DCU Competitive Gaming Society Idea.

WoodyNightshade

Are there any of you in DCU that would be interested in joining a society that holds competitive tournaments on the 360 for FIFA, CoD, Battlefield and Halo? You would be competing for great prizes like gaming peripherals such as headsets and controllers.

TheChrisD

Doubt you'd get approved for a soc like that since Games Soc exists.

Maybe you'd be better off pitching your idea to their committee?

Noodleworm

He already did today.
for Xbox we have Gears of War 3 tournament coming up in about 2 weeks, and Halo:Reach at the start of November.

If you want to help Gamessoc out, point us where to go for better prizes, or tell us what you want to see run.

You need to go to the SU website and read their documents on running a society but it does clearly say;

"New clubs and societies have been rejected because:

• Their idea was insufficiently different to another existing society"

I hate to be discouraging but I'm not sure how you're going to convince the SLC Competetive gaming is different to what Gamessoc do.

You seem to be a first year, running a society takes TON of work and lots of people to do it. Did you even join Gamessoc?

robby^5

People have wanted to do this before. There were people who wanted to setup a CounterStrike society (when it was the game to play on PC) instead of getting involved in GamesSoc (which played a ton of CS at the time).

In the end the members dictate what is played at events, so all these games can be played regularly at GamesSoc events with other competitive minded people and then there are loads of competitions throughout the year too. Realistically tournaments can only be run once every few weeks since prizes cost money and people will only be willing to pay for a certain amount of events and only so much sponsorship can be got. People wont be willing to pay an entrance free (towards prizes) for tournaments very regularly since the point of a society is you pay your four euro and the soc uses that and funding to run free events for their members. Funding cant be spent on prizes either.

WoodyNightshade

I don't need to tell you guys the amount of people who will only buy the annual FIFA of CoD instalment and nothing else for their Xbox's. This makes up a huge portion of the gaming community in DCU (just look into the Mezz and see what games are being played). I feel that there's a real opportunity for these people to come together and compete in a society dedicated to these games.

The Game Society gave me an example of a student who wanted to set up a Pokemon society, as a way of illustrating why my society's idea wouldn't work. The student was stopped by the Anime and Manga society because there was too much crossover. What if there were hundreds of students who liked Pokemon but not necessarily Higurashi no naku koro ni or Umineko? That's a lost opportunity and a shame in my opinion.

Attol

http://www.dcusu.ie/clubs-and-societies-office/how-to-set-up-your-own-club-or-society.385.html

That link will give you information about running a society.

If you want to propose creation of the soc then follow the instructions given there but I don't really understand the need for a second gaming society that runs tournaments when we already have one.

I would have to say that I agree with the others, though. Gamessoc run as many tournaments as they can afford to/there is interest for. Why not head to their site (http://games.dcu.ie) and suggest tournaments that you'd like to see? They play a huge variety of games and each year listen to their members when purchasing games for the new academic year. There are also 2 LANs each year which have a mixture of console and PC based tournaments.

Funding from the SLC (Society Life Committee) does not cover prizes so the prize fund can get a little tight. There is some sponsorship from a few companies as well but that is limited as well. Would you have ideas on how to raise extra funds for tournaments/get further sponsorship? Those two things are always really tough so I'm sure that Gamessoc would love to hear any ideas you have for those as it's really tough, and getting tougher each year as companies tighten their belts further.

TheChrisD

WoodyNightshade wrote: »

The Game Society gave me an example of a student who wanted to set up a Pokemon society, as a way of illustrating why my society's idea wouldn't work. The student was stopped by the Anime and Manga society because there was too much crossover. What if there were hundreds of students who liked Pokemon but not necessarily Higurashi no naku koro ni or Umineko? That's a lost opportunity and a shame in my opinion.

It's not just the crossover of members, but the crossover of operations of an existing society and the planned society.
- Competitive Gaming would play games and lots of tournaments. That's pretty much Games Soc in a nutshell.
- Pokémon would have played Pokémon and watched the anime. Which is pretty much what Games Soc and A&M respectively do.

If you really want to push this, I'd suggest you go draw up a constitution, get a committee together and get your minimum 20 signatures to try start it up. And if that doesn't work, perhaps share your views and ideals with the Games Soc committee. It's not like any committee doesn't welcome feedback, in fact it's that member feedback which generally drives the societies forward.

Winters

WoodyNightshade wrote: »

Are there any of you in DCU that would be interested in joining a society that holds competitive tournaments on the 360 for FIFA, CoD, Battlefield and Halo?

You may not have noticed but one already exists. I would imagine that you should try and improve what is already there (If you believe that what is there is not good enough) with your considerable l33t skillz. Setting up two of the same societies is pretty retarded. Are you a retard? I would hope you are not.

WoodyNightshade

WoodyNightshade wrote: »

I don't need to tell you guys the amount of people who will only buy the annual FIFA of CoD instalment and nothing else for their Xbox's. This makes up a huge portion of the gaming community in DCU (just look into the Mezz and see what games are being played). I feel that there's a real opportunity for these people to come together and compete in a society dedicated to these games.

The Game Society gave me an example of a student who wanted to set up a Pokemon society, as a way of illustrating why my society's idea wouldn't work. The student was stopped by the Anime and Manga society because there was too much crossover. What if there were hundreds of students who liked Pokemon but not necessarily Higurashi no naku koro ni or Umineko? That's a lost opportunity and a shame in my opinion.

Setting up societies to cater for every little niche can't work. The point of the Games Society is that there is one society to cater for all gamers. Just because you're a member of a society doesn't mean you have to be involved in all of its activities; you can pick and choose to suit your interests. Plenty of Games Soc members pay no attention to console/PC games but regularly attend the tabletop events.

Should the people who want tournaments in these games request them from Games Soc, I have no doubt the society would hold them throughout the year. I know a few members who play these games regularly and who probably would be interested in competitions. The whole idea of a society is that it's run by its members and Games Soc has been particularly receptive towards demand in my time. The committee are always accessible, friendly and willing to listen.

Attol

Winters wrote: »

You may not have noticed but one already exists. I would imagine that you should try and improve what is already there (If you believe that what is there is not good enough) with your considerable l33t skillz. Setting up two of the same societies is pretty retarded. Are you a retard? I would hope you are not.

Infracted and warned. No personal abuse.

public_enemy

WoodyNightshade wrote: »

Are there any of you in DCU that would be interested in joining a society that holds competitive tournaments on the 360 for FIFA, CoD, Battlefield and Halo? You would be competing for great prizes like gaming peripherals such as headsets and controllers.

Where do I sign up?

Matthewthebig

WoodyNightshade wrote: »

Are there any of you in DCU that would be interested in joining a society that holds competitive tournaments on the 360 for FIFA, CoD, Battlefield and Halo? You would be competing for great prizes like gaming peripherals such as headsets and controllers.

Competitive gaming on console. You are ADORABLE

Noodleworm

Like mentioned before, If you get involved in gamessoc you can do a lot. Infact a first year can easily get elected to be in charge of console gaming in the society by the end of the year.
I still don't see why you want this little niche of competitive xbox players to have a dedicated society when we work so hard to cater to everyone in Gamessoc; Competetive and Casual players, Xbox, ps3, wii, retro consoles, PC, war games, RPGs, board games etc...
For a society to work it needs to have some very social and active members. By saying these people will only play about 2 games on one platform, and don't want to mix with other types of gamers, it doesn't sound like their either.

You do seem to have a lot of enthusiasm though, so by all means send some suggestions to the gamessoc commitee on their website
or tell us in person next week at console gaming.

Jiggy

WoodyNightshade wrote: »

Are there any of you in DCU that would be interested in joining a society that holds competitive tournaments on the 360 for FIFA, CoD, Battlefield and Halo? You would be competing for great prizes like gaming peripherals such as headsets and controllers.

Competitive gaming on the 360 only ? It's a niche inside a niche, nicheption !

Also the gaming community in DCU is more of a "pick up and play" community, if you want to make a society based on constant competition it will most likely not have the same friendly and welcoming atmosphere as all other societies (a key factor of a society and one of the main reasons why DCU encourages joining societies).

I'll join the rest of the virtual choir here and say if you wish to run competitive gaming events don't be afraid to talk to GamesSoc committee about it.

CreamyGoo

Everybody here's pretty much summed up what I wanted to say so i'll just say this: you can email the games society at games@redbrick.dcu.ie

It's clear you feel like we're missing something from our events and I'd like to talk to you about it and see what we can do to help make it better for you.

If you feel like speaking directly to me or having a meeting about this sometime just pm me here and I can hand you my contact details and we can sort out a proper meeting.

Urizen

WoodyNightshade wrote: »

The Game Society gave me an example of a student who wanted to set up a Pokemon society, as a way of illustrating why my society's idea wouldn't work. The student was stopped by the Anime and Manga society because there was too much crossover. What if there were hundreds of students who liked Pokemon but not necessarily Higurashi no naku koro ni or Umineko? That's a lost opportunity and a shame in my opinion.

While I still defend GameSoc's decision there, I don't think it's a fair example. Pokémon is one series of games, on (realistically) one console. This is a much bigger infraction of their territory.

And on the Pokémon subject, there's been one Pokémon event since that decision was made, and it had about 10 people at it, iirc. More please.

Cjayses

Fair play to the Games-soc committee for organising all that they do. However, I didn't rejoin this year as I found nothing to my interests last year. The only event I did attend was the FIFA 11 competition which wasn't organised by the
Games-soc to my knowledge but I could be wrong. I totally agree with the OP in that there should be more events for the more widely known console games like FIFA, CoD and Gears of War. Closed minded as we may be, the communities for these games are too large to ignore imo.

Noodleworm

Realistically though, only play about one tournament of each game a year as we have a lot to get through, and also need to cover PC tournaments.
Price of prizes has to be covered by entry fee's, and we need a huge amount of people to take sign ups, organise teams, supervise matches, keep scores etc.
Consoles is probably the hardest event to run, as we can never have enough machines for everyone, yet lots of people don't want to wait or take turns. With 5 TVs thats a max of 20 people playing at a time, thats why the Mezz will probably be the more popular option for a lot of people.
Anyway, Like I said before, Gears of War tournament is coming up in two week, and Halo:Reach after that.

robby^5

Cjayses wrote: »

Fair play to the Games-soc committee for organising all that they do. However, I didn't rejoin this year as I found nothing to my interests last year. The only event I did attend was the FIFA 11 competition which wasn't organised by the Games-soc to my knowledge but I could be wrong.

That stands out to me. If you don't show up to play FIFA at events then the society see's no demand for FIFA and it doesn't get played, whereas there is huge demand for the likes of Halo, Gears and CoD. Perhaps because those gamers will be more willing to play any shooter going whereas a FIFA player will just want to play FIFA and may not even be interested in playing something similar like PES.

At our regular events in the past (I'm not on committee anymore) there was never a huge demand for FIFA from the membership and if there was we never heard about it. Maybe FIFA players were turned off because other games were being played at the time, perhaps a product of the close-mindedness you spoke of. But we never had a group of FIFA players that would show up and stick on FIFA every week.

Cjayses wrote: »

I totally agree with the OP in that there should be more events for the more widely known console games like FIFA, CoD and Gears of War.

As NoodleWorm mentioned GamesSoc already runs singular events for lots of games and they have a lot of different tastes to cater for. Running one tournament for each game is about as much as they can manage, why is this? Well this is because all the people who aren't interested in CoD wont turn up the week CoD is on, the people who don't like Halo wont turn up the week Halo is on and so on...so GamesSoc aims to have more open events where a multitude of games are played so less people are alienated, while also offering regular tournaments.

Art_Wolf

Winters wrote: »

Setting up two of the same societies is pretty retarded.

This is DCU and there are a decent number of societies that have been setup despite what some folks say would be similar ideas.

Gamessoc/STOCS; The bazillion of music socs;

Art_Wolf

Art_Wolf wrote: »

Gamessoc/STOCS

Which are now one society, so it's not a very good example.

Art_Wolf

Though that is from the committees deciding to combine after 5 years co-existing

TheChrisD

But weren't Games Soc and STOCS considered to be different enough at the time? There is quite a difference between trad gaming and video gaming.

Whereas the OP is suggesting making a new video gaming society when a trad and video gaming society already exists.

Art_Wolf

Well if you want exact - a group tried to setup Chess soc, indeed they got approved by the SPC and STOCS were told to turn over their chess boards to the new society, this is despite the fact that STOCS sent teams to compete at a national level.

Unfortunately the new society never seemed to get off the ground.. Liam even tried to give the boards but no one ever appeared to claim them. Tragic. I think a bear was involved.

Course I do think in this particular case it would be difficult for there to be a 'competitive' society and a.. casual society.. that also run inter-varsity competitions? *shrugs* But this is DCU - god knows what will happen.

Noodleworm

Im still confused about how they plan to run this competitive society, though I'd kind of like to see them go about it.
If they plan to use the mezz... that costs money. Gamessoc used it once for an event and the SU required 50 euro to cover any money they could have made while they used it.

Anyway, point is Gamessoc have no say in this new society happening or not, its just that the fact they already exist makes it extremely unlikely the SU will aprove another gaming society.
I really wish these guys would bring these guys would bring there enthusiasm to the already existing society though.

Meat

Does the Gamesoc participate in any competitive gaming against other colleges?

robby^5

Meat wrote: »

Does the Gamesoc participate in any competitive gaming against other colleges?

GamesSoc used to run InterLAN with DIT, but the attendance at two LAN's run by DIT and then by DCU was very low and it was discontinued. There basically was no interest because there are bigger and better LANs out there that a lot of students attend, that no college society can really compete with.

There were also discussions held with most of the major Dublin universities and institutes a few years ago to start up an intervarsity league, but this also never came to fruition due to a breakdown in communication between the multiple societies involved. Basically, as far as I know, there is no intervarsity competitive scene for computer games in Ireland.

However GamesSoc does attend Cons and LANs regularly and members can enter into competitive tournaments at these events.

It doesn't really make sense to have a separate society for competitive gaming because it too heavily infringes upon GamesSoc's activities. I assume there would be a need for practice sessions before competitions, which would mean another society that requires consoles, pc's and games. I doubt the SLC would fund this.