Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Promoting the Scene

SF4 has promoted itself. Many people, both casual and hardcore, are buying it, playing it, and loving it. The GameStop tournament brought players out of their dimly-lit caves and into the light of actual in-person competition (even with the jacked-up rules and conventions). SRK has rewarded the inquisitive mind with local people to play as well. Player-sponsored tournaments and gatherings have helped solidify our community and relationships. It's not as if we're plateauing here, but I would say that we still have a ways to go if people want a well-stocked pantry of players.

If that is what everyone wants, then how do we go about further promoting the UTSF scene?

I've heard some ideas tossed around, such as creating flyers to place around our communities, and reaching out more to local businesses (Play N Trade, local mom n pop's) to promote tournaments. Even recruiting more of our friends would work, if they can stick with it.

Anything else? Do nothing? Rent a movie theater? What've you got, people. Let's think about it.

9 comments:

  1. Yeah, we can get the word out by just encouraging ppl on the forums to go to more tourneys and casuals also, with the Utahnoobs putting on events, put up fliers and so forth.

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  2. I like the flier idea. I'd gladly run around my area posting fliers. Lots of neighborhoods in my area surely there's some SF4 players around.

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  3. Fliers are a great idea. As far as campaigning goes, the most effective avenue would be to post nice, catchy fliers at local gaming stores (GameStop, Play N Trade, etc.). School grounds are also good spots to advertise (campus game rooms, concession areas). I'll work on a flier design and post it later.

    Another key element will be to solidify our local, more compartmentalized groups. SLC-area and Provo/Orem-area gamers really seem to have it together in this regard. However, I think that my area (Layton/Ogden/Logan) could use a little work. This will help in encouraging more appearances at tournaments and such.

    Last thought for the moment... More "public" tourneys will certainly attract new faces. Not everyone knows about the Regional Forums @ SRK. Utahnoobs have the right idea by organizing tourneys at places like PNT and school campuses. I missed the last campus tourney, but from what I understand, there were several new interested players that stemmed from the event. Good job, Utahnoobs!

    Being somewhat of an "old-school" gamer, I'd like to see some of the local arcades get some support. There's a certain stigma of competitive gaming that exists only in arcades, and is (admittedly) my own personal nirvana when it comes to gaming! Now, if only there were an arcade with a SFIV cab... An arcade-sponsored event would certainly attract new faces to the scene.

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  4. Here's a generic tournament poster that I put together. It's print-quality resolution for 11x17. Sorry about the file size (9,25MB). This could be tailored to suit any event.

    https://www.yousendit.com/download/dVlyRE9saTFiR0tGa1E9PQ

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  5. Looks good. I live near a few gamestops and jordan landing(a pretty big place for young ones to hang out) and even like 2 highschools. Though, are there laws that prohibit posting of fliers anywhere you want or is it ok unless there's a sign that says otherwise?

    Also I'm curious about getting hosting places and sponsors. Is it difficult to get places that are willing to let us use bigger areas. Cause last ranbat at andy's was pretty packed so if we get much bigger, we're going to need to do something about that. I've just never had to get a sponsor or anything like that so I have no idea what I could do to help other than post fliers.

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  6. i know that the versus down in orem said that if we held a tourny there that they would provide the fliers and stuff. i am going to talk to the local play and trade as well as gamestop here in orem.

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  7. I should be able to post fliers at school. I'll talk to the dean about it.

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  8. Well, i honestly had no idea that there was a SF scene in Utah outside me and my friends, so this is a huge welcome for me, and also u can expect many new players cause i'm getting my friends hyped for this and they are spreading the word around, u can expect the scene to change alot once we join it ;)

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  9. Hey Dana,

    Good to see that you and Pat and the rest of the old Utah guard are still bouncing around playing 3S amongst the newer games. If I'm not mistaken, I still owe you guys a trip up to see what's what.

    -- Mike (formerly of SLC, now of Texas)

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