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Help me grow the Birmingham, AL scene

Glass Sword

Glass Sword

Nobody
For a long time I have wondered what to do about not having any players in my area. We have a venue, a very small one, that barely has 2 to 3 people show up to play casuals. Rarely we have people even want to play the same game. I have tried making threads here in TYM to promote the venue, but that seems ineffectual. I am done being selfish trying to find people who play my game and just find anybody who plays ANY fighting game to try to get them to come out.
My question is how should I go about this? How do I reach players who don't normally attend tournaments and get them to come play free casuals with some like minded players?
 
Fromundaman

Fromundaman

I write too much.
It's not easy, but it is doable. The trick is to go after casuals IMO.

I've been having luck by simply mentioning I play games at work, then inevitably someone will talk trash about one of the fighting games I've played before, be it Smash, Injustice, Marvel, Soul Calibur, etc. I will try to set up a time to play them, usually beat their ass (Let's admit it, most of our coworkers will be casuals) then give helpful advice and make it clear that it's really not hard at all to become competitive so long as you get the right mindset. Also let them know which game you play currently.

Most importantly though, HOLD BACK! Beat their ass enough that they know you're better, but make sure you keep the matches close enough that they are hype. If you can let them get a huge lead then make an epic comeback, that usually works really well.
Basically give them motivation that they're not that far behind while also showing them that the game(s) can get hella hype.


I don't know if this will work for everyone, but I've had pretty good success building my scene for all of my games by doing this, and it usually ends up with the people I bring in actually surpassing me since they end up being very receptive to advice. It has worked especially well for Injustice (When the game launched we had maybe 10-12 people at the local arcade. Now a lot of the original guys have jumped onto newer fighting games and yet our locals get 20-ish on a regular basis, 5-7 of which I brought in by doing this.).
 
Glass Sword

Glass Sword

Nobody
Fromundaman said:
It's not easy, but it is doable. The trick is to go after casuals IMO.

I've been having luck by simply mentioning I play games at work, then inevitably someone will talk trash about one of the fighting games I've played before, be it Smash, Injustice, Marvel, Soul Calibur, etc. I will try to set up a time to play them, usually beat their ass (Let's admit it, most of our coworkers will be casuals) then give helpful advice and make it clear that it's really not hard at all to become competitive so long as you get the right mindset. Also let them know which game you play currently.

Most importantly though, HOLD BACK! Beat their ass enough that they know you're better, but make sure you keep the matches close enough that they are hype. If you can let them get a huge lead then make an epic comeback, that usually works really well.
Basically give them motivation that they're not that far behind while also showing them that the game(s) can get hella hype.


I don't know if this will work for everyone, but I've had pretty good success building my scene for all of my games by doing this, and it usually ends up with the people I bring in actually surpassing me since they end up being very receptive to advice. It has worked especially well for Injustice (When the game launched we had maybe 10-12 people at the local arcade. Now a lot of the original guys have jumped onto newer fighting games and yet our locals get 20-ish on a regular basis, 5-7 of which I brought in by doing this.).
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My problem is getting NEW people out to play. Now I can try to get people who play the game at the monthly local to come out I will do that. The same 4-5 guys come out and nobody new shows up. I'm the NEW GUY that should be telling. I'm going to take some pictures of the venue and make threads on all the major forums I can think of to try to get people to come out. Also are other avenues, like Reddit and I don't know err Craigslist, good places to try to get the word out. I can't get a megaphone and yell about as I drive down the street obviously.
 
Fromundaman

Fromundaman

I write too much.
AK Glass_Sword said:
My problem is getting NEW people out to play. Now I can try to get people who play the game at the monthly local to come out I will do that. The same 4-5 guys come out and nobody new shows up. I'm the NEW GUY that should be telling. I'm going to take some pictures of the venue and make threads on all the major forums I can think of to try to get people to come out. Also are other avenues, like Reddit and I don't know err Craigslist, good places to try to get the word out. I can't get a megaphone and yell about as I drive down the street obviously.
Click to expand...
Well of course, but what I'm saying is that trying to get people to find you on sites like these or at arcades usually yields little to no results (At least for me) since those people are usually already aware that the competitive scene exists and could put force the effort to find it if they were truly interested in joining it.

I'm saying if you know any casual gamer, be it a coworker, friend of a friend, etc; those are the types of people you have to try and target to grow your scene IMO. You have to bring awareness to those who don't know the competitive scene exists and try to get them interested in it all at the same time.
 
Glass Sword

Glass Sword

Nobody
Fromundaman said:
Well of course, but what I'm saying is that trying to get people to find you on sites like these or at arcades usually yields little to no results (At least for me) since those people are usually already aware that the competitive scene exists and could put force the effort to find it if they were truly interested in joining it.

I'm saying if you know any casual gamer, be it a coworker, friend of a friend, etc; those are the types of people you have to try and target to grow your scene IMO. You have to bring awareness to those who don't know the competitive scene exists and try to get them interested in it all at the same time.
Click to expand...
Yeah that is cool. Unfortunately I don't know anybody like that because of several reasons I won't go into. What I'm trying to ask is how do I find new people to begin with not how do I keep them. I have looked in my college and video games are not that big of a thing what every one is doing is Greek Life which I have no connection to. What I want to do is raise the red flag to show people we exist. Where do I start? Do I need to make flyers and put them up at my school? Do I need to go to some sort of community forum? Do I need to make a thread on GameFaqs?
 
Fromundaman

Fromundaman

I write too much.
Ahhhh.... I see. In that case I'm not too sure.

I know a good portion of our local smash scene started from a video game club at Cincinnati State. Maybe starting one of those can help?
 
ThaShiveGeek

ThaShiveGeek

Est In Harvey 1989
Man I haven't forgot about you bro. I'm just waiting for the money to get my car registered. I'm riding around without a license plate at the moment lol. I'd be all for growing the scene in Alabama, but honestly I'd probably still drive that hour and a half to Atlanta and play with them while spending time with family too.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/208762625851266/ <--- This is the Alabama fighting community group on facebook. I rarely see them talk about meeting up for NRS games.
 
Immortal Kombat

Immortal Kombat

almost moderate success
I have the same struggle being from southern oregon. Honestly if you want to build the local scene go where gamers go. The best place to advertise it is at your local video game store. If you talk to them about it they will even help you with flyers if there cool. I just tell the guy at my gamestop if he sees people buying a fighting game to point them in my direction.
Oh...and also arcades and stuff (bulletin boards)
 
Ricky Torres

Ricky Torres

Noob
Dude, I contacted you on twitter a while ago asking you about a scene here in Birmingham. I live in Centerpoint, so I'd try to make it if we ever get something going. I'm also driving around without a license plate like the guy above me lol. I'd still try to make it though. We could also add each other to play online as well, lag wouldn't be bad, I have it on PS3 and PS4. PSN dim3r3553
 
AK Gookus

AK Gookus

Slant-eyed Nightwing
Austin, you should get into some Street Fighter as well since I know most of us will be picking up Ultra and you can slowly get into that scene and convert them to the way of Injustice.
 
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