Suggestions on how to create competition/scene on a college campus?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
1

Alright… my arcade idea didn’t end up going through but i’m still able to create a single machine which is in the works.

I’m a university student who really is looking to get people interested in playing at any cost. I’m looking to get people to pretty much get a competitive scene going on for any good fighting game that i can. I’m determined to create a scene and i’m willing to put the time, effort and funds to do so.

I am part of the gaming club at school which has recently gotten a sister club that is interested in competitive mainstream gaming such as halo 3 and madden. I was thinking of joining up with them in order to try and get some publicity for events i would be running etc…

The gaming club is allowing me to run all of my events there as well as put the arcade machine in it. The major problem is that they mostly seem to be into games like SSBM or halo3 or w/e… they also play RPG and pen/paper based games (d&d… eww)

My arcade machine is going to run on a playstation 2 and MAME. The machine is equipped with sanwa joysticks and buttons as well as built in psx>usb converters so people can play with pads if they so choose while MAME is being used, if not i can just open up the coin door and plug their controller into the ps2. This being said it does not discriminate against any player and at the same time gives players an arcade like experience and if players want they can practice on another ps2 in the area the arcade cabinet is going.

I noticed there seems to be a little group of people semi-interested in playing guilty gear… which i do not mind but i’m also trying to breed 3s players i suppose you could say. 3s is the game that i enjoy the most and really would like to get some competition in… i’m sick of having to play people over the internet when i can (usually shitty ass connections because i’m in college)

I’m looking for suggestions to start a thriving community here on campus. Currently i am running low on ideas besides pretty much bribing people to play (no entry fee tourny with prizes $20,10,5)

The other thing i am doing is for the 3s community as a whole… it is creating a website that takes all of the jumbled up information about characters and puts it in a single place that is easy to navigate and find exactly what you are looking for. Every combo will have video representation and such. There will be frame data for everyone’s moves and all sorts of things of that nature as well. The website will also have a match database that is categorized by character vs character and by tournament so that the players can see high level play and sort of attempt to mimic it until it actually becomes “high level” (i know this is not likely)

Just so people know… the games i have access to

3s
cvs2
GGxx:ac
super turbo
sfa2
sfa3
tekken 5 (no ps3 for DR)
Virtua fighter 4 evo (no ps3 for 5)

Mainly thinking 3s and GG would be best.

The people here already have played marvel and simply don’t like it… plus one of the pads inside the joysticks is screwed up and a DC converter wont work well with it. and i can’t re-do it because of the way the wiring is done. Also my dc broke lol.

Any ideas would be helpful.

how should i advertise? etc…?

Also had the idea to do a weekly “learn X char in street fighter 3: 3rd strike” or “street fighter 101” so people can kinda get an understanding of some of the basics

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Sounds like a good idea, the whole advertising thing could work too, especially if you add in the more popular mainstream games as well…

You can have your matches at the highest traffic times during the day…For example: at my college, about 80% of the people go to lunch at 2:15pm, we have a big food court, so a majority of them bring their food to the arcade and eat. Maybe expose people to quick casuals…

Our arcade has a big screen LCD and the staff allows console hookup… You probably have better luck than I do; Whenever I bring my PS2 and AC to the room, the T.V. has been console-jacked by Smash Bros…

Maybe your website can have a “killboard” type statistics on it… I was an eve-online player and seeing updates on your progress can be entertaining and addicting…

What I mean is like:

Match # 001 Date: 10/11/07

Winner: Player A (Overall Win efficiency 100%)
Loser: Player B (Overall Win efficiency 0%)

Link to match video here

A database of local progress can not only allow bragging rights, but also enable people to learn from their mistakes, research more, and cause hype…

3

you need to advertise your events on the ducks :clap: … :lame:

4

That seems like a lot of effort.

5

alot of effort for little to no gain in my opinion…

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I applaud your effort. I am trying to do something similar at my school but its really hard. Everyone plays madden and halo 3 here also. If there are other colleges close to your school you could advertise a tourney there and call it the RI Invitational ( just a suggestion) considering I was thinking of doing something like that over here, but it would be all console matches. There may not be a huge base at your school but if you could pull other people from other schools to come down and play it could spur your school to become more involved and get more people out to play. May even start an inter-college squad that competes against other colleges.

Hope that may help a little.

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From personal experience, trying to attract casual gamers into a hardcore scene is pretty much a lost cause. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try though. Who knows you might be able to snag a handful of people, which better than none.

The most important thing is choosing the right games. If you pick games very few people are going to be interested in then you might aswell just give up now. Get em into fighting games first then show em the fighting games you like.

Looking at your list, heres my thoughts.

3s is often the top choice for many fighting game players, but to casual gamers it means pretty much nothing. Most people don’t even realise there was a SF3 series. So it may have to take a back seat for now.

People will recognise SF2, many will have played it when they were younger, although since your at college most people’s experience with SF2 would have probably been on Snes and genesis playing with their older brothers or something like that, since they were too young to be at arcades generally. However SF2 should not headline, since most people will consider it as an old game, only worth playing for memories sake.

I would put Alpha in the same boat as SF2, may even be a better choice since its a few years newer, and some people at college may remember it more.

Guilty Gear may appeal to the anime crowd, but don’t bank on it. Most would much rather play the smash style 2D Japanese Fighters based on manga/anime series. GGXX takes some time to get good at, so it needs dedication and patience, something not everyone has.

CVS2, good luck i say, most won’t recognise the Capcom cast let alone the SNK cast. Plus team games means more characters to learn, meaning more time spent learning the game.

Virtua Fighter series in general is just hard to learn, looks great which may entice people but i think people will just get frustrated with it, especially if theres 1 half decent player who will just own everyone else for free.

Tekken 5 is actually probably your best bet looking at your list. It looks good and people can button mash and think they are playing well. Of course players that know what they are doing will eat them alive, but its not that hard to go from button masher to educated button masher in this game, and thats the first step to learning a fighting game properly.

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Cover charge --> cash prizes. That’ll give them incentive to practice up.

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theres a lot of people that recognzie cvs2 or at least have played it before

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amongst casual gamers? US sale figures where pretty low, lower than SFAC iirc.

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If there is a group that is interested in Guilty Gear,get them involved in that first.It’s not 3rd Strike,but at the very least they are playing a real 2D fighting game.

After that then I think you should make suggestions and start delving off into other games.If they like Guilty then perhaps that’ll like Arcana Heart or Hokuto no Ken,and if they get hooked on those games then hope they will want to go back to less chain heavy games such as 3rd Strike :rofl:

Be weary though.If they haven’t seen them already,I wouldn’t show them high level video’s because there is a possibility that they will get over anxious and find out that to perform half of the crap they see in the video is hard as fuck.

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just play 3s…its random and only scrubs play it. anyone can be good at 3s in like an hour !

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You need your ass whooped for some of the shit you say sometimes.

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what…that was good tip. you REALLY think random-ass people can play any other game ? they cant and they wont. 3s is the people’s game son !!!

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One theory is that people who start with 3s, generally have a hard time learning other fighter games afterward, because parry is quite unique in the sense that it alters the basic concepts that are pretty much standard in other fighters.

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People in college don’t play fighting games. Thats your problem.

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not unless if there’s like 5 or more people interested. you guys can meet like a day to play fighting games. and i would suggest a place like a byoc room. its way cheaper than going the arcade route.

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All I can say is goodluck. I tried a similar college approach before and all I got was dorks who couldn’t wrap their heads around simple concepts like inherent advantages in matchups and tiers, and refused to put in any time to get better. The few people who got interested eventually quit on me.

I gave up on trying to get random people I meet (especially in college) into fighters. I learned that it’s a false hope to try and create some kind of community out of scratch when the people themselves didn’t have the desire to begin with. I noticed most people who would want to play fighters will naturally gravitate towards people who can teach them new things and ask questions and show desire to play independantly, without having been approached to learn.

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Is there a student union or food court/popular hangout?

Play there, in open view of people, at it’s most populated times. Crank the volume up, and be in an area people have to walk by.

You’ll get a fair amount of attention, people will get curious, start from there and offer a free round. Go easy on them, hook them in.

It’s working for us so far, since we’re near the arcade as well.

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thx for the advice so far guys, keep it coming.