The search for new players.

FutureGuy

Hi all,
With college starting up soon, I can't think of a better time to try get an injection of fresh blood into the community.

The number of players I meet online who are not aware of the community is quite high. The players are definitely out there but it's difficult to get their attention. We have a brilliant website in streetfighter.ie, the forums here on boards.ie and an incredibly devoted community.

There are many artistically talented people here. With that in mind (unless it's already there), could we produce a very nice A4 promotional sheet? Nothing fancy, just some very well known characters, reference to streetfighter.ie, a catch-all contact e-mail address (info@streetfighter.ie for example) and a generic space where individual people can add specifics to their location (ie Inferno first Saturday, new players meet-up second Saturday etc).

All we need are volunteers who could get them into universities, colleges and game stores in each of the major cities.

Anyone up for this? I have little exp with Photoshop but will contact stores and colleges in Limerick.

Tallon

If you want a hand with the designing let me know

FutureGuy

Thanks Tallon, if you have any ideas on what looks good I reckon we can share them on here and come up with something that fits the needs of the entire community.

Vistaprint.co.uk also give people free business cards - they are basic but would be great for people to leave at game stores where people can pick up a single card have have all the vital information for the community in their wallet.

If we could get this promotional material out there, we could have a "new player open day" in each of the existing player bases. If someone is shy about coming, at least they won't be in the same boat.

Orim

Farz did the poster for Inferno 11.

http://www.iamjpg.com/inferno11x.jpg

We could take out the Inferno information and make it a bit more general to be used for this purpose.

I really like the idea of business cards. I don't know how much help they'd be but I would love some.

The open day is a great idea. A free day for new people, along with a pub session if we can get one organised could be a great way to people involved.

Does anyone know if getting two designs printed be counted as two jobs? The debate was always between getting limited numbers of a specific poster printed or get larger quantities of a general poster.

chopperbyrne

info@streetfighter.ie is already set up.

I have access to it and I think Orim and PPC do too.

Sabre0001

I'll be out in UL anyways so could see what the story is there...Have contacts with HMV in the Crescent but they're not really into putting leaflets on walls, counters, etc.

Maybe contact GamesNash and see if you could get those business cards into copies of any sort of Fighting Game (with no elitism That means all fighting genre including Smash and Mortal Kombat!).

Just the usual then - try to get people to put Streetfighter.ie in links, profiles, signatures...Get it featured on other sites (i.e. contact Irish gaming sites with a press release). Congrats on the SRK contact & link

Anyone have experience with press releases? Maybe try and get a small story in the likes of the free papers - the Dublin ones probably more relevant.

Misty Chaos

We could try getting such ads into the many free newspapers that come out weekly in towns and cities, I don't think it would cost too much to place such ads in those kind of papers. Also consider the local regional newspapers as well.

As I live not too far from Cork city, I have access to all the main colleges in the city and am going to CSN just outside the city so I can hang up posters out in these places.

Another thing worth considering in getting touch with the respective video game societies in colleges and asking them to plug streetfighter.ie during the societies open day at the start of the year. ( and of course, giving them posters and business cards for that purpose )

Konata

I wouldn't mind dispersing some posters around Trinity - I also know people who run the GameSoc in UCD so I could give them some aswell.

Ramza

I could stick up posters in local game stores at home if it would help?

FutureGuy

Hi all,
Great to see such great ideas and constructive comments so far!

Regarding the business cards, I see them serving s dual purpose. They can be used by tournament organisers when they meet an interested person, but they can also be left in gamestores so players can take one. As Sabre has correctly stated, some stores may not be willing to put posters up. That's fine, maybe they may take 20 business cards which could be left on the counter.

Also, it's great that we have people who are willing to contact third level institutes. They are going to be a great source of interested people.

Chopper thanks for the heads up on the e-mail address.

Regarding the poster, I think farz poster for the inferno series is brilliant. The poster I have in mind for attracting new players would need to be a little different IMO. Different, but equally brilliant. It needs to focus on instantly recognisable characters (ken, ryu, guile, blanka, chun etc). On a crowded noticeboard of a college, the poster has a split second to catch the eye. Ryu (White), Ken (red), Chun (blue) and Blanka (green) on a White a4 poster is going to stand out.

I'd love to hear what others think?

animaX

Yeah, having the instantly recognisable original characters would be an eye-catcher. I'm still living in DCU for a month or two so I could distribute posters around here when clubs & socs day is on. I joined the gaming soc last year but they only play things like Halo and Mario Kart. Although last year i think they had SF4 set up on the open day.

FutureGuy

To be honest the artwork for the poster doesn't have to be designed from scratch. There are plenty of pics on the interweb that could meet our needs.

After that we need a good tagline. We have some brilliant taglines being used in the fighting game community but most would mean nothing to the non-initiated. Anyone care to suggest one?

Doctor DooM

FutureGuy wrote: »

To be honest the artwork for the poster doesn't have to be designed from scratch. There are plenty of pics on the interweb that could meet our needs.

After that we need a good tagline. We have some brilliant taglines being used in the fighting game community but most would mean nothing to the non-initiated. Anyone care to suggest one?

Well, there's the one even the most casual FG fan would recognise.

Round one.


FIGHT!

K.O.Kiki

I prefer CvS2 myself.

This battle is about to explode -- FIGHT!!

D4RK ONION

Fight or Die!

Burning Eclipse

FutureGuy wrote: »

It needs to focus on instantly recognisable characters (ken, ryu, guile, blanka, chun etc). On a crowded noticeboard of a college, the poster has a split second to catch the eye. Ryu (White), Ken (red), Chun (blue) and Blanka (green) on a White a4 poster is going to stand out.

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Well, there's the one even the most casual FG fan would recognise.

Round one.


FIGHT!

These are the best two ideas in the thread in terms of design choice imo. Except, for your idea FutureGuy, change Blanka to Cammy as the 'green' representative

I also think Sabre's idea about contacting Gamesnash could be great. SF.ie and this community is non-profit afterall, so it's not like we're promoting a commercial entity.

I'll do what I can here! Just let me know.

FutureGuy

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

These are the best two ideas in the thread in terms of design choice imo. Except, for your idea FutureGuy, change Blanka to Cammy as the 'green' representative

Or we could have Red Cammy, White Cammy, Blue Cammy and Green Cammy. All in different poses.

Doctor DooM

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

I prefer CvS2 myself.

This battle is about to explode -- FIGHT!!

D4RK ONION wrote: »

Fight or Die!

The point is to appeal to casual players lads. Ask a random gamer what CvS or alpha 3 is and they won't know.

Whereas as Round 1, FIGHT! is pretty much a part of pop culture at this point.

FutureGuy

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

I also think Sabre's idea about contacting Gamesnash could be great. SF.ie and this community is non-profit afterall, so it's not like we're promoting a commercial entity.

I'll do what I can here! Just let me know.

Thanks Mike!

Sabre's idea is excellent but I feel that that the choice to partner with any given company should be the decision of the creators of the website.

The sf.ie website is growing in every way, and I'd hate to tie our hands down the line with regards to possible advertising revenue.

Burning Eclipse

FutureGuy wrote: »

Or we could have Red Cammy, White Cammy, Blue Cammy and Green Cammy. All in different poses.

Dammit, why didn't I think of that!! Oh... oh... How about Blue Chun, Green Cammy, Red Chun, White Cammy... Yes, I can see it now!

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Round 1, FIGHT! is pretty much a part of pop culture at this point.

And that is exactly why it should be the tag line!

FutureGuy wrote: »

Thanks Mike!

Sabre's idea is excellent but I feel that that the choice to partner with any given company should be the decision of the creators of the website.

The sf.ie website is growing in every way, and I'd hate to tie our hands down the line with regards to possible advertising revenue.

Good call!

Scavenger XIII

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Dammit, why didn't I think of that!! Oh... oh... How about Blue Chun, Green Cammy, Red Chun, White Cammy... Yes, I can see it now!

While you're at it the Chun and Cammy should also be kissing each other.

...
...

What? Sex Sells! :pac:

D4RK ONION

Doctor DooM wrote: »

The point is to appeal to casual players lads. Ask a random gamer what CvS or 3S is and they won't know.

That's poor DooM, mine is Alpha 3! 3S is "Into the heat battle... GO FOR IT!" (and one of two others I think :P)

I am disappoint!

Doctor DooM

D4RK ONION wrote: »

That's poor DooM, mine is Alpha 3! 3S is "Into the heat battle... GO FOR IT!" (and one of two others I think :P)

I am disappoint!

why would I know? Neither of them made it into the arcades here, which is where I learned to play.


Noob. :P

raze

Doctor DooM wrote: »

The point is to appeal to casual players lads. Ask a random gamer what CvS or alpha 3 is and they won't know.

Whereas as Round 1, FIGHT! is pretty much a part of pop culture at this point.

The point of the poster is to invite people to find other fighters. If I saw a poster that said "Round 1, FIGHT!" I think something is already happening, and I'm not part of it, and I move on and ignore it, and I'm not too crazy about posters shouting imperatives at me.

If I see something that says 'wanna battle? bitch'* I think, I am invited, and I'm challenged, and I want to be part of that.

Just my 2 cents.

Been years since I used Photoshop/InDesign in earnest, but I'd like if I can help throw a comp together for you guys.

*well, not that wording, but that sentiment

Scavenger XIII

ST Guile portrait with "Are you man enough to fight with me?"

Sorted.

FutureGuy

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'll let the commnit discuss the tagline a little more as there has been some good suggestions thus far.

Regarding the artwork the poster, I have attached a very nice wallpaper and while it's a little different to what I was talking about, it would still look excellent on a poster. I may have to contact the creator for permission (just out of politemenss) but it's a freely available as a screensaver.

Opinions? Anyone else know of some nice art we could use?

I'd love to get a couple of posters ready by this time next week. Anyone up to the challenge? Once we have the poster(s), we can move onto the next step which is to identify where the posters are going to go, and what universities/game societies we are going to target.

Edit: I have a larger version of the attached file btw

FutureGuy

Scavenger XIII wrote: »

ST Guile portrait with "Are you man enough to fight with me?"

Sorted.

Nice idea!

Funnily enough, given the size of college campus, I had also thought about a set of 4 posters in different primary colors, each with one of the 4 most recognizable characters.

Didn't shoryuken have these fantastic wallpapers for each of the SSF4 cast? With a little work, we could take the ones for Ryu, Ken, Chun Li and Blanka/Guile and add text to them?

Placebo

i nominate myself FARZAD the best graphics artist in Dublin to make the poster/s.


p.s: there are no arcades in spain, only bad digital slot machine games/
also future guy that artwork attached is too dark in my opinion and too crowded, i cant picture information on top of that ! anyway i would love an sf4 font, but it doesnt exist.

Orim

I was in touch with Reads and we can use multiple designs to get discounts.

So I would say our best bet in this instance is to wait for Placebo to get back so we can do an Inferno 14 poster and a general poster. That way we can print off loads of the general poster and get discounts.

Also must order business cards. You can get 250. Can we share a design so a couple of us can order batches or would that be taking the piss?

Should we just get general cards or should we get specific cards?

Rob2D

FutureGuy wrote: »

Or we could have Red Cammy, White Cammy, Blue Cammy and Green Cammy. All in different poses.

Second.

K.O.Kiki

Just make it a giant picture of Cammy's giant arse.