블리자드에 정부가 흔들리면 안돼"- 지난달 블리자드 MM 사장이 우리 문광부 차관을 만났습니다. 관련기사는 죄다 "화기애애한 분위기""계혹 협의하기로 해""진전 보여"같은 식으로 났습니다만.- 실상은 조금, 아니 많이 달랐죠. 만나자마자 MM사장은"한국이 국제 룰을 지키지 않고 있다능!""저작권 안지키는거 어칼거냐능!!"이라고 '항의'를 했습니다. 그리고 우리네 차관은 당연한 반응"일개 업체 사장이 주제를 모르고 감히 차관님하께!!!"라고 역정을 내셨죠 orz...- 싸해진 분위기를 주변에서 수습하고 다음에 다시이야기하자고 헤어졌지만 이미 블리자드는 한국과 어떤 협상이 될거라는 기대를 버렸다는 관측이 지배적이었습니다.케스파가 뒤늦게 돈줄테니 합의하자고 했지만(3~5억 제시설) 콧방귀도 안꼈고. 어제는 급기야"GSL 해외로 나갈 수도…"라는 이야기가 나왔습니다. 제 개인적인 생각으로도 정부와 싸워가며, 이미 밉보인 건 확실해졌는데 남아있을 필요가 없는 거 아닌가 싶은데 야당의원의 저 발언을 보니 블리자드가 스타2 안될 때 하던 하소연"외국계 기업이라고 너무한다"가 생각나는군요 orz 어제 국감자료로나온"샨다가 우리기업 막 사는 등 중국 게임계의 한국침략이 심해지고 있다능!!"가 생각나 실소도 나오고 이래저래 늘 그렇듯 올해도 개그국감은 계속되는 것 같습니다.- MM사장은 뭐랄까; 오바마를 만나도 저런 말은 안 들을 텐데, 평생 못해볼 진귀한 경험을 했으니 그걸로 만족하면 되겠죠(응?!)

Note: This is a letter aimed at the Korean community, here is the English original. The purpose of this letter seems to be to address general issues and concerns about SC II following its Korean release.


Greetings StarCraft II community,

Blizzard has always been proud of the success that the StarCraft series has achieved globally, and we’ve been especially grateful for the passionate support of our Korean players. When we set out to create StarCraft II, we knew we were taking on a monumental task: we had to not only deliver a fun and balanced game, but we also had to create something that could live up to the legacy of its predecessor in Korea and thrive in the unique gaming culture that’s evolved here over the past decade. Which brings me to why I wanted to write this letter to you today: to address some of the questions you’ve had about our decisions, our plans, and our goals for StarCraft II.

First, I’d like to touch upon the evolution of StarCraft II and Battle.net. Both are bigger, more ambitious, and more complex than their predecessors, and we’re committed to providing new features, great new content, and outstanding support for years to come. You’ve started to see some improvements already. We’ve enhanced how custom maps are sorted and viewed, and we have more upgrades planned to make it easier to enjoy a wider variety of game types. Our development teams are hard at work on developing new ladder and custom maps, and we’ll soon be unveiling several custom games made by the StarCraft II team that we think will surprise you. And while we’re confident that we’ve released one of the most balanced RTS games ever, perfect balance is a never-ending battle -- and something we will continue to strive for. We’ve constructed the new Battle.net to make it easier for us to monitor how players are playing, collect and analyze feedback, and ensure that StarCraft II remains the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game.

We’ve heard your feedback regarding public and private chat channels as well and will be adding them in an upcoming patch. We’ll also soon be introducing seasons to the StarCraft II ladder; as seasons progress, players will be able to access records of past accomplishments. Around the same time, we’ll be introducing new pro and semi-pro leagues. In addition, Battle.net’s social benefits will continue to become more evident as we add new games to the service. Players can already connect and communicate with friends across World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, and in the future, they’ll be able to do the same in Diablo III.

We realized from the start that players would want to access and use StarCraft II and Battle.net in different ways. That’s why we created a variety of access options to suit different play styles and levels of commitment. Players can choose from multiple time-based passes if they know they’ll play intermittently, or they can choose an unlimited-access pass. In addition, Korea is the only region where World of Warcraft players can play StarCraft II for free!

Finally, I hope many of you were able to watch the finals for the first season of the Global StarCraft II League this past weekend. I’d like to personally congratulate FruitDealer for his hard-won victory and thank all of the participants for making this first season so successful and memorable. The GSL is just getting started -- the Season 2 preliminaries begin on October 9, and matches will be broadcast beginning October 18. We’ll be welcoming a new batch of players, including some very familiar faces, and we’re looking forward to seeing what strategies and surprises they all have in store. Gom TV is hard at work ensuring this season will be more epic and accessible than the last; you can visit www.gomtv.com for details or to catch any of the GSL matches you might have missed. I’d also like to mention that we are actively encouraging the creation of amateur StarCraft II tournaments as well, and we look forward to supporting more community tournaments at that level.

We continue to receive questions about the status of the negotiations between GomTV and organizations such as KeSPA, OGN, and MBC. We recognize many of you are interested to continue watching StarCraft I matches on TV, and as long as there is interest, we would like to see that continue as well. As GomTV is our exclusive tournament and broadcasting licensee in Korea, I cannot provide too many details about their ongoing negotiations other than to say that I am aware of the status of the negotiations and remain optimistic that these parties will be able to reach agreements that allow this to happen. Contrary to what you may have heard, it would make us very happy to see both StarCraft and StarCraft II matches continue to be televised at the professional level. These are both Blizzard games, after all.

I hope I’ve addressed some of the questions you’ve had over the past couple of months. As always, we appreciate the continued feedback from our Korean players, and we look forward to hearing more from you as StarCraft II and Battle.net evolve. See you online.

Sincerely,
Mike Morhaime
CEO and Cofounder, Blizzard Entertainment

While there are many sites that have e-Sports related news, there seems to be only a few that focuses on them.

* Fomos: Fomos happens to be the main e-Sports news portal that most of us tends to use. It's also the primary source for many of the interviews, and the fastest source for after game interviews.
* Daily E-Sports: DES takes a more personal approach with the players, as they feature articles that feature fun factoids about players or little happenings that Fomos usually does not cover. One of the writers even gets Progamers to do really awkward poses! It's definitely worth checking out, although DES does not cover Starcraft 2 related events.
* There are also other news sources, such as OSEN and ThisIsGame, but they aren't e-Sports specific. You can normally find a compilation using Google News or Daum or Naver.


The main community sites are as follows

* pgr21: One of the oldest community boards, known for their extremely high standards of posting.
* PlayXP: PlayXP is currently the main Starcraft 2 community in Korea. While it normally compiles news from other websites for the most part, it often has a lot of neat original content. This and Fomos will be your main source of information if you're into Starcraft 2 related News.
* DCInside Galleries: DCInside's forums are called "Galleries". While their galleries are very chaotic, there are many "industry insiders" who posts stuff on these galleries. This happens very often on the team specific Galleries, where players and coaches will make direct posts on those galleries. The Galleries also often organize "drops" to the players and teams, getting the players snacks and gifts.