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On February 27 2012 14:21 jmbthirteen wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2012 14:19 Konaa wrote:
One demographic I think MLG and all the "pay or you're dirty scum" people are forgetting about is the younger audience. Nobody is going to get their parents to let them pay $20 with their credit card to watch people play a video game, and most young people don't have credit cards. Anyone under 18 or so is basically forced to watch with the bug or watch a restream if they want to enjoy the event, even if they're willing to pay for it. wtf? Kids now a days have more money than ever. All of these kids are playing on computers that they either paid for or their parents bought them. If the kid really wants to watch it and doesn't have money of their own then they can work something out with their parents where they do more chores or something. Also that demographic of kids with no money isn't valuable at all and MLG doesn't miss them much honestly.
Very bad argument. The fact that the biggest age group within gaming is alienated isn't a problem to you? The majority of new viewership is going to be from young people. 25 year olds that don't play video games aren't going to get into sc2 at any point. Teens that do play would get into it.
And I would argue that close to 0% of teen kids can afford / make their parents pay $20 for a weekend pass. You have a very priveleged life if you think that ammount of money is trivial in this world. Especially in a world where most people don't respect or understand professional gaming.
MLG is by no means going to kill the sc2 scene growth by doing this. They may limit it slightly but the bigger point is that other companies will pick up the torch and carry on. MLG will be to games what UFC is to sports. Sucessful within its niche but vastly outperformed in actual viewership.
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People are quick to forget that this is an addition to what MLG already did. They're not taking things you got for free prior to this away, they're adding more and saying "Hey, we're adding more and trying to grow, if you think it's worth the price then buy it, if not then have a good day and tune into the free events."
It was first and foremost an experiment to see if they can monetize the community to some point. I mean wouldn't you guys think it was awesome if all these leagues like MLG, GSL, IPL, IEM, etc were adding more things for you but kept their regular events free? If you can afford it you buy it. I bought a pass for MLG Arena and then I also went to a Barcraft for the finals. I know some people can't afford it but hey if you can and you think it's worth it then why not?
This wasn't ever going to turn every event into a PPV. I don't know why people thought that but this was going to happen at some point. MLG just tried it first. It was an experiment, it was successful, they're trying it again. Who knows it may be $15 next time. But it's not the end of the world. MLG is just trying to make everything self-sufficient.
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On February 27 2012 14:31 Ghostfoot wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2012 14:21 jmbthirteen wrote:On February 27 2012 14:19 Konaa wrote:
One demographic I think MLG and all the "pay or you're dirty scum" people are forgetting about is the younger audience. Nobody is going to get their parents to let them pay $20 with their credit card to watch people play a video game, and most young people don't have credit cards. Anyone under 18 or so is basically forced to watch with the bug or watch a restream if they want to enjoy the event, even if they're willing to pay for it. wtf? Kids now a days have more money than ever. All of these kids are playing on computers that they either paid for or their parents bought them. If the kid really wants to watch it and doesn't have money of their own then they can work something out with their parents where they do more chores or something. Also that demographic of kids with no money isn't valuable at all and MLG doesn't miss them much honestly. I disagree with you there. I'm under 18 and nobody I know paid to watch MLG, they all used restreams or other methods. They probably could've paid seeing as how we see in a rather wealthy area, but they didn't. Many parents also don't enjoy throwing their credit card information online and prefer to keep in right in front of them in person.
Those are different reasons than being young and not being able to afford it.
Also tell your parents to be careful at the gas station, people can get their CC info from the pumps.
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On February 27 2012 14:28 jmbthirteen wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2012 14:26 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 14:24 jmbthirteen wrote:On February 27 2012 14:22 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 14:19 jmbthirteen wrote:On February 27 2012 14:18 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 13:54 Kharnage wrote:On February 27 2012 13:41 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 13:28 how2TL wrote:On February 27 2012 13:21 Xpace wrote:
[quote]
I'm seeing more comments claiming that they would pay if the price was lowered, than people saying they would never pay to watch SC2. Saying that is not the same as doing it. MLG obviously thought that they'd get the most value by having it at $20. Look at this poll. 20% paid $20. Assuming that's representative, that's amazing. 20% of people paying $20 is better than 100% of people paying $0. Do you think 40% of people would pay if it was $10? Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it. Do you think 80% of people would pay if it was $5? Hell no. MLG had a very successful pilot run. Wait, what? Almost half in the poll said they didn't watch it. From that we can infer that they didn't know about the broken paywall, and that they simply didn't watch the tournament. How is people not watching MLG making it successful for them? Look at this new thread. People not watching MLG means it's unsuccessful, and Sundance saying there's going to be an event in June doesn't necessarily mean this particular model of $20 PPV was a success. He could announce that MLG would go back to its original methods for all we know. Assuming they fix the broken paywall, 20% viewership is terrible. Does nobody remember MLG announcing record-breaking viewership after Providence? More viewers means more exposure, more exposure means growth of esports, growth of esports means more people getting into watching and/or playing SC2. It's even worse when other tournaments like Assembly (that ran at roughly the same time) and the newly announced IPL4 is providing very similar, high-quality content for free. So yes, it does matter when people say they would pay if the price is lower. It doesn't matter the individual isn't telling the truth, what matters is there's a LOT of these comments, so the general idea is definitely way more popular than maintaining this $20 PPV model. Actually, for PPV 20% is a really good result. Go listen to the latest state of the game and educate yourself. That said, I would expect the next event to be $15 and the numbers compared. There will be a sweet spot where you get the max number of viewers who are interested in watching it while making the most profit. I could see future events dropping to $15, then $10, then back up to $15 as MLG work it out. It's a good result from a ___________ standpoint. Go fill in the blank. business? yeah MLG is running a business. Thought everyone knew this. How is this a problem? A good business makes money. A great business grows. And having some PPV events means MLG won't grow? No it doesn't. I've only read about three threads with polls (two threads too many, to be honest) regarding the PPV. The polls don't show growth. But MLG isn't doing just PPV events. These Arena's aren't meant to grow the company, they are meant to help sustain the company. Their championship events are where growth happens. They put out quite a bit of free content to help growth.
As a lot of people have voiced before, MLG may continue with this model for all their future events if this is truly a successful venture.
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The winter arena was awesome, I had a good time watching the majority of the turnament. Personally I thought it was worth $20, some people may disagree and that's normal, but alot of people missed out on an awesome weekend. I don't mind paying for these arenas because we still get free content in the MLG championships. The overview function was awesome, i could easily rotate through the 5 streams. And for the people who got to watch it for free, I hope you enjoyed the show.
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watched it with a quality restream though it was very laggy. not sure if it was the source or the restream. the restreamer was quite funny though. when tasteless announced that sundance was going to make an announcement he wrote on the screen "now pay 40$ for finals" and at the end when they talked about the prizes, "make 800k, give out 17k" :D
in any case, i watched 3 MLGs so far with friends who bought the gold pass so we could all watch it. but none of them (nor i) would ever pay 20$ for a single event.
the games were amazing, but the production was lackluster at best. tastosis were tired like hell and it showed. i don't think that anything they produced justifies 20$ when there are so much other events and productions who are just as good, and free.
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On February 27 2012 14:35 Femari wrote:
People are quick to forget that this is an addition to what MLG already did. They're not taking things you got for free prior to this away, they're adding more and saying "Hey, we're adding more and trying to grow, if you think it's worth the price then buy it, if not then have a good day and tune into the free events."
It was first and foremost an experiment to see if they can monetize the community to some point. I mean wouldn't you guys think it was awesome if all these leagues like MLG, GSL, IPL, IEM, etc were adding more things for you but kept their regular events free? If you can afford it you buy it. I bought a pass for MLG Arena and then I also went to a Barcraft for the finals. I know some people can't afford it but hey if you can and you think it's worth it then why not?
This wasn't ever going to turn every event into a PPV. I don't know why people thought that but this was going to happen at some point. MLG just tried it first. It was an experiment, it was successful, they're trying it again. Who knows it may be $15 next time. But it's not the end of the world. MLG is just trying to make everything self-sufficient.
Its not that we think it was set in stone to be PPV always, but that any smart business will do so if it was a big success. If they got much higher numbers than even they expected than don't be surprised to see their Circuit to start being PPV only after a while.
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Calgary26004 Posts
Barcraft. There wasn't an option for this.
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I did the work around thing because I could only watch for Sunday's matches and didn't want to pay but I was honestly impressed by the quality so I'll definitely be paying for the future ones  .
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On February 27 2012 14:33 StarBrift wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2012 14:21 jmbthirteen wrote:On February 27 2012 14:19 Konaa wrote:
One demographic I think MLG and all the "pay or you're dirty scum" people are forgetting about is the younger audience. Nobody is going to get their parents to let them pay $20 with their credit card to watch people play a video game, and most young people don't have credit cards. Anyone under 18 or so is basically forced to watch with the bug or watch a restream if they want to enjoy the event, even if they're willing to pay for it. wtf? Kids now a days have more money than ever. All of these kids are playing on computers that they either paid for or their parents bought them. If the kid really wants to watch it and doesn't have money of their own then they can work something out with their parents where they do more chores or something. Also that demographic of kids with no money isn't valuable at all and MLG doesn't miss them much honestly. Very bad argument. The fact that the biggest age group within gaming is alienated isn't a problem to you? The majority of new viewership is going to be from young people. 25 year olds that don't play video games aren't going to get into sc2 at any point. Teens that do play would get into it. And I would argue that close to 0% of teen kids can afford / make their parents pay $20 for a weekend pass. You have a very priveleged life if you think that ammount of money is trivial in this world. Especially in a world where most people don't respect or understand professional gaming. MLG is by no means going to kill the sc2 scene growth by doing this. They may limit it slightly but the bigger point is that other companies will pick up the torch and carry on. MLG will be to games what UFC is to sports. Sucessful within its niche but vastly outperformed in actual viewership.
There was never a time in my teen years where I couldn't afford something that was $20. Between doing chores, birthday and holiday money, and getting a job at 16 I always had money and was smart with it. It had nothing to do with being privileged.
And yes, the young kids who have no money aren't very valuable to MLG. They never were the crowd this Arena was aimed at. The 18-25 demographic is very different than the sub 18 demographic. 18-25 is what MLG wants. And the average age of gamers is not under 18, its actually around 30.
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I wasn't going to pay to watch, but then a pal told me about the workaround, and so I just did that since it allowed me to watch for free lol .
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I didn't even know about the workaround. When I opened majorleaguegaming.com.live, and if I remained on fullscreen, I never received any notification to register.
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i only watched the oz - drg games. i did not pay, did no strange privacy settings and watched it on the mlg site.
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On February 27 2012 14:37 Xpace wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2012 14:28 jmbthirteen wrote:On February 27 2012 14:26 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 14:24 jmbthirteen wrote:On February 27 2012 14:22 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 14:19 jmbthirteen wrote:On February 27 2012 14:18 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 13:54 Kharnage wrote:On February 27 2012 13:41 Xpace wrote:On February 27 2012 13:28 how2TL wrote:
[quote]
Saying that is not the same as doing it.
MLG obviously thought that they'd get the most value by having it at $20.
Look at this poll. 20% paid $20. Assuming that's representative, that's amazing. 20% of people paying $20 is better than 100% of people paying $0.
Do you think 40% of people would pay if it was $10? Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Do you think 80% of people would pay if it was $5? Hell no.
MLG had a very successful pilot run. Wait, what? Almost half in the poll said they didn't watch it. From that we can infer that they didn't know about the broken paywall, and that they simply didn't watch the tournament. How is people not watching MLG making it successful for them? Look at this new thread. People not watching MLG means it's unsuccessful, and Sundance saying there's going to be an event in June doesn't necessarily mean this particular model of $20 PPV was a success. He could announce that MLG would go back to its original methods for all we know. Assuming they fix the broken paywall, 20% viewership is terrible. Does nobody remember MLG announcing record-breaking viewership after Providence? More viewers means more exposure, more exposure means growth of esports, growth of esports means more people getting into watching and/or playing SC2. It's even worse when other tournaments like Assembly (that ran at roughly the same time) and the newly announced IPL4 is providing very similar, high-quality content for free. So yes, it does matter when people say they would pay if the price is lower. It doesn't matter the individual isn't telling the truth, what matters is there's a LOT of these comments, so the general idea is definitely way more popular than maintaining this $20 PPV model. Actually, for PPV 20% is a really good result. Go listen to the latest state of the game and educate yourself. That said, I would expect the next event to be $15 and the numbers compared. There will be a sweet spot where you get the max number of viewers who are interested in watching it while making the most profit. I could see future events dropping to $15, then $10, then back up to $15 as MLG work it out. It's a good result from a ___________ standpoint. Go fill in the blank. business? yeah MLG is running a business. Thought everyone knew this. How is this a problem? A good business makes money. A great business grows. And having some PPV events means MLG won't grow? No it doesn't. I've only read about three threads with polls (two threads too many, to be honest) regarding the PPV. The polls don't show growth. But MLG isn't doing just PPV events. These Arena's aren't meant to grow the company, they are meant to help sustain the company. Their championship events are where growth happens. They put out quite a bit of free content to help growth. As a lot of people have voiced before, MLG may continue with this model for all their future events if this is truly a successful venture.
Thats not what is happening right now. Its complete speculation. All we know right now is that Arenas are PPV (which may change, some may be PPV some may be free) and all Championship events are free. MLG may be able to sell rights to broadcast their tournament next year to ESPN for all we know.
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So if this did not work then they just increased their debt that gets passed on to us in future events?
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On February 27 2012 14:43 lulzury wrote:
I didn't even know about the workaround. When I opened majorleaguegaming.com.live, and if I remained on fullscreen, I never received any notification to register.
Same. I just went to their site hoping to find the brackets but I instead found myself just watching the stream in the best quality, free of charge. Needless to say i was happily suprised... but also kind of confused.
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I would have liked to have watched, but couldn't pay because I'm a poor student. I would have been able to scrounge up some money to pay, but I had no way to pay the $20 
even in lower quality i would have been happy if there was a free option
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there was a workaround? @@
too bad the time zone doesn't really work out for me anyway, just stayed up for the ROG, can't do that for MLG as well lol
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On February 27 2012 14:40 Ghost.573 wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2012 14:35 Femari wrote:
People are quick to forget that this is an addition to what MLG already did. They're not taking things you got for free prior to this away, they're adding more and saying "Hey, we're adding more and trying to grow, if you think it's worth the price then buy it, if not then have a good day and tune into the free events."
It was first and foremost an experiment to see if they can monetize the community to some point. I mean wouldn't you guys think it was awesome if all these leagues like MLG, GSL, IPL, IEM, etc were adding more things for you but kept their regular events free? If you can afford it you buy it. I bought a pass for MLG Arena and then I also went to a Barcraft for the finals. I know some people can't afford it but hey if you can and you think it's worth it then why not?
This wasn't ever going to turn every event into a PPV. I don't know why people thought that but this was going to happen at some point. MLG just tried it first. It was an experiment, it was successful, they're trying it again. Who knows it may be $15 next time. But it's not the end of the world. MLG is just trying to make everything self-sufficient. Its not that we think it was set in stone to be PPV always, but that any smart business will do so if it was a big success. If they got much higher numbers than even they expected than don't be surprised to see their Circuit to start being PPV only after a while.
Except every tournament realizes if everyone goes PPV it cant be sustained since there isn't that much money the community is willing to spend. Competition would be fierce and only a few would survive.
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EPT
