EPTI only watched the last game between DRG and Oz. THe rest was too late, which is another reason I will probably never pay for mlg.
How did you watch MLG? - Page 24
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Elean
689 Posts
I only watched the last game between DRG and Oz. THe rest was too late, which is another reason I will probably never pay for mlg. | ||
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Ghost.573
United States126 Posts
On February 27 2012 13:38 TheAlchemist89 wrote: I think you are being a touch too extreme with your statement. Just because people liked this PPV by no way means MLG is going to completely change their Esports model and cancel the championship circuit and run only PPVs. I'm sure they have an egghead or two that would be able to figure out that if they did this, their fanbase would evaporate pretty quickly as no one is going to dish out 20 bucks all the time to them. (They don't have enough fans yet, Esports isn't nearly big enough for this to be sustainable). That being said, there's nothing wrong with putting together a few really cool tournies a year and charging some money to see them PPV style to try to inject some revenue into their business. I bought the PPV, I enjoyed it... I'm not particularly angry that people watched it free... in fact I'm not at all. I paid to support high quality content. Am I going to do it every month? No... there were issues that they have to deal with if they want 20 bucks from me again... but I definitely applauded the effort put into this event. It was really cool. I understand some people don't mind it. The problem arises when there are tournaments of the same caliber (less games obviously, but still top players) streaming 1080p for free. MLG will never succeed with the PPV model unless they can convince the other big tournaments to do the same. If they ever do this again, they may want to be sure that no other big event is scheduled the same weekend. If there is no other big tournament to watch than I may consider it, but if I can watch better games on two streams for free (which was the case with assembly and even IPL4) than I will choose that over paying 20 dollars for shoddy streams and a crappy studio. Right now I am in college and cannot afford to be paying for starcraft all that often. As of now I don't pay even for the GSL (I would if I had the money to spare). I have to be sure that I have the money for all of my bills as well as books and gas. Once I get into my career I will be able to actually pay for some of these things, but for now I cannot. There are a decent amount of Starcraft fans that are in the same predicament as me as well. I don't blame them for trying and honestly if it worked than whatever. The problem will arise that if it was profitable they will do it more. There is no way around that, and if it continues to work other tournaments will do it as well. Once it gets to that point than nobody will be able to watch and it will turn into a war between tournaments to get the best players and get the most viewers. This in my opinion is bad because it will force smaller tournaments that want to get big to the wayside. This is just speculation obviously, but it seems a fairly logical order of steps that this could possibly take. edit: just so people know. I did not pay nor did I use any workarounds to watch. I watched one or two games just by clicking on their stream, but that was it. I would have probably payed $10 for it, but no more. I will never be able to justify $20 for 3 days of games (no matter how many). I would rather pay $20 for 40 games but a full month than $20 for 3 days and 80 games. | ||
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Heff87
United States106 Posts
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Sensator
Australia377 Posts
Why would I pay $20 for MLG when I could watch a hundred other SC2 streams for free instead? | ||
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KevinIX
United States2472 Posts
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Doodsmack
United States7224 Posts
On February 27 2012 13:41 Xpace wrote: Assuming they fix the broken paywall, 20% viewership is terrible. I assume you're saying "terrible" in terms of your opinion of how to grow esports - i.e., a 20% viewership won't help to grow esports because the tournament didn't get as much exposure as it could have. If you're saying 20% is terrible from a business standpoint for MLG, you have no idea what you're talking about. | ||
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bokchoi
Korea (South)9498 Posts
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Fortis-Et-Fidus
United States119 Posts
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IceSlipper
Australia1028 Posts
Personally I didnt watch the games at all, but I can completely understand those who chose not to pay and still found ways of tuning in.. 20$ may seem like a small amount to most (and in reality it probably is), but fact is some people simply cant afford to throw around money on a form of entertainment like this that only lasts over the span of a few days. I know people dispense of plenty of money for entertainment, but imho (ignoring the reasoning of purely supporting esports) the ratio of free content in the sc2 scene compared to PPV simply doesnt justify forking out 20$ for 3 days of games, particularly as this beloved hobby of ours is largely based on the internet (where copyright is broken like a 120 year olds wrists and free stuff roams freely). If you want to support esports (which i do), that is fine. However purely from an entertainment standpoint 20$ for 3 days of games, when there is an abundance the size of the pacific ocean of streams/games to watch everyday simply isnt worth it. If the amount of free content was considerably lower, then the perceived value of such a ticket/pass would rise. Which is why, if i really wanted to watch the games, would have no issue trying to find a work around/alternative way to view the stream for free and do not begrudge anyone for doing so. That being said, if i wasnt in the financial situation i am, i would be more than happy to fork over 20$ to MLG, but more so to support esports than for the content provided. | ||
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naux
Canada738 Posts
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kretz
United States29 Posts
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TrickyGilligan
United States641 Posts
The problem with PPV I think isn't the cost, but that is a big issue. It's the fact that your audience is both international, and possibly not willing to devote an entire weekend to watching Starcraft games. Yeah, there' were 4 streams and a billion games this weekend, which are potentially worth $20. But I'm a 3 hour time difference from New York. I mean, I'm in the same country as the event taking place, and the times were bad for me. I can't imagine what the Europeans had to do. I was only able to watch some on Sunday, so I went to a barcraft instead of paying $20 for one day. I can sort of see the whole thing being $20, but then you're narrowing your audience down even further from the already small "willing to pay $20 to watch other people play video games" demographic. So, I would have gladly bought Sunday for $10, but I simply couldn't watch the entire thing. $20 for a few hours of games isn't worth it in my opinion, especially when VODs are free in a week. | ||
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ThomasHobbes
United States197 Posts
Demanding that all SCII events be made available for free is. A majority of individuals did not feel this event justified a $20 cost. They turned to alternatives, whether that was not watching, watching a restream, or watching something else. You can't expect people to pay for something they don't want to pay for. The problem, from a business perspective, is with MLG. Their product is not as marketable as their price demands, and there are easy alternatives for viewers. | ||
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Comogury
United States412 Posts
On February 27 2012 14:00 Elean wrote: I don't know what the work around is, but I was able to watch for free. I only watched the last game between DRG and Oz. THe rest was too late, which is another reason I will probably never pay for mlg. Yeah, same here. I didn't have to do anything and it just let me watch for free. :/ | ||
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Erectum
France194 Posts
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emc
United States3088 Posts
On February 27 2012 12:27 Forikorder wrote: just becuase its impossible to relegate doesnt mean its something taht should be done so then we should outcast barcrafters? best way to promote esports is with fresh blood. I got into UFC because I went to parties and UFC was on. Did I pay $50? no, but I became a huge fan. Esports needs fans, even if only 1% of the fan base pays out of 1 million, it's still better than a hardcore fan base of 100,000 who pay for everything. new blood makes a sport thrive, not hinder it. | ||
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jmbthirteen
United States10734 Posts
On February 27 2012 14:09 kretz wrote: I find it ironic that people are complaining about trying to get the mlg for free when every time a ufc comes on there are multiple links to the ppv and you're sure these are the same people? | ||
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Ghost.573
United States126 Posts
On February 27 2012 14:09 naux wrote: I paid 20 dollars and to be honest am proud of it.. most of you people in here are so spoiled with everything just being free to you and dont expect to pay for anything.. just because other events its free to watch and this is pay to watch.. this is there first time doing it so why not support ESPORTS and just think of it as a donation.. god people are so blind You don't realize though that the free content is the same quality (better quality in my opinion as MLG streams are always shitty and laggy). Also lets be honest, most of the people who watched the streams only watched the main stream for the most part. They had the good casters on that stream and then crappy casters on the other streams. Then their was the point of view streams which would be interesting. Basically their was one good stream and thats it. | ||
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Kharnage
Australia920 Posts
On February 27 2012 14:11 ThomasHobbes wrote: Watching the Arena Event for free is not entitlement. Demanding that all SCII events be made available for free is. A majority of individuals did not feel this event justified a $20 cost. They turned to alternatives, whether that was not watching, watching a restream, or watching something else. You can't expect people to pay for something they don't want to pay for. The problem, from a business perspective, is with MLG. Their product is not as marketable as their price demands, and there are easy alternatives for viewers. The flaw in this argument is that for many the 'alternative' was to watch MLG in an underhanded manner. | ||
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Befree
695 Posts
While part of it is that I have simply come to realize that it is very unrealistic to expect being able to watch a long tournament on the weekend without constant social interruptions, another of course was just being against the pricing model. I did catch two sets from the restream that was linked in the LR thread, though. I imagine if I did have more time and interest to watch during a future event, and the pricing model were the same, I would still probably watch it restreamed if there was a stream with reasonable quality that was easily accessible. I really have no interest in arguing the morality of viewing restreams as I can't imagine how anything productive could come from that, just trying to be 100% honest like the OP asked for. | ||
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