[s]blizzard[/s]Several events have been occuring lately that have sparked my attention. A drop in total number of users, across all Blizzard games. A steady increase in Piracy of Blizzard games and a growth of private servers. A change of Blizzard policy towards advertising and maybe an emerging interest in the pro-gaming scene. All these changes have an influence over each other and will promise things to come. But meanwhile, we Starcraft players, are forgotten sons.
One troubling sign is a recent decrease in Battle.net users. I have assumed that this reflects mainly a decreasing number in Diablo2 and Broodwar players, but I suspect that the number of Warcraft 3 players has dropped too. A small factor in this I have attributed to the massive beta participation of WOW. What conclusions can one draw from this? I can think of one pretty quickly, WOW is keeping people playing WOW and thus I suspect a massive success upon the release of this game. So Blizzard will publish another record breaker again, what’s new?
No, it is not that simple. Blizzard has another ever growing, perhaps larger problem. Piracy and private servers that allow the use of copies of their programs, most of the time simply downloaded online with no disc ever materializing. I am unsure as to what importance they have given the issue or thought out future strategies to avoid this but I have a nagging feeling they have underestimated this problem. I know for a fact that people had already set up networks to play a leaked version of the Alpha WOW, long before they released any form of beta.
Here is a fact that can not be argued: There are more people playing Blizzard games online outside of Battle.net that in Battle.net. You have doubts? In China alone there are more people playing Blizzard games in their own servers and client to client systems than in Battle.net alone. In Eastern Europe, most of Asia (with the exception of Korea), and South America most people do not buy Blizzards products, they burn them or rip them. Why sit idly? Why not release expansions of their products with new anti piracy technology and secure their markets? Why not incorporate code that makes the game inoperable outside of battle.net servers? Why not sell their products cheaper in nations that simply can not afford them?
Here is just one small crazy idea, an improved version of Broodwar, maybe with an anti-hacking system or a better ladder system or simply new campaigns with a fully Chinese Starcraft platform, made and sold in China only for 2 bucks a piece. Foolish? Create a captive market out of the 183 million possible gamers in China and in a few years reap the rewards in buckets. I mentioned Broodwar because I am a Broodwar fanatic, but it can be any Blizzard product and the price of such a product can be any comercially viable number.
Another trend I have noted is that the battle.net ads at the top of their page have been promoting products that are not strictly Blizzard related. For years I have seen ads about Blizzard products or books related about Blizzard products. Lately I have seen them give space to non Blizzard companies. What does this mean? Hard question, but it certainly indicates a change in policy.
Let me quote Blizzard themselves in a section they have about advertising offers,
» Battle.net AdvertisingAt any one give time, Battle.net averages about 200,000 concurrent users with a peak volume of 400,000 concurrent users. Battle.net yields more than 16 million ad impressions a day with our record high of 20 million impressions in one day. Come join past and present advertisers ranging from MTV, ESPN, The History Channel, Intel, Pioneer Entertainment, Yahoo, NY Times, and Warner Brothers.
Battle.net now offers a wide range of flexible advertising opportunities to drive traffic to your site. To receive information describing most advertising opportunities on Battle.net, please fill our advertising form. Thank you! Does this mean Blizzard has finally woken up to the fact that they had huge captive market, and that for the past 6 years they never used it to its full extent? I can tell you one thing; it has always mystified me Blizzard's lack of commercial vision. I think however that those days are numbered. The noble days are over. Maybe it is the Vivendi effect, maybe not and they are finally realizing the full extent of the pot of gold they have held all these years.
I leave for last the most encouraging change I have noted. Blizzard has finally taken a humble but definitive step towards competitive gaming. Why have they sat idly for the past four years while WCG has grown bigger and bigger, propelled mainly by their games? Why watch others harvest benefits that they could have in the most conservative of cases shared? Well it seems that they have finally come out of stasis. I guess ICM (the organizers of WCG) had to come and knock at their doors literally to wake them up. They have done this by hosting WCG almost in Blizzards backyard and offering interesting sums of money to host the online preliminaries at Battle.net and advertising.
So what is this humble step? This is an excerpt from Blizzard’s site in reference to their upcoming Warcraft ladder seasons: The top qualifying players will be invited to compete for cash and prizes in both Gateway-specific and the overall Battle.net championships. These tournaments will begin after the completion of the 2004 World Cyber Games in San Francisco to allow participating players time to compete there too. We'll be announcing further details in the days following the official end of the ladder season. Eligible players will be contacted via email. Enjoy the competition in our first of a series of season based ladder tournaments!Long time ago they had prizes for Starcraft, t-shirts and the likes. Now they are offering cash prizes of $1000 U.S. A small but significant difference. Also note how they fully acknowledge the existence of WCG in one of their posts (after 4 years!) They will also be sending a few representatives to San Francisco. Maybe, just maybe they will dip their noses into the pro-gaming scene. And just maybe, next time they will grace us Starcraft players with their attention.
All the above opinions are just that, my crazy opinions. Take them with a grain of salt and a light heart, see them as food for thought and by all means make your own conclusions. Let me however have the audacity to sign this article on behalf of all of us Starcraft players.
The Forgotten Sons
