I doubt Skullgirls can make it to EVO anytime soon, mostly because there are so many big new games that will be releasing before next evo, tekken tag tournament 2, persona 4, dead or alive 5, injustice, probably a super sfxt, together with all the games already out that did well last EVO, that it’s doubtful they can fit a low profile game like skullgirls. I think that the fighting genre is at a point that only one EVO per year doesn’t fit all the good fighters available, the only option for skullgirls is that they split EVO in several events.
Well the casual aids ebola known as P4 is seeing a ton of cashies going crazy over it.
So apparently what Skullgirls had to do to get the casuals was first make an RPG with a really shallow and dry dating sim aspect thrown in, and then release the fighting game afterward.
2 years from now, we’re in there.
By the way, I like the term cashies because it sounds like if you cut the second half off “casual” and add the “ies”, and because it also sounds like cash-ies, meaning those are the people that produce most of your cash.
you actually can aim at casuals if they really dig art or characters or whatnot but you’ll have to take them by the hand and teach them everything. It’s hard but on the other hand there’s probability that you’ll lure new person in the FGC who will be loyal to the SG and probably won’t drop it for other francise (s)he is more familiar with. Although this way won’t net huge numbers of course.
I am sitting in a dorm in a nondescript college hanging out with a some friends. A buddy says, “hey let’s play some skullgirls dude.” The girls in the room snicker and some of the guys start dogging on me and a buddy.
I am sitting in a dorm in a nondescript college hanging out with some friends . A buddy says, “Hey, let’s play some Street Fighter dude.” The name already has recognition in most every one’s mind and most of the characters are iconic. It also sounds like a game were people are going to fight and get hurt, not like some pussified hipsterized sounding game where who knows what kind of perverted things are going on.
This never actually happened to me, but a friend told me this story. It happened to him but only it was Arcana Heart. These all girl games are weird to most people.
Also, the game looks like one of those flash games you’d find on bored.com or something.
I’d be surprised if it ever hit the main stage at EVO. Look at the other games that came out and are coming out. VF5:FS, DOA5, TTT2, Persona4 Arena and what about the new JOJO games, will they be out in time for EVO2013?
AE and Marvel are pretty much guaranteed to be included, that leaves, what 3 maybe 4 spots left? 4 is not a lot of games. Especially when you factor other games in like MK9, KoF and SC5 possibly making returns. There are better games to put on the main stage instead of Skullgirls.
I’m just gonna say I disagree with pretty much everything you said so far, Josh. Creating a game around bringing in casual players is an extremely superficial move that involves dropping the quality of the game itself. It wouldn’t fix anything. It would make it a generic fighter without a memorable experience. SFxT is an example of this. Quality over quantity. You can play this game casually too. No reason why you wouldn’t be able to. It’s not difficult execution-wise, normals are chain cancelled, supers are simple. Nothing is stopping anyone from playing this game at a casual level with a group of friends. KoF is the most intimidating fighter to play at the moment, and that got 1000 people (even if some of them were shirt monsters). So I don’t think the casual argument is a valid one.
Anywho… this whole thread is kind of getting derailed. This was supposed to be about what we as a community would do. Not personal assessments on what we think the game should be. This’ll probably be my last reply to Mr. Josh, because I firmly believe there isn’t a conversation to be had there x.x .
Oh, and also, things get done when people stop worrying about what others think of them for playing a game featuring all girls and get back to playing to show them how deep and fun the game is.
what is the first thing you do when you pick up a new Fighter? you look for a character. as subtle as it seems, most use the most visual appealing one first. You identity with a character - even if it’s just subconsciously. Character loyalty is a huge influence in both, fun and if you stick with the game. Playing a character and making him work makes you another player then simply using the best character. Taste is different, and while I do not have anything against female characters, I first pick characters that I find appealing; the playstyle comes later. For me it’s most likely the non-grappler brawler type of guy (Paul in Tekken, Cody in SFA+4) because I can identify the most with them and find them therefore subconsciously most appealing. Otherwise it’s a game by game case (Chipp in GG, Gen in Vanilla).
I find the roster of SG simply unappealing. It could only feature animals and I would find it just as unappealing. Doesn’t even matter if it’s a good game or not.
TL;DR SG with 4/4 male/female ratio would have been more successful.
go play the game first then discuss possibilities of it being main game >_>
Severely doubt it.
As to the rest of your post, identifying with a character has nothing to do with gender. You’re on some entirely different issue altogether.
Thread subject: What it will take to put Skullgirls on the main stage at EVO next year
So many off-topic posts here talking about Tekken and Smash Bros. GTFO
To be at Evo, you need good tourney attendance for SG at Majors. How to get new players? Promote the game with streams. I’d say KOF XIII and VF5 benefit A LOT from Haunts streaming those games all the time.
Since you guys are already good with the established, practical ideas. Here’s a crazy idea. Winner of Skull Girls at Majors can donate some of his prize money to streamers. Guys like Fchamp and Fanatiq BEG for donations all the time, even after they won thousands of $$$. What did Fanatiq do after winning ECT and the big money match vs RayRay? He begged for more donations.
Fanatiq and Fchamp can also do a good sales pitch. Donate some of that prize money ( or just donate even if you don’t win ), with the condition that the prize money goes to a tourney TO BE STREAMED by those guys.
FChamp’s FGTV has Fraud Free Fridays featuring Marvel 3. Well, you can donate and ask them to do a Skull Girls tourney, with big names like FChamp and Fanatiq personally playing Skull Girls and praising the game, plus reminding viewers that there’s a Skull Girls tourney at the next big Major + any weekly Skull Girl event of note.
Even if you don’t like my idea… I still have better intentions than that guy saying that Skull Girls has no chance cuz of its girl cast + not a casual game. I guess MELTY BLOOD made it to Evo by being a mainstream best-seller with manly man in tights characters like Magneto and Captain America.
edit: 9 am, it’s work time. Bye!! no replies from me for now but good luck to this endeavor
it has. I’m the prime example. I can’t really identify with a female character. That I can main a female later on is possible, but at first - the initial factor if I buy/dig a FG or not HAS TO DO WITH THE ROSTER. If the roster is not appealing to me, the game is not appealing to me. All girl cast = not appealing = no buy. It’s as simple as that.
Let me ask you two questions:
Is the “all female cast” a buying factor?
Would have a mixed cast hurt the sales?
People have some misconceptions about the game that are partially the producer’s fault and partially how stupid the current community is. The biggest misconception is that the game is “hardcore”. The game isn’t really anymore hardcore than half the games which came out in the past; Mike Z mentioned several times that he wasn’t making a game that would mollycuddle them with a dumbass mechanic like X-factor. This somehow made people get all scared out of it.
The second problem is the amounts of titties and panties. While this is an initial barrier, it can eventually be overcome. In all honesty MK9 is far more full retard than skullgirls panty shots. I don’t like MK that much anymore because of all the gore so I guess its fair that people hate on this for the fanservicy things. As dumb as it is, a change of name to Skullheart from skullgirls would probably have made people feel better about playing it.
What would be really helpful is a weekly column on the game. Sit down to write stuff for the front page and then blow keits so that it stays in the front for the whole day. You could call it something cheesy like “The Skulldown” and you’ll talk about different stuff on the game. You could start with a brief overview of the characters and who they play like. The week after you can do an overview of the system mechanics etc.
The truth is that the game is hella easy to get into. The problem is that people see a long combo and suddenly think the game is overbearing. Like I mentioned, not Mike Z’s fault that the community is stupid.
Surprised a lot of you fell for Psycho Josh’s gimmick.
EVO rewards games with large dedicated communities a spot. If a scene can’t prove that by supporting events that game is at, they’re going to take a chance on unreleased games. They don’t care if the game looks cool or if Johnny Doughnuts who isn’t playing thinks the game is whack. They care about how many are potentially showing up to play.
So put up your incoming events, let the SG players know about the event, and give a good showing.
Don’t get discouraged by the couple of new gen people coming in here who are oblivious to EVO’s structure and want you to the believe that the number of people NOT playing is important. Listen to the OG members like d3v and Chibi who know their shit and seen what it takes for a game to be at EVO.
Yeah, reality is there’s like 1 or 2 spots at EVO2013 up for grabs that other more well-known communities also want and unreleased games could be candidates for. Even if we don’t make it and have to settle for another side tourney, let’s prove that the community has grown and aim for more entrants instead of less entrants like what happens to most games in the following year.
So, as mentioned above, this thread has gone a bit mental. Thread derailing in the Skullgirls forum? On SRK? Madness.
Anyway, to summarize the suggestions for building the game up to EVO status next year thus far:
Useful suggestions:
[LIST]
[]Patience. Play the game and the game’s community will steadily grow.
[]Create media. Host Streams, make combo videos. Get the game on the front of SRK with new, quality content.
[*]Encourage existing well established streamers to play the game.
[/LIST]
These are all pretty self explanatory. The last two require effort on your part. Don’t just sit there talking about it - go do it. Max’s style of Online Warrior videos works great. Record some random online matches and give a commentary on them afterwards. It’ll help you get better and give us all something new to watch.
Not useful suggestions:
[LIST]
[]Skullgirls is too hardcore to be successful.
[]The all female/over-sexualized cast is a deterrent to people picking it up.
[/LIST]
These last two points are things inherent to the game. We cannot change them so really there’s no point in discussing them much further.
Anyone who is off the mindset that SG is too hard to get into will probably never get into it, regardless of how hard we try to teach them otherwise. If anyone refuses to pick up a game purely on visuals then that is also an opinion that will be basically impossible to break.
Badgering people into playing the game when they are opposed to it for the above reasons will just annoy them further, so don’t waste your time. Keep playing you game, let them play their game. If they ever want to try out Skullgirls despite their opinions, welcome them with open arms.
Other suggestions I would have:
[LIST]
[]Run tournaments in your area. If there’s very few Skullgirls players, then run a Street Fighter 4 tourney (or whatever is big in your area) and run a free Skullgirls’ tournament, or have a SG casuals setup. Give the winner a medal or something. It’d cost about $5 to get one.
[]Get in contact with the Games Rooms Coordinator from any anime conventions in your area. Ask them if you can have a Skullgirls setup that you can man and teach people how to play. Don’t be scared of anime fans - I’ve drafted up a decent amount of players for my local tournaments from conventions who were more there for the games than the anime.
[*]Don’t let PsychoJosh watch us play. The game clearly makes him sad.
[/LIST]
Once I have a new set up going I aim on providing content and talking about the game and all that good stuff. Of course you’re all free to donate to me to make that happen quicker (kekekeke).
Other than that you need two things:
PATIENCE AND DEVOTION (MOTIVATION EVEN).
If no one is running SG tournaments at your locals then you do it. If you’re going to a major close by and it’s not on the roster ask for it to be and help run it. I went to EVO 4 years in a row just to help run the side tournament for Melty Blood and every year we had bigger numbers than at least one official game. Sure, we’re not going to be getting triple digits often but consistency is the key here.
Oh and let me know what you guys would want to see on or how we can spread word of it some more:
Also please ignore PsychoJosh~
All this is 100% true. We can do more to get a bigger fanbase, but we also can’t force people to like it. Best this we can was is what Russai and others have sad: Keep playing the game and giving it lots of exposure. I think this free patch will also bring back a lot of people, and also help people get into the game. Now all we need is a New character announcement to really get the hype back into the game.
sigh
Once the patch comes out people just have to really play it and care.
Get a local scene, if no one is running tournaments, find someone or do it yourself. Umm, yeah the best thing we can do is keep playing and do what we can to give the game exposure. I might in the works with something and let you all know but yeah, I really want this game at EVO and so does everyone else and I feel like we can do it if we just don’t stop playing.
EDIT: Yeah uploading videos of tutorials and matches that teach how to play the game would help the community grow I feel like. Once my capture card works again I’m in there, can we just stop with the 100+ hit combo videos and nothing else?
I’ll add what Chibi said to what I said:
We run tourneys and make tourneys so people can get familiar. The more familiar they get with the game, they less a fuck they’ll give about pants and titties.
That’s pretty much it. Communities are built, not created by spontaneity fan orgasms.