Pro-game teams snub Blizzard? - Page 11

On March 03 2010 19:43 T.O.P. wrote:
I wonder. Do Blizzard retains all rights to games played by it's users? If I play a game, does Blizzard own my replay? If they don't how can Blizzard charge for a license when it's the players (Kespa) who are creating the content?

On March 03 2010 19:47 MaD.pYrO wrote:



Your replay is just a file on your computer, there's no real ownership to it so it's not quite the same.

But if you intended to make money off of showing your replay Blizzard would be entitled to a piece of the cake since they spent 7 years + and alot of money and hard work on creating the game that you would essentially be making money off of.
With that being said, seeing how Blizzard sponsored GOM and made them "certified" it really seems like they want to support E-Sport financially, not charge for it, they just want the control of what people are doing with their game, and don't want others to profit from their work.


Edit: They don't own "The match" that you played, they just own the platform you played it on, a match is just a series of specific events in time.

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.