I posted the wording early on in the discussion but I’ll post it again.
For a limited time, every purchase of the Transmorpher Beacon or Lion’s Pride and Horde’s Might Fireworks, 25% of the proceeds will contribute toward the year’s finals LAN event prize pool for the Arena World Championship (AWC) and the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $500,000 USD ($250,000 USD for each event.) Your support will help take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level.
Yeah, that line there “With a guranteed minimum prize pool of $500,000 USD” can very easily be interpretated as if Blizzard set the foundation with 500k and let the players add to that pool, especially with how the standard have been set by other esport events.
I will agree, that there was nothing deceptive in it, if Blizzard were unaware about the industry standard set, but the International have done this for years and Blizzard are clearly trying to mimic it, as they have done it in the last year or so with SC2 Battle Box. If you are aware of what people expect/assume, then you can not feign ignorance when people complain about you not being clear in that you do things differently.
When you make changes to the status quo/how everybody has done it, you have to be clear about it, especially when you make it seem like you are just copying how other companies have done it.
Also just to comment in generel about the "Support WoW Esports" thing.
The situation is that if Blizzard had only sold toys for 1.9 mill $, the toys would literally have been 100% profit for Blizzard. Just think about that.
Its not about being generous towards the e-sports scene, it is pretty much just about finding a way to avoid paying for the esports prizes.
Snutz (a pro player at Blizzcon) is upset that the prize pool for AWC is $330,000 USD and not $580,000 USD, apparently.
This seemingly stems from the fact that Blizzard’s wording of how the money from the in-game toys contribute toward the prize pool, is misunderstood and misinterpreted by him and others.
I suspect others rage about the issue out of sympathy or because they like to rage against Blizzard, because they don’t like them.
If Blizzard had sold in-game toys for $1,900,000 USD, then $475,000 USD of that sum would have gone toward the Blizzcon prize pool, and Blizzard would have provided the remaining $25,000 USD to make a total of $500,000 USD.
Blizzard’s profit margin of the in-game toys is always 75%, because 25% is always going toward the Blizzcon prize pool.
Howso? If the toys had raised $1.9 million they’d only have raised $475,000 towards the prize fund and would have paid $25,000 of their own profits to make up the difference.
In that calculation, you completly forget, that Blizzard normally pays for the prize pool at the tournament. Last year it was about 280k$ for one event, so Blizzard can pretty much remove the entire cost of giving the price pool and even add bonus points to themselfs for “increasing” the floor of the prize pool.
If Blizzard got 2.0 mill in sales, Blizzard could pocket the entire initial prize pool and let the players purchase pay for the entire event.
How the hell does this factor into the terms regarding the prize pool for this year’s Blizzcon?!
Yeah. Duh.
The whole point of the exercise is to pass the bill onto the players (who can feel good about it because they get an in-game item out of it), because the cost/benefit of Blizzard funding the entire thing doesn’t add up.
That is how it goes.
Yeah, and what’s bad about that?
The pro players would get a sweet prize pool.
The normal players would get their cool in-game toys.
And Blizzard would get the support to continue operating the tournament.
Everyone wins.
So you are telling me that I shouldn’t suspect that they worded it precisly this way, that makes it more likely to be misinterpreted, to earn a maximum in profits? This is a very basic buisness tactic. Blizzard is multi-billion dollar company. Even IF it is a mistake, they have the ability, the funding and the rescources to avoid doing something like this unintentionally. Thus, maliciousness or incompentence are the answer. The community shouldn’t be content with either.
And this isn’t just about other companies doing something different, blizzard did what players now thought they would do with starcraft 2. They broke industry standard AND they broke their own standard. And that makes it especially insulting.
Again, might seem to clear to you, but its clearly not something everybody saw.
Even when you write your first line, it seems unclear. It is first when you write the last of your 2nd line(If X is not met, the rest will be payed), that it becomes clear. Until then, the idea of money “Going towards” and “helping to increase the pool” can be interpretated in both ways very easily. It even mimics much of the wording of Dota2s crowdfunding, which does it different than Blizzard and have set an industry standard.
Talking about like a lawyer, where we talk about how much Blizzard have cowered their behinds, is wrong way to talk about it. We are not lawyers trying to sue Blizz, we are people trying to argue if Blizzard were honest and clear in their statement, which was directed at gamers who does not read the fine print.
To phrase it to mean the 500k is guaranteed from blizzard as a base, it would probably look like this:
*The year’s final LAN event prize pools for the Arena World Championship (AWC) and the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI), will have a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $500,000 USD ($250,000 USD for each event). In addition to this through October 15, 2019, 25% of proceeds will additionally contribute to the final prize sum. *
Note: that is my edit, before anyone goes copying it as if from blizz.
No where in their statement does it say what you think it says.
There is nothing in their post to say they are providing the prize fund and topping it up with toy sales.
For a limited time, every purchase of the Transmorpher Beacon or Lion’s Pride and Horde’s Might Fireworks, 25% of the proceeds will contribute toward the year’s finals LAN event prize pool for the Arena World Championship (AWC) and the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $500,000 USD ($250,000 USD for each event.) Your support will help take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level.
The bad thing about is, that Blizzard is not doing anything out of good will here.
The idea of crowfunding Esports events is not for companies to skip paying for prize pools, but for the community to add to the size of the pool. That is how Dota2 does it, its how LoL does it and even how SC2 does it.
Its also a very negative comment to come with, if Blizzard were honest. Like how would you word it if you had to tell your community, that you were tired of paying for prize pools at your tournament and that you would rather have if the players could just pay for it instead. That is pretty much what Blizzard have done here, and yet trying to hide it as if they tried to create a way for players to pay for the entire banquet.
We have reached an age where it is the fault of a company if a member of public misinterpret their message through entirely their own devices.
No company should have to assume things like “gamers don’t read fine print” because that is character flaw in those individuals. Should I cater to people who want to defacate in my house because they mistook it for a public toilet when there was nothing to suggest such? Much less it being my fault they misinterpreted it because" your house has a toilet so you know, what do you expect"
I sincerely implore people to learn to read fine print. Otherwise things like financial agreements will bite you on your behind and in the world of free market capitalism “we did tell you so”. You can’t expect companies to publish information in a manner other than plain speak because of inferences about private thoughts because you’d never get anything done. There has to be a base standard we assume is “typical” and this kind of phrasing is it regarding the business world.
Again again, in that entire statement, does it not say “if 25% of proceed goes above 500k, the price pool will increase”. By saying “guranteed minimum” Blizzard gives on the assumption, that they are putting in a base of 500k for the event, so that even if 0 people bought the toys, the pool would still be 500k, yet if people actually bought it, they would help “take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level”. The assumption is set up, that by buying the toys, you are increasing the prize pool simply by you purchasing. If you buy the toy for 20$, 5$ are being added to the pool.
In this situation, everybody who bought toys for the first 500k proceeds, pretty much just gave Blizzard 100% of their money. Its like saying at a charity, that proceeds goes to the poor, yet you forget to tell your customers, that the event costs 200 mill $, so there would never be proceeds. Blizzard just made a charity freebie.
No, I am saying that blizzard worded it so as it be easily misunderstood rather than word it normally. Unless your lowest denominator is anyone that isn’t a lawyer.
