EPTHow so?
Starcraft in Africa - Page 4
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PraetorianX
Sweden780 Posts
How so? | ||
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Stenstyren
Sweden619 Posts
On April 08 2012 04:44 Yergidy wrote: Of that 3/4 i bet 1/2 of them would ask "is that like world of warcraft?" Slightly OT: Rakaka.se had a piece from IPL where they walked around Las Vegas asking people what they thought Starcraft was. Most people thought it was a boat lol  ![[image loading]](http://brandonsachs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/starcraft-boat.jpg) | ||
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Cortza
South Africa328 Posts
On April 08 2012 04:35 Eiaco wrote: The rich part of South Africa is much richer than South Korea. Ill try and keep race out of this but its very difficult to, 6 million South Africans live in western-like luxury whilst 44 million South Africans live in utter poverty. Some of the North African Countries are fairly oil rich. Everything in-between North of Arfica (Morrocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Egypt) and South Africa seems to be in complete and utter poverty though. Hmm, I'm not sure where you're from, but your information on South Africa regarding the economy is overstated. I would be careful about throwing out statistics like those. Our population estimate is between 50 and 60 million people. That 6 million people live in 'western-like luxury' and 44 million live in 'utter poverty' is a highly sensationalist (read stupid) way of putting things. Unemployment in the 4th qaurter of 2011 was 23.9%. That's nowhere near your estimations. | ||
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Sqq
Norway2023 Posts
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Xann
United States17 Posts
On April 08 2012 03:12 searcher wrote: The amount of ignorance in this thread is frankly astounding. the amount of racism from the white man is disgusting too, personally i am tired of this blatant anti-black hatred | ||
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forsooth
United States3648 Posts
On April 08 2012 04:42 Stenstyren wrote: The thing is, people in this thread seems to believe that the entire continent is living in small huts, barely getting by through dumpstring (not the hipster kind). This is totally wrong. Yes, all countries in Africa have very large problems but their cities are quite well developed and have internet (perhaps it's expensive as someone said but it's there). Say that only 2% of the citizens of Africa have broadband and living conditions that allow them to theoretically play SC2 online. That's still 20 million people, meaning that there must be some other underlying factor than just the fact that they are all poor. Parts of some of the cities are pretty well developed, yes, but the infrastructure just isn't there yet. In South Africa for instance, even the wealthy suburbs and oceanside communities in the Cape rarely have access to internet faster than 384k DSL, and even then it's often capped. The kind of speed you need to do stuff like play online is available in places, but it's outrageously expensive. | ||
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Trebis
United States182 Posts
I always figured that SC (and other skill / practice related professions like break-dancing) has grown so large in Korea because it's very difficult to develop a school and work career over there. Even if you're smart, you might have difficulty of being successful. *Brain explodes* What does this mean? I...I...I just.....ahh, nevermind. | ||
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LayZRR
Germany449 Posts
Then I imagine that the same goes for a lot of less developed countries in, for example, Africa. If you can make a living by becoming successful in SC, as it is right now, why don't any Africans seem to go train full time as a career path? Is it something to do with technology and internet being unavailable, or lack of teams to support starting pro's, or just ignorance of the possibility, or.. ? Are you kidding me? i cant even express right now how much ... oh god... do i REALLY have to explain that? | ||
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phANT1m
South Africa535 Posts
Parts of some of the cities are pretty well developed, yes, but the infrastructure just isn't there yet. In South Africa for instance, even the wealthy suburbs and oceanside communities in the Cape rarely have access to internet faster than 384k DSL, and even then it's often capped. The kind of speed you need to do stuff like play online is available in places, but it's outrageously expensive. Wait im sorry man, Im in JHB and i know tons of people in different parts of the country and they all have at least 1mb internet lines. There are the occasional 384 but that is slowly going to be phased out. Most upper class areas have 4mb or 10mb lines or if they are lucky enough to be in a trial zone (mostly pretoria atm) they can get vdsl (40mb+ for streaming etc). Also companies are slowly starting to offer uncapped packages to cater to new users (they usually have a fair usage policy aka you can only use so much bandwidth then we slow you down). So you cant say that it is hard to get low level internet in affluent areas so will be near impossible in other areas. | ||
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Gluon
Netherlands401 Posts
On April 08 2012 05:56 LayZRR wrote: Are you kidding me? i cant even express right now how much ... oh god... do i REALLY have to explain that? By all means, read the other posts, then get back to me I'm not suggesting anything here, merely posing a question. Africa isn't entirely as underdeveloped as you might think, and as it has been pointed out: a lot of people get into soccer in hopes of being a paid pro. So why not SC? That's the main question. | ||
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CryTT
South Africa19 Posts
On April 08 2012 04:34 FuzzyJAM wrote: All this bullshit "PEOPLE ARE BEING IGNORANT" stuff is driving me nuts. Yes, some people have made some stupid comments, but don't make equally ignorant comments by acting as though Africa isn't easily the poorest continent. Yes, parts of Asia are as bad as most of Africa, yes, parts of Europe are as bad as the better parts of Africa (no, nowhere in Europe comes close to Somalia or ROC or Liberia or the like). Doesn't mean you have to pretend that even a large minority has a gaming PC and broadband connection. Yes, countries like South Africa have some middle class, but even there it's something like 50% of the population living below the poverty line. The vast majority of Africans make nowhere near enough to have gaming as a hobby. That's the primary reason there aren't many African players despite it being the second most populous continent. This is completely irrelevant to what the thread topic is about. The question is: Why wasn't Africa involved in the world championships. We don't need our own server to hold a qualifier, we can play as we always have done, on the EU server. My conclusion: No idea. perhaps Blizzard has a similar mindset as yours and believe that there aren't anyone in Africa playing starcraft 2. Or that the qualifier is based purely by server region, or based upon some form of surveys or requests done by organisations within the countries that have been elected to have its own regional qualifiers. I haven't thoroughly read how the world championship actually works. But if Blizzard want to state things like "The goal of the StarCraft II World Championship Series is to identify a true global champion" then they should probably include the entirety of the globe. I'm not saying we'd win it by any means. You simply can't hold an official global championship without including an entire continent. | ||
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Gluon
Netherlands401 Posts
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PraetorianX
Sweden780 Posts
On April 08 2012 06:17 bblack wrote: Edited the OP, in hopes of preventing some of the less useful comments Your OP actually made much more sense before you edited it. Now you seem to want a discussion about why Africans are pursuing careers in soccer but not SC2. On April 07 2012 09:11 bblack wrote: I'm not suggesting anything here, merely posing a question. Africa isn't entirely as underdeveloped as you might think, and as it has been pointed out: a lot of African people get into soccer in hopes of being a paid pro. So why not SC? Do you really not understand the fundamental differences between soccer and SC2, and why it may be easier for an impoverished African to pursue a career in one but not the other? | ||
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Gluon
Netherlands401 Posts
On April 08 2012 07:11 PraetorianX wrote: Do you really not understand the fundamental differences between soccer and SC2, and why it may be easier for an impoverished African to pursue a career in one but not the other? Haha of course that is clear. Once again, try to consider not the apparently stereotypical 'impoverished' African, but those that are slightly more affluent. I understand it's easier to go out and play soccer, but there might also be a lot more competition. Don't know really, the percentage of soccer players able to turn pro compared to the percentage of Starcraft players able to do so? Anyway, simply because soccer also is an option shouldn't mean all other competitive sports are out  | ||
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FuzzyJAM
Scotland9300 Posts
On April 08 2012 06:17 CryTT wrote: This is completely irrelevant to what the thread topic is about. The question is: Why wasn't Africa involved in the world championships. We don't need our own server to hold a qualifier, we can play as we always have done, on the EU server. My conclusion: No idea. perhaps Blizzard has a similar mindset as yours and believe that there aren't anyone in Africa playing starcraft 2. Or that the qualifier is based purely by server region, or based upon some form of surveys or requests done by organisations within the countries that have been elected to have its own regional qualifiers. I haven't thoroughly read how the world championship actually works. But if Blizzard want to state things like "The goal of the StarCraft II World Championship Series is to identify a true global champion" then they should probably include the entirety of the globe. I'm not saying we'd win it by any means. You simply can't hold an official global championship without including an entire continent. Don't call my post irrelevant just because it doesn't address the part of the topic that interests you. The TC asked about why there aren't African pros or a large African scene. It wasn't saying "Why doesn't Africa get involved in the WC?", or at least that wasn't the only point to be discussed. Furthermore, I have no idea why you quoted my post to say it was "irrelevant" when it was actually a response to others making posts on exactly the same issues. Seems pretty ridiculous to me. In regards to them not including Africa in the WC, is there anything stopping Africans from competing in the online European qualifiers if that's what region they're normally on? Outside of that, Africa has an utterly tiny userbase/sq mile so I really hope you're not seriously suggesting Blizzard needs to hold LAN tournaments in the continent or something. On April 08 2012 07:17 bblack wrote: Haha of course that is clear. Once again, try to consider not the apparently stereotypical 'impoverished' African, but those that are slightly more affluent. I understand it's easier to go out and play soccer, but there might also be a lot more competition. Don't know really, the percentage of soccer players able to turn pro compared to the percentage of Starcraft players able to do so? Anyway, simply because soccer also is an option shouldn't mean all other competitive sports are out The vast majority of males in Africa playing something is rather different from a tiny minority playing something. | ||
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OMGomg64
Afghanistan70 Posts
Too many people fail to read the entire thread and could take some of the moronic crap expressed in the OP as fact, trash it imo! | ||
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CryTT
South Africa19 Posts
Blizzard don't need to host a LAN tournament, they need to grant the permission for it. Local organisations will be the one's that set up the national qualifiers as well as the LAN event (if there is one) | ||
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Flonomenalz
Nigeria3519 Posts
Anyway, PC gaming here (in Nigeria) is pretty non existent, almost any gamer I know plays console games, predominantly FIFA/PES or shooters. I can make a statement with almost near certainty that I am one of maybe, MAYBE 3-5 Nigerian SC2 players in the entire country, and that's being optimistic. There might be some foreigners on a visit to the country that play SC2, but that doesn't really count. So yeah, don't expect SC in Africa to be going anywhere anytime soon. | ||
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FuzzyJAM
Scotland9300 Posts
On April 08 2012 07:57 CryTT wrote: : There have been designated countries allocated to compete in the world championships within each continent. I also thought that we'd have to qualify as a European, but after seeing that I don't see at all how it is possible for us to compete. This also proves that it's not just us, Africans that are left out but many other countries as well. Blizzard don't need to host a LAN tournament, they need to grant the permission for it. Local organisations will be the one's that set up the national qualifiers as well as the LAN event (if there is one) You're right, it does seem as though non-Europeans are excluded from European events. My mistake. That does seem rather unfair, considering it's not where you live but rather your citizenship. However, Blizzard has said they're announcing stuff on how someone without a national qualifier can make it. Hopefully it's something that works out well, and if players aren't at least given the opportunity I sympathise with annoyance. | ||
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Usul
Germany150 Posts
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