Pro-game teams snub Blizzard? - Page 10

On March 04 2010 08:54 nimoraca wrote:
You all Blizzard lovers need to understand that SC2 is not the content here. Its just the software used to make the content. The content are the games being played. Blizzard has no rights to the games being played. Its like saying Autodesk or Adobe have intellectual right for the movies being made with their software. People are not coming to the matches to watch the game itself, they can do that at home. They come to watch the games, the players, the show. Blizzard has no intellectual rights for that.

On March 03 2010 19:51 zee wrote:

And how would he do that, exactly?

On March 03 2010 19:37 DeCoup wrote:
FUcKespa.

On March 03 2010 22:42 d_so wrote:
all you kids commenting about how "wrong" kespa is don't realize that they have the only e-sports model proven to be financially sustainable over the long term. Blizzard would do good to partner with them instead of trying to replace them, not just in korea but internationally as well. why?

1.) Kespa has been proven to be an effective marketer of videogames to the noncompetitive, casual gamer, as well as the nongamer... and most significantly, women. As any sports marketing director knows, the way to maintain a long-term fanbase is to satisfy the hardcore fans while attracting the casual fan, especially females. It's specifically the reason why EVERY olympics, superbowl, nba championship whatever has some sort of heart-felt story about a person/player recovering/overcoming/fighting through some sort of physical/traumatic/death-in-the-family experience. And it's the same reason why Progaming Television techniques attach as much significance to the personality of a player -- as well as his sex appeal -- as their talent.

On the other hand, notice how Blizzard is emphasizing online tournaments and forcing everyone to go through Bnet, eliminating the face attached to the game that makes the the Korean Starcraft Scene so personable. Would you have team loyalties, player loyalties, fan clubs, merchandise, or effeminate pictures if Bisu's face wasn't broadcast with his game? Course not! And yet Blizzard, in their quest for a WoW-like continuous revenue source, is going to create a system that not only forces royalties but counter-productively dehumanizes the game and alienates potential fans.

Some of you people might bring up WoW as an example of Blizzard's ability to attract non-hardcore gamers. Trust me, MMORPGs are completely different from competitive gaming. You can get fat ugly divorcees playing such games (a la secondlife) but that is not relevant to their interest in competitive gaming.

2.) Kespa has the best E-sports revenue model. This is almost undeniable. KeSPA's revenue model is so well-run that it doesn't have to charge for seating at its games. How fucking ridiculous is that. Imagine a sport like Football or basketball or whatever being able to create enough revenue from advertising to outweigh the expenses of paying players, maintaining a stadium, front office overhead, etc. This is just so freaking mindblowing that i'm surprised it doesn't get more notice. And the reason why they're able to do this is cuz of their partnerships with OGN and MBCGame, two DEDICATED tv networks backed by huge corporations (OnMedia and MBC).

You could argue they got lucky to have TV channels willing to take the risk and broadcast pro-gaming. but how the hell were they able to convince them in the first place? How were they able to show that Starcraft carries with it a tangible, outstanding interest that can be translated into advertising revenue? Once again, it goes back to marketing. Every epic new game that comes out is able to create spikes in interest for a short period of time. But you can't sustain it over the long term without attracting the casual gamer and the nongamer.

You know what else helps maintain their revenue model? They don't have to worry about any "morality" strikes from upset parents with old-traditional values. Why is that? It's cuz..

3.) KeSPA is effectively a government lobbyist. Tell me something. Do you ever fathom there will be a videogaming lobby in the US? Course not! They can't create a significant enough constituency with the current gaming crowd in america, which is becoming a bit more diverse in attracting female gamers but does not have enough "normal" people.

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Now let's talk about Blizzard. First, they make great games. Second, mostly due to WoW, blizzard no longer is interested in the "potential revenue" that comes with popularity --> interest --> advertising dollars. This is cuz they built a realizable, continuous revenue machine with WoW... and now they want a similar system with SC2. There's no other way to explain why they're making THREE games when the only thing that'll be different is storylines or why they're excluding LAN and forcing everyone to get approval from them in broadcasting their games. In other words, they're NOT creating an "esports division" because they think can do better (they can't.) but because they want to make money.

This post is already tl;dr but i want to add one last point. Korea is known to be a marketing hell where only the fittest survive. Winning the approval of Korean customers is like the Gold seal of approval for every fashion brand interested in gaining an Asian fanbase. Look up Prada in Korea for one example of a brand that invested a gang of money and created all sorts of diverse marketing strategies to win the korean customers, especially since how Korea rolls, a LOT of asia follows with them. Blizzard would be smart to realize two things: 1.) ESPORTS in america will never come to fruition because there's no way to create the demand necessary for advertising revenue, and 2.) if blizzard wants to be a huge part of the Asian Esports scene, they should partner with Kespa and proliferate their revenue model + marketing strategy across the continent.

On March 04 2010 08:54 nimoraca wrote:
You all Blizzard lovers need to understand that SC2 is not the content here. Its just the software used to make the content. The content are the games being played. Blizzard has no rights to the games being played. Its like saying Autodesk or Adobe have intellectual right for the movies being made with their software. People are not coming to the matches to watch the game itself, they can do that at home. They come to watch the games, the players, the show. Blizzard has no intellectual rights for that.

EULA:
You are entitled to use the Program for your own use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Program to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Program to others without the prior written consent of Blizzard. (ii) exploit the Program or any of its parts for any commercial purpose including, but not limited to, use at a cyber cafe, computer gaming center or any other location-based site. Blizzard may offer a separate Site License Agreement to permit you to make the Program available for commercial use; contact Blizzard for details;

On March 04 2010 08:02 snowdrift86 wrote:


You really think that Blizzard is going to put money into building teams and infrastructure from scratch when they've never done that before? The whole reason for Blizzard's face-off with Kespa is because they clearly don't want to do that -- if they were willing to invest money to create a new scene they could ignore Kespa.

On March 04 2010 08:54 nimoraca wrote:
You all Blizzard lovers need to understand that SC2 is not the content here. Its just the software used to make the content. The content are the games being played. Blizzard has no rights to the games being played. Its like saying Autodesk or Adobe have intellectual right for the movies being made with their software. People are not coming to the matches to watch the game itself, they can do that at home. They come to watch the games, the players, the show. Blizzard has no intellectual rights for that.

On March 04 2010 00:18 UdderChaos wrote:
Anyways my point is that blizzard could easily crush kespa, all it needs to do is set up it's own sc2 league in korea, offer bigger prize money and salaries than KeSPA's leagues do and then either buy thier way onto OGN and MBC or just set up thier own cannels, they have the money. Just think about it now, your a B-teamer or a low grade A-teamer and your earing peanuts in your current team, and there is no competetion in sc2 becuase of KeSPA's rules to stop them playing sc2, so you set up a team or join one and get paid like 3-4times becuase not only do blizzard offer more but the competition is less. And then KeSPA are fucked, becuase they lose thier progamers and can't compete with blizzards prize money and they can't set up an sc2 league becuase of the terms of service.

On March 04 2010 08:56 TSL-Lore wrote:



I kind of agree here. It's like saying anything I make in microsoft word, Microsoft has a claim to. That's just rubbish. Microsoft already collected their dues when we bought MS Office from them, just like Blizzard already collected their dues when we bought SC2 from them.

On March 04 2010 09:28 T.O.P. wrote:

Blizzard will have to work with Kespa if they want SC2 to take off as a esport. Korea is the only country in the world with esports. There's so many people in this thread that think Blizzard can start esports tournaments and then millions of westerners will start becoming fans. Look around you, 99% of the population never even heard of the word esports.

On March 04 2010 09:28 T.O.P. wrote:

Koreans will boycott SC2 if some foreign company tried to muscle their way in and push out a Korean institution like Kespa. If you haven't noticed, Koreans are very nationalistic. They will buy inferior korean products over superior japanese products because of national pride.

Blizzard will have to work with Kespa if they want SC2 to take off as a esport. Korea is the only country in the world with esports. There's so many people in this thread that think Blizzard can start esports tournaments and then millions of westerners will start becoming fans. Look around you, 99% of the population never even heard of the word esports.

On March 04 2010 09:28 T.O.P. wrote:

Koreans will boycott SC2 if some foreign company tried to muscle their way in and push out a Korean institution like Kespa. If you haven't noticed, Koreans are very nationalistic. They will buy inferior korean products over superior japanese products because of national pride.

Blizzard will have to work with Kespa if they want SC2 to take off as a esport. Korea is the only country in the world with esports. There's so many people in this thread that think Blizzard can start esports tournaments and then millions of westerners will start becoming fans. Look around you, 99% of the population never even heard of the word esports.

On March 04 2010 09:26 RiGun wrote:


Why would Blizzard sponsor teams? that makes no sense at all, what they should do is to sponsor big tournaments with big prizes, if teams get to be sponsored by some other companies that's another story.

It would be the same if you asked the F1 managers to make teams, put money in a racing team, that's non sense there, money comes from sponsors not from KeSPa.

On March 04 2010 09:28 T.O.P. wrote:
Blizzard will have to work with Kespa if they want SC2 to take off as a esport. Korea is the only country in the world with esports. There's so many people in this thread that think Blizzard can start esports tournaments and then millions of westerners will start becoming fans. Look around you, 99% of the population never even heard of the word esports.