Topic: KOF Community Growth and Outreach

[desmond_kof]

You have to be interested and enthusiastic yourself if you would like others to be. Of course it isn't going to magically make people see the holy light but at least just incase others are, the uninterested people can drop your name and forward them to you.

But a majority of the times with folks in certain areas its just a concept of the haves and the havenots. Certain places just can't have it...either it be the people there or the businesses (like arcades or game rooms)...those really structure out good fighting game communities.

[solidshark]

Discovering King of Fighters 13 with Max & Matt Part 1

Maximillain is getting into this game now, the vid is a part 1 of 2. Since He's a pretty good promoter for FGs, maybe we can help him with tips, tidbits, or similar things for him to get into it more, and filter out into potential players.

You have to be interested and enthusiastic yourself if you would like others to be. Of course it isn't going to magically make people see the holy light but at least just incase others are, the uninterested people can drop your name and forward them to you.

Very good point. To be enthusiastic and especially SEEN playing it helps a bunch. The happier we look the more some other might wonder what they're missing.

[choysauce]

i'm glad max is doing stuff for kof! i'm hoping he does more.

but as for those who are feeling hopeless about finding people in their area, i think it's important to not be scared of failure. all the kof players need to have more sessions and advertise that they are having them.

best example of this is david kong, he held casuals at his place and posted it on the kof group page. he had tons of people of all skill levels and the word spread.

also we need to let people know about this facebook group.

you no scare, i no scare!

[souf]

Maximillain is getting into this game now

sometimes theres no such thing as bad publicity but this video reminds me of what i was talking about in my very first post in this thread. how kof so often gets trolled by popular non kof players that the FGC and fans look up to/rely on for advice.

whether its intentional or not...between his extreme lack of knowledge (on a game hes still making a 20 min video about for some reason) and poor choice of words, he just makes kof seem more foreign and overwhelming than it already is.

im drunk and annoyed that this is still happening after evo. sorry for rambling, i just wish he got somebody who knew what they were talking about to help...or did his homework and read up on it first...or at least practiced it longer than 10 seconds before making this lol jeez.

...or maybe im wrong and the 2nd half of the video is great and he redeems himself...i had to stop 7 and a half minutes in cause this was killing my buzz.

[choysauce]

i think as long as he's having fun with trying to learn it, then it'll be good. we need more high profile community members like him to be seen playing the game and being genuinely interested in it.

I tweeted to him that i'm willing to help with his videos or anything kof related, i hope he read it and takes me up on it. errr i'll just dm him lol.

sad thing about most of the fgc is that they are like sheep. whatever is most popular will be played. p4 is super popular right now, so even the top players are getting into it.

we just need more visibility and show that it isn't THAT hard. that's one of the big reasons why people are turned off, there's no I WIN character/button. *cough* Mitsuru, wesker *cough*

having combofiend and juicebox helps out the kof community alot as well. we all have to keep working at it actively, we can't wait for people to come to us!

[Malik]

i think as long as he's having fun with trying to learn it, then it'll be good. we need more high profile community members like him to be seen playing the game and being genuinely interested in it.

I tweeted to him that i'm willing to help with his videos or anything kof related, i hope he read it and takes me up on it. errr i'll just dm him lol.

sad thing about most of the fgc is that they are like sheep. whatever is most popular will be played. p4 is super popular right now, so even the top players are getting into it.

we just need more visibility and show that it isn't THAT hard. that's one of the big reasons why people are turned off, there's no I WIN character/button. *cough* Mitsuru, wesker *cough*

having combofiend and juicebox helps out the kof community alot as well. we all have to keep working at it actively, we can't wait for people to come to us!

Yeah Juicebox's love for the game is really inspiring for newcomers & people who are already interested in the game, but as someone stated earlier, we should do "community videos" at majors with ALL players, not just top players because a community is only as strong as the people's love for the game. I put my love for the game visible with people that play other games not to just "advertise" it, but because I simply enjoy it that much. But yeah Max at least trying KOF will help & if he accepts guys help in Cali, that would do us wonders with people whom are really interested because that's the audience we need to grab a hold of the most.

[solidshark]

Been gauging the (online) FGC a lot lately, and with the talk of how other scenes for certain FG are doing, we might be somewhere mid-tier. Lots of talk on EVO lately with SFxT, and as I think about our success at EVO, I have to remind myself that EVO isn't the epitome of KOF/SNK success in the US/world, it's a stepping stone, but an important one. The next step has to be a strong, permanent foothold wherever fighting games are played.

Been hearing some people talking about their scene in how Capcom-exclusive it is and making contradictory exceptions for new games like P4A while they remain the only ones open to other fighters or remotely playing XIII. So here's a few suggestions I've got for scenes:

-Hold some kind of small tournament for your local scene. Make it like a $1 entry fee where the winner gets the pot, or a free tournament where the winner gets $10 or something. If you're the best XIII player, don't compete, coach players and answer questions or let everyone else who's new get into it and discover on their own. If their totally clueless about KOF but know how to play SF, just emphasize the 4 jumps, running, rolling, EX, and drive-cancelling. Other stuff can come later as they play.

-Hold weekly practice/teaching/casuals for KOF XIII. This is where you need to know the game more than anyone else. Bring your system, show off some good replays to them, and one thing that worked for me is uploading some tutorial vids I found online, like Dandy J's and showing those there. And show them the active difference between how you can play restrictively like SF, or how to take advantage of more of the systems.

-With anything you try to arrange yourself, like the examples above, don't expect overnight success. Just keep showing your love for it and bringing the game around. If people ask to use your system to play something else (especially if it's AE or Marvel and they've already got setups for it), politely say something like "sorry, but this is my system and I brought it for people to play KOF specifically. I'm trying to support this game."

-If there's a big tournament close to you that has KOF XIII, but you're short on funds, see if you can get a carpool going with a few guys. Pitch in, and as they're going for AE, MVC, etc., you go for KOF.

-Like choysauce mentioned, start up and keep a social network group going for KOF locals, facebook, twitter, something. Or keep up KOF content in the facebook group your local scene already has (Max playing KOF XIII, tournament from _________, etc.



And a question for you guys, is this a good enough place to talk about actual attempts at scenes and where they stand, or just ideas?

[choysauce]

i highly encourage anyone reading this thread to speak up and ask questions about their own scene. we're here to help.

[baccano1932]

You have to be interested and enthusiastic yourself if you would like others to be. Of course it isn't going to magically make people see the holy light but at least just incase others are, the uninterested people can drop your name and forward them to you.

Yeah I'd say that seems to be the vibe I get as well but, also from the people i've met quite a few of them don't want to follow or hang with just anyone it's like they want a "godlike" messiah figure to follow and learn from, like they have unrealistic expectations of some people, don't know if anyone else has ever got this impression but thats the attitude quite a few people i've met over the last couple of years have had.

[choysauce]

Yeah I'd say that seems to be the vibe I get as well but, also from the people i've met quite a few of them don't want to follow or hang with just anyone it's like they want a "godlike" messiah figure to follow and learn from, like they have unrealistic expectations of some people, don't know if anyone else has ever got this impression but thats the attitude quite a few people i've met over the last couple of years have had.
[/quote]

that's a very common mentality for many who want to win and get better. if they can beat someone for free, they think "i'm just leveling down by playing this guy". understandable, but that's a scrub mentality. granted you need to play people better than you sometimes, but neglecting people that aren't quite there yet is forgoing a valuable resource.

teach them how to beat you solidly, then develop techniques to overcome that. this is how people get better amongst themselves (theoretically at least).

but as for those guys that think that way in your area. just get better and fuck them up. stay hungry

[solidshark]

just get better and fuck them up. stay hungry

Words to live by.

A friend mentioned something that might help the community. Keep in-touch with your community events and if they've got FG tournaments with no KOF representation, piggyback off of that and get it in the tournament, or get it as a side-tournament. There's probably a few people interested in KOF but are quiet and wondering why no one is doing anything for the game.

[Terrastorm]

Are a lot of people here aware of the KOF13 Tournament Players group on facebook? Maybe we can use this to network.

Btw, it is a closed group.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/247580531972394/

[choysauce]

Are a lot of people here aware of the KOF13 Tournament Players group on facebook? Maybe we can use this to network.

Btw, it is a closed group.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/247580531972394/

david kong is the admin for this group, and he's happy to add anyone that is interested in playing the game and keeping up with the community.

it's closed so that random people don't come in and just troll

[9inchsamurai]

I feel having great online would help this game a good bit in my state. We have a strong and consistent group of 8-10 local players for this game, but every time we try to get more people into it they always say something like "the online is so bad I can't practice" or "i'm already playing too many games." We have weekly casual gatherings for this game too, but it's almost always the same people because either 1) the other people live far away, or don't have a car in the first place, and 2) they feel intimidated since most of us are pretty damn good at this game so they're somewhat afraid of getting trounced. #2 is unfortunate because I'll admit I'm at the very bottom of the skill level within our KoF group, yet I still make it out often. I think if this game had better online, then the interested people would be able to "get better" on their own time instead of showing up to our gatherings and expect to get trashed.

[desmond_kof]

I agree with 9inchsamurai, I feel that people are too hesitant to buy or even get into the game because of the shoddy netcode...I've seen new members here talk about how bad the netcode is for them and they ask if there are any other good fighters that have better netplay (P4A, VF5FS etc).