EPTI would have liked to watch MLG but I felt $20 was over priced and so I look forward to future events and hope for a change but because of that I've had literally no reason to go in to threads (besides this one) and state that view. I would imagine I'm very far from alone in that.
The SC2 Community Doesn't Deserve Nice Things - Page 2
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Iyerbeth
England2410 Posts
I would have liked to watch MLG but I felt $20 was over priced and so I look forward to future events and hope for a change but because of that I've had literally no reason to go in to threads (besides this one) and state that view. I would imagine I'm very far from alone in that. | ||
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TORTOISE
United States515 Posts
Recently, Canada Cup Gaming's 2011 winter tournament, a free quality stream was featured, riddled with ads, and an HQ stream was offered which also featured access to the VODs, for $8.95. The community rejected this so fully and passionately that CCG released the archive to the public and refunded those who bought the HQ stream service. The CCG chat was continuously filled with shouts of "895" for each day that It aired. The MLG PPV business model is much more ugly than what CCG was trying to do in the Fighting Game Community. And yet we have blog posts about how "its not so bad" and that anyone who opposes it is "hurting esports". | ||
Myles
United States5162 Posts
Then they can't even properly implement their paywall so people can just turn on the official stream and watch for free. It didn't even take any special setup. I was watching with regular FF without adblock. That's not good business. | ||
Chill
Calgary25955 Posts
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itsjustatank
Hong Kong9149 Posts
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Comeh
United States18918 Posts
On February 27 2012 01:11 itsjustatank wrote: Black markets arise when people are priced out of something they desire. This is a simple economic fact. If this galls you so much, then the 'real' world and how it works should absolutely gall you as well. Of course, agreed, but I agree with the OP to the extent that we are rather hypocritical when we want esports to succeed so much, but in the latest example of supporting MLG (who typically provide fantastic tournaments) with our money (of those of us that HAVE it of course), we failed to do so. Just an interesting point, and perhaps we should reflect a bit. | ||
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polishedturd
United States505 Posts
On February 26 2012 20:21 Saechiis wrote: Yeah bro, the entire community is in the wrong here, and you're like a Jesus paying for our sins. Thx yo. hahahahah 5/5 | ||
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nemonic
132 Posts
I'm not saying ppl should watch restream, but I'd be happy to see that this kind of business model MLG introduced with the Winter Arena dies out. Having to pay 20$ for such a event is too much, especially if you're a student. A lot of people would be excluded from events. This is not the direction E-Sports should be moving in. The prior MLG events were awesome the way they were, no reason to reinvent the wheel. | ||
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itsjustatank
Hong Kong9149 Posts
On February 27 2012 01:22 Comeh wrote: Of course, agreed, but I agree with the OP to the extent that we are rather hypocritical when we want esports to succeed so much, but in the latest example of supporting MLG (who typically provide fantastic tournaments) with our money (of those of us that HAVE it of course), we failed to do so. Just an interesting point, and perhaps we should reflect a bit. No one is 'obligated' to support MLG and, by extension, ESPORTS, with their money. Each individual is a rational economic actor. Some rationally choose to spend their money and buy certain goods and services. Others choose to abstain, whether they can afford it or not; this is economic voting. Still others choose to use the black market approach, which, in a sense, is economic voting as well. | ||
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Chef
10810 Posts
All in all, it's probably a wee-bit on the pricy side, but it's a much smarter business strategy to start high and reduce, rather than the opposite. Lots of businesses actually do the opposite. You bait people with samples and demos and low prices, and then when they know they like the content they get the premium service. You can do this either by offering special introductory events and prices which the customer knows is not the regular price, or you can do it by offering low quality versions of the normal stream, like 360p or something where you can just tell what's going on but it's costing almost no bandwidth to keep up. In 2012 we have a try before you buy mentality (and sometimes we just go to the free alternative). That people were bragging about watching the illegal stream to paying customers is certainly stupid, but this is the internet. Most of those kids probably don't even have credit cards with which to pay for the service. The demographic is almost entirely bored/drunk/bad-with-money college students and young adults. One of those doesn't even have much money to burn to begin with lol. There's a limit to how much you can blame customers. If you buy a service you might be a rarity that is appealed to by a strange business model. But most sports and such get people addicted with high quality free content (at least, content that comes with their cable package). That is the standard and that is what people expect. ESPORTS might be different, but BW wasn't and it did pretty well. You're in a period where all sorts of people are trying to figure out how they can make money with SC2, and there are no guarantees any of them will work. Paying to watch people play video games seems a little on the ridiculous side, since 90% of the viewers watch because they're bored and have nothing better to do, not because it's better than buying something actually fun. The other 10% are hard-core fans, so you better have a big 10% if you want to turn them into 100% of your viewership. | ||
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ninazerg
United States7291 Posts
On February 27 2012 02:06 Chef wrote: The demographic is almost entirely bored/drunk/bad-with-money college students and young adults. One of those doesn't even have much money to burn to begin with lol. I'm assuming you did an in-depth study before posting this. | ||
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Dfgj
Singapore5922 Posts
On February 26 2012 15:58 Fission wrote: What surprises me is the incredible number of people who actively went out of their way to view the stream illegally, who posted restreams, who went into the LR thread to proclaim "rofl I'm watching for free sucks to be you guys who paid", who posted all over TL how to exploit the paywall. This is really nonsensical. Not everyone feels they have to support esports at all costs. If the price goes up, demand will fall, and people who are no longer willing to pay will find other means. This should not surprise you. | ||
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EternaLLegacy
United States410 Posts
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