To just quickly comment on this one piece: eSports is anything but in its infancy. eSport infancy would be Quake 1 through Quake3Arena back in the mid to late 90s. Anyone from that time would remember the names of Tresh, Fatality, czm, aim, etc. These guys were pioneers of eSports. Fatality made truckloads of money and even won a car, back in the 90s.
Piggy backing off of what eSport entrepreneurs could learn from the 90s eSporting...we are in a good spot with it and can go even further. eSport with Mobas is great.
To just quickly comment on this one piece: eSports is anything but in its infancy. eSport infancy would be Quake 1 through Quake3Arena back in the mid to late 90s. Anyone from that time would remember the names of Tresh, Fatality, czm, aim, etc. These guys were pioneers of eSports. Fatality made truckloads of money and even won a car, back in the 90s.
Piggy backing off of what eSport entrepreneurs could learn from the 90s eSporting...we are in a good spot with it and can go even further. eSport with Mobas is great.
I was talking about the low quality of games being used as esports these days.
And the limited number of different playing styles which are "supported".
Despite the PR talk of Chinese owned Riot, LoL is limited and based on a 15 year old engine. Besides the MOBA genre which other choices do you have ?
For the moment - apart from the shooters - which really are not really considered organised esports these days, you have Hearthstone, which was a much needed other form of easy to follow game (of which many think it is not a true e sports due to having the RNG of a card game) ... and that's about it, besides 15 year old SC mechanics.
So present day market does not attract the more casual viewers ... and VIEWERS is what makes popular sports.
It is safe to say that for instance Poker around the world is far more popular being watched on national broadcasts.
100K viewers in a MOBA like tournament game is impressive, but present day offers are simply too limited to have millions of spectators around the world.
So e sports is still very much niche due to TOO limited offers and the games being shown are too hard to follow (except the one board HS) and use engines of ages ago.
As a matter of fact e sports are NOT attractive if you are not already knee deep into a specific game while a TRUE e sport would be pleasant to watch for everyone AND be sponsored by CoCa Cola and other other giants within the industry.
I know it is trivial to point out, but winning a 10.000 dollars tournament and dividing it by 5 would not even make CR7 or any known pro true sporter coming out of his chair.
That's why e sports is still a laugh these days. One day a game will breach that barrier of the niche "geek" level, but it will not be a MOBA game, that's for sure.
The genre is very niche for the general public and so only attracts geeks. Beside the fact it lacks the latest technology in games it is not well organised AND there is no international infrastructure to promote it as a true IDENTITY.
You can compare e sports with some local football or cycling clubs that were founded in the late 1880's. It lacks international structures, DESPITE having internet tools, it still is VERY unattractive for the general public.
Clearly e sports is still in its infancy and MOBA games are very boring for an outsider to watch and follow.
I agree with Mike. But if Blizzard doesn't think they can make as many heroes for their game as LoL has, then maybe it's an issue of "how much content do we have to charge for?" If they don't think they can crank out 100 heroes, then each hero represents a greater portion of the total content on offer.
But it's true that LoL's monetization has always been looser, and I'm certain that is part of what made it successful. One reason I have given Riot money is that I don't feel the "Zynga Finger" poking me every time I play.
I've already paid $5 for the starter bundle in HotS, and I don't feel ripped-off. But the slowness of gold-earning does bug me in comparison to my experience with LoL.
All I can say to the author is where have you been? Any f2p game is really not free. They are all free to try and if you like it, start purchasing in the item shop for higher level gameplay. Grinding is really not an option of 99.9% of the playerbase. Why do you think so many people say on this forum they won't play a f2p game?
Comments
I was talking about the low quality of games being used as esports these days.
And the limited number of different playing styles which are "supported".
Despite the PR talk of Chinese owned Riot, LoL is limited and based on a 15 year old engine. Besides the MOBA genre which other choices do you have ?
For the moment - apart from the shooters - which really are not really considered organised esports these days, you have Hearthstone, which was a much needed other form of easy to follow game (of which many think it is not a true e sports due to having the RNG of a card game) ... and that's about it, besides 15 year old SC mechanics.
So present day market does not attract the more casual viewers ... and VIEWERS is what makes popular sports.
It is safe to say that for instance Poker around the world is far more popular being watched on national broadcasts.
100K viewers in a MOBA like tournament game is impressive, but present day offers are simply too limited to have millions of spectators around the world.
So e sports is still very much niche due to TOO limited offers and the games being shown are too hard to follow (except the one board HS) and use engines of ages ago.
As a matter of fact e sports are NOT attractive if you are not already knee deep into a specific game while a TRUE e sport would be pleasant to watch for everyone AND be sponsored by CoCa Cola and other other giants within the industry.
I know it is trivial to point out, but winning a 10.000 dollars tournament and dividing it by 5 would not even make CR7 or any known pro true sporter coming out of his chair.
That's why e sports is still a laugh these days. One day a game will breach that barrier of the niche "geek" level, but it will not be a MOBA game, that's for sure.
The genre is very niche for the general public and so only attracts geeks. Beside the fact it lacks the latest technology in games it is not well organised AND there is no international infrastructure to promote it as a true IDENTITY.
You can compare e sports with some local football or cycling clubs that were founded in the late 1880's. It lacks international structures, DESPITE having internet tools, it still is VERY unattractive for the general public.
Clearly e sports is still in its infancy and MOBA games are very boring for an outsider to watch and follow.
I agree with Mike. But if Blizzard doesn't think they can make as many heroes for their game as LoL has, then maybe it's an issue of "how much content do we have to charge for?" If they don't think they can crank out 100 heroes, then each hero represents a greater portion of the total content on offer.
But it's true that LoL's monetization has always been looser, and I'm certain that is part of what made it successful. One reason I have given Riot money is that I don't feel the "Zynga Finger" poking me every time I play.
I've already paid $5 for the starter bundle in HotS, and I don't feel ripped-off. But the slowness of gold-earning does bug me in comparison to my experience with LoL.
Almo!
All I can say to the author is where have you been? Any f2p game is really not free. They are all free to try and if you like it, start purchasing in the item shop for higher level gameplay. Grinding is really not an option of 99.9% of the playerbase. Why do you think so many people say on this forum they won't play a f2p game?