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United States27328 Posts
The June 24th SC2 Event went down today in Korea, and PlayXP were live on the scene covering it live. Of course, TL News was also online, translating it as it happened.
Relevant bits:
- Chris Siggarty announced the final closed beta is going to be for around 2 weeks starting in early July.
- They revealed the plane with the huge SC II logo on the side. There are two planes with the SC II branding, one international and one for national flights. They'll operate that way for six months.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/sc2b/sc2plane.jpg) Picture via PlayXP.
- There will be an open beta starting in Korea and Taiwan on July 27th, alongside the official launching.
- There will be some advertising with Lotteria as well (Korean fast food chain)
- Multiple pricing plans besides the 69,000 won ($60~70) unlimited play one. There's a 2,000 won one day pass, 9,900 won 30 day pass.
- World of Warcraft subscribers get SC II for free during 7, 30, and 90 day subscriptions (Korea). In essence, you're paying for a combined B.net account.
- Blizz donated 600,000,000 won in scholarships for IT/Gaming majors, and for ex-progamers.
- Garimto vs Grubby special exhibition match. Garimto won 2-0 (Garimto actually played the beta actively).
Q&A session with blizz guys. This post updated as the Q&A goes on. These are very condensed versions of the questions and answers being transcribed by the PlayXP journalists in real time, so they may sound very curt and blunt.
Source: http://www.playxp.com/sc2/livecast.php
Q: Providing Korean WoW users with SC II for free seems like an interesting ploy, though there seems to be no legal problems with it. What lead you to chose this kind of strategy?
A: We might suffer some losses in the short term, but the most important thing is the community. Having a loyal community is very beneficial in the long term.
Q: Will you sell the game in physical packages? The CEO of Sonokong (a Korean toy manufacturer/Game distributor, they distributed the Warcraft III expansion pack last) is here, so what are your plans for PC Bangs?
A: We decided that distributing the game online was the right way to go for the Korean market. You can easily play the game anywhere you want. Since we planned today as a marketing event, we're not really prepared to answers questions about logistics.
Q: So you've made both a censored and uncensored version of the game, what are your plans for releasing the uncensored version of the game?
A: We're considering all options at the moment. We want Korean gamers to have a similar experience to other gamers around the world. We'll try to achieve that without making things too complex.
Q: Will you sell the collector's edition?
A: No plans at the time.
Q: What are the pricing plans for buying SC II and WoW playing time for use at PC Bangs?
A: You can use WoW time brought at PCBangs to play SC II as well.
Q: During the first phase of the closed beta you must have received a lot of feedback. What areas of the game did people want changed the most?
A: We really received a lot of feedback. Balance, features, ladder, chatting, etc... The interesting thing about this beta was we held it in three different areas simultaneously. Because of this, the balance feedback differed from region to region.
Korean gamers wanted zerg to be nerfed, while NA/Europe users kept asking for zerg buffs. This was because Korean gamers are very tactically astute, and those tactics spread to Europe and NA eventually. So the feedback from Korean gamers was very important.
Q: Will the progamer scholarships be limited to ex-brood war gamers?
A: We don't really know a lot about scholarships, which is why we donated the money to the Korean Student Aid Foundation, and told them where we'd like the money to be used. They will formulate a plan and reveal the details later.
Q: Will there be plans to release the game in DVD format as was done with world of warcraft?
A: We released WOW on DVD because there were many users who wanted it in that form. We'll have to find out what the demands of the SC II players are first, and then we'll decide on further distribution methods.
Q: Are there any other region specific benefits in other areas?
A: Making SC II free for WOW subscription holders is a Korea-only benefit. The market is different in every country, so we have to make the right choices for each one.
Q: Will the 69,000 won unlimited use license apply to the expansion as well?
A: It's too early to talk about the expansion.
Q: What are your plans for Starcraft II Broadcasts?
A: We plan to address that in the future.
Q: There was a brief disconnect screen showing up during the special event today. What was the problem? Were you playing on LAN?
A: We don't know why such an error occurred, and no there was no LAN mode.
Q: Having to create a battle.net account might be a barrier of entry to new players?
A: There are a lot of benefits to creating a battle.net account. And since future Blizzard games will be played through the account, we think it will be a minimal investment for most gamers.
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Thanks for the translation. Hopefully they come out with firmer dates for the start and end of phase 2 soon.
EDIT: Well sounds like now its June 27th for PCBang in Korea and July 1st for everyone else. Let's see how long they keep it running before release comes around. I know they said 2 weeks, but shit end it in the middle of a week? Should extend it to the weekend of the 18th, another 3 days, instead of cutting the cord on a weeknight.
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Interesting. Thanks very much.
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Thanks. Interesting interview.
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Its great that they are recognizing what the Korean esports scene has done for them, but they've got to ease up on the favouritism here. It's getting a bit excessive.
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On June 24 2010 21:57 jtype wrote:
Its great that they are recognizing what the Korean esports scene has done for them, but they've got to ease up on the favouritism here. It's getting a bit excessive.
Favoritism? ha, well, when your government interferes with the sales of Blizzard, maybe Blizzard will be more interested in making unorthodox business deals. It has nothing to do with "Favoritism" of the Koreans. Its a good marketing ploy, and a loophole to get non-adults to be able to play the game. Thus more money. And, having a supportive community around the world is good, and Korea was not receiving sc2 with open arms, maybe this event changed things in some people's minds.
Anyway, does anyone know where i can find the vods for the 2 players duking it out?
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I really like the testing of the different price points to get the game. I wouldn't mind a bnet 2.0 overall subsciption as long as there was another option to buy the game outright as well.
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if 69.000 won are $60-70, 600.000.000 should be around $600.000 right?
so they donated like $600.000? Oo wow
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On June 24 2010 22:20 Djin)ftw( wrote:
if 69.000 won are $60-70, 600.000.000 should be around $600.000 right?
so they donated like $600.000? Oo wow
Close. 504143 USD.
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Korean gamers wanted zerg to be nerfed, while NA/Europe users kept asking for zerg buffs. This was because Korean gamers are very tactically astute, and those tactics spread to Europe and NA eventually. So the feedback from Korean gamers was very important.
I had a feeling this was the reason why Zerg kept being nerfed despite American players complaining that Terran was imbalanced and Zerg was the weakest race.
The last time Blizzard showed race statistics, Zerg had the highest win percentage and Terran had the lowest win percentage in Korea, and it was by a 10% differential too.
I don't speak Korean, so I don't know if this is true, though. Can someone who knows Korean verify that Korean netizens really did ask for Zerg nerfs?
Also, what does "tactically astute" mean, exactly? Koreans are known to have really good basic mechanics, but I'm not sure what that phrase means.
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On June 24 2010 22:32 Kyo Yuy wrote:
Also, what does "tactically astute" mean, exactly? Koreans are known to have really good basic mechanics, but I'm not sure what that phrase means.
Means Koreans have really good tactics. Just reinforcing a well deserved stereotype.
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On June 24 2010 22:17 OpRaider wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2010 21:57 jtype wrote:
Its great that they are recognizing what the Korean esports scene has done for them, but they've got to ease up on the favouritism here. It's getting a bit excessive. Favoritism? ha, well, when your government interferes with the sales of Blizzard, maybe Blizzard will be more interested in making unorthodox business deals. It has nothing to do with "Favoritism" of the Koreans. Its a good marketing ploy, and a loophole to get non-adults to be able to play the game. Thus more money. And, having a supportive community around the world is good, and Korea was not receiving sc2 with open arms, maybe this event changed things in some people's minds.
Not only that, but alot of them are complaining about the price of the game being too expensive. Blizzard-Activision doesn't have to worry about that in US because all their fanboys will buy anything that they make, regardless of cost.
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Hong Kong20296 Posts
lol wtf fucking korean air planes with huge SC2 ads flying around the world? hahahah holy shit.
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I want SC2 ads on american planes :[
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Blizzard sure did earn a shitload of money from wow. They can pretty much spend how much they want into marketing stuff it seems
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I wouldn't be surprised if the monthly model allowing you to play all blizzard games starts extending to other regions once they have 4 or 5 games under their belt. It is a great model for them, in that it gets everyone playing their new games, it generates a constant revenue stream, and it allows people to try all of blizzard's games without a huge up front investment.
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That plane is insane.
I'd love to fly in that thing.
Thanks for translations!
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On June 24 2010 23:37 alffla wrote:
lol wtf fucking korean air planes with huge SC2 ads flying around the world? hahahah holy shit.
Yeah haha I'd feel weird flying in a plane with Starcraft 2 plastered over it.
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Heres full picture view of the SC2 747, as Mr. Snorlax mentioned there are two.
![[image loading]](http://i49.tinypic.com/ncfpe8.jpg)
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WCS
