How To Grow Your Scene

Sabre0001 · 10-03-2010 11:39pm #1

A lot of initiatives appear to be kicking up dedicated to the local scene (another was a photo project from IPW). Honestly, I've been impressed in how the FG forum here (and beyond) has gone from strength to strength (and in turn how some of ye have supported eSports.ie or sent people our way with news - even if it does fall on deaf ears sometimes!)

Anyway, little podcast gone up on SRK (Wakeup SRK e009). All about community building - a lot of it is obvious, a good bit of it is being done here...but of course, there is a lot more that can be done! Worth a look...err...listen.

Patience is key

- one of the big points...if you have that, it gives you time to work on all the other bits / take rejections and come back fighting.

Podcast

Sabre0001 · 11-03-2010 2:24am

RopeDrink wrote: »

Not checked the podcasts or links in the OP as I've limited interest from that angle and am a casual player, but communities can be built on many many platforms and angles.

That's a big thing too though. You need to get the casual people interested - not necessarily in playing tournaments...but perhaps coming along to meet people / old friends, spectating and chatting. Also, plenty of casual sessions going on so everyone SHOULD feel welcome.

Can't have anything without more casual people interested - example the Premier League doesn't do so well because everyone is an aspiring professional - PLENTY of armchair experts, wannabe footballers, casual spectators...or people who watch because a team is successful / because their friends do.

D4RK ONION · 11-03-2010 2:30am

You really should come to one of the tourneys at some point Ropey, it'd be great to finally meet you/ get some games in.

Cunny-Funt · 11-03-2010 2:58am

@ op, so far pretty much the main thing I've been doing is bitching at people - bitching at people to allow a fg forum on here which took months and now currently bitching at people on my PSN friends list to get more involved in the community.

Theres a hand full of guys on PSN that I'm in constant communication with that are into the game just as much as we are , play it all the time, are pretty skilled at it -
(although I'd like to put a reminder here that this community is welcome to all skill levels)

- but have only gone so far as to post their name tags, if even.

In fact only just today I had a loooooooong conversation on PSN with this guy:

eddiechoi1990 wrote: »

my psn network account = Cloud_1811 add me =]

turns out he's one of that group of lads who turned up once along with JohnnyBlue. They all know each other , they all play the fuck out of SF. But they turned up and left , didn't really mingle and they don't seem to check here / post here.

Is was a very long conversation we had but basically I was just trying to figure out the disinterest in joining the community. I was worried we might seem like a ..... clique and thus hard to fit in with. But fair play to the guy he took the time to talk to me about it , he basically said he'd like to get involved more but he and his group of mates are usually just busy with work and college etc.

Still on that point though I think we really need to acknowledge new people that show up a little more, at least I do anyway. I know I was given a friendly welcome anyway when I first showed up.

Theres a few other guys I've been chatting to on PSN and with PM's here on boards about the community. Irish players who are always on PSN playing the game, and always up for a few games the rare times I'm on PSN. Its odd they would seem to rather talk in PMs then post on the boards.

Not everyone is used to posting on forums/the internet I suppose, or it could be simply shyness.

One lad did say to me however , something like "boards is hard to navigate and its full of ****" lol so I dunno, I'm always aware that the people I could be talking to on a console might be 13 years old or something.

But anyway most of them are sound, I guess its just a slow process. Just wish they'd be more liek this guy :

Speed Boat wrote: »

I'd be up for this for sure.

Hopefully I'll have ingratiated myself with the community somewhat by then!

Anyway enough of that, other points:

_________________________________________________________________

Ropedrink ,

Me & DooM have been working on some stuff regarding higher quality vids so we're already on the ball regarding that. Some tester stuff has been done on small little casual tournies. So I reckon by the next proper offical ranbat or whatever we'll have some decent vids.

Hoping to have direct video and audio feed recorded. As long as it doesn't add to input lag, we'll see.

When it comes down to it, if yea wanna offer up some watermarks your more then welcome.

_________________________________________________________________

One last thing.

Posters.

We need posters! Advertising the community and the events! Something to put in the window of XGC , & the place they play casuals in limerick , something to put around colleges and so forth. (I'd have np slapping some around DCU)

Cunny-Funt · 11-03-2010 5:12am

RopeDrink wrote: »

Thing is I'm not sure how you guys compile your movies

I use adobe premiere

RopeDrink wrote: »

I don't doubt that meeting everyone would be great craic (bar the few who don't like me as that'd lead to headbutts [literally] :pac:)

Ah rope you don't really think like that do you? Who do you think doesn't like you? We don't even know you. We've not even met you.

RopeDrink wrote: »

I'm also not that good at it which makes the apperciation a little lesser - If it was a game I pushed to be good at then I'd be diving headfirst into that stuff

>.<

How many hours do you have logged on SF4?

How many forums do you post in regarding SF4?

How many videos have you recorded of yourself playing boxer?

Did you not start a self improvement thread on this very forum?

Do you check and post in the boxer section on shoryuken?

There was an american player over here at one of the meet ups, a balrog player. & guess what? He knew who you were.

RopeDrink wrote: »

- I just play it a few hours a week at most, online - I haven't played an Offline game of SF4 in my life so I'd just embarass myself :pac:

Thats as much as most of us, if not more. I know a guy who only played the game for a little bit after launch, would hardly have 10% of the knowledge of the game that you have, and he's turned up and joined in on some tournies.

I mean.... argh stop saying one thing when everything else you posts proves the other, your like Clayton Bigsby.

ah feck it theres really no point in me going on hammering home my point, its all been said and done before.

Dreddybajs · 11-03-2010 5:14am

Agreed with Cunny, plus you're better than like 75% of the people who show up at casuals/tourneys here easily, Rope.

Cunny-Funt · 11-03-2010 5:24am

http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=227996

Vyze · 11-03-2010 10:48am

Gonna be listening to that podcast as soon as I get home from work! I've been trying to encourage a BlazBlue scene up north for a while (running free prize tournaments, offering to teach people the game mechanics and a few chars, etc.) but have had pretty much no luck so far in getting anyone actually interested in the game.

I'll be buying a camera within the next month so hopefully I'll be able to record some casuals and get them up on YouTube or whatever. There's really not many players up here though so I'll try out a sub or two just for the sake of character diversity, unless you wanna see a ****-ton of Nu vs Tao.

It's great to see that the Irish SF4 scene (both north and south) is flourishing (and kicking ass in international tourneys!), I just hope some of that passion and playerbase can trickle down onto other fighting games.

Sairus · 11-03-2010 11:16am

On the setting up in Galway side of things I've been calling anywhere I could think of that might be usable as a SFIV space (college, the crappy gaming cafes we have, etc) and the best thing I've come across so far is a bar that one of my mates knows the owner of. There's a backroom with 2 big HD TVs that we could have to ourselves for free and I could supply a couple of 360s.
Hopefully that'll do for some initial casual meetups to begin with until I can scrounge up a better location.
Of course, me living in Carlow is making this plenty awkward to set up, so nothing will be happening till May anyways XD

FutureGuy · 11-03-2010 12:04pm

It all starts with someone designing a kickass generic poster that can be printed with customized details for each meet-up.

We then need to speak to the managers of all venues that sells games and any hobby stores in the area regarding the display of these posters.

I also recomment vistaprint.co.uk for 250 free business cards. Leave a few at each store so people can picke them up and find info on places/times of meet-ups.

There were a few tournaments last year in a pub in Dublin with an awesome sf4 poster. Anyone remember it? Something along those lines?

So who's good at photoshop???

A-Trak · 11-03-2010 12:22pm

All you need is a picture of Bush / Cobelcog with "Thanks for your money" underneath, sorted.

Podcast has some good points though, especially regards social media.

Practically everyone in Ireland has a Facebook account, targeted advertising costs next to nothing and you can actively go after people who have any sort of reference to SF in their profiles and let them know there's a tournament on etc.

Doctor DooM · 11-03-2010 12:30pm

I believe Farz volunteered for that.

Creating a poster, not giving his money to cobushcog.

Although he does that too.

Sabre0001 · 11-03-2010 12:58pm

As the podcast says, you've got to be patient and willing to work at it. And embrace the casuals.

Yes RopeDrink, movies and stuff would be class - though we're just getting to the stage of providing any coverage. Got to be taken in good strides. Build and build and build. Is there any way to share playlists / home movies on YouTube. As you say, there are a lot of Irish FG videos up and a lot of channel owners - is it possible for all to have the same pool so that there is more chance of them being seen (and all convey the message of "look over here *waves*)

Super Street Fighter 4 is a good chance. Podcast pointed out stalking various shops - maybe not such a bad idea...Also, play on the machines and invite people to try it out, give them pointers and tell them where to go for more info. Pat of GamesNash.ie mentioned to me that I could put eSports.ie business cards in products that would be shipped out - maybe ask for something like that for Super. And maybe go one step beyond and find out how to get it in more copies // get the Gamestop, Game, HMV people to put them in boxes too // have them in prominent positions so that people find out something is happening.

The podcast points out "the media" - could potentially get little offbeat pieces in the Metro / the other free one in Dublin (metro was always the one I got first so ended up being read more). 10th Anniversery RanBat (when could that be), etc.

Also, you have an "in" with one media (and hopefully not forgotten) - eSports.ie > gets the message out to eSportsPress, eSportsRSS, Twitter and Facebook automatically...May or may not be read but getting there and at least it's another avenue of promotion. Give me a shout with any news, results, etc - PM here or e-mail.

(Have picked up bad habits from posting in this forum and copying you RopeDrink :pac: Don't worry - entire post wasn't aimed at you. "you" refers to all

)

Jim · 11-03-2010 1:00pm

I volunteer as backup poster guy. Get off your arse Farz!

A few of us discussed the idea of having a big "SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV" launch party on the night of release. The idea is to be free in, have a good few machines for casuals and maybe hold a mini tournament and a few other events on the night for fun. The aim of this is to introduce casual guys to the community who are buying Super but mightn't be aware of us. At the moment XGC is a good backup venue but hopefully we can host it in a pub or something similar.

Make a facebook event, put posters / flyers up in the game shops advertising the night etc. I'm also going to emal Capcom Europe to see if they can give any general swag that we can give away on the night.

Sabre0001 · 11-03-2010 1:03pm

Sorry, on the movies point that I made - that "EVO moment" was years after the start of it all. In practice, the Irish scene is only a year old. Compare it to the US where they have tournaments around the country nearly every night of the week, live streaming and dedicated crews of staff.

That is the goal but there is a path to get there (and I look forward to seeing it be walked)

Placebo · 11-03-2010 1:28pm

gay guy wrote:

I volunteer as backup poster guy. Get off your arse Farz!

initial agreement was that posters and promotion was only necessary for tournaments, the cash money being the main invitation, it may attract average joe bloggs, but these could be your next cobelcog.
However we could have a generic poster for casuals, something like 'EVERY SATURDAY' and a web address for links etc

bush · 11-03-2010 1:44pm

I think the tournaments need to be more consistent. At the moment they just seem happen randomly. Maybe have them set at every 2nd or 3rd week of the month. The posters could be a big help too.

Placebo · 11-03-2010 1:45pm

Bush80 wrote: »

I think the tournaments need to be more consistent. At the moment they just seem happen randomly. Maybe have them set at every 2nd or 3rd week of the month. The posters could be a big help too.

Yeah but having them at a 10-15 entry rate per pop wont work at a regular tournament rate.
specially when you steal all the monies :pac::pac:

blag · 11-03-2010 1:59pm

Bush80 wrote: »

I think the tournaments need to be more consistent. At the moment they just seem happen randomly. Maybe have them set at every 2nd or 3rd week of the month. The posters could be a big help too.

I agree,one a month wouldn't be too much in my opinion.I'd be willing to travel down monthly for a tournament.

Placebo wrote: »

Yeah but having them at a 10-15 entry rate per pop wont work at a regular tournament rate.
specially when you steal all the monies :pac::pac:

I personally don't think the entry fee is too much but maybe one could be organised at 10e with 5 covering rental costs etc and 5 for the prize pot to see if it makes a difference in terms of numbers.

I also think the attitude that there's only Bush or Cobelcog can win needs to stop.Newtype won 2 of the 4 he was at (and lost the final to his brother in another) and I think there's a good few more capable of winning on any given day.

If potential entrants are given the impression from here that they have no chance of doing well it can only hurt numbers.

Vyze · 11-03-2010 2:14pm

There's nothing more frustrating when building a scene than people who say "Oh, I won't win, I won't bother playing."

Everybody has to start from somewhere and entering tournaments in my opinion is far better for getting real experience against the best players since you know they won't be holding back or experimenting with new things against you as they might do in casuals.

If you give up just because you're not guaranteed first place, you're worse than Tim Henman!

Doctor DooM · 11-03-2010 2:16pm

blag wrote: »

I agree,one a month wouldn't be too much in my opinion.I'd be willing to travel down monthly for a tournament.

I personally don't think the entry fee is too much but maybe one could be organised at 10e with 5 covering rental costs etc and 5 for the prize pot to see if it makes a difference in terms of numbers.

I also think the attitude that there's only Bush or Cobelcog can win needs to stop.Newtype won 2 of the 4 he was at (and lost the final to his brother in another) and I think there's a good few more capable of winning on any given day.

If potential entrants are given the impression from here that they have no chance of doing well it can only hurt numbers.

(I hope) they were only joking.

No one in our scene is unbeatable.

If you can take a round, you can take a fight.

If you can take a fight, you can take a set.

bush · 11-03-2010 2:19pm

blag wrote: »

I also think the attitude that there's only Bush or Cobelcog can win needs to stop.Newtype won 2 of the 4 he was at (and lost the final to his brother in another) and I think there's a good few more capable of winning on any given day.

Aye, there a good few that stand a chance to win, especially mike. I havent won in ages either too so I dunno how anyone thinks I always win :pac:

Orim · 11-03-2010 2:52pm

My 0.02$ on everything :

Boards : People need to stop bad-mouthing games for no reason other then personal bias. For example if someone wants to come here and talk about smash brothers they should not have to spend the first two defending the fact that it is a fighting game. There's nothing wrong with a good debate regarding the merits of a game but you cannot just dismiss a game. This gives off the wrong impression and I would imagine it drive a few people off.

Tournaments : I agree with Bush and Blag, we need to make the tournaments monthly. They need to be regular. I would suggest the last Saturday of every month. A consideration is whether or not we take into account other events that are happening? On the one hand I would like the inferno tournaments to become a regular event regardless of any other considerations but we don't want to fragment the community when other tournaments are on. This month is an especially good example. Vaticon is on at the end of the month and imo it's vital that as many people as possible show up and make a good impression so we can further get involved with the various gaming conventions. Thoughts?

I think that the tournament fee should be reduced to €10. While I have no problem with the €15 fee, I can see how it would be daunting to new people. Based on the most recent tournament it will take about €40 from the top prize. This doesn't seem like a whole lot to me especially if it encourages more people to show up or to continue coming. A €10 fee also gives us a nice figure for doing half-price tournaments or new people half-off or bring a friend, get in for free, etc. I assume it's a psycological thing but those type of events make more sense to me with a €10 fee.

Finally we need to drop the word ranbat and the numbers from our turnaments. Each tournament is an individaual one day event. It should not be named as if it is an ongoing league. I would imagine that people could be put off by those things. I mean if your outside the community, what is a ranbat?

SUPER : As Jim stated a release or if possible a pre-release event is the goal. A pub would be my venue of choice. The reason for this is to encourage those people that would be hesitant to go a gaming center. We could try to get shops to hand out a flyer with each purchase of Super or if we can get it organised soon, then we could get the flyers out with each pre-order of Super. The facebook advertising mentioned in the podcast seems like it could be really good for this event.
As super should be released on a friday, I would then like to keep the pressure on by organising a "Super Exclusive" tournament the next day. This could be advertised at the release event and would be a cheap tournament in which you can only use one of the ten new characters. Not to let up at all the next week could then be a regular tournament.

I think that just about covers my thoughts on stuff.

MegaMal · 11-03-2010 3:00pm

how about bi-Monthly casuals? pay in early, around 1 or midday and leave as late as possible because it is good just to get casuals in instead of tourneys and the tourney enviornment, i would think that people would learn more from casuals one month - tourney the next.

just my thoughts.

Orim · 11-03-2010 3:05pm

MegaMal wrote: »

how about bi-Monthly casuals? pay in early, around 1 or midday and leave as late as possible because it is good just to get casuals in instead of tourneys and the tourney enviornment, i would think that people would learn more from casuals one month - tourney the next.

just my thoughts.

We have casuals every saturday in the XGC at the moment. They start at about 2 o'clock and run till about 7. The numbers very based on peoples real lifes and tournaments but there is generally a couple of people there.

Recently we started to have casuals on Wednesday evenings. They start at 4 and will run as late as needs be. Currently the numbers aren't great for this but hopefully will get more solid as they continue running.

It's not just dublin either, our west-coast homies recently ran the first limerick casual in the moviedrome. 10 people showed up and they are aiming for another one this week. I think they had one last night as well but I haven't heard how that went.

Dreddybajs · 11-03-2010 3:14pm

Pretty much agree with everything Orim said.

A-Trak · 11-03-2010 3:37pm

blag wrote: »

I also think the attitude that there's only Bush or Cobelcog can win needs to stop.

If potential entrants are given the impression from here that they have no chance of doing well it can only hurt numbers.

Vyze wrote: »

There's nothing more frustrating when building a scene than people who say "Oh, I won't win, I won't bother playing."

I agree here lads, my earlier post was in jest.
Guess I need to use more smilies in my jests eh

I completely agree with Dooms comment, and I think there's a huge pool of people who could take the top spots in any of the recent tournies, and even more who can cause an upset or give the top seeds a scare

I personally would enter a tourney even with if the chances of me winning were one in a million, , but I think the masterpiece that is Dumb and Dumber sums up this kind of optimism perfectly,

Lloyd: What do you think the chances are of a guy like you and a girl like me... ending up together?
Mary: Well, Lloyd, that's difficult to say. I mean, we don't really...
Lloyd: Hit me with it! Just give it to me straight! I came a long way just to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I'd say more like one out of a million.
[pause]
Lloyd: So you're telling me there's a chance... *YEAH!*

Orim · 11-03-2010 3:38pm

I'd like to question new people and lurkers : What can this community do to involve you more? Lots of people have posted their name in the player list but would never post again. Why not? Is there too much of a clique feel? Is there too many in-jokes? Any lurkers out there, your input would be greatly appreciated.

I remember at one of the meets there was a person who lurked here enough to know that Animax was called Terry and we all hate him for being top-tier whore. Yet this person never posted and AFAIR only came to one meet-up. What are we doing wrong?

Can we do anything to encourage you to come to out tournaments or casuals? Would a beginners only event help? Would discounts help?

Equally I would ask this of other game players. Why don't you post here more often? Currently the core body of posters is Street Fighter players but I would like to think that we do our best to engage in conversation with anyone that comes in here talking about other fighting games or trying to run other events. The question is, do we come across as engaging to other games or do you feel snobbed for street fighter?

Vyze · 11-03-2010 3:41pm

A-Trak wrote: »

I agree here lads, my earlier post was in jest.
Guess I need to use more smilies in my jests eh

Oh I wasn't pointing out you specifically, it's more some of the random casuals up north who shy away from entering a tournament, even if they're not doing anything else, and it's free entry!

I mean, if it's a game I like and it's a free tournament, I'll always enter just for the fun of the game.

FutureGuy · 11-03-2010 3:41pm

Can we post a message on XBL to all freinds of the SFIV profile to say we have having this discussion? is there a similar profile on PSN/PC

Vyze · 11-03-2010 3:46pm

Orim wrote: »

Equally I would ask this of other game players. Why don't you post here more often? Currently the core body of posters is Street Fighter players but I would like to think that we do our best to engage in conversation with anyone that comes in here talking about other fighting games or trying to run other events. The question is, do we come across as engaging to other games or do you feel snobbed for street fighter?

I think this might be an issue for people who don't play SF4. Sadly, it's something unavoidable, since SF4 is so huge (possibly to the detriment of other games?) and so avoiding discussion of it is impossible.

I would have suggested splitting SF4 off into its own subforum if possible, but then many of the SF4 players will never be exposed to other games since they'd likely just bookmark the SF4 subforum rather than check the general fighting game forum.

I don't post a lot since until Super comes out, I'm not fussed on SF4. There have been a couple of threads knocking about for other games like BlazBlue or Tekken 6, but they tend to disappear pretty fast with only 3 or 4 people posting in them. You can't force people to talk about a game they're not interested in, though, so there's not a lot you can do.

How To Grow Your Scene

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