A call to arms for the hardcore BB and GG players

[Kuuhaku]

To be fair, the front page of SRK rarely has anything useful. They even made an article about players trending on Twitter.

Still, I think the front page of DL is fine the way it is. It's there for news. Gameplay and character information have their respective boards. It'd be problematic if those were on the front page as they'd be a pain in the ass to find later.

We are a niche within a niche, but we are bigger than most people give us credit for (I saw comments on SRK like Tekken got 200+ people so they're a real game, but no one plays BB even though we got the same number of entrants). BB community as a whole doesn't get much credit.

However- EZ Modo fix. Highlight video of BB at EVO and ask SRK to put it on the first page. The only exposure we got was Tokido 2Ding his way to victory. You could also include GG highlights as I heard there were a lot of funny moments of RF bodying everyone. :V Or even include Latif highlights since he's popular on SRK.

Don't over think it. Just try for simple things that can get us cred/rep.

Actually, since we have the team tournament, we can look through there for highlight stuff. However, idk who to contact for the videos of singles or if we should just try to rip them straight from the stream (would we even have permission to do that?).

'K. Problem solved. I'll poke C0R and work on a highlight video and see what I can do to get published. I guess I'll poke Rin to ask who we get permission to use the singles footage (we could just rip it, but we're not the ones who recorded it).

If anyone has suggestion to what moments should be included- PM me or post a message on my wall. I'll write an article to hype BB too since SRK's article on BB are pretty bleh.

Edited August 5, 2011 by Bohemian Polka

[pktazn]

I think the front page is fine as well. But if more people want some way to catch attention then, like Bohemian Polka suggested, maybe there could be some more articles on some good combo videos or even just some videos of good matches from our own members or where ever in general for our own front page.

I know there's a video posting thread where everyone can look themselves but I also know it's really hard to watch every single video that's posted and even then some only aim for certain events. I'm not saying to feature every video from there because it would be too much but maybe just some good ones for people who see the front page.

[Airk]

If people want, I definitely feel like I have enough of a handle on frame data to write up a "Using Frame Data in BlazBlue" sort of article. The GG one that was up did a pretty good job of covering the basics already though, so there'd be a fair amount of overlap.

[FlyingVe]

The point of the front page, in my opinion, is to build community and interest, more so than be a resource for the hardcore. On those grounds I think the SRK front page is very well handled, a bigger problem is the lack of content appearing there for games like BB. There are two reasons for this, SRK hates BB, or there isn't much BB content. Quite frankly, we can only do anything about one of those points, by making more content.

As for our own front page, it's fine, I guess. I link right past it because it rarely offers anything that isn't found in the forums behind it. There is good content there, but it doesn't really feel like it's own thing. As a result, the DL natives like me link past it, and the newbies don't care about the content on it.

[Airk]

So if the 'natives' don't look at it and the newbies don't care, what is the point of having it? It seems to me it should serve SOME purpose?

[FlyingVe]

That's my point, as it stands it doesn't have one...

[Kuuhaku]

I think the front page is fine as well. But if more people want some way to catch attention then, like Bohemian Polka suggested, maybe there could be some more articles on some good combo videos or even just some videos of good matches from our own members or where ever in general for our own front page.

I know there's a video posting thread where everyone can look themselves but I also know it's really hard to watch every single video that's posted and even then some only aim for certain events. I'm not saying to feature every video from there because it would be too much but maybe just some good ones for people who see the front page.

In the future we could put up stuff like tournament videos for majors on the front page (like winner/loser/grand finals). To be honest, I don't think people would really care about technical information about the game if they don't care about the game to begin with.

[C0R]

The only thing I could add to the front page would be something immediately actractive. We have tons of informative and interesting articles, but they come off as a giant wall of text that can be hard to approach, integrating a large splash feature to preview the articles with images and photos as seen on many websites may be a nice touch to consider. I realise integration of such a feature would be a lot of work, but I'm sure there are individuals such as myself who are willing to see it done.

[Gil]

I'll write an article to hype BB too since SRK's article on BB are pretty bleh.

This. BB articles on SRK have always either been really negative or they simply had no idea what to write about it. Which has led to SRKers just labeling it as "lolBB" and giving us a bad rep. The only way we can get any sort of real exposure on SRK is to send in things in bulks and doing the writing ourselves. Even then though, I doubt it would help much. Not to sound jaded or anything, but we all know it's true.

[FlyingVe]

You can't really blame them to much for that, their editors don't play BB and the majority of their members can't move past that asinine "anime-game" label. The ironic thing is that MvC3 has more in common with BB then the other capcom games they promote.

That said, SRK is the main site for FG's, so getting some good press there is a definite victory.

[Nini Heart]

I've sent SRK many of my CVs in the past but none of them made it to the front page, so what should I do? lol

Make MVC3 CVs. Watch how fast they make front page.

[Sophisticat]

This. BB articles on SRK have always either been really negative or they simply had no idea what to write about it. Which has led to SRKers just labeling it as "lolBB" and giving us a bad rep. The only way we can get any sort of real exposure on SRK is to send in things in bulks and doing the writing ourselves. Even then though, I doubt it would help much. Not to sound jaded or anything, but we all know it's true.

This is all we need. Take over writing for BB/GG instead of leaving it to people who know/care nothing for them and we'll get decent, positive exposure.

That said, it's SRK. They don't give a shit about anything not-Crapcom so it's an uphill battle. Worth a shot, though.

[Osuna]

Actually a lot of people raised a question for me.

How far does this promise for exposure go? If there's been previous rejected content, how seriously can we expect to get on the front page now? I'm not too familiar with SRK staff, so I really can't tell if that's a problem we should be expecting right now.

[ZeroRaider]

But we have to try SOMETHING. Nothing changes when nothing is done. So how will we go about writing said articles if we do that? Like where to start with them?

[Kuuhaku]

Easy. Don't shoot too high because you'll get frustrated. Cover local events and give them as much exposure as you can (match vids help). Small steps at a time. Sophisticat is right that it's an uphill battle... But there are people in the SRK community willing to work with us. So basically, we have to take that to our advantage.

C0R got a new video editing program, so we'll try to pump out something cool this weekend. ;3

Edited August 6, 2011 by Bohemian Polka

[Kristoph]

You know what I would love? In-depth matchup analysis in video form. Like just take a match (american, japanese, whatever), add commentary, woo. Or maybe something like Super Turbo Saturdays would be cool. I would watch that. Blazblue, Guilty Gear, either way.

Like even for matches that already had commentary I would watch/listen to that. Take EVO top 8. The commentary worked for what it was, but there's a lot of nuance that couldn't be captured on the fly in such a short span of time. That would be a great place to start, actually.

A lot could be accomplished by just taking basic shit and putting it in spoken-word form with some basic in-game visual aids. I feel like this wouldn't take much work, just a little motivation!

[McArthur]

i highly suggest the first vid of Asian Cross Counter, that indepth match analysis they did? that would be awesome for the EVO top8 matches or other matchvids in the world that's awesome

[TeeJay]

That sounds really interesting. Like a matchup or analysis show in sports. I'd love to see all the little nuances that play out throughout a match.

[Star-Demon]

You know what I would love? In-depth matchup analysis in video form. Like just take a match (american, japanese, whatever), add commentary, woo. Or maybe something like Super Turbo Saturdays would be cool. I would watch that. Blazblue, Guilty Gear, either way.

Like even for matches that already had commentary I would watch/listen to that. Take EVO top 8. The commentary worked for what it was, but there's a lot of nuance that couldn't be captured on the fly in such a short span of time. That would be a great place to start, actually.

A lot could be accomplished by just taking basic shit and putting it in spoken-word form with some basic in-game visual aids. I feel like this wouldn't take much work, just a little motivation!

We were just talking about this! I like the idea, and as I'm working on my own casting and commentating, I think it'll help me improve.

[Rhiya]

I do think Dustloop has most of the information that players need in regards to starting out and playing, I just don't think it provides it in a proper way to the masses or in a way that would get other players to want to play the game. I also think some areas are lacking in-depth discussions (like match-ups) that would apply towards the more "hardcore" players who actually want to take the game seriously. But I guess that's more up to the serious players themselves to step up and do something about.

THIS.

It's kind of funny. I was netplaying GGAC the other day, and was playing against Pot. I had no clue wtf I was doing -- I'd never played against Pot before, and I'm seriously scrub-tier in GG -- so I went over to the Millia forums and checked the matchup thread (after I was done, unfortunately). There was an absolute shitton of info on how to play against Pot in the OP of that thread; it was ridiculous. It was really painful to look at my matchup section of the BB forums afterwards, because the Tsubaki matchup threads are pretty meh.

On the other hand, though, the Tsubaki forums have a much better set of beginner resources than the Millia forums did. There's a simple recommended combo list in addition to the expanded one, and a pretty easy to understand beginner's guide, things like that. This is a problem I'm pretty sure is exclusive to the Millia forums, so this isn't really a reflection on the GG boards in general, but the Millia Guide has been labeled a work-in-progress since 2008. I find it really sad that you have this combo thread with character-specifics for every character, some really good matchup threads, and then your beginner guide isn't even finished. It's like the Tsubaki forums and the Millia forums have the exact opposite problems.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Dusk Thanatos

[CakeWasBannedd]

maybe dustloop could have a new series like the "meet your mod" where new/up-and-coming scenes do self-interviews and answer questions like how many people are in your scene, how often do you have meetups, how good would you say you guys are, where do you hold meets, who would you say is the best player in your group, etc etc.

this kind of user-generated content would be a nice way to get people involved in the BB community, and thus make them want to contribute more to the site in general..

just a thought

[MAdBater]

I agree analysis commentary on matches by the players explaining their plans, traps and baits will be a good idea. Imagine LK and Spark and other top evo players analyzing their matches. Gain a lot of insight with a visual imagine helping the learning process. This will help the both the weak players and the strong player get better. It does not necessarily need to be them if they do not have time or something but people that have a high level of understanding of the game and could elaborate well could do this analysis. Dustloop could do a weekly tube show or something. This might be a 1 v 1 fighter but we are all in the same team of trying to get better.

[pktazn]

Sounds like a pretty cool idea but the only problem I foresee is if it were to be a frequent thing, you'd have to have a dedicated group willing to take the time to do it and make it happen.

Not saying that we should give up on the idea because I do think that it would be helpful and interesting, but there have to be people who will want to do it.

I like Cake's idea as well since it would help show new players who may be intimidated to go to the match finder threads where their scene is.

Edited August 6, 2011 by pktazn

[Rhiya]

Yeah, anything that puts Match Finder on people's minds is good. Offline comp is better than online comp, but a lot people seem to be really content with just netplaying. That's not /awful/, but fighting games really are inherently a social activity, and they're tons better when the person you're playing is sitting next to you on your couch.

(You can also hear when they're mashing buttons when they're next to you )

[Fugu]

Right now, Dustloop has a colossal video thread where everything ends up. I think it would be a nice addition to the website if more notable matches were filtered out and featured on the main page because there's not really a collective canon that the BB community as a whole is generally familiar with. I agree that having more annotated videos would also go a long way towards roping more people in; it's all just about giving people more reason to perceive BlazBlue as a competitive game as opposed to just weaboos hitting weaboos.

As for the lack of beginner resources, I don't know how much that would actually help bring new people to the game, but it would certainly help those that do decide to start learning how to play BlazBlue do so much less randomly. Look at how much information is provided to the prospective Virtua Fighter community: It gives a prospective player so much to work on and an idea of how to improve past the basics. The problem that I find with the resources for BB is that they're almost too prophetic due to the fact that they lack a beginning and an end point.

An example of what I'm talking about: http://virtuafighter.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vf5:aoi:strategy

There are more pages, too. This is just one.