KOF Community Growth and Outreach

[Tyrant292]

Nice thread Choysauce, thanks. There are a number of great Ideas that should be put to use here and the sooner the better.

[LouisCipher]

We gotta' set up some kind of Excellent Adventures for KOF and other SNKP games.

[choysauce]

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.   

don't be so timid man lol, we aren't mean here
maybe it could be like a QA sort of thing. cuz there's alot of info out there for newcomers to KOF, but everyone has their own needs and different ways they need to be taught.

also maybe on DC we can have a page with "resources" (unless there is something like that)
citing videos, articles, casts

guys like Ultrachen, the answer, dandyj could be listed for easy access

[choysauce]

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.

i think making a thread for lining up people that want their communities in the spotlight is in order, so you know who wants to talk about their scene,

i like the local tourney results idea, i think asking people to record some notable matches/grand finals would go along nicely with it.

[Malik]

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.

i think making a thread for lining up people that want their communities in the spotlight is in order, so you know who wants to talk about their scene,

i like the local tourney results idea, i think asking people to record some notable matches/grand finals would go along nicely with it.

I think this is a good idea as well & as far as the East Coast (NY/NJ/PA/CT) part of North America is concerned, there needs to be more unity because there I know there are a ton of players lurking but none seem to post on here too much nor make much of an effort to meet with others. For example, one of New York's premiere tournaments last night "The Kumate" series occured & people were uncertain if there was going to be a stream, it wasn't hyped as it should have & I don't like for that to be the case because Next Level Arcade is a hotspot for the EC, if not "THE" place to be at for all FG. There's just something missing & there's only so much you can do if people aren't motivated, so I can only try & play with people that do want to play & promote events if that even helps much.

[Crountine]

I see that many people want to take a n00b-friendly approach when teaching about the game, but to be honest, I don't think they should be our priority. Instead take a Street-Fighter-Player-friendly approach, those are the guys that are a little sick of playing SF4 for so long and really only have UMvC3 as an option, they should be our target.

So when doing tutorials or when doing Q&As taking an approach of teaching KOF to players that already know fighting games, specifically SF, therefore try and draw parallels between the two, or teaching KOF techniques by comparing them to homologous techniques in Street Fighter 4. I think that would attract more people because many Capcom fans feel rejection from the SNK camp, IMO.

[souf]

here in chicago, theres only a good 15 (give or take a few) who play the game seriously...but at least half of us play ONLY this game so i always try to humbly boast about that fact when talking to curious guys at the arcade. saying that its the only game for us...always insisting "yes, juri is fun and i love AE...but kof is hands down my favorite and thats all i want to make time for".

so many times kof will accidentally get trolled on the popular streams. ultradavid, james chen, and etc will insist "this is such a hard game that takes so much work" DONT BE SO NEGATIVE! the correct way to say it is "this is such a good game, all i want to do is work at it and you should too"

in our generation of marvel style "dial-a-combo" games that are just so easily accessible, we cant scare people away! its not "hard", its "challenging". its not "strict", its "fair". word usage can seem arbitrary but is very important in my opinion, we need to put an end to this subtle/accidental trolling that kof is a victim of on streams.

for the record, thats not exactly trolling, i know, but i call it trolling just because its always somebody who DOESNT play the game that makes those comments and rambles for 10 minutes how the game is "so tough and honest and time consuming". dont let non kof players discourage potential future kof players from joining us! if theres kof on your local stream and you know more about the game than the current commentator, get on the mic! or even if theres not a stream...if its just casuals, speak up. acknowledge the details and bits of gameplay that other fighting game fans that are watching might miss.

something i try to do when playing people who are clearly struggling is strategic mixtures of sandbagging and being flashy when it counts. sometimes a mutual friend will host gatherings at the bowling alley. nobody who goes really plays kof, but a good amount of them are interested...so i spend a majority of the matches talking them through it and playing slow to show them just how easy it can be to get the hang of the basics, but if i ever feel them drifting off or if they almost take one of my characters, a flashy HD combo should keep them entertained and show them how easily you can lose 900+ in a matter of seconds

right now we are the science nerds trying to compete with the football jocks for the homecoming queen. we may not have the looks or the numbers that marvel does, but we have so much more depth! be smart about the game you spit and we'll all get laid tonight!

sorry for writing a novel. just my $0.02

[Loona]

So when doing tutorials or when doing Q&As taking an approach of teaching KOF to players that already know fighting games, specifically SF, therefore try and draw parallels between the two, or teaching KOF techniques by comparing them to homologous techniques in Street Fighter 4. I think that would attract more people because many Capcom fans feel rejection from the SNK camp, IMO.

This reminded me of how some Capcom FG fans have some fondness for the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure FG by Capcom (general comment about it being fun and every character being broken ends up making the whole thing fair are common when the game comes up in conversation) - I checked out a system tutorial for that recently, and it was interesting to see that a lot of movement options are actually quite similar to KoF's, so it's a point of familiarity some players can use as a reference.


One little thing I try to do, which may not sit well with some, is that nowadays, when I sign up for a tournament that covers several games with when of them being KoF, i sign up only for KoF - I may have other games at home and dabble on them, but if there's an entry fee per game, I'd rather make sure only KoF is rewarded with cash for being part of the lineup, instead of encouraging the TOs to think that SF4 or whatever is the safe bet, with entries for less famous games like Kof being considered a result of people entering for Capcom's bahamoths and everything else being a "why not". I'd rahter try and keep my KoF bleeps in the radar strong on their own.

[desmond_kof]

So when doing tutorials or when doing Q&As taking an approach of teaching KOF to players that already know fighting games, specifically SF, therefore try and draw parallels between the two, or teaching KOF techniques by comparing them to homologous techniques in Street Fighter 4. I think that would attract more people because many Capcom fans feel rejection from the SNK camp, IMO.

That kinda made me think of this:

Drive Cancel -- An Introduction to KoFXIII

I attended this event but I couldn't check this out because I had a match. I'm just starting to watch through this. Anyone think this is a good way to help SF players into KOF?

[Loona]

I attended this event but I couldn't check this out because I had a match. I'm just starting to watch through this. Anyone think this is a good way to help SF players into KOF?

An hour-long tutorial might be too long for an SF player with a passing interest in KoF to sit through though... the way some may see is, at least half that time could be spent in SF's training mode getting better at that game.


Maybe something to appeal to CvS2 players, as that may feel like more of a "bridge" game from SF to KoF principles?
(especially with rolls being in 2 of the Capcom grooves in that...)
I don't know, showing how a SF character would do things in his own game, showing what other KoF-ish options it had in CvS2, showing a KoF character that's in XIII putting them to use in CvS2, then having that character making even better use of them in XIII?...

[Crountine]

Juicebox is a great example of what I meant. He streams KOF primarily now and I see how fans of the stream that only knew SF are becoming interested in XIII. One of the didactic tools Juice uses is to always make a SF reference to context the KOF technique he's teaching at the time.
For example, if he's teaching something in KOF, he'd always add a 'Kindda like Ryu in SF' or 'This can't be done in SF'. compares EX reversals between games, frametraps, etc.
By doing that he makes KOF more accessible and appealing to SF players, which, I think, is the best way to grow our community right now.

In 2011 I started to feel that KOF was becoming big, not because of BALA or Reynald, but when I started to see players like Combofiend, Bananaken and juicebox show interest. That's when I thought, hey, we may have a shot.

[HIGGS_CLARK]

I agree on the subject of having the right words to say when you introduce KOF to someone that is potentially interested, if all someone keeps saying is that the execution is hard and the inputs are ridiculous then that is going to scare people away from the game, I myself am starting to host workshops at our gatherings to get people interested in the game by introducing them to the basics and working up from that.

In my opinion i believe that KOF is just like futbol, not as popular in the U.S. but popular worldwide, if that is a fair comparison, but as long as people keep pushing for publicity and spotlight for this game then its guaranteed to grow, I know this for a fact since im a community leader myself here in the city of Wichita,KS.

As for the shout outs on stream i say go for it, if that helps bring one or more players to the community then that has helped out tremendously, you never know what your gonna find unless you actually try.

[JuiceboxAbel]

Just wanted to say, I am still committed to the growth and education of the KOF scene.

Just today there was a local tournament for various fighting games in Arizona, and I won KOF but didn't enter anything else. I did my best to try and show off flashy combos in casuals and try to educate the people who said they might try the game.

I think that the main way we can help the scene grow is to give out free copies of the game. Of course not all of us will be capable of such a thing, but it's something I've considered doing with my stream for a long time. I imagine ATLUS would not provide for that and it would come out of my pocket, but it might be something we can try contacting them about.

[solidshark]

Whoever brought up the positive phrasing, like saying "challenging" instead of "hard" brought up a great point. Players will definitely take information a certain way depending on the words. Some peope here in Japan say "muri" which translates to impossible, and dismiss even trying to disprove it; it can be hard to convince them it's not once it's in their head too.

We also need to keep mentioning the resources available online for practicing and improving. I still talk to a lot of new players who think the trials are the best/only way to start learning about the game. It might be for some, but most players who I direct to the wiki for XIII here or on SRK are genuinely surprised at the new info (especially meterless combos to perform before tackling bigger stuff and meter management). And with that, goes without saying, but keeping the wikis themselves fresh and updated is key too.

Just wanted to say, I am still committed to the growth and education of the KOF scene.

Just today there was a local tournament for various fighting games in Arizona, and I won KOF but didn't enter anything else. I did my best to try and show off flashy combos in casuals and try to educate the people who said they might try the game.

I think that the main way we can help the scene grow is to give out free copies of the game. Of course not all of us will be capable of such a thing, but it's something I've considered doing with my stream for a long time. I imagine ATLUS would not provide for that and it would come out of my pocket, but it might be something we can try contacting them about.

Glad to hear you're committed too Abel; that means a lot to the community at large.

The free copies of the game sounds like a great idea, though I don't know how to make the best of it. Raffling once a (week/month) maybe? Hopefully Atlus isn't against that idea.

[the7k]

Rafflin'? Just don't get caught. =P

Personally, I try to hold tournaments with no entry fee that have prizes. It's really the easiest way to get people to play something they don't know anything about - especially if everyone is almost equally unfamiliar with the game.