Tips you would give to help improve the NASL - Page 61

On April 20 2011 06:44 Chill wrote:
I think the NASL is exactly where it should be: Pretty good and improving steadily.

I want to make a pretty long post to people about spreading your resources thin. I think the NASL already spread themselves way too thin with this endeavour, but having already said that, it's not really my place to comment on their business plan. Their strategy seems to be to come stomping in and be the biggest dog, and it's that strategy that got hundreds, if not thousands of people, to pay $20 without having seen a single minute of their production.

When split more than 3 ways, time and money disappear extremely quickly. The TSL has the backbone of the TL staff and the TL community. Volunteers know they are volunteers. The NASL has monetized their staff positions, and have largely cut themselves off from volunteer help. Well, I guess they're partnered with WellPlayed but I don't even know what that means. Regardless, it's a lot of work for few hands.

So the NASL relied on Justin.tv automatically recording their stream - A great temporary solution, but not ideal in the long run. "Trim the VODs and upload them to a spoiler free page." Yes, that seems like an easy thing to do, but realistically it's another 4 hours of work per day for one of your 8 staff members. "Install better lighting." Sounds great also, but your staff is most likely already working 8-16 hour days 5-7 days a week. It's a big commitment to ask them to come test stuff.

Money also goes quickly. I've read ridiculous thing like the following: "Hire a PR consultant." I know the NASL looks like a huge company in the SC world, but their balance sheet is tiny. You don't go hiring consultants at this level. "Hire an art director." See above.

The NASL is doing well. They're running a broadcast with the stretched resources they have. If they can grind out an ever-improving season 1, then maybe big things will improve with some downtime and a little more money. This is how any company starts: They grind it out until they catch a small break, make small improvements, and continue to grow. The NASL is no different.

How you can help:

1. Don't be a moron.

2. Help. See page 59 of this thread. Rather than berate them about what they're doing wrong and how you can fix their images in 15 minutes if they ask you, why don't you be proactive and just resize the images and post them with permission for them to use? It's not your responsibility to do it, but it would be nice and would help them out.

3. Offer small suggestions. They're not going to build a new stage or take the broadcast outside - it's too much of a change. They're not going to replace Gretorp after week 1. They can, however, rebalance sound levels and install a sound compressor (or whatever it was called ). That was a great, small, actionable suggestion.

On April 20 2011 07:29 GinevraFX wrote:

I think this is a great comment. However, I think that most people are complaining because they felt that they were 'cheated' of what was initially advertised - unmatched production value, etc..

On April 20 2011 07:42 Xeris wrote:
Ok. Here's some things that would help make my life easier (if you've seen my CSL banners you know how terrible I am @ ms paint/I don't have photoshop)

Email me (xeris@nasl.tv) correctly sized pictures of everyone who's picture isn't sized correctly on the website.

I'd appreciate it.

On April 20 2011 08:11 NoahNickels wrote:


Just sent them.

On April 20 2011 09:22 Stil wrote:
Hi - Paying subsciber here. Loving the NASL so far.

I have to give massive credit to your transparency about the problems (eg - player no show/walk over/rescheduling etc) it's very hard to be the bearer of bad news, but I appreciate and respect you guys so much more for it - so much better than watching a broken stream for hours with no update on when it would be fixed *cough*MLG*cough*.

As I'm a Brit and I can't stay up every night - I rely on the vods to see everything. Someone else might have mentioned this (it's a big thread) or you might have addressed this (not caught up with all vods yet) but I think it would be a big improvement to play around with the vods if possible on Justin TV. Chop the long pre-caster introduction/music off - that just wastes my time and bandwith. And if possible cut the VODS into chunks. Intro segment, then another chunk for each of the series (I think individual games per vod would be too fiddly and length would be a spoiler).

Also - maybe have a download option? I might want to download everything and watch it away from my internets - but if there are no downloads to curtail non subscribers from viewing vods, fair enough

Keep up the good work. <3 Hearts <3

On April 20 2011 06:31 MercuryViper wrote:

2) Gretorp - I'm fine with his casting. He isn't my favorite Caster, but I think he's doing allright. Only issue with him is the uninterested look he seems to have whenever iNControL is talking when we're in the studio. He just seems to be in outer space sometimes.

.

On April 20 2011 07:00 Chill wrote:

No one forced you to buy their product. In fact, I would argue that buying something without ever seeing it should be thought of as a charitable donation and not a purchase. I didn't buy the pass because I don't donate to companies. Now, seeing the product, I don't think it's worth $25. That doesn't mean I won't watch it and support them without money.

It's not their responsibility to meet your imagined expectations.

[B]On April 20 2011 07:45 jenzebubble wrote:
Do not get me wrong. The people behind the NASL ought to be lauded for their enthusiasm, bravery (it's scary being the first one in a market), and work effort. Where they have failed is in utilizing the resources of the people that make up this audience. Not just Joe Bloe viewer like my friends and I. There are people within this community that knew the EXACT challenges the NASL would face. By and large, they were not consulted or their input was dismissed.

Unfortunately, there people involved with the NASL who knew exactly what the stakes were should this league fail. Another North American E-sports league down the tube means more apprehension from the businesses that we need to attract to have a thriving competitive SC2 scene. To me, that is the most disappointing aspect of this debacle. You don't hire your friends when the stakes are that high. You hire the best person for the job that will accept what wage you've allocated from your budget.

Did you play MMOs, Chill? Generation 2 MMORPGs consisted of Everquest, DAOC, Shadowbane, etc. Everquest 2 and WOW were setup as generation three. EverQuest 2, in an effort to beat WOW to market, launched ahead of schedule. Horrible, horrible game launch. The game never recovered and is a niche product. WOWs launch, while it had it's issues, was much smoother. WOW has gone on to redefine it's market space. I would compare NASL's launch to EverQuest 2. My concern is that will there be businesses willing to back "our" WOW given recent and past history?

.

On April 20 2011 12:43 Executor1 wrote:


This!, The fact that they hired friends to run the tournament and players to put in the tournament, was always something that made me have some hesitation towards the nasl but Icontrol was so positive about the whole thing (when i heard him at MLG talking about it, i actually got pretty excited despite all my doubts) the point is you have to hire the right people for the job not amateurs. Sure hooking your friends up is cool and all ,but look at the situation they have been put in now, half of the sc community is breathing down their necks and is quite furious, they havent retained viewers and it really just doesnt seem like they are going to beable to fix all the stuff that has gone wrong anytime soon.

Hiring people without broadcasting experience to take on such an ambitious tournament was probably the worst mistake the NASL has made and it is the root of all of their problems and could be perhaps the downfall of the league.

You must be new to RTS Esports ventures . This has happened 10 times before to the Starcraft community and it's always been shit.

The lesson: Don't ever believe the hype until you actually have something on your screen. The fact that the NASL came in with so much hype is a double-edged sword: They surely got a ridiculous amount of ground-level subscriptions with nothing of merit, but they also built false expectations that could never be met in season one

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On April 21 2011 00:19 Chill wrote:

You must be new to RTS Esports ventures . This has happened 10 times before to the Starcraft community and it's always been shit.

The lesson: Don't ever believe the hype until you actually have something on your screen. The fact that the NASL came in with so much hype is a double-edged sword: They surely got a ridiculous amount of ground-level subscriptions with nothing of merit, but they also built false expectations that could never be met in season one.