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Keep the discussion civil, please. |
Slasher wrote: @LorangerChris yes, THAT is bullshit. Players need to be paid and more popular than the players
Yes Slasher
It's bullshit.
Players obviously need to be paid and more popular than the Players.
Ok.
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On November 30 2011 11:51 FXOpen wrote: My head just exploded.. Did huk (highest paid sc2 player from my knowledge) just say that players need to be paid more ? Casters are paid far less than him... Including Artosis and tasteless....
Brain.. explosion. you're wrong...
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Fuck Slasher! He just seems antagonistic and immature. What would Slasher say if InControL wins the next MLG and then casts a season of NASL?
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On November 30 2011 14:38 IdrA wrote:Show nested quote +On November 30 2011 11:51 FXOpen wrote: My head just exploded.. Did huk (highest paid sc2 player from my knowledge) just say that players need to be paid more ? Casters are paid far less than him... Including Artosis and tasteless....
Brain.. explosion. you're wrong... Give the numbers man, come on.
We all know you have the sickest ride from some commercial with Kingston, so I suppose you're the king in this contest.
I'm joking by the way, in my country talking about salaries is a taboo.
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On November 30 2011 14:38 IdrA wrote:Show nested quote +On November 30 2011 11:51 FXOpen wrote: My head just exploded.. Did huk (highest paid sc2 player from my knowledge) just say that players need to be paid more ? Casters are paid far less than him... Including Artosis and tasteless....
Brain.. explosion. you're wrong...
Would you be willing to give an insider perspective/estimate on what people are making?
I'm not joking, talking about pro athletes' salaries in my country is commonplace.
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I think the big point is being missed here. The reason casters are paid and praised more than the players is because the game this whole business is built around is, for the most part, boring to watch. The majority of a spectator's entertainment value in pro-level SC2 is coming from the caster's comments and interpretations of the action and not the actual on-screen action itself.
If you're a fan of a traditional sport, like baseball or hockey or football, try watching it with the sound muted. It will be 95% as entertaining as it is with the sound on. Hell, do you even know or give two shits about who is casting that basketball game? Now try watching SC2 with the sound muted....
There are periods where many minutes pass by with absolutely NO ACTION. If it wasn't for the SC2 casters imitating comedians we'd simply be watching something else. What other sport is like this? How often in a traditional broadcast sport is NOTHING happening and you're simply relying on the commentator to not be bored?
Further, when you are watching the "sport" of SC2, what are you seeing? The same little cartoon graphic characters over and over and over. You don't SEE Huk, you don't SEE MC, you don't SEE Puzzle. In-game they all look the same. But after the game... you always SEE Tastosis. You don't need an education in psychology to understand why the spectators are praising the people they regularly SEE more than the people they DON'T. This is entertainment and it's about selling eyeballs to advertisers. The casters have bigger fan bases than the players and so they get more money. Period. Until we see eSports that are either: 1. Action-packed beginning-to-end and don't require amateur comedians to pass the down-time, or 2. the players themselves are actually represented graphically within the game or constantly on-screen during the game, this will never change. If you're in the SC2 business solely to make the most money for the least time invested, become a caster.
eSports is in its infancy. I love, love, LOVE eSports and hope to see it grow, but I'm also objective enough to realize that this particular game (and its platform) is simply not designed nearly well enough to satisfy the fundamental requirements of a true SPORT. I don't know of a single video game that is. Luckily I'm not a Blizzard/Starcraft fanboy and when that game is finally made I'll be the first fan they've got.
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On November 30 2011 08:56 TMOUllrich wrote:
For sure it requires a lot of hard work, but it's also a very rewarding job where you get to have fun while doing it ! I have a friend who works 12 hour days at a factory doing the same monotomous task 1000's of times per day, now that's tough. Relative to most other jobs, you gotta admit casting is pretty sweet ! Not to say that you didn't earn it though, just bear in mind 99% of people posting have a lot worse jobs than you.
And? Yeah, I have a great job and I wouldn't trade it for the world but let's not make the assumption that casting is in any way easy. I've paid my dues in shit jobs for minimum wage for a long time, just like everyone else, while doing the 10 years of amateur radio/podcasting/hobbyist stuff required to make it my full-time career path, as no doubt have most casters in one form or another. 14 hours a day of talking is not easy for anyone.
And yes, player casters are much more interesting. Casters like TB have no future.
You're getting this the wrong way around. As players start retiring and moving into casting, the only ones with a future will be those with the training and skills in broadcast that those players lack. Nobody is going to care about up and coming analysts when they have retired pros to discuss strategy. Simple logic. The existing generation of analytical casters will continue to survive because they have established themselves but the next generation of analysts will all be retired pros who will need play-by-play casters as partners. Unless of course we're going to bunk the last 50 years of broadcast sport which so far we haven't and have seen no reason to either. And do me a favour and don't bother calling me defensive due to my livelihood or whatever, I'm pretty much the only professional caster at the moment who could never get a single gig or replay again and not actually notice the impact on my bank account (not bragging, simple fact that Starcraft is such a non-factor compared to what I do on a regular basis).
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So much dramaaaaaaaaaa. I guess we will see what happends......
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On November 30 2011 13:56 Stark1 wrote:Let me get this straight; HuK, the guy with an indefensibly large $187,000 (est.) contract is saying that casters make too much money? The case could be made solely for Tastosis (each rumored to be in the range of $100k this year), but even then those guys have been at FUCKING EVERYTHING this year. I'd bet money that most of the casters make less than $30k, especially ones that have to take travel expenses out of their earnings. On another note, IdrA makes a good example for the analytical caster role. During the... EG Master's Cup I believe, whenever the caster he was with would ask him what was going on, IdrA gave about a 90% accurate view of what was happening, what the players were trying to execute and why. I loved it, and just keep waiting for someone else to show up who can give insight on games being played on anything close to that level. I seriously hope that some pros give thought to pursuing casting jobs when they end their days playing professionally. + Show Spoiler +Except Incontrol, he's already tried it and proved to be a subpar, immensely trollable drama queen (see NASL).
you gotta be pretty stupid to think huk makes $187,000 a year i'm sorry, there is really no other way to put it.
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On November 30 2011 19:53 sunman1g wrote: you gotta be pretty stupid to think huk makes $187,000 a year i'm sorry, there is really no other way to put it.
To be honest, any speculation outside of those who actually know how much players and casters make (a select few) is pointless, particularly when most of us are obliged either contractually or simply because we've been entrusted, not to tell you.
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Dont rly give a shit what Slasher thinks lol
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It's kinda hard, cause casters get paid every tournament, prolly less then the winner of the tournament but logically more then the players who don't get top8 or something, cause most of the time those players dont get paid at all. However these casters dont have sponsors who support them.
Actually I think it's pretty fair the way it goes currently, of course players make the game, but there are so many of them, good casters are there less and they play a big part in making esports entertaining so they need to get rewarded for that.
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Considering that so many people seem to think the caster is more important to enjoying the game than the game itself, it doesn't surprise me the least if casters get paid more generally. Just read any lr thread where you have a caster that people believe is sub par, no matter how good the games are there are people that turn off the stream and spend more time critising the caster than enjoying the games being played. Some explicity say they can't enjoy a game with a caster like TB, Kelly or whoever. When the game becomes more important than the casters for enjoyment we might be going places.
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On November 30 2011 19:53 sunman1g wrote:Show nested quote +On November 30 2011 13:56 Stark1 wrote:Let me get this straight; HuK, the guy with an indefensibly large $187,000 (est.) contract is saying that casters make too much money? The case could be made solely for Tastosis (each rumored to be in the range of $100k this year), but even then those guys have been at FUCKING EVERYTHING this year. I'd bet money that most of the casters make less than $30k, especially ones that have to take travel expenses out of their earnings. On another note, IdrA makes a good example for the analytical caster role. During the... EG Master's Cup I believe, whenever the caster he was with would ask him what was going on, IdrA gave about a 90% accurate view of what was happening, what the players were trying to execute and why. I loved it, and just keep waiting for someone else to show up who can give insight on games being played on anything close to that level. I seriously hope that some pros give thought to pursuing casting jobs when they end their days playing professionally. + Show Spoiler +Except Incontrol, he's already tried it and proved to be a subpar, immensely trollable drama queen (see NASL). you gotta be pretty stupid to think huk makes $187,000 a year i'm sorry, there is really no other way to put it.
I like how the (est.) isn't 175,000 or 200,000 and it's not even 185,000 or 190,000, instead it's 187,000.
It's more likely to be 187,546, tbh.
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I find nothing at all unusual or untoward about PRO's moving to casting. It happens in ALL sports (well, here in the UK anyway). That is not to say you need to be able to play the game at PRO level to have deep insight and add value to the game's community / momentum.
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Just a few points I like to add:
In my opinon players should be the most important stock. Without the players there would be no tournament, no casters, no teams. Do all tournaments treat the players as their number 1 priority?
As a business, as sad as it is, the point of who's more important arguably comes down to stock value and drawing power. The more established casters are on demand just as much as well know players that get invited. If a caster can entertain and draw more numbers than players playing, then they're worth more, regardless whether you think it's right or wrong.
The value of a player being a caster is high automatically, because of the knowledge they already have. However retired players becoming analytical casters, they will still have to continue playing the game, they can't retire completely. They may have the more established foot in the door,but they have to keep up to date with the meta-game, stategies, play styles. Otherwise it'll always be the current players that provide the most up to date/informative analysis, which is what people want.
I do believe play by play casting, being an entertaining host, and the ability to articulate well in front of a camera is still important part of the business model. If an ex pro can fulfil that role, good on them. At the end of the day, it's the viewers that make the decision in what they like and do not like, and yet you can't please everyone. :/
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As Xanatoss said before, everytime Slasher butts in again, it's with controversial or whining behaviour. It makes me feel he's jealous of the others.
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On November 30 2011 14:45 Stark1 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 30 2011 14:38 IdrA wrote:On November 30 2011 11:51 FXOpen wrote: My head just exploded.. Did huk (highest paid sc2 player from my knowledge) just say that players need to be paid more ? Casters are paid far less than him... Including Artosis and tasteless....
Brain.. explosion. you're wrong... Would you be willing to give an insider perspective/estimate on what people are making? I'm not joking, talking about pro athletes' salaries in my country is commonplace.
Just based on video view counts alone, I can tell you Husky is making between 75 and 150k a year right now off youtube ALONE, and that's not including the money he has made from tourneys.
Artosis and Tastless are different, however, because they get no adsense money, but the big youtube personalities are making bank.
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Feel free to use the picture I compiled -- I added some additional tweets from Apollo that I replied to.
Regarding the picture below, there are a few unknowns to the TL community I'd like to point out: -k1mjee is myself -JuneauLee (Josh Lee) was a top CoD4 shoutcaster, many know him for his opening line in this fragmovie: CLICK HERE -PaulChaloner (Paul Chaloner) is looked at as the "Yen Sid" of CoD casting, somewhat of a "father" to the current casters -(ConsiderIt_DunN)Corey Dunn does Black Ops casting for MLG
WARNING: 5000px in height, brace yourself (start at the bottom and read up). + Show Spoiler +
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But...
Until players start doing more for the community, then they're not going to be the face of the game. Back to what SotG said about players being incapable of handling the media spotlight. Plus, players largely aren't the ones who're making these tournaments possible. Casters, largely, seem to be creating the base for eSports to grow...and players are just playing. Look at Day9, and what he's done compared to pro players. There's a big disparity there, and there's probably a huge disparity in salaries too, despite the fact that Day9 probably does more overall.
As for pro-players becoming casters...I'm fine with that, so long as they work on it and aren't really dry to listen to like most of the ones I've heard so far :/
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