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Good Afternoon TL Community, This upcoming Thursday, July 12th 2012 StarCast Podcast will guest host Steel Series Cheif Marketing Officer Kim Rom. So now here is where the TL Community comes in:
If your interested in asking Kim any questions at all, please submit them here and we will make sure to ask him on the next upcoming show.
We encourage the community to pick Kim's brain when it comes to SteelSeries Products, Sponsorship changes, E-Sports questions, business models, players, hobbies etc etc.
After submitting your questions please check back on July 12th 2012 at 8:00pm EDT for the LIVE SHOW over at http://www.twitch.tv/amovetv
StarCast PodcastShow Next Episode: Thursday July 12th @ 8:00pm EDT Website: http://www.thestarcast.com Episode: 111 Live Stream Link: http://www.twitch.tv/amovetv
Who is Kim Rom? "As a company we have a pretty fluid structure, where almost everyone in the company is a jack of all trades and helps out in whatever area they can. Personally, I run our global marketing team, I spend a lot of time testing and evaluating new products with our gaming experts and professional players, and I also try to not get killed by our CFO when I hand in my expense reports 6-8 months late. A typical day is hard to define. Most of the year I live in suitcases, as I go around the globe to do testing with professional players or tell journalists and reviewers about our new products, and why exactly they are what they are." - Kim Rom
What is SteelSeries? "Our main goal is to make gaming peripherals that improve the performance of players and help gamers win. That’s definitely a broad mission statement, but it’s something we take very seriously and something we put a lot of time, energy and soul into. Making a great headset is drastically different from making a great mouse or a great keyboard, especially since a great product might not be the same for everyone - an expert Warcraft III player uses his equipment in an entirely different way compared to an expert Counter-Strike player. In some cases, players from one continent will use products in an entirely different way than players from another continent. It’s challenging but incredibly rewarding." - Kim Rom
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Can they sell replacement keys for 4sd because I play Zerg and all of those keys are pretty worn already after like 5 months of play. Even cooler give different colours for those keys which would be fun to look at. (Its not worn so much that its uncomfortable or anything just for the future it will be worn down to the switch if it gets used as much as I use it at the moment)
Oh and side note I love my 6gv2 <3
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Does Steelseries experiment often with general keyboard layouts (and/or gaming mice) with regards to ergonomics as well as long session gaming? Any odd designs that seemed like a good idea at the time, but ended up being a bust? How do you see gaming perhipherals evolving in the future? (i.e. specific functionalities being favored over others, general design direction)
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Keep up the great questions, we still have 2 days before the show!
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Have Steelseries considered making a gaming mouse with no click sound?
The click sound can drive my wife crazy sometimes Specially at night when she wants to sleep and I want to play games.
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Do you regret dropping Grubby when he is doing pretty good at the moment?
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would you give me a keyboard/mouse for free? :D
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1. SteelSeries once marketed itself as a company which produced "no frills" peripherals for gaming. As years went by, this "vision" seems to have been progressively forsaken in favour of additions such as led lighting, colours, "feature-naming", branded products, etc. What are the reasons for changing a direction that, while of secondary concern, distinguished you from every other competitor? Was it simply not working out commercially, or were there other factors that weighted in? 2. Gaming peripherals aimed at the Mac platform are far and between. The OSX version of your software package is very specific in scope and, in fact, only supports one mouse (branded Diablo). Is this because your market research suggests that Mac gaming is not going anywhere any soon, and is thus not worth the effort required to fully support the platform? 2.1 What kind of news would make Steelseries reconsider this position, and how would it adapt to the very different aesthetics that dominate Apple's hardware and software ecosystem?
1.1 (Mostly joking.) Do fancylights really, actually, positively drive sales up enough to justify the added production prices? Does market research actually indicate that gamers are the unfortunate brainchild of a raven-human hybrid, thus their unsatiable hunger for shiny, sparkly additions to devices they are never looking at?
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Why is the SteelSeries logo an Unknown Pokemon?
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On July 12 2012 01:27 NotTheMonker wrote: Why is the SteelSeries logo an Unknown Pokemon? haha great question
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What do you look for when you're sponsoring a team, player, event etc in the SC2 world?
What do you try and avoid?
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Q's for Kim Rom:
1. Can you talk about why companies choose to spread out sponsorships over several teams instead of owning a team outright? I've often wondered why we don't see the SteelSeries Team vs the Razer Team at MLG.
2. How difficult is it for companies to determine whether or not a new sponsorship is worth the investment?
3. Are team sponsorships negotiable on a team by team basis or is it generally a one-size fits all sponsorship?
4. Generally speaking, are sponsors satisfied with the way teams and players represent them? How often do sponsors actually watch player interviews to make sure they hold up their end of the agreement?
5. Given that the market for high-end gaming peripherals is intrinsically tied to the popularity of eSports, how well are these two industries working together? More specifically, are corporations and teams in the war room together or are they silently waiting for each other to ask them to prom?
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Do steelseries use planned obsolescence as part of its business strategy? if so what sort of artificial limiters are the engineers imposing on your peripherals? i personally have been through countless mice that just run out of mouse clicks after years of playing RTS/FPS games at a competitive level.
i truely believe your biggest rival razer employ this business strategey amongst its range of gear. I wouldnt be surprised if steelseries has followed them down the same rabbit hole.
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A few hours left before the show goes live! who has questions for Kim!?
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Have you ever thought about making an "Official" Steelseries keyboard bag? The TTesports one is nice but its a little too big and I'd like to have a bag match the gear I'm currently using ^^ Have seen some second hand ones but dont trust buying them as they're not actually from your company. T_T
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is Steelseries thinking about introducing 6gv2 with switches other than black?
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Germany1287 Posts
Is it really necessary to advertise "gold plated usb connectors"?
On July 13 2012 06:34 syriuszonito wrote: is Steelseries thinking about introducing 6gv2 with switches other than black?
Red switch versions are around since August '11 in Nordic online shops
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