
What I learned from watching six hours of Starcraft - randall
http://areallybadidea.com/what-i-learned-from-watching-six-hours-of-sta
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leelin
The analogy to music distributors is a little off.

The SC2 replay casters are adding significant value to the content, in
addition to sifting through what content is worthy of casting. They need to
know where in the map to pan the camera, explain what is going on, decide
which parts to fast-forward and pause, and probably many other nuances
experienced SC2 players enjoy.

Casters are doing 2-3 jobs in one: pick one or two interesting replays each
day out of many submitted, do all the work of a sports commentator, and then
do all the work of a video editor (for non-live casts).

In other words, even if I knew a replay was a good one to watch, I'd prefer to
watch it casted. On the other hand, a great song or a great sports game is
probably fine on its own, but rarely a raw movie reel.

~~~
Zeelar
I'm more inclined to have casters in their own category instead of players vs.
distributors. As leelin mentioned, casters add their own value by adding spit
and polish to the games, which increases the reach on the games itself.
Distribution platforms tend to not have any hands in the content but benefit
more from getting a good "flow" of content through their network. As for
monetization though, in every industry, there are outliers in each category
that make a lot more money but in general, (successful) distribution platforms
generate the most nominal revenues and frequently the people adding polish
don't. The more skill/polish added though, the higher the premium it seems.

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hartror
The usual "Don't dig for gold, sell shovels" type thing and in this case the
analogy holds up very well.

The SC2 players are digging for gold and only a few of them make a big strike
and the casters and distributors are the ones making all the cash selling
shovels.

~~~
kjr
yeah but how much? has a market actually taken form or are those casters who
are making money nothing more then novelty?

~~~
3pt14159
The top caster (H to the husky, husky) has a lambo and wasn't rich prior to
casting esports.

~~~
angrycoder
What method are you using to determine he is the 'top' caster?

Of all popular casters out there, he is the least professional and least
insightful.

~~~
Charuru
# of views?

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lukeschlather
Actually, I think it's a bit strange that this isn't the case with
conventional sports. When it comes right down to it, what makes sports
interesting is less the absolute skill of the competitors and rather the
relative skill. So a high school match is no less interesting than a
professional match.

There's obviously a part of everyone that believes skill should be rewarded,
but really what sports spectators are looking for is entertainment value - and
completely unskilled players are just as capable of creating something
entertaining to watch as skilled players.

Distributors on the other hand are judged precisely by how entertaining the
product they deliver is, so their skill and effort should have a much more
obvious correlation to their earnings. It therefore makes sense that it's more
profitable than playing, since only specific people are any good at turning
games into an entertaining mass-market product.

~~~
whathappenedto
There's actually been academic research papers written about spectating
Starcraft: <http://jeffhuang.com/Final_StarcraftSpectator_CHI11.pdf>

There's a number of types of people who watch Starcraft, and a number of
things Starcraft does really well to get a large audience of viewers
(hiding/showing certain game information).

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kjr
I predict e-sports to develop almost identical to american sports. Thus,
before any real money can be made (for players and distributors/producers)
elements of american sports need to be echoed: big money backers (owners),
betting, and a more structured and and centralized league system.

The problem is e-sports is still so immature for the above three things, both
technically (cheating is a major issue) and in popularity (e-sports has yet to
prove exiting to the uninformed spectator).

~~~
mcantor
I wasn't aware that cheating is such a huge deal in pro gaming. Source?

Also, it occurs to me that cheating has been a big deal in regular sports,
too...! ;-) In fact, I would say the same about interest levels. I found
football excruciating until I learned the rules.

~~~
kjr
In pro gaming not so much. What I mean here is "casual" pro gaming. This is a
big issue in FPS games. Smaller player driven leagues have a hard time weeding
out cheaters in games like counterstrike and other fps's. This leads into the
other point as well. Football is just jammed down peoples throats so much that
even watching TV/movies you probably got a decent understanding of it. Without
casual pro gaming it is hard to gain interest in e-sports at a high level.

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gnubardt
HD's starcraft videos are really enjoyable. His commentary seems pretty
professional (don't watch sports so have no basis for comparison) and reveals
elements of play I was totally unaware of before.

<http://www.youtube.com/user/HDstarcraft>

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iwwr
The original Starcraft (Broodwar) is much more enjoyable to watch, though SC2
may be more interesting to play.

~~~
mcantor
With both games, I am a novice at best; but I'd be interested to hear why you
find SC:BW more interesting to spectate.

~~~
johnswamps
I'm not the parent, but lots of people complain that the SC2 maps are too
small. You can quickly get to your opponents base on small maps which making
early agression powerful, resulting in a lot of short games. If you've watched
the last two GSLs, you probably noticed a lot of < 10 minute games (e.g lots
of 2 rax all-in/pressure builds). By contrast, SC:BW games tend to be a lot
longer and more exciting where you get to see many if not all expansions on
the map taken, more strategy when it comes to unit composition besides just
"well you weren't ready for my early game push so I just won easily", map
control becomes essential, harassment, etc.

~~~
kmfrk
Blizzard have rolled out a map pool with much bigger (tournament/ladder) maps,
so there's definitely something for everyone.

~~~
johnswamps
What maps are you referring to? They've tweaked the map pool a little bit
(Shakura's Plateau is not bad) but I still see the same complaints people have
been making. The GSL is thinking of adding new custom maps for this reason
(<http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Maps#Possible_New_Maps>).

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robryan
I'd imagine the top players in Korea would get marketing and endorsement
deals?

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richcollins
Blizzard makes the most money as the copyright holder. They can shut down any
of the casters streams whenever they so desire.

~~~
hartror
Really? I would have thought it is fair use, but I guess no Machinima
producers have true tested the law in this regard? Certainly Blizzard attempts
to control the use through the TOU and restrict derivative content to non-
commercial use only.

~~~
mcantor
But it's not Machinima... it's just a broadcast of their product being used
exactly as it is intended. Wouldn't that be like a baseball bat manufacturer
telling someone to take videos of their Little League game off of YouTube?

~~~
ohashi
Well, they are adding commentary(audio) to video from in-game. To me that
seems like machinima.

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SebMortelmans
God Startupcraft looks soo awesome, almost considering flying to USA to attend
:P

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ddkrone
It's not like being the players and participating in tournaments is such a
hard gig. They are often sponsored by various technology or clothing companies
and get to do what they really enjoy. The casters also get to do what they
enjoy but they serve a much larger audience of people that fall between casual
and professional player so that's one of the reasons they make more money.

