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I'm just curious as to what everybody else think about GOM making GSL matches pay-to-watch. I understand GOM has to pay their fees and bills, but it feels they are compromising the total number of people who could get hooked to GSL.
Tasteless and Artosis always seem to want us to ''spread the GSL words'' through twitter, but a newcomer will unlikely to be initiated to GSL if he has to pay to watch.
+ pay to watch means no GSL YouTube videos, which further cuts exposure and the number of fanbase.
GOM seems to acknowledge this problem too because they cut the ticket prices last season, but the actual procedure of making us pay (even just 1 cent) seems that it would cut GSL exposure. Its kind of like "What if Teamliquid made us pay 1$ to be able to see its contents?". Its absolutely worth it (hell, Il go as far as 50 bucks), but it wouldn't be anywhere near the most popular SC site as it is today.
People who subscribe to NHL/NFL streaming videos are about less than 5% of the core fanbase.
What are everybody's thought on it?
Also: We're talking about GOM VODs, not SQ Live. SQ Live happens around 4-5am (not many newcomers would stay up that late). Imagine if you could use TL.net only between 3am-5am lol.
My thoughts exactly:
On January 31 2011 06:50 GolemMadness wrote:
It's lame and totally kills a ton of community involvement. Having to pay means nothing can go on Youtube, which means nobody else can do commentaries, no best of videos, highlights, etc. Those are the things that really got me into Brood War. There's no way I'd have gotten into it if Gom had run things.
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I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad...
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It absolutely cuts exposure for the GSL. But it's the path they've chosen to go as worldwide streaming is not free and they have to finance it somehow. Hopefully they can get sponsors abroad and have a high quality free stream + vods in the future.
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It sucks if your goal is to make Sc2 more popular among non sc2 players. But the price is worth it for the amount of content you get.
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I paid, shits so worth it.
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On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad...
VODs would probably be more pertinent as Live shows are in the night time.
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Am I missing something there; do they actually plan to make the regular stream pay-to-watch (if so, source please?)? Or is this just a hypothetical scenario?
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You get a free stream, you only pay to watch HQ stream and VODs. There is nothing wrong with this and I know for a fact many thousands of people have no problem paying this small monthly fee for the hours and hours and hours of entertainment they get.
GSL exposure is HUGE already, and the more people that watch the more expensive it is to stream, so if it's free and more people watch then GOM takes an even bigger loss on the thing, I think they've found a good balance for the fee to charge. It's totally worth the money.
*edit*
Also you can think about it like this...
If all hollywood movies were free then they would definitely have more people that would see them, but the movies cost millions of dollars to make, and the more theaters that show the movie the more money it costs, so not only is the studio not making money to pay for the production costs, but there is no money being brought in to pay for the upkeep of showing the movie (ie staff, power/building costs)
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On January 31 2011 06:31 Ryan375 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad... I don't think they can.
Yes they can...
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On January 31 2011 06:31 Rotodyne wrote:
It sucks if your goal is to make Sc2 more popular among non sc2 players. But the price is worth it for the amount of content you get.
Its worth it for me, and I pay it too.
However, you're leaving out so much potential future customers/fans by making us pay a few bucks.
Its kind of like "What if Teamliquid made us pay 1$ to be able to see our contents in 2006?". It wouldn't be the most popular SC site today.
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On January 31 2011 06:31 Ryan375 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad... I don't think they can.
They can.
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On January 31 2011 06:31 Ryan375 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad... I don't think they can.
There is always a free live stream.
Paying is so absolutely worth it, but it does somewhat restrict access. Maybe GOM having a YouTube channel and putting up Set 1's like they do on their own site for free SQ access, coaxing people to purchase for more VODs.
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Katowice25012 Posts
On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad...
Not VODs.
I think its an awful policy that shows very little understanding of how to grow a sport. Historically things like baseball became much bigger when they began to give out content for free (like when baseball was first put on the radio).
If I was new to the scene and ran across the GSL website, I would be out of there immediately as soon as I saw you need to pay. It would turn me to something else and make me forget about SC2 instantly.
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Totally worth it for me, lots of content for the price IMO.
Seems to me people complain about everything.
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The stream is free, and you can get the first game of every series on gomtv.net for free. Having watched GSL's 1-3 on the stream, I finally decided to drop the cash for GSL4. The amount of content you get for the price is most definitely worth it, I have to say.
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quite frankly, it's a really bad idea, starcraft 2 inst popular as it is there and they are just handicapping it more with the pay to watch thing. I personally like watching starcraft 2 as much as starcraft 1 but would never pay to do it.
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On January 31 2011 06:32 Enervate wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:31 Ryan375 wrote:On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad... I don't think they can. Yes they can...
You can only watch Game 1.
If you mean the Live Matches then its not useful because the average newcomer won't be staying up at 3-5am to watch starcraft 2.
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On January 31 2011 06:33 Ryan375 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:31 Rotodyne wrote:
It sucks if your goal is to make Sc2 more popular among non sc2 players. But the price is worth it for the amount of content you get. Its worth it for me, and I pay it too. However, you're leaving out so much potential future customers/fans by making us pay a few bucks. Its kind of like "What if Teamliquid made us pay 1$ to be able to see our contents in 2006?". It wouldn't be the most popular SC site today.
Teamliquid is a site run by volunteers for the most part, they have a very small upkeep cost, and what they do have to pay they can afford via small ads displayed on the site.
GSL pays out a very large sum of money to players and they have to pay for a studio, streaming equipment and a lot of employees.
You can't really compare the 2 like that.
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In my honest opinion for the first few seasons I thought it was completely retarded so I watched most of the episodes live in SQ. For this season as well as the past season I now believe that it's worth it because of how much content you get for the little you do pay. Will be getting it this coming season once it opens up ^^
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On January 31 2011 06:31 Ryan375 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad... I don't think they can.
You can still watch SQ live for free. I've done it for the past 4 seasons so far.
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EPT
