On one hand it's nice that now people seem to be far more willing to pay some money for the games and that might help Gretech/GOM to be succesfull with their SC2 undertaking.
I was going to pay myself cause 20$ seemed to be a bargain on first glance (and after what was the initial offer). But after checking the "sample vods" that show you the quality you can expect I am not so sure anymore. Even the HQ stream is a pain to watch on any decent monitor . The english commentary you get for free now so just run a muted korean stream at the same time for the Video. That leaves you with paying 20$ for VOD's in a not so good quality that are only availible for a season and most likely to be distributed illegaly?
I still support rather paying then getting illegal content but we know how stuff on the internet (still) works. I think I will wait with my purchase for a few days to check wheter you can run a korean stream wih english commentary cause if they are clever they wont distribute them in sync. and to hear whether the vod's are realy the same quality as the HQ stream. If the streams are in sync and the vods have the same quality (not to mention the problem of piracy) I dont expect many people to pay.
Edit: The idea that all of this was planned makes some sense to me and if it was I applaude GOM for pulling it off. Imagine a few days ago they would have announced that the free stream is 300k (or even less) and for the HQ (lol) stream you had to pay 20$ on top of that no Vod's are free but HEY if you pay that 20$ you can watch them for the ongoing season. I could so imagine a shirtstom of an epic size going off, but now it is just: how nice of them to listen to their customers. Well played GOM Edit#2: apparently you can watch the VODs for an unlimited time. Changes things a bit but still not considerably in my point of view
On September 03 2010 21:32 Bear4188 wrote: Take off the tin foil.
really. People make mistakes. not everything that happens like this is part of some evil money-making scheme :/
Normally I don't believe in that companies don't care about anything else than money and have an "evil money-making scheme", but the GSL Stream is brought to you by the same people who's killing the starcraft 1 scene so they can make more money off of SC 2.
On September 03 2010 21:32 Bear4188 wrote: Take off the tin foil.
really. People make mistakes. not everything that happens like this is part of some evil money-making scheme :/
Normally I don't believe in that companies don't care about anything else than money and have an "evil money-making scheme", but the GSL Stream is brought to you by the same people who's killing the starcraft 1 scene so they can make more money off of SC 2.
Please, don't turn this into a yet another Sc1 vs SCII thread. just don't
This is GOMtv.net Support Team. We’ve found you purchased Season Live ticket($19.95) via Paypal and we are sending this email to inform you very important issues. We are sorry to say this, however, we would like to let you know this information as soon as possible.
As you know, we do not have free streaming service on GOMtv.net. Since our service has been opened to public, lots of e-sports fans have requested for the free streaming service. We’ve thought this issue over for the last few days and we’ve decided to release the free service for the users.
Therefore, we will service 1 season premium ticket which includes VOD service and Premium Live service, and the price will be $19.95. With premium ticket, you can watch High Quality(500K) streaming live matches and VODs. Free service is the Standard Quality(below 250K) streaming live only, with no VODs.
You can ask a refund if you are not happy with this new premium service. However, if you keep your purchase, we will reward you the premium ticket for 3 pre-seasons which is valid for all season in this year.
Please reply to this email if you want to refund your VOD ticket before the first live broadcasting starts(at 7pm KST). Otherwise, we will consider that you keep your purchase and accept the premium service for 3 pre-seasons.
Again, thank you for your purchase.
Sincerely, GOMtv.net Support Team
It looks like still no free vods, but free LQ stream.
So fking nice to read this! The quality of both streams seem to be kinda horrible, but they listened and change something very fast. very nice tho they also change the prices. this seems fair to me now. thank you TL, thank you gom. made my day!
On September 03 2010 21:41 VForce wrote: blah blah blah
That leaves you with paying 20$ for VOD's in a not so good quality that are only availible for a season and most likely to be distributed illegaly?
blah blah blah
orignally posted on (nonupdated) website
VOD ticket will be valid even the season over (Once you buy it, you can watch VODs whenever you want.)
Also, remember that for the US market the games at 18:00 KST is 5 am eastern standard time. 2 am west coast of US.
Not many people will be able to watch all the games live for free. Sure, you can pirate it or w/e, but honestly, maybe since GOM listened to complaints, made it fair to people who already purcahsed a ticket, and is actually trying to reach out to foreigners, $20 for the first tournament isn't too terrible to show you support GOM.
If you pay for the first tournament and GOM makes a profit, they may get better sponsors or next tournament will be run better. And you may either have to a) pay less or b)just go ahead and pirate stuff then.
On September 03 2010 20:27 rasnj wrote: It seems like GOM is listening to the community. I just received the following e-mail (I added bold for emphasis):
Dear our valued user,
This is GOMtv.net Support Team. We’ve found you purchased Season Live ticket($19.95) via Paypal and we are sending this email to inform you very important issues. We are sorry to say this, however, we would like to let you know this information as soon as possible.
As you know, we do not have free streaming service on GOMtv.net. Since our service has been opened to public, lots of e-sports fans have requested for the free streaming service. We’ve thought this issue over for the last few days and we’ve decided to release the free service for the users.
Therefore, we will service 1 season premium ticket which includes VOD service and Premium Live service, and the price will be $19.95. With premium ticket, you can watch High Quality(500K) streaming live matches and VODs. Free service is the Standard Quality(below 250K) streaming live only, with no VODs.
You can ask a refund if you are not happy with this new premium service. However, if you keep your purchase, we will reward you the premium ticket for 3 pre-seasons which is valid for all season in this year.
Please reply to this email if you want to refund your VOD ticket before the first live broadcasting starts(at 7pm KST). Otherwise, we will consider that you keep your purchase and accept the premium service for 3 pre-seasons.
Again, thank you for your purchase.
Sincerely, GOMtv.net Support Team
It looks like still no free vods, but free LQ stream.
That's the second best news I had all day!
Granted, the best news I had was my engagement to my fiancee (such a fancy word :D), so second best is still awesome :D
On September 03 2010 21:32 Bear4188 wrote: Take off the tin foil.
really. People make mistakes. not everything that happens like this is part of some evil money-making scheme :/
Normally I don't believe in that companies don't care about anything else than money and have an "evil money-making scheme", but the GSL Stream is brought to you by the same people who's killing the starcraft 1 scene so they can make more money off of SC 2.
Please, don't turn this into a yet another Sc1 vs SCII thread. just don't
I've never cared for SC 1 so I don't see why the SC vs SC 2 discussion would concern me.
I am just going to wait to see what quality the HQ vods are first and then decide. The HQ stream isn't worth paying for to be honest. It is watchable but it's still way too pixelly in full screen. If the HQ stream was better then it would definitely be worth the $20 and I would definitely get it. Also thevods would be worth the $30 if they were in high quality too. I mean youtube will stream 1080p for free but that is a bit crazy. For 720p vods I would pay $30 in a second.
I don't even care if all this was planned, we've got a reasonable price now + free stream as an option. The IEM free stream quality was pretty sh*tty too.
I'm going to get up and see how the free LQ stream goes tomorrow before I buy anything. Hopefully it'll run OK since my bandwidth check has sky-rocketed.