KESPA vs. Blizzard: The Ramifications
It’s ironic that distinct styles of any game (ala baseball and cricket) can emerge in the age of globalization, but the blood feud between Blizzard and the Korean E-Sport Association is primed for such an event. It would be an understatement to say the next twenty-four months are critical in shaping professional gaming’s history.
Recap: At South Korea’s eStars 2009 gaming event, the top Warcraft III player (Jang Jae Ho, a.k.a. Spirit_Moon) and the most accomplished Starcraft player (Lee Yun-Yeol, a.k.a. NaDa) battled in Starcraft II; “The Fifth Race” versus a three-time Starleague champion, competing disciplines colliding in the game of the future. Initially, KESPA merely prohibited under-contract talent (sans NaDa) from competing in the night’s exhibition matches. Now, it turns out KESPA used their clout to keep the games off television.
Will the future of professional Starcraft include the founding father?
The prevailing sentiment is that KESPA needs to go fuck themselves, and that they need to keep their grubby hands out of the game. It’s not that simple.
I originally believed Blizzard’s omission of LAN functionality was a shot at Garena and others, the heavy players in the piracy of Blizzard games. After discussing the matter with e-friends, I’ve concluded Blizzard is thinking ahead: The removal of LAN is also designed to consolidate control of the professional Starcraft II scene. We’re potentially looking at an era in competitive gaming where the inventor of the sport becomes the marketing machine for its own product.
For years, KESPA owned unrestricted access to Starcraft: The Athletic Competition. Now, Blizzard is creating a de-facto antitrust exemption. Real-time strategy isn’t like the fighting game genre, where its community can’t agree on which game in the franchise is the competitive standard. Warcraft III and Starcraft are the real-time strategy scene. And as it is concerned in the Western World, Starcraft II will be the dominant real-time strategy game for the foreseeable future.
Blizzard has never given me a reason to trust them as a competitive gaming authority, let alone “lord and master of their gaming universe”. Competitive gaming has lacked strong centralized bodies, but “creator of the game, a company obligated by its shareholders to make a profit” isn’t the right organization to do it. What stops Blizzard from fostering what people despise about KESPA, an organization that underpays its players and polices “the integrity of the game”? What stops Blizzard from promoting agendas against players who don’t fit their mold for the product?
Look at Blizzard’s track record: High-level Diablo II was wrecked by an expansion pack that normalized character builds and equipment. World of Warcraft suffered the same fate. Warcraft III hasn’t received a map pool overhaul in four years. Meanwhile, professional Starcraft has thrived on the backs of passionate fans and a third-party organization.
Whenever somebody complains Blizzard “used to care about their fans”, I post this: In 2000, a top-ranked Warcraft II player became fed up with the product. Quite simply, the Iron Man Ladder featured fixed starting locations. Player one and two spawned at the same locations every time. Dude wanted it fixed. He got the typical “it’s in the works, it’ll be out soon” hubbaloo for over a year. Heard any of these gems before?
We have all been lied to about these patches numerous times, and it makes me question their integrity. This can be very dangerous. We all know that they will never release a new game on the date they say. Because of experience we have had with release dates from Blizzard we know they will always push them back. I can handle this though, they do make some quality games and they are better when they aren’t rushed. But lieing to me has done it.
…
Blizzard will always be making huge online games with HUGE amounts of players. This is where their success has been and this is where it will continue to be. The drawback is when you do make popular games, there will always be diehard players who continue to play it for years to come…This means that they need the staff and resources, to manage all of these games. In the future they will need even more…If they don’t increase the number of employees, or get some sort of resource working on the older games, then they will continue to piss off alot of players, and fans.
Surprised KESPA would have a problem with Blizzard? Do you think they want Blizzard butchering the good thing they have going? If they can’t control Starcraft II, they are going to marginalize it. Their “brand of Starcraft” works.
And what happens next? Does Starcraft II fail in South Korea, leading to a FIBA-NBA situation where players on different sides of the ocean compete in fundamentally-similar games that require radically-different skill sets? Does Starcraft II win over South Korea, leaving KESPA to die a horrible death? Do Blizzard and KESPA make up, with the former accepting their diminished role and the latter profiting from it? Welcome to the next chapter in professional gaming: The part where large companies crush your soul.
Credit goes to Dreadwave for the original link.
Addendum: I am not arguing that Blizzard doesn’t make products worthy of the competitive gaming scene. I am stating they are not good at managing the competition that evolves around their products. Before you want to eviscerate me for saying “You think Blizzard doesn’t make competitive-quality games, you’re an idiot”, read up on Moon-Grubby at BlizzCon 2007.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Great, but I still want the gameplay footage.
July 28th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I always thought that Blizzard hasn’t done anything with WC3 lately because the RTS team is working on SC2.
But if Blizzard does have a plan like this, I wonder how exactly do they plan to execute this. E-sports is still seen as “e-sports rofl” in North America for most people, and it would probably take a lot of marketing/sponsors to really get it off the ground here. This does present a lot of challenge to get sponsors and risk for failure, and to be honest, I’m not really sure how big the reward is if they’re even moderately successful.
To me it seems that a single company can’t push the concept of e-sports in NA enough to get sponsors for tournaments, and the fame, etc. And chances are Blizzard will have to work with some body that is familiar with e-sports (like WCG or KeSPA) to get the expertise and experience. As for KeSPA, can it work well enough outside of South Korea if it wants to expand? I don’t follow the professional scene that much, so I can’t answer that, but I do think it’ll be a lot easier for both companies if they work cooperatively instead of competing in different markets.
As for the matter of Blizzard’s support, Blizzard’s track record does worry me a little, but if they’re serious about pushing the e-sport thing then I think they’re more likely to support the game for a longer period of time. I don’t think they had e-sports in mind when they were making SC and WC3. I just hope that they’ll be a little more “open source” in terms of map creation, etc. Although one thing that does puzzle me about WC3 is why do tournaments use the official Blizzard maps and nothing else?
July 29th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Yeah, I’m basically under the impression KESPA is creating as much hubub as possible before their inevitable demise.
It’s entirely possible that Blizzard will kill itself with this move.
Here’s to everyone’s thoughts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHA71B_wbXY
July 29th, 2009 at 1:23 am
@Redug: Wish I could help you with that, but it appears to be lost to history.
@LordOfFreedom: Warcraft III tournaments use the official Blizzard maps because people at every level of play still use the matchmaking system. So basically, even when an original map gets into the tournament rotation, amateur players rarely use it because it isn’t a part of the ladder. If Blizzard simply updated their map pool every six to twelve months, this would not be a problem.
@grmnasasin0227: There’s a lot of dangerous stuff that could transpire during this. Blizzard may be willing to destroy KESPA’s hard work in order to get a piece of the pie.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Its hard to even make this post because we have no clue of what is going on in BLIZZHQ because they never tell us anything.
So judging the exact situation is really hard, because we dont know weather there is a good reason for them bullshitting us or not.
Just trying to be fair.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Just like in order to run a WoW tournament you have to get a blizzard sanctioned server, SCII will require tournaments to do the same
July 29th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I don’t see why no lan would be an issue, though. Blizzard can already pull the plug on professional SC even though it has LAN – you likely can’t hold large public tournaments if Blizzard’s lawyers tell you that you can’t. Unless South Korea were to drastically change it’s copyright legislation in response (SC still likely isn’t big enough for that to happen, though), Blizzard could kill KeSPA right now, no need to wait for SC2. Of course, making such a move makes no sense from a business standpoint (I imagine they get a fair amount of money from contracts, also, not pissing off a few million fans is a big plus), just saying that they could do it.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I think you misunderstand how big SC is in Korea, and also the level of power Blizzard has over it. KESPA is the de-facto controller of the tournaments and players, there isn’t a thing Blizzard can do about it…which is exactly why Blizzard is trying to fuck them over for SC2.
July 30th, 2009 at 7:17 am
KESPA likely has to have some sort of special contract with Blizzard, though, since I don’t think the standard SC EULA covers hosting major national tournaments for profit. It doesn’t matter how big it is, if Blizz wanted to fuck them over they could. Of course, it makes much more business sense for them to collect royalties off the tournaments instead.
July 30th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Blizzard is receiving no kickbacks from KESPA. They can’t touch them over SC. The built-in ability to make swarm copies of the game and then have major LANs is totally out of their control. The fact that they’re now coming down hard on KESPA over SC2 just proves that Blizzard was helpless about SC, they now want a piece of the pie for the 2nd game.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:14 am
I want to point out that I was temporarily banned for asking where your original SC2 forum thread went:
http://i26.tinypic.com/2rzck93.jpg
July 31st, 2009 at 3:21 pm
yeah the mods been a real jerk, i’ve been banned a lot for really stupid reasons too.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:36 pm
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August 1st, 2009 at 1:43 am
Well they want their pie and then some. With quoted requirements of a 1 mbit adsl requirement they can go screw themselves…do they have any idea what that costs in our country? Paying more than a AAA new console release title per month for a broadband connection required is not my idea of fun. Seriously Blizzard can burn in hell for all I care – they give me the finger then I’ll give them the finger back.
August 1st, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Well when you’re living in Africa there are more important things to care about than video games, aren’t there?
September 1st, 2009 at 12:19 am
Blizz has become a Joke they use they law to their advantage everytime they can. Their products have become shit and all they care about is the $$$$ signs, … big waste of time IMO Go the fuck outside and stop getting addicted to stupid shit that wastes your life LOL