This will definitely take time. It's a certainy capable of happening, but there is definitely a long road ahead of us, and unfortunately alot of detractors within our own community who will either intentionally or unintentionally put down anyone trying to organize this or the idea itself. This is one of the problems within our own community, however... the fact that we can't all just get along. The SF scene sees so much success because regardless of disagreements within that community about execution of moves and combos, what they don't disagree on is that showing up is the single most important way to prove yourself in a fighting game. The MK community has been plagued with far too many negative attitudes who simply won't get up off the couch and travel 2 hours to meet people and spend a day with them and have some fun playing in person and enjoying the day. Travel, in my opinion is no excuse if a tournament is within 2 hours from a person. Money is a different story, and that aside, anyone who doesn't make it to tournaments and support it is only going to continue to prove to the SF players that they are right and we are still wrong. With that rant over, I have some things to say about how to get this started... it's a long road and it requires work... so if everyone who is willing to support it works for it, then maybe we can pull something like this off... but don't say "Yeah, I'm in, I'm down" and then not be willing to work... if you're going to commit to helping the cause... then go balls to the wall... or don't bother to post in this thread.
First, let it be known that I'm going to talk about this with in UMK3 in mind...
For this to happen, we are going to need:
1. Education
Mortal Kombat has been looked at with so much negativity recently. This is because there have been so many MK games SINCE UMK3 that have, quite possibly and irreversably tainted the reputation of MK. Our job, is not just to learn to play at the highest possible level we can achieve, show up to tournaments... but most importantly, it's to educate anyone who will listen, and to make attempts to get many more to listen, and even to say it when nobody is listening in hopes that someone hears... WHY should they play UMK3? "Dude, it's awesome" is not an acceptable answer. What does UMK3 have, what does it bring to the table that is different from all the other "awesome" games at tournaments that someone should consider adding it to their competitive lineup? This is what we have to answer. Why should someone play UMK3? How can we tell people, and then prove to them that the game is far from a joke, and is quite possibly one of the most intense and adrenaline producing games that someone could play? How do we answer when someone says that MK is all just blood and fatalities? We have to educate people that this game is truly competative, and all of us who are willing to make this happen have to be able to answer these questions and more before we can even think about going further with this idea.
2. Community
We call ourselves a community. We try to act like a community. Don't get me wrong... it's great having MK sites and MK forums... we all enjoy that. The question is, why so many? Before jumping on me with "MKE Rules, CMK Rules..." etc.. think about this... Aside from some people just wanting to have an MK site, many of today's current MK sites exist(or no longer exist) because we can't all just get along. We have so much in-fighting that rather than act like a real community and treat each other with respect and act like adults, we run off to immediately create a new site so that we don't have to be part of that "other" community. This is again, something that Street Fighter has that we lack as a community. Regardless of 2D, 3D, game platform, online vs. offline, pad vs. stick...etc... the one thing that SF players have that we lack is that they all agree on one thing...Street Fighter is the game to play. Granted(and this part needs to be covered in another section), Capcom hasn't been so stupid as to change what has worked for them for so long(and is ultimately part of their success) whereas Midway decided to re-imagine MK into so many different abominations that we have a hard time deciding which game is the "best worst game". We have to stop this. We have to agree, collectively, to support one or two games to bring to tournaments and EDUCATE people about them. We have to stop the in-fighting, and we have to stop cutting off the rest of the MK world from each other simply because we don't agree. We have to start acting like a community, and stop acting like each MK game is a soap box for each of us to spout off about how good it is, how good I am, and anyone who disagrees should just die. It's got to be because we want to see MK succeed in the tournament scene, and not for selfish reasons that have caused the MK "community" to splinter so many times.
3. Similar Thought, Same Goals
For those of us who are willing to jump into this feet first, we need a level of continuity in our thought processes. We need to have similar thought with the same goals in mind. I'm not saying we all need to think alike... I'm saying that all our thought should be for the benefit of the ultimate goal of getting UMK3 to be recognized and treated as the tournament worthy game it is. To do this we have to set smaller goals and achieve them first. We're not going to storm onto SRK and demand that Mr. Wizard make UMK3 a headline tournament...odds are he's not even going to dignify us with a response. However, if we begin taking local tournaments in each of our areas by storm... by supporting the game and brining it to local tournaments...or organizing local tournaments and making sure that UMK3 is headlined then we can make some small progress and small headway. I speak from experience on this. UMK3 was dead in tournaments on Long Island. I personally spearheaded its revival in local tournaments out here. It culminated in being one of the headline tournaments at ECT last year...UMK3... a headline tournament at a major... then, the next year, Shock's work with NEC had the same result... headlined at NECX. This is similar thought, same goals. We have to think together, with different ideas and brainstorms, all with the same goal in mind... and make no mistake, we have to sit and decide on these goals first...and do it all with the ultimate goal in mind, and a willingness to do that and make the sacrifices necessary to make that happen for the sake of our goals.
4. Communication
If there is one thing that irks me, it's when I get a list of players who say they're going to show up, and then not only do they not show, but they also don't bother to communicate at all and let someone know that they aren't going to be there. This happened at Play N Trade just this Saturday. All you have to do is jump on the forum and say "can't make it" and then at least we won't spend our time looking for you or holding up a tournament for you when you couldn't make it. We have to do this as players and respect the directors and organizers by communicating with them. As organizers, it's going to be of the utmost importance that we communicate on a consistent basis. We need to be aware of the tournaments that we're planning on bringing UMK3 to, the times and places, etc. As a community, we have to communicate about who is doing their job to educate and who could be doing a better job. If this is going to happen, then we have to go all in and be willing to take it when we're not doing our job and give it when someone else isn't.
5. Support
Support never seems to be a problem in terms of sheer number of people who play and want to play at a high level. The problem is getting people to support the game at a tournament. There are people who will tell us "I'm not traveling 45 mins to somewhere only to have an 8 person tournament..." Well, if I had all those people showing up, every tournament I run would be 30 people easily. It's important that as long as its feasible monetarily and time wise, that we all make an effort to show up to area tournaments, both locals and majors. We need to draw a line for ourselves, and decide how long is acceptable to travel to play for a local and for a major. Then as long as we can make time(if you're going to use the "dude I have a life" argument, then you're not cut out for this... doing this means that this is part of your life), and we have the money for it, then you need to be there to support your fellow players and organizers.
This is only a start... this list can and will grow. But heed what I said carefully...
don't say "Yeah, I'm in, I'm down" and then not be willing to work... if you're going to commit to helping the cause... then go balls to the wall... or don't bother to post in this thread.
