This is a long one folks...
I have some (limited) experience in dealing with sponsors from my time in counter strike. Often the requirements they look for are stringent: for example, a common thing for a clan to ask for is as Lust says, t-shirts with the clan logo and name on it, and in return the sponsors would ask their logo to be added to it. However, because Warband only provides online tournaments, they don't get publicity in this case. Obviously you can add the sponsor onto your website, but how many visits does a regular website have? If we look at the biggest clan websites out there, we can see that they don't get that much traffic apart from their own members and frequent visitors.
Taken from the IG forum:
Most Online Today: 18. Most Online Ever: 127 (April 21, 2013, 05:35:44 PM
Taken from the Wolfpack forum:
Most users ever online was 25 on Sat Jul 07, 2012 2:04 pm
Taken from Apis Europae forum :
Most Online Today: 9. Most Online Ever: 22 (May 06, 2013, 08:33:08 PM)
The limited amount of traffic probably wouldn't make it worthwhile for a sponsor. IG and AE are two of the best clans out there for Warband, but the game simply doesn't have the size of many competitive games for "fans" to exist. Without something to draw attention towards the website, a sponsor has no reason to support it, other than generosity or simply being awesome.
Lust mentioned that advertisements can be run on the forum, but the rules in the Taleworld forum say "All posts in the main forum must be directly related to the game or its content". It`s not clear what this means, but I would assume there are cases where the sponsor wouldn't be allowed to be advertised. Let’s for instance say Brazzers would sponsor Wolfpack (that would be awesome btw), it would probably break the terms of service on the Taleworld forum if we included them in our signatures, and if we use a separate forum, such as a separate website for WNL or similar, I have no doubt the amount of traffic and participants would drop significantly.
When it comes to other points of what can be provided it also falls short simply by the size of the community. Lust puts in effort on his videos, yet the amount of views it gets is quite low if compared to other competitive gameplay videos; it has a limited audience. It’s still early and of course I hope it changes.
Also, and I could be wrong here, but if someone is associated with a company, wouldn't that breach the EULA agreement if videos are made? If I make a video with a sponsor in my pocket, I`d have to ask Paradox for permission, right? In exchange for the services Paradox provides in publishing TW's work, the developers usually grant the publisher rights to their work, which include the exclusive rights to access licenses to it for commercial and non-commercial usage. We as users are allowed to make videos without having to ask permission (see http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/ ... 904.0.html), but when an organization is involved I would assume that would change things in terms of legal policy. Surely Paradox would ask for a cut, or a licence fee to use their product?
If you look at the publicity the game has, it’s close to non-existent. The streams are a great idea to help promote the game, but I`m not sure why further steps haven't been taken when dealing with Twitch TV. When ENL started and people were toying with the possibility of streaming matches, Wolfpack was amongst the first to start. Our streams were about as successful as the current ones (some matches drew in more than others). Here you can see one of the matches we streamed back in the day, a Division A ENL match IG vs RNGD. (I saved this because I`m a sentimental fool).
I contacted Twitch in an email and asked if they would either give us partnership or feature us on the main page (usually increases the view count significantly), and in response I got an email with the requirements to actually get partnership and a special notice saying that exceptions are made, suggesting I should speak to Taleworld to get their backing. However, not long after that the streamers in Wolfpack created AE and the project was shelved (Norwegian internet is weak when it comes to upload speeds), but I`m curious to know why this hasn't been attempted by anyone else. Especially Lust, as the community manager, should have less trouble dealing with them. Partnership would mean additional revenue which could help Taleworld in providing sponsored tournaments, which would provide an alternative for clans seeking sponsors. This would also give the game extra publicity, which could lead to more players, which could then attract sponsors in the future. Just a thought...
Another problem is to do with the game itself: Warband simply wasn’t built to be a competitive game. Warband is to date the easiest game I`ve seen to cheat, which is a problem that can’t be denied in the competitive scene. I`m not talking about aimbots and autoblocks because I think they're uncommon, but modding the game to give yourself an edge is very easy. Because of its modding capabilities and how much you can actually add to the game and keep it Native compatible, cheating is often as easy as clicking a button. It’s not just that, but the ability to look through walls without having to edit a thing is a major annoyance and a huge amount of people do this. This is not technically cheating, right? There is a reason people suggest waiting for Bannerlord to get these things fixed. You say it’s no harm in trying, but bad experiences can definitely harm your chances in the future. Fixing these things in some way, or adding an anti cheating system is the only way to keep a game competitive in the long run. And if things like sponsors are included, you can bet people will do whatever they have to in order to win.
Anyway, back to sponsors. When my clan in counter strike were looking for sponsors (this was a long time ago) the requirements were mainly:
- Be from the same country. This is basically so that we can show up for local events, with our t-shirts, and actually provide publicity. There are of course clans from the same country in Warband, and many of them do very well. Most clans, however, are international.
- Go to events, lans and tournaments. This is to date non-existent in Warband and probably won’t change in the near future.
- Win. It`s pretty important to do this. Nobody will sponsor you as a competitive clan if you don't win matches. Apart from winning, commitment to the game is also an important requirement.
- Age restrictions. When we asked around it varied from 15 to 20, because of travelling across the country they preferred we had a method to actually get there. Maturity is also of course a factor.
- Don't f**k up. This is also very important. Bad press is... bad. If you don't behave the way you`re supposed to do, the sponsors will get you under their thumb. This isn’t actually a bad thought, I think a lot of players in the community could use a leash xD
We saw then that sponsors were a lot of hassle to deal with. Granted this was a long time ago, but most of the companies we asked shut us down outright. The sponsor we did find caused half the team to leave because the requirements were too high for a bunch of teenagers.
You also have to keep in mind that most competitive games have a very limited roster of players. If we look at the most successful clans in Warband at the moment (top 3 clans in WNL), AE has a roster of 25 players, RNGD 16 and Sarracen 28. Providing each of these members something trivial like a mouse-pad, or a t-shirt could be a lot to ask. Most likely the clan sizes would be cut down significantly. Even if it’s cut down to around 10 players, it’s something the sponsor would have to look twice at. Custom made t-shirts don't have to cost a lot of money, but shipping them across the globe could be. Renegades should have a look though xD.
In the end I guess I`ll say that the ball is in Taleworlds court for now. We, the players, are limited by the game and its success, and not by our own inability to reach out. This is a game that I love, and this is meant to be constructive criticism, not hatred towards anyone. Technically Wolfpack is considered to be a sponsor. We provide free servers for a number of leagues that have run in the past, and continue to run now, and we`re not the only ones who do this. The community in Warband is what gives the game strength. I think it’s important that Taleworld recognizes this.
