KOF Community Growth and Outreach

[choysauce]

I wanted to make this thread to discuss strats about helping to grow the KOF scene locally and globally.

With EVO 2k12 and how much hype was shown at the KOF finals, (easily the hypest finals this year) now is the time to push the game even harder since it's there is so much momentum for it.

These are some things off the top of my head that we need to ACTIVELY do in order to get more people to play this game.

1. Exposure

We need to keep streaming, talking about the game, having tournaments. Anything to put the game into the public eye. People will eventually think, "let's give it a try" or "this game looks awesome!".
With this exposure also it will give more opportunities for hype moments that can reel people in. The daigo parry probably has brought in tons of players, so we need to have more opportunities to make those kinds of moments

2. Positive reinforcement

Like we've been doing so far, we need to keep saying how good the game is, how balanced it is, how it helps you grow as a player, how FUN it is. This will help with people who are on the fence about picking it up, they will agree and realize they are making a good decision by picking up this game. We also need to mention more that this game isn't as hard as people make it out to be. (Although the game is difficult, it's not the hardest game in the world)

3. Educate

We need to teach people about this game in easy and accessible ways, so people don't feel like it's impossible to improve. Also we need to sacrifice some of our session time to teach/guide new players. As much as we'd like to constantly play good high level matches to improve, spending time with newcomers is important to make them feel welcome and also to give them the feeling that they can succeed with our help. (Eventually these guys can come up to your own level and increase the competitive pool size)

4. Accessibility

We need to provide players with places/sessions to play. If you can even only have 3 people at your house at max, do it! bring in someone new if you can. band together, find a venue you can all split a cost for or something. people need to PLAY the game with the community to get into it.
(People like superfx on the WC opens his house up to let anyone who wants to play come. DJ Houshen on the EC holding it down with sessions in his own apartment as well)

5. Everyone/Anyone can contribute

Nobody in the community is too small to contribute. Ranging from streaming, providing setups/sticks, even just being there. Figure out something you're willing and able to sacrifice to help the community grow. No matter how small it may be, it makes a difference.


All these things are EXTRA WORK for all of us. But I believe if we can follow through, we can become the best subsect of all the FGC and a shining example for other communities to follow. We do this for the love of the game and the community!

Please join in the discussion, give us more ideas we can use. Or tell us what you can contribute to your local scene (Posting it here can help you to GET UP AND ACTUALLY DO IT). Feel free to ask questions on how to grow your local scene or start one.

[selfReg]

yup.

[desmond_kof]

Great thread. I think one thing we need to do more is spotlight and help other USA scenes outside of SoCal, even places that are struggling a bit to give them exposure to other players that are probably lurking locally that play.

[choysauce]

Great thread. I think one thing we need to do more is spotlight and help other USA scenes outside of SoCal, even places that are struggling a bit to give them exposure to other players that are probably lurking locally that play.

yeah that's def important with today's dynamics for the fgc. there is definitely an incentive to getting your name out there. and with that there is more incentive to start playing if you can get more exposure while playing in your own area.

but HOW? is the real question.

I think a small thing we can do is give shoutouts from our respective livestreams/casts. maybe have people submit some photos of their players so that we can recognize their faces.
maybe we'll see them at the next major tourney and be like "HEY! you were on this show!"

[Kane317]

Great thread. I think one thing we need to do more is spotlight and help other USA scenes outside of SoCal, even places that are struggling a bit to give them exposure to other players that are probably lurking locally that play.

I agree too, as long as ppl let us know about a stream, or some event we'll help get the word out by posting it up.

[solidshark]

Great thread. I think one thing we need to do more is spotlight and help other USA scenes outside of SoCal, even places that are struggling a bit to give them exposure to other players that are probably lurking locally that play.

Most definitely.

And choysauce said it in really specific and useful ways (Exposure and Positive Reinforcement), but I think most of us just need to be more vocal, or continue being vocal. A large AND talkative community can be very attractive.

Gotta emphasize Accessibility too. Online AND offline. Try to be online daily (or as much as possible) for a little bit, and keep up with whatever the locals are doing. KOF is showing up in more places, and more people showing up will keep it there. And if you can't make the engagements, maybe just let other players know what's up, online DC KOF 13 tournaments, whatever running locallly on the weekend, streams, etc.

All obvious stuff, but the key is doing it.

[Ghaleon]

Hi guys, we aren't well known in KOF but my name is Chris Hatala, and my co-director, Harmon Tam, and I run Season's Beatings. Long story short, KOF got us back into actually competing at fighters (I play 3s, MvC2 and ST at high level but do not actually enjoy SF4/MvC3) and not just running a large tournament, so we really respect the game and are trying to do what we can to make it sucessful.

Also lol I'm posting the DC thread soon -- I'd like to have a couple key KOF announcements confirmed before we do but I will post it in the next few days.

Bala and MadKOF's grand finals really were a gift to the scene. They were the talk of EVO to attendants AND stream watchers, and it proved that not only is KOF a great game, it's a fantastic, fast-paced spectator sport as well.

I think KOF has a great chance to be a solid tournament game across the country for years (hopefully until KOF14 comes out and KOF blows up even bigger!), and I saw this thread on twitter and wanted to hopefully help with some thoughts and advice.

Positive reinforcement IS the main key IMO, great point. This starts at the top. Communities have been ruined because its top players/leaders were jerks -- elitist, unreliable, unfriendly, unsharing, and shit-talk crossing the line to childish feuds and total disrespect.

KOF seems to have a great community and strong leadership. If you're a leader on DC, in your local community, or a running KOF at majors, your behavior sets an example to your own players and also players from other game communities. Stay positive, support your game, encourage new players, and please don't shittalk other games. I really am impressed with the community and hope to count us apart of it after what we're trying to pull off at SB. I've seen a number of good games fall out of favor since 2004 when I started traveling to majors, and these were the main factors.

You guys seem to be doing that and as long as people love the game, it will continue to get supported at majors, which sustains the community. Keep going the extra mile to rep your game and travel for it! Trust me that major TOs will run whatever gets bodies to his event. So keep traveling and encouraging players of all skill levels to compete in person!

And yeah, keep streaming it and bug your local or major events to give it strong support on the main stream. Organize long sets or even MMs if you're down with that so people can watch and get hype and see strong players going at it.

[solidshark]

Thanks for your words Ghaleon, or Chris. KOF at something as big as Season's Beatings is a big deal for the community. I agree with you on a lot of what you said, and hope KOF can keep getting bigger at every tournament it's featured at.

Can wait to hear your news in a few days.

[choysauce]

Thanks for sharing ghaleon! I really hope to see the scene grow on the east coast! Please keep up the good work to keep this scene blossoming

[davidkong07]

In regards to putting the spotlight on up and coming communities outside of California, this is something I've been thinking about for a little while. I was thinking of maybe doing a "Scene Spotlight" article series on the front page of DC where we can give exposure to growing local scenes, like Las Vegas, New York or North Carolina. Maybe we can also have some of these scene's representatives as guests on the Dream Cancel Podcast. I dunno if there would be interest for this though...

[solidshark]

In regards to putting the spotlight on up and coming communities outside of California, this is something I've been thinking about for a little while. I was thinking of maybe doing a "Scene Spotlight" article series on the front page of DC where we can give exposure to growing local scenes, like Las Vegas, New York or North Carolina. Maybe we can also have some of these scene's representatives as guests on the Dream Cancel Podcast. I dunno if there would be interest for this though...

"Scene Spotlight" is an excellent idea David. I'd keep up with and support this in any way possible.

[Ghaleon]

Also, anime cons and the like aren't my thing, but bringing KOF to different venues like that is a good idea. If you go to cons or casual game nights in your area, KOF looks and sounds beautiful and IMO is pretty attractive even to the 3-D generation. You might be able to get casual players into the game on a basic level by teaching them some basic and cool stuff.

[choysauce]

Also, anime cons and the like aren't my thing, but bringing KOF to different venues like that is a good idea. If you go to cons or casual game nights in your area, KOF looks and sounds beautiful and IMO is pretty attractive even to the 3-D generation. You might be able to get casual players into the game on a basic level by teaching them some basic and cool stuff.

branching out to different niches is definitely a good idea to reel in new players. esp with the advent of p4a, we can tell them "you should play KOF too! look how awesome it is!"

also I think we should see who in the marvel/street fighter communities may be interested but don't know where to start. simply ask them why they aren't playing it. if they say they were thinking about it, tell them you'll help them learn!

Wentinel from the marvel scene said he was interested in learning and asked me to sit in training mode with him to teach him. i'm gonna goto his place sometime soon to support his kof endeavors.

and to David, i think we should ask levelup if we can do a short community spotlight segment on TRB? cuz that'll really give the KOF small scenes alot of exposure and make it seem alot bigger than it ONLY BEING IN SOCAL.

maybe ask people for a short info blurb (short enough to do between a match, maybe slight delay) you can read and let ppl know that there are players all over the place. it could help with bringing members to their own communities that might not have known that it is near them.
it could be a precursor to advertise for a drive cancel radio show that will have them on or something or you could talk about them post DC podcast interview.

just throwing out a bunch of ideas lol

[zerotrigger]

Please don't flame me for this because it was just a thought and I admit I didn't think it thoroughly but I was thinking during the podcasts, that there would be a newbie kof segment. In which tactics and strategies that appeal to the new players are discussed by a panel of seasoned players.   

[desmond_kof]

I think one thing we can do is try posting and publishing regional tournament results on the front page (Top 8) which can spotlight that tournament and its region.

Maybe we can also ask people to do maybe local FT10s either casual or money matches if they don't have a lot of people, post the results, post a match video or two (it can be a direct feed or just a handheld one) and we will post it on the front page and highlight the members and where they are from. It doesn't have to be a super high level match either, just showing people that they are playing and want the learn should be enough.

And I also second DC podcast interviews for exposing peoples communities, and even some written ones, similar to SRK's "whats on your mind" if any of you guys remember that. I remember I had an interview, talked about Minnesota and it actually brought out 1 or 2 people to play with us that didn't even know we had a fighting game scene. One of those guys is actually a really strong SSF4 player that got out of his pool at EVO.