SC2 in Korea; Problems and More - Page 6

On August 08 2010 21:37 dasanivan wrote:
there was a promotional starcraft 2 setup in COEX and there were a bunch of computers where people could play SC2 and it was packed.

then i went to a PC bang nearby and there were more people playing SC2 than BW (i saw literally one screen that had BW on). The couple beside me were yelling and screaming and the girl was like, "this is sooo fun!!!" and i look at their screens and it's SC2.

for what it's worth, a bunch of people in the world (even in Korea, folks) like SC2 and to compare it to a failed video game console seems a tad unfair.

On August 08 2010 21:40 Nyx wrote:
Is this a huge deal?

StarCraft 2 is picking up hugely in the west, do we want another game where we have to watch VODs in Korean? Maybe StarCraft 2 will pick up in the west much like BW picked up in Korea and we'll have a flip situation this time.

I don't think how well SC2 does Korea is any worry on how well it will do as an esport, BW did amazingly as an esport in Korea, but terribly in the west.

On August 08 2010 21:44 Senx wrote:



So one korean says its actually popular while the OP says the koreans are completely not interested at all.. hmm, hard to really get a fair picture of how the situation actually is. It feels like personal bias is making the posts a bit skewed. Can't you try to look at the situation more objectively?

On August 08 2010 21:43 floor exercise wrote:
I don't know how accurate a lot of your stuff is and how much it just boils down to personal ranting

"no one wants to play on low textures" is one reason why koreans don't want to play SC2, but BW looks like shit. It is ancient, people aren't playing it because of the graphics. So why would having to play on low settings on their home pc be such a huge turn off? It doesn't really make sense to me. SC2 isn't the most graphically demanding pc game that is popular in Korea, speaking of which:

Another complaint, about KSSNs and whatnot, the most popular games in pcbangs are all MMOs, which require KSSN registration just like SC2. It hasn't stopped those games from being the most played, why would it stop SC2? Think of Battle.net as a new Nexon or something. It is no way fundamentally different than how you'd play any other recent game in Korea.

Stuff about GOM sucking. They tried to break into a particularly uncompetitive market (either you are part of KESPA or you aren't) you can't bash them for sucking when the cards are stacked against them and the esports powers pretty much align to halt their progress. Let's see what happens first.

I think the worst thing Blizzard did was go to war with Kespa, it was retardedly stupid and we see where the hearts of Koreans lie, not with the foreign entity but with the organization that pretty much fostered ESPORTS and made it what it is today. They should have tried harder to play ball with Kespa. But in the end we don't know how it will turn out. It definitely didn't endear blizzard to Korean fans

On August 08 2010 21:44 Senx wrote:



So one korean says its actually popular while the OP says the koreans are completely not interested at all.. hmm, hard to really get a fair picture of how the situation actually is. It feels like personal bias is making the posts a bit skewed. Can't you try to look at the situation more objectively?

On August 08 2010 22:21 MrHoon wrote:


You went to COEX in the Samsung District, one of the most populated places inside Seoul, a place where if you go to the weekends you literally choke to death and a place where you have to reserve movie tickets 4 days before or you sit in the front, has a huge clothing mall shop and 2 hotels connected to it, tens of grand halls for weddings/conventions/art galleries, and found that alot of people are playing starcraft?
Call me crazy but if I slap 20 computers with SC2 installed in the middle of manhattan I bet I can get twice the numbers.

Also dasanivan, did you know SC2 can't even hit top 10 games in PCbangs in Korea?

On August 08 2010 15:40 heyoka wrote:
One thing I don't necessarily agree with though is GOM's money. I don't care if GOM is the bastard stepchild of e-sports, they are willing to pump ~5 times as much money into this tournament as an OSL. History will show you that people go to the money regardless of event. The popular sports in America are the ones where the money is, we don't have good soccer players because it pays jack shit, if you're an athlete you choose the sport that gives bling. The formats that are competitive in magic the gathering are the ones that have big money tournaments, the guys who play more casual formats are much worse players.

On August 08 2010 22:07 Waxangel wrote:
To be honest, one, two and four are only reasons for hardcore BW fans to feel negatively towards Blizzard. While they are still a sizeable group of people, as we can see from the 30,000 that showed up to the PL final on a sweltering Korean summer day, they're not the people that are going to make SC II sell two million copies in Korea like BW.

Reasons three, five and six (six is flimsy, your SS number is required for so many things everyone knows it by memory), and others you did not cover are why SC II is starting slowly. Not doing badly as you are implying, but starting slowly. It's still in free trial period in Korea right now (which means all bets are off), and it's quite possible it could continue this trend of slow and steady growth. That said, early signs seem to indicate that it won't be as popular as BW, but it's for reasons related to the casual gamers who are every Korean male between 12 and 30.

Anyway, why do I think it's starting poorly amongst the general Korean audience? Well, SC1 was a ridiculous anomaly. SC came at the exact right time during the PC Bang/IT boom, and it happened to be the best competitive game that had a good Korean distributer at the time. You can't expect a ton of brand loyalty from casual gamers, and I think Blizzard realized this when they spent so much on their advertising campaign. Most people who played BW during its prime are over 20 now, and the younger generation of gamers have grown up in a much different environment where they were spoiled for variety in terms of games.

If SC II does end up doing poorly in Korea, it's going to be for a simple reason that's not related to any corporate machinations and plotting: Because it wasn't fun enough.

On August 08 2010 21:44 Senx wrote:



So one korean says its actually popular while the OP says the koreans are completely not interested at all.. hmm, hard to really get a fair picture of how the situation actually is. It feels like personal bias is making the posts a bit skewed. Can't you try to look at the situation more objectively?

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