EPT2011 was a boom year in the United States for the growth of the game StarCraft 2 as a spectator sport. Other video games have witnessed dramatic growth over a short period of time as spectator sports. However, their period growth has been followed a sharp decline into obscurity. StarCraft 2 is currently at a tipping point, from here it can either settle into a model of slow sustainable growth, remaining a sustainable business for some time, or it can the go the way of other games, the bubble bursting and StarCraft 2 as an eSports disappearing. StarCraft 2 will not burst like so many other games before it because of a number measures invoked intended to avoid the mistakes of the past as well as new factors that promote the security of StarCraft 2 as a spectator sport.
One of the problems unique to video games when compared to other competitive activities is that they have a shelf life. The constant improvement in technology means it’s impossible for older games to compete with new ones. This is a problem because the majority of people who enjoy watching video games played competitively are those who play the game casually. Spectators want to watch players play the game they are playing now, not a year ago. This is a huge problem for the players, competition organizers, and producers of spectator content. Players have to dedicate an enormous amount of time to a game to be able to play at their peak capacity. If they are constantly switching games, the level of skill will decline, and with it the entertainment value. Tournament organizers have to invest in different hardware that will be able to accommodate the new game. Then they have to secure sponsorships from companies without the benefit of showing the games past popularity. Producers are sent back to the drawing board on how to create content from the game. Methods to show the games to the viewer, to market the players and to produce other consumable content all have to be created from scratch.
StarCraft 2 will have a long shelf life when compared to other video games because of the emergence of franchises as the mainstay of video game developers. Developers prefer to produce sequels to proven titles because of the rising cost to develop a video game. Warcraft 2 when it was created in 1995, only cost $750,000 to create (Taverz). Blizzard Entertainment, the same company that created Warcraft 2 later spent 100 million dollars to create the game World of Warcraft (FacTor-X). The massive investments required to produce a new title means developers do not like to risk capital on unproven concepts. Developers prefer to make sequels to already proven concepts. StarCraft 2 already has two sequels announced and in development. Despite the sequels introducing new elements for players, tournament organizers, and Producers, they are not as significant as those that would come with a completely original game, so the transitional period is not as painful. The constant release of updates to StarCraft 2 will also mean a retention of players that otherwise might move on to another game, as well as an influx of new players. These retention of players and creation of players actively using the game will mean a large potential audience for spectator StarCraft 2 to be marketed towards.
Developers usually design games so that the player enjoys them as much as possible. They have little incentive to make the game appeal to spectators rather than players. If a game takes off as a spectator sport the developer doesn’t receive any benefit. If an event is wildly successful and makes a lot of money, it is irrelevant to the developer because they do not receive any of the profits. The only people that are interested in watching a game that wasn’t created with spectatorship in mind are those who play the game themselves and can relate to the perspective being shown because they have experienced it firsthand. So although a developer gains free advertising for the game they created, it is to audiences that have already purchased the game, rendering the advertising mostly useless. The end result is developers have no incentive to create a game catered towards spectatorship. Most games have, have by their design, a very narrow audience.
StarCraft 2 does not suffer from this flaw. The lead developer for StarCraft 2, Dustin Browder, stated in an interview that “The whole game is designed bottom up as an eSport” (Jackson). Browder’s company Blizzard was able to create StarCraft 2 specifically for sports by fixing the problem of developer not profiting from an event using their game. StarCraft 2 requires an active internet connection for game to be played, even if two players are in the same room. This gives Blizzard a large amount of control over the usage of their game. No event can use StarCraft 2 without Blizzard approving. With this leverage blizzard is able to monetize events it otherwise has no interest in. Any tournament with a prize pool over $5,000 dollars is required to give Blizzard 50% of the advertising revenue. (Biscuit). This gave Blizzard incentive to build StarCraft 2 as a game that can be enjoyed by spectators. This element is unique to StarCraft 2 and will be one of the attributes that will allow it to succeed as a spectator sport where other games have failed.
Other than designing the game for spectators, Blizzard has done other things to ensure the health of competitive StarCraft 2. Since watching StarCraft 2 mostly appeals to people that play it, there is no better way to advertise events then through the game itself. Blizzard does this by putting advertisements for events in the StarCraft 2 menus. Everyone in the world who plays StarCraft 2 is exposed to the fact that there are professional events as soon anytime they want to play. This type of advertisement was never present in other games that grew popular for spectatorship.
There are a lot of costly things that go into producing an event that will draw spectators. A lot of money is also needed to support quality players and pay for them to attend these events. The way these costs were fulfilled in the past is through sponsorships by corporations. Very little revenue was made from people actually watching the event. Having corporate sponsorship as your main and only source of income is risky as they could suddenly withdraw their support. This was the case with the Meet Your Makers professional video game team. When sponsors realized they were getting very little rate of return on their investment in the team they all withdrew their financial support (Doe). Without corporate sponsors, MYM could no longer support the salaries or expenses of their players and quickly became a shadow of its former self. Relying solely on corporate sponsors means that there will always be a great deal of risk in running events and supporting players. With such a great deal of risk, it’s inevitable that entities based around them will collapse.
StarCraft 2 does rely on a great deal of corporate sponsorship in order to cover costs. However emerging sources of revenue have injected much safer monetization into the scene. The first and most important is the technology of streaming. Streaming is when a live event is captured and displayed on the internet in real time. Someone sitting on their home computer can watch an event happening 1000 miles away 5 seconds after it happens. It’s very similar to watching television on your computer. Streaming generates revenue by periodically running advertisements to those watching. Event were previously only able to monetize themselves by charging those who attend the event, or later charging for videos uploaded online after the even was completed. By streaming their event online they reach a broader audience of people, every one of whom generates more profit by viewing advertisement. On a smaller level, streaming helps support players. Players will stream themselves playing StarCraft 2, and fans of those players will watch. The most successful StarCraft 2 steamer is a player named Destiny, who with the revenue earned by streaming, supports himself, an infant son, and a mortgage on a home (Tassi). Players also create revenue by giving lessons. Imagine if you could pay to get batting lessons from Derek Jeter, or Swimming lessons from Michael Phelps. In StarCraft 2 getting a lesson from your favorite player is very feasible. It’s also affordable. Lessons in StarCraft 2 can be given remotely over the internet so there are no travel costs to drive the price up. Lessons are another way players can make a living independent of corporations.
The players are another important part of the success of StarCraft 2. People that play video games are often stereotyped as having a poor appearance, or an abrasive personality. Corporations are hesitant to sponsor players who behave in a way they feel will portray their brand negatively. StarCraft 2 teams are aware of this and actively work to make sure their players present themselves well. The Korea e-sports association representative stated about their players that “we make them into Gentlemen.” (Jin). Prominent players in StarCraft 2 include Tyler "Tyler" Wasieleski, a graduate and track team member of Duke University, and Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson, a power lifter whose max lifts have come close to breaking world records. StarCraft 2 players defy stereotypes about video game players, making it that much more consumable for larger audiences.
Video games have increased in popularity over time since their introduction. From 1996 -2010 the video game industry quadrupled in sales. (FYI: Video Game Statistics by the Entertainment Software Association). Spending on Video Games is projected to reach 115 Billion dollars in 2015 (Bilton). The increase in the overall popularity can only be good for the growth of StarCraft 2 as a spectator sport. Other games in the past couldn’t achieve the same level of popularity simply because of videogames weren’t quite as popular. 68% of American households play video games (FYI: Video Game Statistics by the Entertainment Software Association) that translates to a lot of potential viewers for StarCraft 2.
Other games failed where StarCraft 2 will succeed. StarCraft 2 has an artificially long shelf life because of the release of sequels that will ensure it remains popularity longer than an average game. StarCraft 2’s Developer, Blizzard, has a vested interest in the games success because they stand to profit. Their support means StarCraft 2 was built with spectators in mind and that new viewers will be constantly gained through in game advertising. StarCraft 2 will not suffer the catastrophic financial failures of other games because there are new more reliable methods of generating profit from StarCraft 2 spectatorship. StarCraft 2 players will not offend viewers and sponsors as players have in the past because of the strict rules imposed on them as well as the examples set by current prominent players. The increasing growth in the popularity of video games means the potential audience base will only get larger and larger. The growth of StarCraft 2 as a sport may look like the bubble growths of other games. However, all of these factors that are unique to StarCraft 2 are enough to ensure that the industry will not burst, but instead grow to stand side by side with other legitimate forms of entertainment.
Bibliography
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Jackson, Leah. G4tv. 12 February 2011. <http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/710301/eSports-interview-with-StarCraft 2-2-game-director-dustin-browder-and-senior-eSports-manager-joong-kim/>.
Jin, Dal Yong. Korea's online gaming Empire. Boston : Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010.
Tassi, Paul. Forbes.com. 19 4 2011. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2011/04/19/StarCraft 2s-destiny-talks-eSports-and-gaming-for-a-living/>.
Taverz, Greg. How much does it cost to make a game? 11 November 200. <http://games.greggman.com/game/how_much_does_it_cost_to_make_a_game_/>.
)and i must say i really love it. love the game, love the community, love the drama it's like watching football for me(but better)
No, in all seriousness, well written, and, to be honest, the fact that you cited your sources is good news! I haven't seen many other people do that, and they really should.
