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World of Warcraft Fans Can Purchase Toys to Help Fund Esports Tournaments - MMORPG.com

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
edited March 2019 in News & Features Discussion

imageWorld of Warcraft Fans Can Purchase Toys to Help Fund Esports Tournaments - MMORPG.com

A pair of new toys have arrived in the Blizzard Shop, both online and in World of Warcraft. These are not just any toys, however, but are being sold to fans of esports to help raise funds for the Arena World Championships and the Mythic Dungeon Invitational prize pools. Each will have a guaranteed minimum prize of $250,000.

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


SBFord

Comments

  • ArskaaaArskaaa Member RarePosts: 1,265
    Small indie company :(
    3domAlbatroesAlmostLancelotanemoThupli
  • XarktardXarktard Member UncommonPosts: 12
    edited June 2019
    It's good that I'm not a fan of esports then.
    Post edited by Xarktard on
    SBFordAlbatroesWhiteLantern
  • XingbairongXingbairong Member RarePosts: 927
    25%... so generous...
    SBFord
  • AlbatroesAlbatroes Member LegendaryPosts: 7,671
    Or...idk....50% of the 2-3 mounts they were trying to sell recently could've gone to said pool as well.....but I'm probably dumb for thinking that.
  • AlusciaAluscia Member UncommonPosts: 39
    So wait a minute... Blizzard wants individuals who aren't going to benefit much/anything from the tournaments to contribute to the tournament prize pools that are essentially marketing tools to drive interest in their game? How did this even pass muster? Activision-Blizzard has marketing budgets. If this is a casualty of hard times, let it go. They won't even notice the difference.
  • SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
    Aluscia said:
    So wait a minute... Blizzard wants individuals who aren't going to benefit much/anything from the tournaments to contribute to the tournament prize pools that are essentially marketing tools to drive interest in their game? How did this even pass muster? Activision-Blizzard has marketing budgets. If this is a casualty of hard times, let it go. They won't even notice the difference.
    To be fair, it's exactly what Smite and DOTA 2 do so it's not unheard of to do exactly this. Problem is that those games give a lot of good stuff to players who participate.


    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


  • AlbatroesAlbatroes Member LegendaryPosts: 7,671
    edited March 2019
    SBFord said:
    Aluscia said:
    So wait a minute... Blizzard wants individuals who aren't going to benefit much/anything from the tournaments to contribute to the tournament prize pools that are essentially marketing tools to drive interest in their game? How did this even pass muster? Activision-Blizzard has marketing budgets. If this is a casualty of hard times, let it go. They won't even notice the difference.
    To be fair, it's exactly what Smite and DOTA 2 do so it's not unheard of to do exactly this. Problem is that those games give a lot of good stuff to players who participate.
    Woah woah woah Suzie. With a small indie company like blizzard, players should be thankful they are getting the opportunity to crowd fund a project like this while they collect all the profit. Apples and oranges here!

    Ironically enough, Activision-Blizzard listened to their player-base when people were suggesting of crowdfunding this back when they mentioned gutting their esports scene.
    SBFordTuor7
  • AlusciaAluscia Member UncommonPosts: 39
    SBFord said:
    Aluscia said:
    So wait a minute... Blizzard wants individuals who aren't going to benefit much/anything from the tournaments to contribute to the tournament prize pools that are essentially marketing tools to drive interest in their game? How did this even pass muster? Activision-Blizzard has marketing budgets. If this is a casualty of hard times, let it go. They won't even notice the difference.
    To be fair, it's exactly what Smite and DOTA 2 do so it's not unheard of to do exactly this. Problem is that those games give a lot of good stuff to players who participate.
    I don't disagree. I just think at this point, with all the garbage PR Blizzard has created since Blizzcon, maybe trying to look like smaller/Indie developers might not be the right step. 
  • laseritlaserit Member LegendaryPosts: 7,591
    If they took the 25% and gave it to the 800 people they laid off I might think about it ;)

    40 million for a team and you want the prize money to be donated by the fans. Is watching these things free? or is there an online admission like for Blizzcon?

    Almost sounds like a bad joke to me ;)
    ThupliShinobeArskaaa

    "Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee

  • nk362ynk362y Member UncommonPosts: 31
    The problem almost any big esports game smite lol dota 2 are all free to play and so asking your customers to help fund these prize pools feels like less a slap in the face. Not only that both dota 2 and lol held out for as long as they could before turning to there fans. Now you want to tell me blizzard could not in no other way support even the first event without fleecing there customer base. They will probably charge to watch this dumpster fire lol
  • SamhaelSamhael Member RarePosts: 1,498
    Sounds like a reason for people NOT to buy these things.
    Ponku
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    To put it in perspective,they were pulling in 20 million a month when Hearthstone first arrived yet they did NOTHING for the esport or tourny scene.Offering a world championship and some paltry awards in comparison to how much they pull in says they are just a scummy operation.

    So i tried to do some quick math,if Morheim made around 26 million several times ,how much is that a month..week.So divided by 12=2 million a month.So 4 weeks a month =Wallaaaaaa around 250k lmao,exactly what they are offering here.So they are giving back to the community ,you know the people that made them super rich,fancy homes,nice cars,travel the world,they are giving back ONE week's worth of top execs income.

    I already mentioned this before but needs repeating.Blizzard wanted out of ANY expenditures,they did not want to support the very ideas that are making them money.So they sent out Q/a's to players ..ahem ...i mean ACCOUNTS.Know how much effort they put into their research>>>ZERO.They sent out memos to accounts NOT having played their game even 1 second but somehow passed on a WORLD champion PRO player like Firebat.

    Blizzard after what is itt 4 years or so,do NOT have a UI to support tournament play within Hearthstone,NOTHING,zero effort.Instead the community has to organize it and fiddle around their lack of system to make it work.

    It reaffirms the yare not in touch with community AT ALL and do no research effort at all to come up with solid data.They don't care,they want the money but do not want to give back,they only do these tournaments to keep some interest.Their format caters to streamers,pro players but never the little guy who has to work and can't play games all day.
    Arskaaa

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • ArgostArgost Member UncommonPosts: 30
    I've said it before and I'll say it again in hope that the execs raping the company die in a fire... I don't think so, Tim. This goes for all corporations Toys R Us while already so far in the red they were dead asked the courts to allow them to give the top execs bonuses anyway... need I say more.
  • MirslpMirslp Member UncommonPosts: 41
    What??? Funding Blizzards Esports event??? Seriously?? The company that takes home billions? This is one of the biggest jokes i have seen in a long time!
  • Gobstopper3DGobstopper3D Member RarePosts: 966
    That would be great if I cared about esports, but I don't.

    I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.

  • BrenixBrenix Member UncommonPosts: 15
    This is a slap in the face if I've ever heard of one. Who cares about blizzard e-sports to begin with? I thought they'd given up with pushing e-sports with the failure of heroes of the storm. On top of that, why even tell people you're trying to crowd fund your crap? This isn't some small indie company even as much as they make themselves look like one; they can more than afford to fund their own stuff. Push your expensive bs mtx on a paid sub game without laughing at us at the same time please.

    How about we help fund some content that their games severely lack. That wouldn't be any less of a slap in the face, but it'd be something I bet more people would care about. Oh wait, they're not there to make fun games anymore, just to leech cash out of our wallets.

    It's time to give up hope that Blizzard will ever redeem themselves. Way to go out with a bang guys, except that bang is the sound of you crashing into the dirt.

    /rant
  • Holst86Holst86 Member UncommonPosts: 57

    laserit said:

    If they took the 25% and gave it to the 800 people they laid off I might think about it ;)

    40 million for a team and you want the prize money to be donated by the fans. Is watching these things free? or is there an online admission like for Blizzcon?

    Almost sounds like a bad joke to me ;)



    The philosophy of Bobby Kotick ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • WizbuizWizbuiz Member UncommonPosts: 215
    HAHA gtfo
  • LimnicLimnic Member RarePosts: 1,116
    Blizz vs EA monetization is the new e-sport.
  • GoldenTenacityGoldenTenacity Member UncommonPosts: 19
    edited March 2019
    SBFord said:
    Aluscia said:
    So wait a minute... Blizzard wants individuals who aren't going to benefit much/anything from the tournaments to contribute to the tournament prize pools that are essentially marketing tools to drive interest in their game? How did this even pass muster? Activision-Blizzard has marketing budgets. If this is a casualty of hard times, let it go. They won't even notice the difference.
    To be fair, it's exactly what Smite and DOTA 2 do so it's not unheard of to do exactly this. Problem is that those games give a lot of good stuff to players who participate.
    Also to be fair, those games don't have subscriptions and the guaranteed revenue from such.  25% on a tool just to be used as marketing to get them even more money is just trying to treat Esports fans like they treat and think of Blizzard fans and employees.  They also treated their Esports division and players like shit last year, promising a 2019 schedule for Heroes up until a week before Christmas where they essentially and suddenly said, sorry HotS Esports players, managers, youtubers, teams... you no longer have a jobThis is after they sold a year subscription to Heroes at a special price and announced such when refunds were no longer required under law.  Also after months of guarantees that they were committed and people didn't need to look for new jobs.  With the latest promises of such being as soon as Blizzcon.

    Money.  Not esports.  Not fans.  Not employees.  Mooooneeeey.  Give them it now.

    I also noticed they changed the toy from a 10 minute cooldown to a 1 hour one.  If they did this after they sold some, and people bought it after looking at the cooldown thinking they could keep it up 100% of the time... Well, even more scummy and bait and switchy.


    -- MF Pally, a Heroes Youtuber




  • AmatheAmathe Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
    So you pay $10 and only 25% goes to a cause, and that cause isn't helping kids with cancer or disaster relief, but rather prize money for people already well off enough to have an e-sport level computer? Color me amazed.

    EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests

  • AlbatroesAlbatroes Member LegendaryPosts: 7,671
    edited March 2019
    Hopefully I'm not the only one who uncontrollably starts laughing everytime I see "...Support WoW Esports" followed by thinking "Like you guys supporting your esports by gutting it right...?" Next thing you know, they'll advertise "Buy these new mounts to support future expansion patches. 33% will go to help fund the patches!"
    SBFord
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