Lumination Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 (edited) Here's what I (a nobody) think we should do: 1) We need to fix up our front page. It doesn't necessarily have to pander to non-casuals, though. As much as some people complain about SRK's front page, it does what it needs to do, and it does it well. It acts like an introductory portal into the games they promote. That is exactly how most of my friends got into MvC3. They would go there for occasional fighting game info, and they'd find themselves watching multiple combo videos or highlights. We need something to captivate the player who's passing by to check what's up. I think something like posting up some of the great matches we have in the Video Posting thread would be a start. I do like the idea that someone mentioned earlier about casting over some matches. I know I'd be interested in the high-level thinking going behind the scenes, and I think this will help capture the casual on the fence about delving deeper into the game. Dacid has a nice balance of knowledge and hype in his commentary, and I'd love if someone like him took this up. I think it's relatively low effort and high reward. And honestly, as interesting as I find the mod interviews, I don't think anyone outside of this small "community" cares. 2) Present our wonderfully in-depth knowledge in a more accessible way. You know what is utterly useless to most of us, but undoubtedly helpful for many others? The SRK SFIV and MvC3 wikis. It's similar to what we did for iPlayWinner, but they offer a bit more than we have. Plus, all that information we published is now outdated. Yes, the information can all be found buried in the forums. However, it's pretty daunting for a newbie to access it; you'll never find anything in the character-specific general threads, and you'll feel like you're missing out on information if you don't read all -insert random number- pages of the combo discussion thread. The SRK wikis do a great job of consolidating information in an easy-to-access manner without having to interact with other people in the process. Yes, some information on there is misleading, but once again, it does what it was meant to do, and it does it well. 3) GG players need to stop hating on this game. Every time my friends and I rotate through fighting games to watch, I'm always dreading the moment where someone casting goes "lol BB is jokes" for the umpteenth time. How do we expect anyone to take us seriously if the target audience for this game spreads hate for it? GG players need to realize that for another GG to come about, ASW needs to make money off of BB. Your efforts in preserving your game while harming this "shitty" one is directly impacting your chances for another GG game in a negative manner. I mean, sure, you can criticize it, but when every other loss to a Noel is followed with, "I hate this game," or "lawl 2D. Game's jokes," then that's how the outside world perceives our community to be. One big fucking joke. That said, I'd love to help in any manner I can in this new endeavor, whatever we decide to do. Although I am not a top player by any means, I can do rudimentary things, like type up summaries, consolidate information, etc. I also have a high-end PC, so if anyone ever needs to encode something big in 720p, I can also do that. I'm certain we all have the means to get something going, it's just a matter of enough people willing to muster the effort. Edit: Also, look at how many guests we have on the forums any given moment. There is interest, we just really need to capture it. Edited August 7, 2011 by Lumination
Star-Demon Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 Haters are gonna hate - unfortunately. They should know they aren't helping anything. Good, motivated, positive people are what makes communities enjoyable. I also agree that accessibility is important - I know folks that don't do well with the homework, and I've learned far more being informed by people and playing off advice and mimicking videos than studying the frame data and guides. Some just don't do as well, I've just had a person tell me he wants to train up but hasn't had much progress off Dustloop's guides by themselves. I've said it a few times, but I agree that Dacid's commentating was very good and he should get the mic as often as possible. I happened to like Spiritjuice, as his style reminds me of mine when I did other games, but I've had to learn the hard way that the "Heel Commentator style" has to be moderated - which is why I've started doing matchups I enjoy more (Litchi/Bang, Carl/anything, Bang/notPopular, Rachel/anything) to get the Negativity off. My latest is definitely one of my favorite attempts. simply because my main and my sub were playing.
Rhiya Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 Dacid's commentating is simultaneously good and atrocious. It's hype, but whenever he gets on, I wish it were someone like LK instead because then I'd actually be learning shit about the game -- which is kinda why I watch matches to begin with. I end up taking 90% of what commentators say worth a grain of salt unless it's a player that I can SEE has done their homework from their play.
Moy_X7 Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 I have to agree with the front page being a bit lacking and stale. Some suggestions that I have would be to embed some of the better matches and some of the best combo videos on the front page. Make a video of some match highlights or other "hype" stuff. You know? Stuff that would make one say "Huh, that was actually pretty damn awesome". Hell, doing something as simple as adding images to some of the articles would help add a bit of flair to the front page. As it stands, the front page is just a huge wall of text. Most of the other stuff that's posted on the front page can be found in the forums. That's why I just have the BB General sub-section bookmarked as opposed to the front page. Adding the EVO finals at the very least is one way to spice things up a bit, as it was mentioned before. Keep that separated from the "meet your Mod" stuff since that's not very informative or even that much interesting. No offense but I don't think a guest or newcomer to the site is going to give much of a damn about how a mod got to be a mod and some of their other random tidbits. As for wanting to get interest for BB in SRK, that's going to be real tough. SRK is for games made from Capcom. DL for games made by ASW. There's nothing wrong with being a bit alienated. Most people in SRK know that if they are interested in BB/GG or want to get some info for it, they can just go to DLoop. In the same way, the people from DL know to hit up SRK for Capcom fighters. I've seen the BlazBlue sub-forum in SRK and it looks a lot like the stuff in GameFAQs: lots of random and mostly useless threads, little to no organization. The only reason I post or even visit SRK is because that's the site that most people in the Indy fighting community frequent. From those, only a handful play or show interest in BB. I'm talking something pitiful like 4 to 7 people. I seriously wish that people would stop with the whole fucking weaboo/anime fighter shit. People usually play games for their core mechanics and less for its artistic style and character designs. Oh well, some people are just thick as fuck and very close minded. It was a bit fucked up when I went to a local tournament here in Indy a few years back and hear some of the onlookers that were playing SF or whatever yell out "Fuck BlazBlue!" and then start laughing. Like really nigga? You really gonna go ahead and do that shit? Haters gonna hate... That's just my two worthless cents.
St1ckBuG Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 Want the scene to get better? Want to contribute? Go to a goddamn tournament.
WolfCrimson Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 You know, there's always some mention of keeping videos on the front page in (almost) every post so far. That's a great idea, but it needs to be more specific: what kind of videos, and from where? I'm in favor of keeping good CMVs and good Japanese gameplay vids, like game-acho or tachikawa or chariot, those are top level play vids that would be beneficial to anyone who would learn from watching them, instead of scrubs (or even good players) derping on netplay because its netplay. Also tournament vids from various scenes would be good too. Want the scene to get better? Want to contribute? Go to a goddamn tournament. Lol. Good advice AND shameless self-promo at the same time? Btw, are the vids from July TSB archived/uploaded somewhere? I missed the stream last time. :/
mikenapalm Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 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! This was actually something I was gonna work on several months back. Like sit down with LK and record in depth commentary about his matches and other high level matches. I've been super lazy about starting it though. If enough people are interested in the idea and LK agrees to it, I'll definitely see if I can get the ball rolling on it.
Star-Demon Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 Here's a contribution: Save a Burst. Save a life. Together - we can make a difference.
Kuuhaku Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showthread.php?12205-Dustloop-Project-Scene-Interviews-GET-EXPOSED. Still working on EVO highlight video. The people involved (me, C0R, and huey) kinda live far apart (well... it's more like C0R lives far away from us) so it's a matter of getting the footage stuffs to C0R and then he gets it done while I write up something to accompany the video.
C0R Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 If Huey uploads the footage from Evo to our youtube channel, I can then download them from any computer, even if he's not there, because I have access to our youtube information. So as soon as he gets them uploaded, I'll be able to edit the highlight reel.
Kuuhaku Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 If Huey uploads the footage from Evo to our youtube channel, I can then download them from any computer, even if he's not there, because I have access to our youtube information. So as soon as he gets them uploaded, I'll be able to edit the highlight reel. Okay. I'll probably meet up with him and Dusty tomorrow. I'll just do the upload stuff for him. Meanwhile, Rin said it's okay to use the footage from top 8 singles.
C0R Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Okay. I'll probably meet up with him and Dusty tomorrow. I'll just do the upload stuff for him. Meanwhile, Rin said it's okay to use the footage from top 8 singles. Roger.
Zeron_X25 Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Dacid's commentating is simultaneously good and atrocious. It's hype, but whenever he gets on, I wish it were someone like LK instead because then I'd actually be learning shit about the game -- which is kinda why I watch matches to begin with. I end up taking 90% of what commentators say worth a grain of salt unless it's a player that I can SEE has done their homework from their play. Dacidbro usually knows what he's talking about in commentaries. I haven't seen him say anything particularly wrong about anything in a match.
Star-Demon Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 What makes you think Dacid doesn't know what he's talking about?
MashThat5A Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 (edited) What makes you think Dacid doesn't know what he's talking about? Inb4 EC goes to town on this. There are just times when he's going off of some joke and not really talking about the match outside of the bare minimum (I.E. WhiteboyYugi). Don't get me wrong, it's great to get people excited about the game, and I'm not calling his commentary bad, but you never really learn anything. Edited August 9, 2011 by MashThat5A
Kuuhaku Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 How about we actually keep this on topic instead of fighting over who is in who's fanclub? :V
huey253 Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 i'm personally a fan of Xie's commentary. Its very informative and easy to follow along with. Dacid's commentary has gotten alot better over time, but he goes on tangents a lot and I don't really learn much from it. He used to yell alot but i think he stopped doing that. Spirit Juice commentary is more informative than Dacid's, but often has a bit of hate and sadness in it.
Dacidbro Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 (edited) Xie's commentary is great, and I've learned a lot from it over time. Also, I've been hard at work becoming better and better at commentary so that eventually I will remove all of the flaws I notice in my commentary, so don't worry about it, I already know my commentary needs work. Dusk, do you think I don't know Blazblue? O_o Kind of don't know how to respond to that. Mashthat, I try to adjust my commentary to the level of importance of the match. I'll add color to matches that aren't at the height of the tournament, and then scale the serious factor back in towards semis, winners/losers finals and grand finals. It seems to be more entertaining for those watching in general, where those who wouldn't want it are more in the minority. Edited August 9, 2011 by Dacidbro
Dacidbro Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Oh, I didn't know that was off topic, just saw my name. x_x For supporting the scene, I think Stickbug said it best. Go to tournaments and spend time with community. The extra content is nice, but it does nothing to support the scene, really.
Kuuhaku Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Thank you. I appreciate it. I do agree that tournament and going out to spend time with the community is very important. However, doing promotion to get out the idea that we do in fact exist can't hurt either. I'm spearheading something that was suggested here- Scene interviews and I'm also working with C0R on the article + evo highlights video to get to SRK. Though, I would like to say that if you have a good idea you should mention it and if you can do it you should. The more people that chip into this sort of thing, the easier and more successful it is.
Dacidbro Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Well.. lets say we do in fact interview countless people and post the interviews all over dustloop. The same people who already know about these things are seeing them, and are entertained or informed but no new people are reached. Personally, I have made efforts to reach new foundations. I've used Marvel 3 to create ties to important figures in Capcom fighting games, such as Haunts of IPW, Joe Flores of Keystone2 (AKA CPSIV, who has posted his upcoming Tight or Fight tournament now with Blazblue in it on both Dustloop and Shoryuken) and others. Using these new connections, I not only have a wider circle of fighting game friends to spend good time with, I can also attempt to bring Blazblue to an actually new group of people, instead of preaching to the choir, so to speak. So yes, I have ideas for spreading and supporting the scene, but it doesn't really have anything to do with Dustloop or providing content for it.
Kuuhaku Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 The scene interview is mostly because there are lots of people who lurk on here and don't go into the Match Finder forum and some scenes get little to no exposure, so I figure this would be a good place for them to start. I do also agree that we need to branch out to other communities. The EVO highlight video is being made to post on the front page of SRK and there was some talk here about preparing more stuff to get put on SRK. I think what you're doing is good though. Keep up the good work.
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