals at Blizzcon one year instead of an exploding moon base?
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tbh I don't think Blizz's stance on BW changed the community on anything. Most people came because of SC2, and what Blizz did with BW, and you suggesting they broadcast in english, probably wouldn't do much because people wouldn't have heard of the english broadcast until they got into SC2 anyway. Even now people in SC2 know about BW and don't care, not because they parrot the Blizzard line but because it's not "their game".
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Nothing to do with lack of BW support but rather that they tried to kill us off.
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On December 16 2011 18:55 DystopiaX wrote:
tbh I don't think Blizz's stance on BW changed the community on anything. Most people came because of SC2, and what Blizz did with BW, and you suggesting they broadcast in english, probably wouldn't do much because people wouldn't have heard of the english broadcast until they got into SC2 anyway. Even now people in SC2 know about BW and don't care, not because they parrot the Blizzard line but because it's not "their game".
There might not be a direct influence but there's definitely an indirect one. Consider the following:
-Tasteless mentioned EVO during a GSL finals and brings up whatever PS3 games he's currently playing during other casts
-When Day9 went to Korea he went to a Jaedong game rather than the GSTL finals.
-Popular community figures stream themselves playing games like Amnesia and Skyrim
-DJWheat and Slasher are always begging people to care about Quake
-Rotterdam cast Warcraft 3 at WCG and encouraged people to show continued interest in it
Clearly these people have no problem talking about non-Starcraft games, so why is it that they never mention BW tournaments or events? Obviously it's because even if Dustin Browder says it's ok Blizzard doesn't actually want people to care about BW. Why do you think Tasteless has never once mentioned that he was still doing BW games for Arirang? He mentions his t-shit website and that documentary all the time so he's obviously not holding back on self-promotion.
Clearly there's a top-down information blockade at work, starting with Blizzard and working its way down to the community. Wasn't the whole point of JP's twitter experiment the other day to demonstrate how one person can distribute a message to hundreds of thousands?
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On December 16 2011 19:23 BrosephBrostar wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2011 18:55 DystopiaX wrote:
tbh I don't think Blizz's stance on BW changed the community on anything. Most people came because of SC2, and what Blizz did with BW, and you suggesting they broadcast in english, probably wouldn't do much because people wouldn't have heard of the english broadcast until they got into SC2 anyway. Even now people in SC2 know about BW and don't care, not because they parrot the Blizzard line but because it's not "their game". There might not be a direct influence but there's definitely an indirect one. Consider the following: -Tasteless mentioned EVO during a GSL finals and brings up whatever PS3 games he's currently playing during other casts -When Day9 went to Korea he went to a Jaedong game rather than the GSTL finals. -Popular community figures stream themselves playing games like Amnesia and Skyrim -DJWheat and Slasher are always begging people to care about Quake -Rotterdam cast Warcraft 3 at WCG and encouraged people to show continued interest in it Clearly these people have no problem talking about non-Starcraft games, so why is it that they never mention BW tournaments or events? Obviously it's because even if Dustin Browder says it's ok Blizzard doesn't actually want people to care about BW. Why do you think Tasteless has never once mentioned that he was still doing BW games for Arirang? He mentions his t-shit website and that documentary all the time so he's obviously not holding back on self-promotion. Clearly there's a top-down information blockade at work, starting with Blizzard and working its way down to the community. Wasn't the whole point of JP's twitter experiment the other day to demonstrate how one person can distribute a message to hundreds of thousands?
Tasteless is still doing BW? Why has nobody told me? I personally don't think there's a information blockade at work. Tasteless and Day9 obviously still love the game that they've been playing for 10 years or so. But their jobs now depend on the new game. They have a vested interest in promoting SC2 but not BW.
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You should take off your tinfoil hat man and get over it. It's been about 7 months since KeSPA agreed to pay a licensing fee & put blizz logos all over the place. Blizz/KeSPA relations are good for now, Blizz even invited some of them (along with Bisu/Fanta/JD/Jangbi) to Blizzcon for a vacation.
Community members don't talk about BW anymore? Nearly every single SOTG has Artosis & Day9 bring up BW in some way or another. I'm 100% sure Day9 still follows it. Moletrap still kind of brings up BW a lot even during GSL casts. Most other community members that switched just don't follow it anymore, kind of simple as that. Tasteless never mentioned he was doing SC2 casts for Arirang either (In fact I think he just recently left Arirang) and djWheat/Slasher were never big BW followers in the first place.
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On December 16 2011 19:23 BrosephBrostar wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2011 18:55 DystopiaX wrote:
tbh I don't think Blizz's stance on BW changed the community on anything. Most people came because of SC2, and what Blizz did with BW, and you suggesting they broadcast in english, probably wouldn't do much because people wouldn't have heard of the english broadcast until they got into SC2 anyway. Even now people in SC2 know about BW and don't care, not because they parrot the Blizzard line but because it's not "their game". There might not be a direct influence but there's definitely an indirect one. Consider the following: -Tasteless mentioned EVO during a GSL finals and brings up whatever PS3 games he's currently playing during other casts -When Day9 went to Korea he went to a Jaedong game rather than the GSTL finals. -Popular community figures stream themselves playing games like Amnesia and Skyrim -DJWheat and Slasher are always begging people to care about Quake -Rotterdam cast Warcraft 3 at WCG and encouraged people to show continued interest in it Clearly these people have no problem talking about non-Starcraft games, so why is it that they never mention BW tournaments or events? Obviously it's because even if Dustin Browder says it's ok Blizzard doesn't actually want people to care about BW. Why do you think Tasteless has never once mentioned that he was still doing BW games for Arirang? He mentions his t-shit website and that documentary all the time so he's obviously not holding back on self-promotion. Clearly there's a top-down information blockade at work, starting with Blizzard and working its way down to the community. Wasn't the whole point of JP's twitter experiment the other day to demonstrate how one person can distribute a message to hundreds of thousands?
Simple. Those other things mentioned wont take any viewer ship from SC2. BW promotion does nothing to help SC2 and very likely hurts it.
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5/5 you hit the bull eye's , when you mention that our starcraft scene compared the others broodwar as seen something as the past and only meant to be nostalgic,just look at the quake community and Id's dedication to the scene,releasing the game engine source code to the public, so gamers can tweak it and such .
Compared to blizzard , I dislike their constant influence in gamers life and destination , with battlenet 2.0 it can be seen that they are not going to bother about the community a lot , constant stone walling about any changes to starcraft with no lan support , teasing with bread crumbs saying that they will add more better units and balance in the game .
Than again , how much control is tolerated ? till the extent that everything that is community created we have to pay royalties to blizzard ? Broodwar has been a dream, which manifested into reality and the freedom that it has been given to the community by the previous developer in blizzard, brood war is really blessed although I am not so sure about starcraft 2 future though .
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On December 16 2011 19:23 BrosephBrostar wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2011 18:55 DystopiaX wrote:
tbh I don't think Blizz's stance on BW changed the community on anything. Most people came because of SC2, and what Blizz did with BW, and you suggesting they broadcast in english, probably wouldn't do much because people wouldn't have heard of the english broadcast until they got into SC2 anyway. Even now people in SC2 know about BW and don't care, not because they parrot the Blizzard line but because it's not "their game". There might not be a direct influence but there's definitely an indirect one. Consider the following: -Tasteless mentioned EVO during a GSL finals and brings up whatever PS3 games he's currently playing during other casts -When Day9 went to Korea he went to a Jaedong game rather than the GSTL finals. -Popular community figures stream themselves playing games like Amnesia and Skyrim -DJWheat and Slasher are always begging people to care about Quake -Rotterdam cast Warcraft 3 at WCG and encouraged people to show continued interest in it Clearly these people have no problem talking about non-Starcraft games, so why is it that they never mention BW tournaments or events? Obviously it's because even if Dustin Browder says it's ok Blizzard doesn't actually want people to care about BW. Why do you think Tasteless has never once mentioned that he was still doing BW games for Arirang? He mentions his t-shit website and that documentary all the time so he's obviously not holding back on self-promotion. Clearly there's a top-down information blockade at work, starting with Blizzard and working its way down to the community. Wasn't the whole point of JP's twitter experiment the other day to demonstrate how one person can distribute a message to hundreds of thousands?
Hi, I saw your recent blog and you're mentioning slasher. I keep seeing this dude's name around. Who the fuck is he? A quake player who moved to SC2?
Thanks a lot.
I agree with the sentiments of your blog btw, but I my 'wtf are you doing to bw' rage has kind of subsided. If there were a dedicated BW community like TL used to be I would quit this site.
Anyway, cheerio.
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I don't get it? Why should anyone ask people to watch BW tournaments? There is no BW scene outside of Korea to watch or get involved with. And you seriously think the reason for that is a conspiracy headed by Blizzard?
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BW was on a decline until SC2 was announced. Even after SC2 was announced, that sudden growth was only temporary. MBCgame's MSL was having problems regularly securing sponsors long before SC2 was released.
I'm a hardcore BW fanatic and I really don't like SC2, but I'm not blind to facts. Blizzard hasn't been helping BW, but they really haven't been doing anything to kill it other than strongly push SC2.
Also, don't kid yourself with the "help e-sports" bullshit everyone flaunts around here. "Help e-sports" is reserved for, at best, trendy games, but more commonly, just SC2. There are too many people on this site who somehow just can't, don't, or won't appreciate BW.
Whatever. The glory days are over. Hell, they ended before I even began following BW. We had a small golden age when SC2 was announced, but no, that was only temporary.
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On December 16 2011 20:19 ShadeR wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2011 19:23 BrosephBrostar wrote:On December 16 2011 18:55 DystopiaX wrote:
tbh I don't think Blizz's stance on BW changed the community on anything. Most people came because of SC2, and what Blizz did with BW, and you suggesting they broadcast in english, probably wouldn't do much because people wouldn't have heard of the english broadcast until they got into SC2 anyway. Even now people in SC2 know about BW and don't care, not because they parrot the Blizzard line but because it's not "their game". There might not be a direct influence but there's definitely an indirect one. Consider the following: -Tasteless mentioned EVO during a GSL finals and brings up whatever PS3 games he's currently playing during other casts -When Day9 went to Korea he went to a Jaedong game rather than the GSTL finals. -Popular community figures stream themselves playing games like Amnesia and Skyrim -DJWheat and Slasher are always begging people to care about Quake -Rotterdam cast Warcraft 3 at WCG and encouraged people to show continued interest in it Clearly these people have no problem talking about non-Starcraft games, so why is it that they never mention BW tournaments or events? Obviously it's because even if Dustin Browder says it's ok Blizzard doesn't actually want people to care about BW. Why do you think Tasteless has never once mentioned that he was still doing BW games for Arirang? He mentions his t-shit website and that documentary all the time so he's obviously not holding back on self-promotion. Clearly there's a top-down information blockade at work, starting with Blizzard and working its way down to the community. Wasn't the whole point of JP's twitter experiment the other day to demonstrate how one person can distribute a message to hundreds of thousands? Simple. Those other things mentioned wont take any viewer ship from SC2. BW promotion does nothing to help SC2 and very likely hurts it.
That's basically the point I was trying to make. BW is esports just as much as SC2 or Street Fighter or any other game is, but Blizzard doesn't care about hurting it as long as SC2 comes out ahead.
On December 16 2011 21:59 PH wrote:
BW was on a decline until SC2 was announced. Even after SC2 was announced, that sudden growth was only temporary. MBCgame's MSL was having problems regularly securing sponsors long before SC2 was released.
I'm a hardcore BW fanatic and I really don't like SC2, but I'm not blind to facts. Blizzard hasn't been helping BW, but they really haven't been doing anything to kill it other than strongly push SC2.
Was it really on a decline in 2007? In any case the fact that Blizzard didn't do anything to to help only proves my point.
On December 16 2011 20:08 xBillehx wrote:
You should take off your tinfoil hat man and get over it. It's been about 7 months since KeSPA agreed to pay a licensing fee & put blizz logos all over the place. Blizz/KeSPA relations are good for now, Blizz even invited some of them (along with Bisu/Fanta/JD/Jangbi) to Blizzcon for a vacation.
And why didn't they play a show match like people were hoping for? It would have been a great way to get people interested in BW in a time when it's struggling. Of course, because Blizzard doesn't want people interested in BW. It's the same reason the proleague matches didn't have English commentary when it came on the WCG stream this year.
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*gasp* Blizzard is a company trying to make profits? HOW FUCKING DARE THEY.
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The only esport worthy title's to me are still the old classic games are Cs 1.6 and Broodwar ,nothing comes close to this game as it did for any other 3d titles and enhanced graphics games that are being released in abundant by the current trend of game developers. It's just sad that blizzard is actually abandoning the bw scene , to think that people are not watching broodwar still is just to be ignorant and say that the world is not round but square and if you continue sailing north you will be in a deep surprised and fall immediately .
Besides that I never understood what's blizzard motive to invite the four star players from broodwar to blizzcon ? Just to show case that sc2 has great fans and the awesomeness of the game ? Had they played some show case matches to promote broodwar and so it would have been a win win situation for blizzard and the fans but no ....
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On December 16 2011 20:27 thopol wrote:
If there were a dedicated BW community like TL used to be I would quit this site.
How about we call it Poison Dragon?
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On December 16 2011 19:23 BrosephBrostar wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2011 18:55 DystopiaX wrote:
tbh I don't think Blizz's stance on BW changed the community on anything. Most people came because of SC2, and what Blizz did with BW, and you suggesting they broadcast in english, probably wouldn't do much because people wouldn't have heard of the english broadcast until they got into SC2 anyway. Even now people in SC2 know about BW and don't care, not because they parrot the Blizzard line but because it's not "their game". There might not be a direct influence but there's definitely an indirect one. Consider the following: -Tasteless mentioned EVO during a GSL finals and brings up whatever PS3 games he's currently playing during other casts -When Day9 went to Korea he went to a Jaedong game rather than the GSTL finals. -Popular community figures stream themselves playing games like Amnesia and Skyrim -DJWheat and Slasher are always begging people to care about Quake -Rotterdam cast Warcraft 3 at WCG and encouraged people to show continued interest in it Clearly these people have no problem talking about non-Starcraft games, so why is it that they never mention BW tournaments or events? Obviously it's because even if Dustin Browder says it's ok Blizzard doesn't actually want people to care about BW. Why do you think Tasteless has never once mentioned that he was still doing BW games for Arirang? He mentions his t-shit website and that documentary all the time so he's obviously not holding back on self-promotion. Clearly there's a top-down information blockade at work, starting with Blizzard and working its way down to the community. Wasn't the whole point of JP's twitter experiment the other day to demonstrate how one person can distribute a message to hundreds of thousands?
I love you conspiracy theory guys who use words like "clearly" when talking about their theories. It's pretty funny :p.
On December 16 2011 21:59 PH wrote:
BW was on a decline until SC2 was announced. Even after SC2 was announced, that sudden growth was only temporary. MBCgame's MSL was having problems regularly securing sponsors long before SC2 was released.
I'm a hardcore BW fanatic and I really don't like SC2, but I'm not blind to facts. Blizzard hasn't been helping BW, but they really haven't been doing anything to kill it other than strongly push SC2.
Also, don't kid yourself with the "help e-sports" bullshit everyone flaunts around here. "Help e-sports" is reserved for, at best, trendy games, but more commonly, just SC2. There are too many people on this site who somehow just can't, don't, or won't appreciate BW.
Whatever. The glory days are over. Hell, they ended before I even began following BW. We had a small golden age when SC2 was announced, but no, that was only temporary.
This post makes me sad. I only got into BW during the SC2 announcement resurgence around 2008.I was to young to get into BW much before that anyway. It just makes me sad to think about all the names I never really appreciated because I was too young. I totally get Bisu, Jaedong, Flash- but ask me to describe a savior or boxer championship match to you and I'l give you a blank look. I just wish i'd been born a few years earlier so I could of really appreciated it. BW was clearly the greatest esport- probably will be for a very long time. I wish I could have experienced it. That and Beatlemania.
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EPT
