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Not that I disagree with supporting e-sports but If I were to pay for the GSL I would want downloadable HQ VODs, which are available for free on a few other websites.
I think that the LQ vods should be free and all VODs should be downloadable to be seen on mobile devices, etc. Until then I will watch the stream and use other methods of watching. Not because I don't like GOM but because I think that their marketing plan is flawed. If I were to watch live through premium ticket it would be 2am/5am and my internet is rather bad so I have to wait for them to buffer so I would rather be able to download the VODs while I'm at work and have them when I come back, my TV has a usb port on the side that lets me put media files on an external drive and watch on my TV which makes it that much more enjoyable.
Also. the gom vods on youtube for highlight videos and whatnot should be alright as long as they are below 3 minutes per match, that should be allowed in my opinion so fans can create highlight videos and what not.
Their marketing is flawed simple as that. Why buy a cow when you can get the milk for free and can put it into a container to use later. ~ Just my opinion again like I said. I do enjoy the commentating, Tasteless, Artosis, Day9 and Incontrol are the only commentators I can stand listening to, the others seem not to anyone play if they are in masters, It seems I get worse watching others, and the games played have very good players, always fun to watch but would be better once a new map pool is introduced., I wish they would get more advertisements in and lowered the prize pool to make it more feasible for VODs and fix the VODs issue.
Edit: Starcraft 2 is new, people are just getting into it. TL is growing due to the release, people wont pay 10$ for a this because it is imperfect. BW viewers don't pay to view BW games and are easy to download via torrent so BW viewers may be less likely to pay for it aswell because it is a new idea.
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Unless you have information about GOM TV's financials and how expensive it is to stream to their overseas fanbase, please don't claim that GOM TV would be financially better off if they offered their VODs and such for free.
GOM TV is trying to make money - not grow the scene. If the GSL was the only SC2 tournament, this might be a problem. But other tournaments and people like Husky and HD do a good enough job of growing the scene that GOM doesn't need to take that burden upon itself.
Just because it would benefit you more if GOM tv offered their product for free doesn't necessarily make it a sound business decision.
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On January 31 2011 09:18 Rzn`WiseGuy wrote:
Look at the way Day[9] does things. He has a massive fanbase because of his kickass content, and the freedom thereof. GOM has kickass content as well, but more people watch Day9 than the GSL HQ stream.
This is such a bad comparison. You're comparing an entire company that has to support itself to a single person who uploads videos in his spare time. Obviously, Day[9] provides awesome content for free, but does he run massive tournaments with massive prize pools? Does he have to employ a staff? Does he have to stream live games and VODs through his own services (he uses ustream + blip)?
Also, more people watch Day[9] than GSL? Says who?
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Essentially, its the price of being early adopters, the service is new and that makes it expensive to maintain. Once its grown some and GOM can get more income from advertising I'd expect to see the VODs go free to watch as well (probably with ads stuck in but if its those hilariously cheesy korean ones that'll not be such a bad thing).
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Another thing to remember is that advertising is tough to find for an international stream. Who is going to sponsor a program with a limited viewer base spread around the globe? McDonald's? Walmart?
There isn't much of a return on the advertising investment for most companies outside of Korea, so until there is, it's likely that you'll shell out some cash for international content.
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Give us commercials not fees.
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Until GOM comes out with an acceptable free plan, as much as I want to support them with my views, I will watch the GSL via other means. So no, paying to watch GSL matches is not a good idea. You should not support a bad business model.
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On January 31 2011 07:51 Ryan375 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 07:49 heishe wrote:On January 31 2011 07:45 scion wrote:On January 31 2011 07:43 Carthac wrote:
The price is EXTREMELY reasonable. This is a sponsored tournament, and GSL is looking to make money because, I know this is going out on a limb here, but companies need money to continue doing business!
You pay 10 dollars, and you get 3 months of a high quality stream and all the vods. This also helps Artosis and Tasteless earn a decent living. Stop being so cheap, eat ramen for a few days if you have to, and buy the ticket. Read the OP, of course its definitely reasonable price, if you are a starcraft fan. But for mainstream populace, which includes majority of SC2 players, gets immediately turned off by the fact that you have to pay to be able to watch something like this. The "mainstream populace" will never watch the GSL unless it's aired on big sports channels in the US and EU anyways. You'll never find a non-gamer visiting GomTV.net and watch Starcraft 2 because he's genuinely interested in it. If he was interested in Starcraft 2 or in SC2 as an eSport, he'd be playing SC2 and thus not be a non-gamer. eSport just isn't like normal sport. Poker. How did that happen?
Poker is a mainstream hobby and gambling sport, not comparable to SC2 at all. There was also the poker boom when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP that gave it a huge boost
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On January 31 2011 09:18 Rzn`WiseGuy wrote:
Look at the way Day[9] does things. He has a massive fanbase because of his kickass content, and the freedom thereof. GOM has kickass content as well, but more people watch Day9 than the GSL HQ stream.
This doesn't mean anything and its also something that you've just made up.
Remember Day9 doesn't put up a $100,000 prize pool every month, doesn't have a significant number of staff to employ, doesn't offer HQ VODS without any advertisments, doesn't own his own studio to film live games.
If anyone could think of a Starcraft 2 service that was similar and of comparable quality to GOM but didn't charge then all these people whining about having to pay might have a point. But there simply isn't.
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On January 31 2011 09:47 Zeroxk wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 07:51 Ryan375 wrote:On January 31 2011 07:49 heishe wrote:On January 31 2011 07:45 scion wrote:On January 31 2011 07:43 Carthac wrote:
The price is EXTREMELY reasonable. This is a sponsored tournament, and GSL is looking to make money because, I know this is going out on a limb here, but companies need money to continue doing business!
You pay 10 dollars, and you get 3 months of a high quality stream and all the vods. This also helps Artosis and Tasteless earn a decent living. Stop being so cheap, eat ramen for a few days if you have to, and buy the ticket. Read the OP, of course its definitely reasonable price, if you are a starcraft fan. But for mainstream populace, which includes majority of SC2 players, gets immediately turned off by the fact that you have to pay to be able to watch something like this. The "mainstream populace" will never watch the GSL unless it's aired on big sports channels in the US and EU anyways. You'll never find a non-gamer visiting GomTV.net and watch Starcraft 2 because he's genuinely interested in it. If he was interested in Starcraft 2 or in SC2 as an eSport, he'd be playing SC2 and thus not be a non-gamer. eSport just isn't like normal sport. Poker. How did that happen? Poker is a mainstream hobby and gambling sport, not comparable to SC2 at all. There was also the poker boom when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP that gave it a huge boost
It became a mainstream hobby.
Poker's popularity in the 1990 wasn't considered mainstream at all.
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my brain hurts....they a business that needs to make money.
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GOM is a company - they have to pay 5 casters, a huge tech and equipment crew, rent for their studio, rent for the finals stadium, prize pools to lots of players, translators, marketing people, etc etc. It's unreasonable to ask them to give out a free VOD service for everyone because they need to make money to support themselves.
Also, let's not think of it as an evil thing if the company turns a profit. They can put that money back into GSL, making it bigger, better, and thus supporting the players and community even more. The more they get in funds, the better the product will be.
As such, if you don't want to pay, that's cool - you will support with viewership, word of mouth, etc. I understand being a poor college student, but I am a non-poor college student personally because I do programming for $9/hr while watching GSL so...
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On January 31 2011 09:47 dabom88 wrote:
Until GOM comes out with an acceptable free plan, as much as I want to support them with my views, I will watch the GSL via other means. So no, paying to watch GSL matches is not a good idea. You should not support a flawed business model.
It is so laughable that you think you would be 'supporting them' just by watching a free stream / vods. You also fail to mention why paying for GSL is not a good idea and how its flawed business model.
It seems you are one of the many naive posters in this thread with the arguement of - 'it should be free because i don't want to pay.'
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On January 31 2011 10:03 Isomer wrote:
GOM is a company - they have to pay 5 casters, a huge tech and equipment crew, rent for their studio, rent for the finals stadium, prize pools to lots of players, translators, marketing people, etc etc. It's unreasonable to ask them to give out a free VOD service for everyone because they need to make money to support themselves.
Also, let's not think of it as an evil thing if the company turns a profit. They can put that money back into GSL, making it bigger, better, and thus supporting the players and community even more. The more they get in funds, the better the product will be.
As such, if you don't want to pay, that's cool - you will support with viewership, word of mouth, etc. I understand being a poor college student, but I am a non-poor college student personally because I do programming for $9/hr while watching GSL so...
Its actually weird how the GSL is leaving out a major audience demographics aged 8-18 from watching the GSL. Especially since this is essentially a video game, a good chunk of its audiences would be younger and not necessarily from College.
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I'm always happy to pay and I think given the improvements in the quality of the VoDs it is clear they are putting our money to good work.
Seriously its $10 a month for like 50+ hours of content. Its the same price as renting 2 movies at blockbuster.
That said its unclear to what extent they are limiting their own market by charging. However, for most companies, limiting your customer base to people who are actually willing to pay for products is profitable.
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On January 31 2011 10:03 Isomer wrote:
GOM is a company - they have to pay 5 casters, a huge tech and equipment crew, rent for their studio, rent for the finals stadium, prize pools to lots of players, translators, marketing people, etc etc. It's unreasonable to ask them to give out a free VOD service for everyone because they need to make money to support themselves.
Also, let's not think of it as an evil thing if the company turns a profit. They can put that money back into GSL, making it bigger, better, and thus supporting the players and community even more. The more they get in funds, the better the product will be.
As such, if you don't want to pay, that's cool - you will support with viewership, word of mouth, etc. I understand being a poor college student, but I am a non-poor college student personally because I do programming for $9/hr while watching GSL so...
Well they could always have a joint partnership with MBC like they did for Starcraft for 5 seasons. Have the games televised and make the VODS a payment while still making them accessible to youtube.
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The answer to the original question of whether it's a good idea or not to pay for it, the answer is YES!! I didn't pay for it in the first 2 seasons and it was fun. However the last 2 seasons I did purchase it and it was a freakin blast watching all the VOD's and then live in HQ whenever I wanted with no worries. I ended up watching every single match and loved it all (except for all the T domination of course made me sick).
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However, you're leaving out so much potential future customers/fans by making us pay a few bucks.
OK, let's say they did. And this doubled, or even quadrupled their viewerbase.
So, where does GOM make the money for 2x to 4x the bandwidth costs? Remember, they went from many paying customers to 0 paying customers. And they doubled or quadrupled their bandwidth costs.
However many may be left out for not wanting to pay doesn't matter in a financial sense, because you're losing money. Losing money is not a way to make money, unless you have a plan whereby you lose money for a time only to make it up later.
People generally don't like it if you give something away for free, then charge them for it later. So what is your plan for them to make money in the future?
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SUPPORTING ESPORTS IS A BIG SCAM I DONT PAY FOR ANYTHING!!!!!!
i love supporting esports i even got a gomtv premium account. $9.99 is just change if you think about it, and plus your supporting somthing that you believe in. Remember the more bandwidth the higher quality!
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The way I see it, the GSL is 95% aimed at the Korean market. If that weren't true, then why not just hold the tournament in the USA and force Korean players travel to the USA to compete? If millions of Americans started watching the GSL, I'm sure we'd have our own grand SC2 competition similar to GSL that we could all watch for free on TV, b/c companies would be paying loads of money for advertisement time.
I'm happy to just be able to watch the highest level Korean SC2 and to have such high quality, professional commentary in English provided by tastosis.
And I agree with tarath, the audience demographic "aged 8-18" goes to the movie theaters all the time paying $10 for a 120 minute movie. With the GSL, you're paying "$10 for like 50+ hours of content." Maybe people are just less used to paying for online content, which tends most of the time to be absolutely free?
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EPT
