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hello, my name is efrain and this is my first blog. i am a rather new TL user, as well as a rather new SC player (watch more than play). the purpose of this post is to find out how SC became as big as it is today.
i used to play a game called Gunbound, some of u may know it, though it is not very similar to sc at all. its a very childish-looking "first person shooter" i guess u would call it, but it doesnt involve guns and stuff like that. anyway, i'll go straight to the point. i played that game for over 5 years and obviously i was really good at it, but i always wanted more for and out of the game. after i got a little more into sc, i realized that SC was everything i ever wanted for Gunbound. i always dreamed of gunbound players getting money from playing professionally (like from sponsored tournaments and stuff), having teams battling in leagues like the SC proleague, etc. This is not just some childish whim, because even though most people dont know it, gunbound is a very strategic game, and theres a lot of factors that even resemble macro/micro play.
my question to whomever this community is, how does the magic happen? how, for example, did SC become so big that people like flash receive $200,000 anual salaries for playing? and how could that be applied to a less-known game like Gunbound? basically, how can Gunbound become a TRULY PROFESSIONAL game?
even now that i quit it, i would love to see kids from korea and peru and UAE and China(its a very popular game in those countries) playing gunbound competetively, perhaps not to the level of SC but at least somewhere close to it. I always told myself that when i had money (gettin a master's degree now) i would sponsor gunbound to make it a big game. but what exactly needs to happen?
thanks to everyone for reading this, even though it may have no relation or meaning to you whatsoever. i really appreciate the time
PS: i know some of u guys know a lot about WCG and are involved in it quite a bit so maybe u can hear me out: my italian friend told me that gunbound was once in the WCG (the year it took place in Genoa, Italy...i believe it was 2007 or 2008 not sure). he might have been high, but if so, wat can i do (i know right? one tiny unimportant hispanic...)to make that happen again, or if it never did happen, how could i try to convince WCG or some other e-game corporation to sponsor gunbound?
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When broadband internet was new and not many people had it Korea had a stimulus package to get all their citizens high speed internet. With this new and amazing internet there was an urge to use it. This was also when fancy games like Starcraft were released.
While Korea was blazing at super fast high speeds on the internet America was still struggling with America On Line and would not be able to match the amount of broadband until very recently.
Thus enters sc 2...
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On August 02 2009 11:14 HuskyTheHusky wrote:
While Korea was blazing at super fast high speeds on the internet America was still struggling with America On Line and would not be able to match the amount of broadband until very recently.
and we are still way behind...and torrenting is monitored 
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United States4796 Posts
I don't think the ability to play StarCraft online led to its league creation in its entirety.
I think it was more the fact that it's interesting to play and watch, and has good production behind it.
If you could get a decent production crew behind Gunbound, and attract enough people to it in order to make money for it, I think you can get a good bit of momentum going.
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You have many reasons.
Firstly, everybody played SC long time ago because FPS were forbidden (yeah after it wasn' ofc bcause today games like Sudden Attack, Special Force are played). Then, gouvernment decided to create something to draft players for teams to be a "progamer", but really play for your living. Teams were created, and in my mind, one of the first team created was KTF if I don't make mistake (if you check the KTF MagicNs logo, you can see "since 1999").
After that, a lot of things showed that SC was big. For example, Korean Army has their own proteam. Everybody here knows the name: Air Force ACE.
Then, honnestly, a lot of handsome players arrived and were really high skilled. We can quote YellOw, BoxeR, Reach etc, who attracted a lot of girls in order to love SC, players and enjoy matches etc...
After that you have 2 words which emphasized the fact that the progaming arrived : MEDIA and FEDERATION (KeSPA). When you have something under federation and that you can watch easly on TV. That shows the thing is really huge. I mean MBCGame and OnGameNet can be really compared to channels like Canal +, Eurosport etc... Really, all the day you have ProLeague, MSL, OSL, old super matches etc...
And after that, gouvernment made ceremony to celebrate STADIUMS. Yeah, a sport without stadiums is weird. So in Korea, every StarCraft matches are played in stadium, on stage. This thing to attract people, spectators, fan, and show how StarCraft is in a real professionalism in Korea.
Then of course, every players who are drafted, live in the proteam house. All the day they practice, and prepapre events, strategies etc. This thing too really brought the professionalism to high level. Players are treated like a start here. They moved from the house to stadium in special van: Proteam car, under Chevrolet factory. The van model is called (Starcraft). Normally it's not for the StarCraft but it's kinda big van for stars, artists, etc... Here we see many van like that it means someone famous is inside. When you see kinda vans with sponsors and team like on it like 'SK Telecom", "Hwaseung" etc, means it's a proteam.
Well, I think all these things show how StarCraft became pro.
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Hi Efrain
You made a nice post as a new member^^
SC becoming professional was a lot of factors coming together in a nurturing environment.
I've been following progaming since shortly after the first teams were established like Orion, IS, Hanbit etc and I would attribute its survival to the following in terms of importance:
1. Korean Culture
2. Internet logistics
3. Ease of Broodwar piracy and LAN
4. Early Stars
Korean culture was probably not the exact type needed for an idea like progaming to exist but it was close enough. It is a very sheltered one built around respect and suppression of outward emotions. It is like most other asian culture and very foreign to western standards. Korean students study very hard, but there are always those [ like anywhere else ] whose interests lie elsewhere. Broodwar was immensely popular and because the Korean culture is very accepting of anywhere from 3-4 lan centers per block it was easy for the popular games to survive.
2. As stated by Husky, Korea was one of the first nations to have nation-wide fiber optics so it was just begging to be used by something popular. To connect this to other points, and because Korea is a small nation, you could play someone across Korea and experience very good latency.
3. Broodwar was easily copied on CD-Rs from day one. This made one copy easily made into dozens.
4. Early stars include players like Boxer and current commentators and other people who worked hard to spread the game. Coaches of the earliest teams were also key players in Progaming becoming accepted. A dedicated, but small group of people really believed in gaming and like I said a lot of small, but important factors clicked together in the right setting.
As for gunbound, I've played it on and off casually and to be honest I don't think it could ever succeed just because of how the game is. If it were ever to be played competitively with avatars it wouldn't last because players don't start on equal footing [ much like how MMO PvPing has a hard time succeeding, or other balance issues ] If not, there just isn't support because it doesn't have strong roots like Starcraft did.
This post was very short because proleague is starting but you had a nice honest question so I took the time to answer!
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wow!! thanks a lot guys, all your replies exceeded my expectations. i have a few comments/questions to your posts...
@Gosu: Thank you for your incredible insight, its great to hear from someone who experienced it all. I have some comments and a question you. Do you know of Gunbound? i ask because the game originated in korea in 2001 (back then, it was a purely korean server, then it grew to international server, Softnyx made the game) and i met a few of those people (mainly the koreans that lived abroad, cuz i cant speak korean T^T). they were actually very good at the game, the first "pros" (we use the term pro to resemble the word "gosu" in sc, not "progamer") and very competitive. i am not sure how popular Gunbound was back then in korea, but my question is, in your opinion, why is gunbound not an e-sport in korea? no offense but even tetris is, i saw Jon747 upload some videos and the players are great but tetris cmon...i mean, what does it take for a game to become highly regarded? popularity? i am very glad that SC is what it is today, i enjoy the game a lot. but i also enjoy Gunbound, and i cant stop thinking, what does Gunbound need to become a professional e-sport? thank you again..gam sah~~
@ack1027: thank you for your explanation, it was very helpful, and im glad to be speaking to someone that has actually played gunbound lol. i have a couple of comments/questions regarding point 3. thats exactly what blows my mind...sc is actually a game that initially u have to purchase, so yes piracy is easy but if u compare it to gb, the game is free, so it surprises me (well kinda, not really, cuz sc is so awesome) that it was so much more popular even when it was not a free game (i understand free games are usually not as cool as games u gotta pay for, but still, gb wasnt that far off from the origin of sc, and its also an interesting, skill-requiring game). and about your comments on avatars and stuff, yeah i agree, avatars suck, its really what makes the game unpleasant. but there is also avatar off servers where everyone does actually start on the same level. i would have to agree with you that mobiles in gunbound are not as balanced as the 3 races of sc are, but that would simply take some editing by softnyx wouldnt it? i mean, if they cared, anyway. but gunbound is actually a game with depth as well...much like people study SC in game theory and stuff like that (like the berkeley lectures that are available on youtube), good gunbound players are beginning to study the physics behind the shots!
to make it short...all the reasons that made SC what it is today are great, and they are opening doors to other games as well. so, what can anyone do to make gunbound an esport too? im sure it will never reach the scale of popularity as SC, but at least like tetris? T^T
+ Show Spoiler +haha i was watching proleague too...~~omg cj 4:0 oz~~
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Efrain,
I can understand your wish and feeling of hope that maybe one day gunbound can become like sc progaming. Hell, even us old sc progaming fans had a very bumpy beginning and it was hard for any of us to predict sc to come this far.
About point 3, I think I didn't stress what I wanted enough. It really wasn't the price or ease of accessibility. I think if you compared the two games in that sense they were both around the same. Maybe you could argue gunbound is free therefore more people could get it but imagine being in korea in 1997-1998 and sc burned on CD-Rs is the equivalent of a free download. The thing about point 3 is the lan. From what I remember, gunbound doesn't have a lan capability and any successful game needs to be replicated in a LAN setting. People who become skilled at games love playing each other live and playing face to face. Even if they implemented this it would take years [ and it might also be too late ] for a regular competitive player base to build up.
The other thing I think that holds back gunbound is that there is not much variation while remaining balanced. Sure, there are ridiculous shots and pixel-saves etc but spectators will come to accept these things very quickly. I don't know if you are familiar with Pimpest Plays but compare the grandeur of these plays to the best gunbound plays you've seen and I'm sure even you can admit which is superior.
If you really wanted to take steps into making gunbound a respected game with a esports future it has to start with a real conscious effort into looking at game balance and fixing it. It would also require sponsors, events, LIVE events, and players who are able to market the game well. Gunbound has been out for a long time and I have many friends who were really into it in the past. It would take a drastic change for old players or new players who have just heard about it to look at it in perspective of a possible pro game.
Just to give you an anecdote, many of the first coaches paid for their teams out of their own pockets and ate ramen many times for all 3 meals a day. They lived in shitty apartments with no central heating or air and had to hustle to find the best players and sponsors. It was a grim situation and even for gamers who just played because they loved the game it was hard for them to imagine they could make a living playing starcraft. These people lived/breathed/bled starcraft 24/7 and it takes real dedication to make something like a broadcasted progaming league happen.
But not all is bad. I mean, if a game like WoW can be considered a e-sport anything has a chance in my book. ;P
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MrHoon
10183 Posts
You guys are forgetting 3 major things.
1) Cable TV starts being popular
2) PC Bangs (Lan/Internet Cafe) starts to become popular
3) IMF destroys everyone's life without a license-carrying-job. Jobless People head to Lan Cafes to exert stress.
At that time, Koreans had only a few choice of online games to play. Fortress, Lineage, Kingdom of the Wind, Darksaver and STARCRAFT. Out of those games, Starcraft gains popularity and wins so everyone plays it.
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죄송하지만
I don't think cable TV had much to do with it, could you please explain?
As for the other two points I was pretty sure those were what I was talking about....
2 = My point 3
3 = My point 1
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MrHoon
10183 Posts
On August 02 2009 16:07 Ack1027 wrote:
죄송하지만
I don't think cable TV had much to do with it, could you please explain?
As for the other two points I was pretty sure those were what I was talking about....
2 = My point 3
3 = My point 1
Cable TV started being more popular around 1997+, remember how having cable tv was like 'luxurious' back in the day? With kids begging all their parents to get the channel 'Tooniverse' was all the rave back then. And SC was broadcasted on Tooniverse
Oh I misread your earlier post lol
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On August 02 2009 14:56 UGC4 wrote:
wow!! thanks a lot guys, all your replies exceeded my expectations. i have a few comments/questions to your posts...
@Gosu: Thank you for your incredible insight, its great to hear from someone who experienced it all. I have some comments and a question you. Do you know of Gunbound? i ask because the game originated in korea in 2001 (back then, it was a purely korean server, then it grew to international server, Softnyx made the game) and i met a few of those people (mainly the koreans that lived abroad, cuz i cant speak korean T^T). they were actually very good at the game, the first "pros" (we use the term pro to resemble the word "gosu" in sc, not "progamer") and very competitive. i am not sure how popular Gunbound was back then in korea, but my question is, in your opinion, why is gunbound not an e-sport in korea? no offense but even tetris is, i saw Jon747 upload some videos and the players are great but tetris cmon...i mean, what does it take for a game to become highly regarded? popularity? i am very glad that SC is what it is today, i enjoy the game a lot. but i also enjoy Gunbound, and i cant stop thinking, what does Gunbound need to become a professional e-sport? thank you again..gam sah~~
Ahah, to say thank you have many way: 고마워/고마워요 (Gomawo/Gomawoyo) 고맙습니다 (Gomabseupnida), 감사합니다 (Gamsahabnida) etc.... It's really weird to say as you said : 감사 (gam sah) ~~ ahah. It's like if you say to someone in real life "Oh, THX!" ahah, imagine it sounds weird, but on MSN and chat log, you can it's ok but take care of that.
Now, I will answer to your question. Honnestly, i don't hear often "Gunbound" in the street etc. In Korea, StarCraft is a sport national and the biggest e-sports. OGN had his Tetris league but it's not really in serious way.
Last time on Fomos, they made an article to someone who became pro on Tekken. But it's not really for an official reason, do you know what I mean?
Gunbound isn't really popular here. I mean for me something popular, is something that you can watch and hear often. StarCraft is. Gunbound isn't.
Last time in subway, with my girlfriend we read newspaper and there was a big article about EffOrt and his performence against Samsung. So this, means SC has a big popularity and impact in Korea.
I think StarCraft has to stay. I had chance to play SC2 in e-stars Seoul. The game is really good actually, but I prefer the 1. SC1 seems more competitive. And SC2 is easier to play. In one group units, you can have more units. Same for building etc... my girlfriend told me "I don't really enjjoy watching NaDa vs Moon right now" ahahah. But SC2 is a good game, it was still a beta I can't judge directly but currently in Seoul, not many people talk about SC2, and the only words that I hear was "SC2 no lan" "SC2 no replays" etc... not really good things.
To answer to your question "what does Gunbound need to become a professional e-sport?", I think Gunbound will be not like a sport, just a fun game. I think these kinda games arent really serious. Do you know what I mean? It's not really competitive like SC for example.
If you need more things or if I forgot something, let me know I will answer to you again.
Good article btwm that's good to participate in this blog. Keep writing.
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EPT
