MDI/AWC Prizepool

[Barzotti]

They said, that you could "help take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level." Yet if only 499k sales were made, we did not really help increase the prize pool at all. They also never directly stated, that the 25% sales would replace the minimum of 500k, if it exceded it. When you think "minimum", don't you think foundation or base? That no matter what, even if 0 people buys the product, they will get 500k. So if i buy a toy, they will get 500.005$? That is how i read it, and just the mere fact, that i can read it like that, makes it shady thing. It should have been 100% clear, what the money were going to and how they would deal with it.

Let's agree to disagree then, before I start being clearly condescending or insulting.

[Qoning]

Am I missing something? Is someone else hosting the eSports, and not Blizzard themself?

If it's Blizzard how does it matter either way when it's money gone to Blizzard regardless, be it from revenue or from the sales off the ingame toy.

It matters very much due to the fact that people (myself included) purchased the toys to prop up the budget. Not to fund it in the first place. This is also 180 on standard industry practice.

[rhorle]

They made the players pay for the e-sports event, not add to its price pool with their every purchase.

Who do you think paid for it in the past? Did you think aliens gave Blizzard the money to hand out?

[Xar226]

in your opinion, did the below quote mean Blizzard will provide a base pool of $500k which players will contribute to by buying the toy, or does it mean that if the Toy sales go above $500k, the pool will consist solely of the Toy-generated cash?

It's pretty clearly the latter: They are guaranteeing a minimum prize pool, which is exactly what they said. That doesn't mean that a dime has to come from them unless the toy sale contributions don't reach that level. People either assumed it with poor reading comprehension, or they're just looking for something to get salty about.

[The Betrayer]

How is anyone even surprised at this point?

[Flurryfang]

That is exactly what happened. If no one bought the product the prize pool would be 500k. If people buy the product it can increase beyond the minimum. You clearly understand it but are still given them crap for not making it clear. They can't stop a fool from being a fool no matter how hard they try.

Don't crop my moments, if im answering your comment with the rest of it.

As i stated above, the problem then comes when you take the first 500k for yourself instead of adding it directly to the price pool. That way, Blizzard gets to pay 0$ to the players instead of actually adding to the price pool themselfs.
I clearly understand it now, that there are multiple ways to read the statement, but back when it was announced, i actually thought it was only the one way around, that every purchase would add 25% to start pool of 500k.

Its kinda what pisses me off. That i had to dig deep into a statement before i could actually see, that it might mean something completly different. I know people who write stuff like this for living and they are so often asked to write misleading, confusing or in "spin" so that it can catch unobservant people in scam. I never thought i would reading this from Blizzard.

[Frolk]

Blizzard hiding behind a technicality and ppl defending em, for free even.
With all the bad PR Blizz has gotten, they should have upped the prizepool a lot to bring in some good will, guess not.

[Hctaz]

Congrats on being able to read, and UNDERSTAND what you're reading. Normally this would be said in a sarcastic tone by me, but seeing OP and his ilk, who are either incapable of comprehension, or simply want SOMETHING to complain about, no matter what Blizzard does, it's a genuine congrats from me.

Riiight

https://gyazo.com/46e531957718238205c2d0fb789ea711

because "contribute" is the same thing as "solely and entirely fund the thing alone"

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Its about misleading promotion.

Blizzard seemingly advertised, that 25% of sales would go to "Increase" the prize pool for WoW E-sports. Instead, the 25% of sales "replaced" the prize pool, if it got over 500k in sales. People are upset, because Blizzard have removed their own cost from the event, adding nothing to the event, while having the players pay for the Entire reward pool.

Instead of adding towards a bigger price and a bigger event, players have just payed Blizzards bill for giving a reward to competiters.

That's not what happened, in reality though. They are still using their money. They could have kept 100 percent of that money from those toys and used it for a prizepool, and that prizepool probably would have been 250k.
Now, its higher.

This is purely a good thing.
The only misleading that was done is being done by influencers really.

[Qoning]

Who do you think paid for it in the past? Did you think aliens gave Blizzard the money to hand out?

Ok let me give you an analogy an American should understand. So the Wolverines run a campaign where if you buy a hot dog at the stadium, a portion of that purchase will go to your favorite player. So you are happy to buy the hotdog because you love your favorite player and want him to do well, and it works both ways, if he stays popular, it's likely people will buy more hotdogs to support him.

So at the end of the campaign, you both learn that ACTUALLLLLY, Wolverines never wanted you to give extra to the player, but it was a way to cut costs on the players' base salary and since people liked him a lot, he receives the surplus, because it would probably be illegal to keep it anyway.

What was advertised (even if not explicit, although the wording could be quite clearly be understood in that way) was not what ended up happening.

[Dziubla]

Riiight

https://gyazo.com/46e531957718238205c2d0fb789ea711

because "contribute" is the same thing as "solely and entirely fund the thing alone"

Except you're not funding it alone - you're funding it along with all the other people buying the toy. You are all contributing.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pl/...ish/contribute

Contribute - to give something, especially money, in order to provide or achieve something together with other people.

Kinda...Exactly the situation we have here, huh?

[Qoning]

It's pretty clearly the latter: They are guaranteeing a minimum prize pool, which is exactly what they said. That doesn't mean that a dime has to come from them unless the toy sale contributions don't reach that level. People either assumed it with poor reading comprehension, or they're just looking for something to get salty about.

Yeah I'm sure poor reading comprehension is a strong point when they decide to go directly against standard practice. As if Blizzard was ever precise in their wording.

[rhorle]

Don't crop my moments, if im answering your comment with the rest of it..

I am not going to quote an entire wall of text just to respond to something. The forum rules even say not to do that.

Blizzard never said that the prize pool would be 500k plus the sales. You even stated you understood it wouldn't. To argue otherwise shows you are just a fool that is looking for a reason to hate for no other reason then to hate. Blizzard is still paying the prize pool regardless. They could have put 0% of the sales towards the toy and paid 500k. They tried a scheme to potentially increase the amount of the prize pool and earn them money. It worked as the prize pool is higher then it would have been with out them telling you about sources of funding.

You are pissed off because you didn't understand what was going to happen. You didn't have to dig deep into a statement. It was clearly there on every page about it. Like I said blizzard can't stop a fool from being a fool.

[Flurryfang]

Who do you think paid for it in the past? Did you think aliens gave Blizzard the money to hand out?

Jep. They could have kept all the money and say "fuck you" to competitors.

Blizzard payed, like out of their own game profit, to the prize pool. WoW was not sold on the premise of also helping the e-sport. It was sold purely on the value of the game itself.

That is the difference here. I could understand, if Blizzard told us later on, that 25% of the sales in their store the last 3 months, was the prize. But instead they choose to advertise and sell a cosmetic item with the slogan, that it would help support the esport community with 5$ each time you payed.

See the difference?

[Qoning]

Jep. They could have kept all the money and say "fuck you" to competitors.

Blizzard payed, like out of their own game profit, to the prize pool. WoW was not sold on the premise of also helping the e-sport. It was sold purely on the value of the game itself.

That is the difference here. I could understand, if Blizzard told us later on, that 25% of the sales in their store the last 3 months, was the prize. But instead they choose to advertise and sell a cosmetic item with the slogan, that it would help support the esport community with 5$ each time you payed.

See the difference?

I don't. Because this is exactly like restaurant pocketing tips and then using them to cover base salary of employees and distributing the leftover. So why is THAT so controversial when say this is completely fine?

[rhorle]

What was advertised (even if not explicit, although the wording could be quite clearly be understood in that way) was not what ended up happening.

Yes it is. Blizzard said 25% of proceeds would fund the prize pool with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of 500k. That is exactly what happened. This has nothing to do with being an American or not so live you politics out of it. It may have to do with having a foreign language and something being lost in translation but what Blizzard said is exactly what they did.

That is why they stated a minimum amount. Because if sales did not fully fund it then they would use other funds to bring the prize pool to 500k. Sales of the toy funded it above the minimum so nothing else was contributed to reach the minimum. They did exactly as advertised and what they said they would do. So save your nation bashing.

[Flurryfang]

I am not going to quote an entire wall of text just to respond to something. The forum rules even say not to do that.

Blizzard never said that the prize pool would be 500k plus the sales. You even stated you understood it wouldn't. To argue otherwise shows you are just a fool that is looking for a reason to hate for no other reason then to hate. Blizzard is still paying the prize pool regardless. They could have put 0% of the sales towards the toy and paid 500k. They tried a scheme to potentially increase the amount of the prize pool and earn them money. It worked as the prize pool is higher then it would have been with out them telling you about sources of funding.

You are pissed off because you didn't understand what was going to happen. You didn't have to dig deep into a statement. It was clearly there on every page about it. Like I said blizzard can't stop a fool from being a fool.

Companies have been sued over this "can't stop a fool from being a fool". Its like saying, that you are 100% responsible, if Blizzards Terms of Service some day involved you selling yourself into slavery. Well, you fool, you should just have read the entire 26 page terms of use, like in South Park. What you advertise and what is written in fine print needs to match or else you are misleading.

In this situation, we have a clear situation, where a status quo and expectation have been set up (There is nothing bad in the Terms of Service), yet later on when people are actually faced with the aftermath, they find out that things were not as it should be (Wups, you just said agree to paying 95% of your income over the next 2 years).

[rhorle]

Blizzard payed, like out of their own game profit, to the prize pool. WoW was not sold on the premise of also helping the e-sport. It was sold purely on the value of the game itself.

So where did prize money come from prior to this toy? From players. Blizzard took a portion of revenue and set it aside for prizes. Same as now. The only difference is you were told that they were setting a specific portion of revenue aside for the prize and that players could increase it from the normal maximum based on how much they bought. There is no difference.

It helped support the e-sport community. You are just mad because you didn't understand.

[Flurryfang]

I don't. Because this is exactly like restaurant pocketing tips and then using them to cover base salary of employees and distributing the leftover. So why is THAT so controversial when say this is completely fine?

Ohh the tips thing is not okay xD Its a thing, that have stayed around, is completly immoral yet is too hard to remove from society.

None the less, this is worse than the tip thing. This would be like, if you payed 20% in tip, with the promise that tips actually went to the waiter, yet the restaurant took all the tips aslong as it was under the normal wage of the waiter. So if the waiter only got 40$ of tips and their wage was 45$, the tip would 100% go to the restaurant.

- - - Updated - - -

That's not what happened, in reality though. They are still using their money. They could have kept 100 percent of that money from those toys and used it for a prizepool, and that prizepool probably would have been 250k.
Now, its higher.

This is purely a good thing.
The only misleading that was done is being done by influencers really.

If they kept 100% of the prize pool, they would have lied in their advertisement.

This is not about Blzzard "being kind" about giving 660k to e-sports. This is about wrongly advertisement and miscommunication, where Blizzard did not communicate that they wanted players to pay for the prize tool instead of them and them hiding it under a curtain of charity.

[rhorle]

Companies have been sued over this "can't stop a fool from being a fool". Its like saying, that you are 100% responsible, if Blizzards Terms of Service some day involved you selling yourself into slavery. Well, you fool, you should just have read the entire 26 page terms of use, like in South Park. What you advertise and what is written in fine print needs to match or else you are misleading.

A one or two clear sentence about what would happen is not a 26 page Terms of Service. This just shows how much you didn't understand and the lengths you are going to hide the fact that you were a fool. Blizzard did exactly as they said they would do. They couldn't have been clearer because they did exactly as they said they would do. There are some people that no amount of explaining will make them understand.

If people expected something other then what they clearly stated then they are a fool. You can't expect something different and still expect to be correct. You were expect a chicken to hatch from a watermelon and disappointed that you got a watermelon.

- - - Updated - - -

This is not about Blzzard "being kind" about giving 660k to e-sports. This is about wrongly advertisement and miscommunication, where Blizzard did not communicate that they wanted players to pay for the prize tool instead of them and them hiding it under a curtain of charity.

They did exactly as advertised. Stop claiming they wrongly advertised if they did exactly as they said they would do.