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Criticism is allowed. Undue flaming is not. Take a second to think your post through before you submit.
Bans will be handed out.
Should go without saying, but don't link restreams here either. |
On February 17 2012 02:24 SayaSC wrote:20 is a bit much I guess. I'll give it a shot. Im a student and need all the money I can get.. but its starcraft so.. just this once. 
This is the attitude that is terrible for any of us to have. If you think it is worth 20 dollars then you should definitely spend it. If you think it is a bit much then you should not spend the money in order to send the message. Spending your 20 dollars and saying this is too much is not a message that will be heard / cared about. Looking at MLG from an investor standpoint, I wouldn't pay 20 dollars for the product that I've been presented. I feel IPL and Dreamhack's production quality is significantly better and I doubt they would start off charging 20 dollars a person. Sundance made poor decisions. He stated so on Lo3 MANY times last night. Why would anybody want to invest in something that the leadership makes so many poor decisions?
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On February 17 2012 03:51 Ercster wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 02:11 Klondikebar wrote:On February 17 2012 02:04 drgoats wrote:On February 17 2012 01:53 tylervoss4 wrote:
im just curious why is 1st place prize still $5,000 ?
This is the reason why koreans don't want to risk coming to tournament on their own expense.
Increase the prize, make livestreams free, more pros will come, and more people will watch.
If you want this to work, make all games free except for the finals. (finals being $5 to watch) You must have gotten some misinformation: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012_MLG_Pro_Circuit/WinterAlso don't forget that all travel and accommodations are paid for and that could be a significant amount for each player/team. And lastly, what is your expertise of the tournament scene that makes your model better than his? I am going to trust the guy with 10 years of experience in the field. Hell, he might be wrong on this but his time and effort in the scene has to earn some respect and make him the expert on how to monetize eSports, doesn't it? Not if he's spent the past 10 years driving MLG into the red. Which is kinda a big point of debate in this thread. Sundance HASN'T been the CEO for 10 years, though. I believe he became CEO in either 09' or 10'.
Ah ok. I actually meant that if as a legitimate if (as opposed to smartassery) so thanks for clarifying 
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Korea (South)2711 Posts
I tend to liken the current e-sports scene to any other sport. I'm going to use hockey as an example.
Hockey is free to watch on TV. Unless you buy HD channels and that provides extra content for anywhere between 5-10 dollars a month. that in itself is similar to what GSL and MLG have done in the past.
What MLG is trying to do is combine the current system of HD with the PPV. which is a bit of a double cost for what you are getting.
Hockey and sport channels seem to make enough to have millions of dollars in profits. Many of them don't charge a fee to watch and they are usally the most popular channels people. If anyone knows Hockey they have heard of Hockey night in Canada. Which is free to everyone with bunny ears.
How do they make profit when they have not monotized anything. They put one of the best production values on in Hockey for the cost of $0.
Reason they make money is because of sponsors. Sponsors pay HNC to run a few ads. HNC rolls in dough.
Basically what I am saying is that the way to make money off Starcraft is not in charging people for a service. Its getting sc2 big enough so sponsors are willing to shell out the big bucks to sponsors and have their ads run during the stream.
Mind you HNC gets easily 10x the amount of viewers that MLG does. but I think every single day sc2 is growing and getting 200-300 thousand concurrent stream views isn't that far off.
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On February 17 2012 03:06 RajaF wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 03:03 Soap wrote:On February 17 2012 02:50 RajaF wrote:On February 17 2012 02:36 drgoats wrote:On February 17 2012 02:21 RajaF wrote:On February 17 2012 02:04 drgoats wrote:On February 17 2012 01:53 tylervoss4 wrote:
im just curious why is 1st place prize still $5,000 ?
This is the reason why koreans don't want to risk coming to tournament on their own expense.
Increase the prize, make livestreams free, more pros will come, and more people will watch.
If you want this to work, make all games free except for the finals. (finals being $5 to watch) You must have gotten some misinformation: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012_MLG_Pro_Circuit/WinterAlso don't forget that all travel and accommodations are paid for and that could be a significant amount for each player/team. And lastly, what is your expertise of the tournament scene that makes your model better than his? I am going to trust the guy with 10 years of experience in the field. Hell, he might be wrong on this but his time and effort in the scene has to earn some respect and make him the expert on how to monetize eSports, doesn't it? The guy spent 10 years running a business in the red and he still has not managed to turn it around (wholy crap man, in a real life business you might get 2-3 years tops to get into the black before you go belly up). So yeah the only thing he has proved is that he also has no clue just like the rest of us. This is a real life business unless your definition of real life business is different than mine. He did get a lot of support from investors in the last few years which shows that there are people in the business world who like what MLG is doing and believe that it will be successful. Basically his business has been expanding since inception and along with expansion comes extra expenses. When eSports reaches its potential he will probably start getting to a point that he will turn profits. Also your argument is all the more reason why he should have PPV since the other models were not strong enough get him out of the red. Like I said, he might be wrong on what he is doing now but his opinion counts a lot more than the majority of ours due to his experience in running a multi-million dollar eSports company. He is one of a few experts in the field who can come up with the proper model. Sorry, real life was a bad chioce of words. Should of just said any other business. And just because it's millions of dollars it does not make him an expert. He is an expert just like those Wall St types that caused a world economic crysis four years ago. Everyone trusted them because they had supposed "experience" yet all they did was run a big scam. ESPORTS is not like any other business. No one has consistently turned out a profit yet. Also your last sentence reinforces you have no clue about economy. I really don't have a clue you are right. But I get my info from my father who has a PhD in economy, so I will trust his opinion over yours, which so far says it is you who hasn't got a clue.
Your logic is flawed though, you stated that the "experts" arent actually experts and you point to another expert to back up your logic. If they're not the experts despite having the experience then what makes your father an expert when there are an equal amount of experts with credentials that disagree with him. I don't disagree with your father's statements butbut calling doubt on expertise just BC they work in a field can also be applied to your father.
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On February 17 2012 02:49 tylervoss4 wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 02:04 drgoats wrote:On February 17 2012 01:53 tylervoss4 wrote:
im just curious why is 1st place prize still $5,000 ?
This is the reason why koreans don't want to risk coming to tournament on their own expense.
Increase the prize, make livestreams free, more pros will come, and more people will watch.
If you want this to work, make all games free except for the finals. (finals being $5 to watch) You must have gotten some misinformation: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012_MLG_Pro_Circuit/WinterAlso don't forget that all travel and accommodations are paid for and that could be a significant amount for each player/team. And lastly, what is your expertise of the tournament scene that makes your model better than his? I am going to trust the guy with 10 years of experience in the field. Hell, he might be wrong on this but his time and effort in the scene has to earn some respect and make him the expert on how to monetize eSports, doesn't it? One of the main reason why E-sports is where it is now is because it has always been "Free" Sundane's decision on turning "E-sports" into money making banking machine is going to ruin what has been built up for the last 10 years by the Koreans. The word. "PPV" has never been near the same quadrant as E-sports. that just sounds wrong. Hell I never pay for UFC fights even though there were top top top fighters in the world duking out for title belt.
Do you like eSports as it is now, or do you want it to grow?
If you said you wanted it to grow, then this HAS to happen. These companies can't continue to lose money while still trying to grow. I agree with everyone that the price is too much, but to say that PPV will ruin it, shows your ignorance towards the reality of this business.
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On February 17 2012 03:57 masterbreti wrote:
I tend to liken the current e-sports scene to any other sport. I'm going to use hockey as an example.
Hockey is free to watch on TV. Unless you buy HD channels and that provides extra content for anywhere between 5-10 dollars a month. that in itself is similar to what GSL and MLG have done in the past.
What MLG is trying to do is combine the current system of HD with the PPV. which is a bit of a double cost for what you are getting.
Hockey and sport channels seem to make enough to have millions of dollars in profits. Many of them don't charge a fee to watch and they are usally the most popular channels people. If anyone knows Hockey they have heard of Hockey night in Canada. Which is free to everyone with bunny ears.
How do they make profit when they have not monotized anything. They put one of the best production values on in Hockey for the cost of $0.
Reason they make money is because of sponsors. Sponsors pay HNC to run a few ads. HNC rolls in dough.
Basically what I am saying is that the way to make money off Starcraft is not in charging people for a service. Its getting sc2 big enough so sponsors are willing to shell out the big bucks to sponsors and have their ads run during the stream.
Mind you HNC gets easily 10x the amount of viewers that MLG does. but I think every single day sc2 is growing and getting 200-300 thousand concurrent stream views isn't that far off.
Hockey is absolutely huge in Canada so I'm not really sure that it is a good idea to compare the two. Hockey in the states is not nearly as popular and at least in NY it is not free except for the occasional NBC game.
If you compare it to a sport that has a smaller niche following like billiards or bowling it might make more sense. Here in the states we can only get those on cable so they are not free.
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On February 17 2012 03:59 Ercster wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 02:49 tylervoss4 wrote:On February 17 2012 02:04 drgoats wrote:On February 17 2012 01:53 tylervoss4 wrote:
im just curious why is 1st place prize still $5,000 ?
This is the reason why koreans don't want to risk coming to tournament on their own expense.
Increase the prize, make livestreams free, more pros will come, and more people will watch.
If you want this to work, make all games free except for the finals. (finals being $5 to watch) You must have gotten some misinformation: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012_MLG_Pro_Circuit/WinterAlso don't forget that all travel and accommodations are paid for and that could be a significant amount for each player/team. And lastly, what is your expertise of the tournament scene that makes your model better than his? I am going to trust the guy with 10 years of experience in the field. Hell, he might be wrong on this but his time and effort in the scene has to earn some respect and make him the expert on how to monetize eSports, doesn't it? One of the main reason why E-sports is where it is now is because it has always been "Free" Sundane's decision on turning "E-sports" into money making banking machine is going to ruin what has been built up for the last 10 years by the Koreans. The word. "PPV" has never been near the same quadrant as E-sports. that just sounds wrong. Hell I never pay for UFC fights even though there were top top top fighters in the world duking out for title belt. Do you like eSports as it is now, or do you want it to grow? If you said you wanted it to grow, then this HAS to happen. These companies can't continue to lose money while still trying to grow. I agree with everyone that the price is too much, but to say that PPV will ruin it, shows your ignorance towards the reality of this business.
No other sporting event is run for free without charging some section of their fans money. All major league sports have contracts with TV stations, charge to see their event's live, sell licenced video games or clothing. The list goes on and on. Do you think Tiger Woods makes more money playing golf or selling his brand to EAsports and other retail companies? I will give you a hint, its not playing golf. But Tiger Woods would not be able to make that money if he did not play golf so well. People watch him play on channels that have paid to have that specific event on screen. In turn, they pay their cable bill to watch that channel.
You may not pay directly every time you watch sports, but someone is paying to have that sporting event on that screen. It is how they pay to keep the lights on. Esports needs to move in that direction. They don't want to make all their money off directly from fan, but do need to charge something.
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All this esports this, esports that is ridiculous. I can easily afford this tournament but paying to watch is conceptually a little ridiculous to me. Im okay with a nominal fee, I pay for GSL because it's not much for what I get. Asking me too pay a significant amount of money for one tournament will never fly with me. I could just go play the game and be entertained.
I think all the esports bickering is so stupid. I don't really care about the ramifications for esports, I care about watching sc2. It baffles me to see people saying they'll pay to support the future. It reminds me how many kids watch this game. As I said I can certainly afford 20 bucks but when I spend my money I expect value. Donating pity money to this naive notion of supporting esports is so absurd. Pay for content you want and if it is viable as a businesses it will work out naturally. A few hundred n kids making small occasional donations accomplishes nothing. This is about personal economics. Only consider your own perspective in this situation, to do anything else is naively idealistic.
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On February 17 2012 04:07 drgoats wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 03:57 masterbreti wrote:
I tend to liken the current e-sports scene to any other sport. I'm going to use hockey as an example.
Hockey is free to watch on TV. Unless you buy HD channels and that provides extra content for anywhere between 5-10 dollars a month. that in itself is similar to what GSL and MLG have done in the past.
What MLG is trying to do is combine the current system of HD with the PPV. which is a bit of a double cost for what you are getting.
Hockey and sport channels seem to make enough to have millions of dollars in profits. Many of them don't charge a fee to watch and they are usally the most popular channels people. If anyone knows Hockey they have heard of Hockey night in Canada. Which is free to everyone with bunny ears.
How do they make profit when they have not monotized anything. They put one of the best production values on in Hockey for the cost of $0.
Reason they make money is because of sponsors. Sponsors pay HNC to run a few ads. HNC rolls in dough.
Basically what I am saying is that the way to make money off Starcraft is not in charging people for a service. Its getting sc2 big enough so sponsors are willing to shell out the big bucks to sponsors and have their ads run during the stream.
Mind you HNC gets easily 10x the amount of viewers that MLG does. but I think every single day sc2 is growing and getting 200-300 thousand concurrent stream views isn't that far off.
Hockey is absolutely huge in Canada so I'm not really sure that it is a good idea to compare the two. Hockey in the states is not nearly as popular and at least in NY it is not free except for the occasional NBC game. If you compare it to a sport that has a smaller niche following like billiards or bowling it might make more sense. Here in the states we can only get those on cable so they are not free.
Exactly. Hockey is paid by the TV channels that show their games. In turn you pay for those TV channels by paying for cable. Some on shown for free on specific stations, but those staions still pay and make up for the costs with ads. And that specific hockey game does not make up all of that stations income.
The difference is that MLG does not have the ability to charge your internet provider to show their events.
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On February 17 2012 04:09 bovineblitz wrote:
All this esports this, esports that is ridiculous. I can easily afford this tournament but paying to watch is conceptually a little ridiculous to me. Im okay with a nominal fee, I pay for GSL because it's not much for what I get. Asking me too pay a significant amount of money for one tournament will never fly with me. I could just go play the game and be entertained.
I think all the esports bickering is so stupid. I don't really care about the ramifications for esports, I care about watching sc2. It baffles me to see people saying they'll pay to support the future. It reminds me how many kids watch this game. As I said I can certainly afford 20 bucks but when I spend my money I expect value. Donating pity money to this naive notion of supporting esports is so absurd. Pay for content you want and if it is viable as a businesses it will work out naturally. A few hundred n kids making small occasional donations accomplishes nothing. This is about personal economics. Only consider your own perspective in this situation, to do anything else is naively idealistic.
I am not idealistic, I just want to give MLG a shot. I have enjoyed what I have seen over the last year and I am willing to risk $20 to see if the event is worth it. However, I think the idea that no Esports even should charge money and it should be free and make money off ads is dumb. I would even call it naively idealistic.
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Damn this sucks, I won't be able to watch
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On February 17 2012 04:16 Plansix wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 04:09 bovineblitz wrote:
All this esports this, esports that is ridiculous. I can easily afford this tournament but paying to watch is conceptually a little ridiculous to me. Im okay with a nominal fee, I pay for GSL because it's not much for what I get. Asking me too pay a significant amount of money for one tournament will never fly with me. I could just go play the game and be entertained.
I think all the esports bickering is so stupid. I don't really care about the ramifications for esports, I care about watching sc2. It baffles me to see people saying they'll pay to support the future. It reminds me how many kids watch this game. As I said I can certainly afford 20 bucks but when I spend my money I expect value. Donating pity money to this naive notion of supporting esports is so absurd. Pay for content you want and if it is viable as a businesses it will work out naturally. A few hundred n kids making small occasional donations accomplishes nothing. This is about personal economics. Only consider your own perspective in this situation, to do anything else is naively idealistic. I am not idealistic, I just want to give MLG a shot. I have enjoyed what I have seen over the last year and I am willing to risk $20 to see if the event is worth it. However, I think the idea that no Esports even should charge money and it should be free and make money off ads is dumb. I would even call it naively idealistic.
Looks like you completely missed the part where I said I pay for gsl and don't mind paying a nominal fee.
Read entire posts and comprehend them before replying, please.
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On February 17 2012 04:09 bovineblitz wrote:
All this esports this, esports that is ridiculous. I can easily afford this tournament but paying to watch is conceptually a little ridiculous to me. Im okay with a nominal fee, I pay for GSL because it's not much for what I get. Asking me too pay a significant amount of money for one tournament will never fly with me. I could just go play the game and be entertained.
I think all the esports bickering is so stupid. I don't really care about the ramifications for esports, I care about watching sc2. It baffles me to see people saying they'll pay to support the future. It reminds me how many kids watch this game. As I said I can certainly afford 20 bucks but when I spend my money I expect value. Donating pity money to this naive notion of supporting esports is so absurd. Pay for content you want and if it is viable as a businesses it will work out naturally. A few hundred n kids making small occasional donations accomplishes nothing. This is about personal economics. Only consider your own perspective in this situation, to do anything else is naively idealistic.
Most people aren't buying a pass to support e-sports, at least I hope not because that's a silly assumption. I, myself, am buying for a couple of reasons: 1) For a weekends entertainment 2) To Support MLG, a company that I have supported longer than most people on this site.
When you purchase something from a company, you are supporting that company more than you are supporting that market. In the case of e-sports, it may be both because the scale of e-sports is not that big. The players and casters at this event are great, and I want to watch it. I'm not donating because I feel pity, in fact I haven't seen many, if anyone, say they are paying for pity.
You are correct too, pay for content you want. That is what the people buying the ticket are doing. I want this content, I'm going to buy it. Other peoples opinions on why they aren't going to buy it won't change my mind. If you don't support the idea, then make your voice heard, not by sitting her criticizing those who decide to buy it, but by not watching it. Sundance stated that this is basically a test, this may in fact be the only Arena. If it works out then it works out, if not, then we move on. The people who do not pay for PPV are not missing anything they had last year. They will have all the MLG Championships. This is new content that you didn't have before, that was not free before, so it has no reason to be free. Ignore the Arenas and pretend they never happen and this year will be the same as last year for you.
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LOL
To buy MLG gold you have to go to a Toys "R" Us or a Gamestop. So you can't buy it online, and it's at like two shops you don't find in the UK really (and the ones that are here I bet don't stock it).
$30 is almost worth it to get the HQ etc etc.
I can only give MLG money if they let me.
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Korea (South)2711 Posts
On February 17 2012 04:13 Plansix wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 04:07 drgoats wrote:On February 17 2012 03:57 masterbreti wrote:
I tend to liken the current e-sports scene to any other sport. I'm going to use hockey as an example.
Hockey is free to watch on TV. Unless you buy HD channels and that provides extra content for anywhere between 5-10 dollars a month. that in itself is similar to what GSL and MLG have done in the past.
What MLG is trying to do is combine the current system of HD with the PPV. which is a bit of a double cost for what you are getting.
Hockey and sport channels seem to make enough to have millions of dollars in profits. Many of them don't charge a fee to watch and they are usally the most popular channels people. If anyone knows Hockey they have heard of Hockey night in Canada. Which is free to everyone with bunny ears.
How do they make profit when they have not monotized anything. They put one of the best production values on in Hockey for the cost of $0.
Reason they make money is because of sponsors. Sponsors pay HNC to run a few ads. HNC rolls in dough.
Basically what I am saying is that the way to make money off Starcraft is not in charging people for a service. Its getting sc2 big enough so sponsors are willing to shell out the big bucks to sponsors and have their ads run during the stream.
Mind you HNC gets easily 10x the amount of viewers that MLG does. but I think every single day sc2 is growing and getting 200-300 thousand concurrent stream views isn't that far off.
Hockey is absolutely huge in Canada so I'm not really sure that it is a good idea to compare the two. Hockey in the states is not nearly as popular and at least in NY it is not free except for the occasional NBC game. If you compare it to a sport that has a smaller niche following like billiards or bowling it might make more sense. Here in the states we can only get those on cable so they are not free. Exactly. Hockey is paid by the TV channels that show their games. In turn you pay for those TV channels by paying for cable. Some on shown for free on specific stations, but those staions still pay and make up for the costs with ads. And that specific hockey game does not make up all of that stations income. The difference is that MLG does not have the ability to charge your internet provider to show their events.
Another difference is that MLG doesn't provide 1/10th the content that a single sports channel provides.
Thats why I metioned HNC as something attainable. Since HNC is only one once a week. and MLG doesn't provide regular content for PPV. Making a system similar to how HNC works would make more sense than PPV.
Though the hard part would be getting sponsors. but with the new format and (hopefully) better production. Getting more views than last year would be an easy feat plus cost less than running 6-8 lans.
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On February 17 2012 04:22 Deadeight wrote:
LOL
To buy MLG gold you have to go to a Toys "R" Us or a Gamestop. So you can't buy it online, and it's at like two shops you don't find in the UK really (and the ones that are here I bet don't stock it).
$30 is almost worth it to get the HQ etc etc.
I can only give MLG money if they let me.
Yeah this is an interesting dilemma. I am sure that there will be some sort of solution when the Championship roles around. MLG is probably fully aware that they could lose a significant amount of sales if gold passes are not available outside the states.
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You're ruining esports!
I kind of see why, but I think $20 is too much for most people for only 2 days of sc2. Especially for students, and we make up for a big cunch of the community. I will be attending a local barcraft thought, if its not filled up like last time. But last time the bar closed before the finals was even started, because its so late. So even that isn't really optimal. On top of that a ton of people don't have a local barcraft to go to, so the idea of "Don't want to pay? Just attent a local barcraft!" is not a solution.
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I like what Doa and Destiny and Rumcake said last night before the Axslav vs. Gretorp showmatch:
Do they have a right to charge us money for this event?
Absolutely. It's not like there isn't plenty of free MLG content out there. They're simply testing the waters with a pay-per-view concept. It's not like everyone is going to charge us money for viewing every event all of a sudden.
Do they have a right to charge $20, as opposed to a different amount of money?
Absolutely. Quite frankly, we're spoiled rotten by having nearly everything starcraft-related being free. 20 dollars is nothing. The whole "boo hoo I'm a poor college student" is nonsense. You probably tweet that from your iphone while buying a case of beer. If you really want to see it, you can shell out the few dollars. If you don't think it's worth 20 dollars, then don't buy the product and enjoy the other free content. But it's MLG's event, so they can name their price. They'll find out how big of an audience they end up getting, and adjust accordingly next time.
The problem is that MLG gold members probably assumed they would have free access to special events like these, simply by virtue of buying passes already. Discounts don't really cut it, and I pretty much agree with the slight betrayal that those people are feeling. But as far as everyone else goes... seriously, suck it up. Plenty of sports have some pay-per-view content. 99.99% of our stuff is absolutely free. Some of the whining about business is really exaggerated.
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On February 17 2012 04:29 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
I like what Doa and Destiny and Rumcake said last night before the Axslav vs. Gretorp showmatch:
Do they have a right to charge us money for this event?
Absolutely. It's not like there isn't plenty of free MLG content out there. They're simply testing the waters with a pay-per-view concept. It's not like everyone is going to charge us money for viewing every event all of a sudden.
Do they have a right to charge $20, as opposed to a different amount of money?
Absolutely. Quite frankly, we're spoiled rotten by having nearly everything starcraft-related being free. 20 dollars is nothing. The whole "boo hoo I'm a poor college student" is nonsense. You probably tweet that from your iphone while buying a case of beer. If you really want to see it, you can shell out the few dollars. If you don't think it's worth 20 dollars, then don't buy the product and enjoy the other free content. But it's MLG's event, so they can name their price. They'll find out how big of an audience they end up getting, and adjust accordingly next time.
The problem is that MLG gold members probably assumed they would have free access to special events like these, simply by virtue of buying passes already. Discounts don't really cut it, and I pretty much agree with the slight betrayal that those people are feeling. But as far as everyone else goes... seriously, suck it up. Plenty of sports have some pay-per-view content. 99.99% of our stuff is absolutely free. Some of the whining about business is really exaggerated.
Right. You see we are poor -because- we have an interest in computers. Do you really want me to go without a propper phone so I can watch starcraft 2 for a day? Sure I have a good computer, but that is my hobby. Without it, I wouldn't have this interest in sc2 to begin with.
But alas. I'm sure you have all the right in the world to say how $20 is nothing in your fulltime job.
edit: also. of course MLG can put the price they want. Who are we to stop them? If they want to charge 1000 bucks for an hour of watching. Go ahead. But they will lose some viewers in the process. We're trying to argue whats best for MLG, the community and esports in general here. Not what you personally can afford to pay.
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On February 17 2012 04:32 Excludos wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2012 04:29 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
I like what Doa and Destiny and Rumcake said last night before the Axslav vs. Gretorp showmatch:
Do they have a right to charge us money for this event?
Absolutely. It's not like there isn't plenty of free MLG content out there. They're simply testing the waters with a pay-per-view concept. It's not like everyone is going to charge us money for viewing every event all of a sudden.
Do they have a right to charge $20, as opposed to a different amount of money?
Absolutely. Quite frankly, we're spoiled rotten by having nearly everything starcraft-related being free. 20 dollars is nothing. The whole "boo hoo I'm a poor college student" is nonsense. You probably tweet that from your iphone while buying a case of beer. If you really want to see it, you can shell out the few dollars. If you don't think it's worth 20 dollars, then don't buy the product and enjoy the other free content. But it's MLG's event, so they can name their price. They'll find out how big of an audience they end up getting, and adjust accordingly next time.
The problem is that MLG gold members probably assumed they would have free access to special events like these, simply by virtue of buying passes already. Discounts don't really cut it, and I pretty much agree with the slight betrayal that those people are feeling. But as far as everyone else goes... seriously, suck it up. Plenty of sports have some pay-per-view content. 99.99% of our stuff is absolutely free. Some of the whining about business is really exaggerated. Right. You see we are poor -because- we have an interest in computers. Do you really want me to go without a propper phone so I can watch starcraft 2 for a day? Sure I have a good computer, but that is my hobby. Without it, I wouldn't have this interest in sc2 to begin with. But alas. I'm sure you have all the right in the world to say how $20 is nothing in your fulltime job. edit: also. of course MLG can put the price they want. Who are we to stop them? If they want to charge 1000 bucks for an hour of watching. Go ahead. But they will lose some viewers in the process. We're trying to argue whats best for MLG, the community and esports in general here. Not what you personally can afford to pay.
I hate the college student argument. I'm in college, I manage my money and I am able to pay for this. I would've spent $20 doing something else during the weekend anyways
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EPT
