PAX East FGC Panel - Community Leaders discuss how we can continue to grow, reaching bigger audience

[STORMS]

At PAX East last weekend there was a Fighting Game Community panel with community leaders Gootecks, Alex Valle, CEO JeBailey, James Chen, MarkMan and Team Spooky. The general topic here is "how to grow our community and scene". LoL and StarCraft numbers are mentioned as well as the failure of IPL... hear from legends like Alex Valle about what each and every one of us can do to strengthen our scene and how to move forward.

In their discussion, much of it has to deal with the top players of the community and how they can grow the community through their own leadership.

Some of the topics that are covered in this hour long panel

• Introductions
• Resurrection and growth within the community, moving forward?
• We compare ourselves to LoL and StarCraft, we should instead focus on us and our own goals
• The Spectator Experience
• Educating from the ground up
• Sponsorship
• (during the questions, Injustice is mentioned with Arturo and NerdJosh testing)

and much more..

Credit: EventHubs

 

[Zoidberg747]

Not gonna watch an hour long panel.

Any important or interesting points?

 

[Ace Hood]

Yea could someone make a vid showing the key points im too lazy to watch or do it XD

 

[STORMS]

Not gonna watch an hour long panel.

Any important or interesting points?

Understandable. I'd recommend watching in 10 or 15 mins segments. It's just good overall discussion.

Who knows, you might get some ideas to better yourself or the community by listening to it,

 

[Zoidberg747]

Understandable. I'd recommend watching in 10 or 15 mins segments. It's just good overall discussion.

Who knows, you might get some ideas to better yourself or the community by listening to it,

You know it's weird, I never start listening to something and stop. I almost feel like I have to finish it or something.

Ill try listening to it a little bit later.

 

[SRP]

I really enjoyed it. Coming into the FGC from basically only casual play it was filled with lots of interesting ideas about the community, and how to build it:

1. Don't just dominate people, instead show them what they can do to counter your tactics. If you are doing stream look at also doing basic tutorial type videos that can be used to help get those interested in the game yet suck at fighting games better.
2. Step outside your circle when looking to build a local community.
3. Be willing to travel. Search the forums of various sites to see if there is a local group.
4. Be willing to learn from your mistakes and ask questions from those who beat you.
5. Don't have kids. lol
6. Play cause you love it, not because of money.

Basically that is what I got from it.

 

[Ace Hood]

I really enjoyed it. Coming into the FGC from basically only casual play it was filled with lots of interesting ideas about the community, and how to build it:

1. Don't just dominate people, instead show them what they can do to counter your tactics. If you are doing stream look at also doing basic tutorial type videos that can be used to help get those interested in the game yet suck at fighting games better.
2. Step outside your circle when looking to build a local community.
3. Be willing to travel. Search the forums of various sites to see if there is a local group.
4. Be willing to learn from your mistakes and ask questions from those who beat you.
5. Don't have kids. lol
6. Play cause you love it, not because of money.

Basically that is what I got from it.

Well thank you

 

[SRP]

Well thank you

There was more discussed in there, but I think those were the parts that really struck me, as a guy who last played fighting games seriously with Street Fighter 2, Tekken, and Dark Stalkers in the arcade when they came out.

 

[chemicalNova]

Injustice discussion starts at roughly 42:45.. and it only lasts about 30 seconds..

 

[ChrisJG]

Do yourselves a favor and watch it. Some points come up that are very compatible to our community here. While others might be dull it's still a good watch. The Q and A was pretty good too.

 

[Psychotropic]

They say this generation is jumping straight online to learn the games. Then I propose we see more online tournaments for casual and higher quality players alike. This would also give people from all countries a chance to compete a maybe ignite peoples interests with
the competitive scene. If I saw the in-game option to sign up to an online tournament I'd jump at it.

 

[SRP]

They say this generation is jumping straight online to learn the games. Then I propose we see more online tournaments for casual and higher quality players alike. This would also give people from all countries a chance to compete a maybe ignite peoples interests with
the competitive scene. If I saw the in-game option to sign up to an online tournament I'd jump at it.

I also liked the idea of league play where the top 2 players of each group got to advance to a more elite group who played a higher level game, with everyone wanting to get to the top group.

 

[Psychotropic]

I also liked the idea of league play where the top 2 players of each group got to advance to a more elite group who played a higher level game, with everyone wanting to get to the top group.

Yeah I liked this set-up too. Something like that could definitely work online also. If it's about reaching a wider audience then IMO that's a good route to take. Injustice would be a great game to do something like this because of the wide audience that game will attract. People who otherwise weren't into fighting games etc.

 

[SRP]

Yeah I liked this set-up too. Something like that could definitely work online also. If it's about reaching a wider audience then IMO that's a good route to take. Injustice would be a great game to do something like this because of the wide audience that game will attract. People who otherwise weren't into fighting games etc.

I'm not sure if this is possible but with the online practice mode, imagine top level players using it to put on small teaching sessions, and then rotating people through a little hands on to let them try out what was taught if a lobby mode is possible with practice.

 

[Psychotropic]

I'm not sure if this is possible but with the online practice mode, imagine top level players using it to put on small teaching sessions, and then rotating people through a little hands on to let them try out what was taught if a lobby mode is possible with practice.

Yeah man that would be cool. I could see that happening from some of the already helpful top players.

 

[nineburn]

good watch, good motivation

 

[BenGmanUk]

It kinda seemed like the injustice QA process was knocked by Spooky after Gooteks praised it.

Maybe I misunderstood him though.

 

[STORMS]

It kinda seemed like the injustice QA process was knocked by Spooky after Gooteks praised it.

Maybe I misunderstood him though.

Spooky wasn't knocking it, he just spoke the truth that 'not every pro player has what it takes to do it'.

The QA process is probably pretty hard. You're there to break the game, not so much enjoy it... that comes on the 16th/19th.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

The thing that people need to understand, is that there are QA employees, and then there are game testers.. the QA leads and employees work on a consistent basis to test and ensure the quality of the game. They are looking for anything and everything, including mundane glitches in menus, options/settings, graphical glitches, inconsistencies, etc.

Then there are intermittent fighting game testers.. These guys are there to enjoy and play the game. They are mainly competitive players who are brought in to do what they do best: come in for a week or whatever, and they just play the game, and try to win via any means possible. They explore setups/tactics and play tons of rounds and the dev team records the matches.

These are 2 different jobs, with 2 different qualifications. People keep trying to mesh them together, but they're not the same at all.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Also I'm going to say this here, because it's a relevant place to do so:

We in the FGC need to step our promotional game up majorly. By promotion I don't mean posting things on websites which are frequented by hardcore players and members; and I don't mean advertising and giving shououts on late-night Twitch shows which are largely frequented by the very same people. I mean making concerted and cooperative efforts to reach people who would specifically not know or care about these events otherwise.

For all of the events I've seen, 99% of the promotion has been directed at the people who are aware of those kinds of events already. And while that's great for getting 20-30 extra players to sign up to a game, it doesn't do much for stream viewership, sponsorship, and overall popularity of games and events.

So if we are planning to take things to the next level, we need to target people who are just gamers, gaming fans, casual players, etc. Because it's this audience that we can draw from to create a viable economic ecosystem that will actually be able to support the growth of this sport. And also, this group of people will help develop and breed a larger base of future serious competitive players and fans.

I stand behind this mission 100% and I'm going to do whatever I can to aid it; but it requires cooperation from everyone. Including top tournament players; playing alone isn't enough to grow a scene, and it will take a bit of business and promotional savvy to really take things to the next level. Everyone has a responsibility to start seriously growing their individual brand, finding representation, and generally treating themselves as a serious opportunity rather than just a guy who unpacks a joystick, collects some money, and goes home.

There's tremendous room for growth, but we're all going to have to work together and step outside of our comfort zones to do it.

Anybody with me?

 

[Psychotropic]

What better way to target gamers than in the actual game? I bet a large amount of people that are going to be playing Injustice don't know about these events and streams that go on. Heck, the only way I found out about fighting game tournaments being streamed online is via some stranger in a chat room of MK9.

It would be cool if there was a way to set up online tournaments that target players who don't necessarily know about the community behind the game.

 

[SRP]

I just learned about this whole scene since finding TYM. I've been sharing the links to feeds on my FB account cause I have friends who play games casually. Watching the MK stream I realize I never took the game seriously.

 

[n9195v]

Do we know who the other play testers are yet?

 

[SRP]

Do we know who the other play testers are yet?

Not that I know of. I remember they said they would be listed in the manual.