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Ideas to keep players coming back?

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
Messages
36
Hey guys, we are doing a little something different with our future Super Smash tournaments and wanted a little feedback from the community. We started a system called Final Boss where when someone wins a tournament, they can issue a challenge to the current Big Boss. If the challenger wins, or if the current Big Boss doesn’t accept the challenge within two weeks, they become the new Big Boss. The Big Boss then gets featured on our site with their photo, a quick bio, and how many times they have earned the title. We just started and have our first Big Boss posted on the site already. So, opinions? Ways we could do it better?
 

gmBottles

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That seems like a fun idea. The only issue I can think of is having a few players that dominate and are constantly "Big Boss". Other than that, it seems great. The best way to keep people coming back is probably just to have a good tourney. Making sure everything runs smoothly and the events are run on time is important. If your event is sloppily put together, people will probably just find a better one.
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
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Aug 28, 2014
Messages
36
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah we were worried about a 1 or 2 guys running the big boss section alone, hoping bringing more and better players from around Georgia will help keep that to a minimum. Our tournaments normally start right at 7 or maybe 10 mins after if they need practice but it normally runs smooth and everyone has a great time.
 

gmBottles

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Stop featuring 13 year old games. It is incredibly strange to me that Melee fans expect their community to remain vibrant when the game is so old.
You can't deny that the game is still going strong. No point in excluding the most popular entry in the franchise.
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
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Messages
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You can't deny that the game is still going strong. No point in excluding the most popular entry in the franchise.
Agreed. We have a lot of people ask for Melee but the price of the discs and the new Smash coming out have deterred me so far.
 

CosmicFuzz

Smash Apprentice
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You can extend the Big Boss title and host some friendly crew matches where each week, the crew is created randomly depending on who wants to join in. Winning Crew that week gets featured on the site as well showing how friendly and how easy it is to meet new Smashers to others that may be interested.
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
Messages
36
You can extend the Big Boss title and host some friendly crew matches where each week, the crew is created randomly depending on who wants to join in. Winning Crew that week gets featured on the site as well showing how friendly and how easy it is to meet new Smashers to others that may be interested.
You are saying on a night different from the tourneys themselves, host a night of just friendly games for the people who normally come to the tourneys if they are interested?
 

Strong Badam

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Yeah who even watches football that sport is like 150 years old
Haven't you heard? Release date is the main contributing factor to how good and fun a game is.
 

trash?

witty/pretty
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I just made a post in the brawl boards that very conveniently holds relation to that comment, actually
just to make things clear: the reason melee stayed alive and thriving was because of melee players. not smash players, melee players, as in they would intend to play melee first and foremost.

brawl didn't have brawl players in the way melee had melee players, brawl had smash players, meaning they had players who played the newest smash game because it was the newest smash game, and that's what everyone else was looking at. the crash down was inevitable, in the same way smash 4's crash might be inevitable if they follow in the same footsteps, because once a newer, shinier game comes out, the smash players stop playing your game.

instead of trying to base yourself off a core similar to melee, instead of morphing into your own metagame with your own style, you kept trying to appeal to players who were hopping off the train the second something else came out to sate their desires. maybe you can come back from this, but it's taken far too long for people to realize the damage for it to be reversible. no matter what happens, you're permanently known as that game to the rest of smash.
turns out, only appealing to the kind of people who will drop you and your scene immediately in favor of the next smash game the second it comes out isn't very sustainable, who would have thunk it
 
Last edited:

victra♥

crystal skies
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victra#0
Be friendly and welcoming.

You're always going to get players who get bodied and are not interested in returning.

But those who do...they're the keepers.
 
Last edited:

Ashkon Honardoost

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 5, 2014
Messages
13
Sounds like a small fun idea for your local scene. The best way I feel to get players to keep coming back though is to just run awesome tournaments/make it super fun!
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
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Aug 28, 2014
Messages
36
Thanks for the ideas guys, I think our biggest issue now is having one guys who consistently gets first every other week. Other people come in and get second place and thats normally different each tourney but what do you do about a guy who is a friend and always shows up to play but people are tired of kicking beaten ever time by him?
 

TurnUp

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
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Thanks for the ideas guys, I think our biggest issue now is having one guys who consistently gets first every other week. Other people come in and get second place and thats normally different each tourney but what do you do about a guy who is a friend and always shows up to play but people are tired of kicking beaten ever time by him?
I would say have a lot more inviting friendlies, maybe even a side competition for another mode, game or competition? Something fun that the consistently good Smash player can't easily win every time. I would recommend Mario Kart or something but it's really up to you.

I love having friendlies at tournaments, but other people play to win solely so I can't really speak for everyone else.
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
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Messages
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I would say have a lot more inviting friendlies, maybe even a side competition for another mode, game or competition? Something fun that the consistently good Smash player can't easily win every time. I would recommend Mario Kart or something but it's really up to you.

I love having friendlies at tournaments, but other people play to win solely so I can't really speak for everyone else.
We normally have about a half our of friendlies before the tourney and an hour after the final match of friendlies but maybe a different night of friendlies would help. We tried mario kart, halo 3, and a few other fighting games and we went from 30 players for smash to like 8-14 people for the other games so it seemed like unless it was Smash, our regulars weren't coming... Also this guy who wins smash also wins every other fighting game besides MK9. Other than that, this guy is top tier.
 

TurnUp

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
170
We normally have about a half our of friendlies before the tourney and an hour after the final match of friendlies but maybe a different night of friendlies would help. We tried mario kart, halo 3, and a few other fighting games and we went from 30 players for smash to like 8-14 people for the other games so it seemed like unless it was Smash, our regulars weren't coming... Also this guy who wins smash also wins every other fighting game besides MK9. Other than that, this guy is top tier.
Hire two top 5 players to take him down in his first two matches lol, then make them lose in the matches against the other people

Yeah but other than that I don't know what to tell you, if he's really that good you can't stop them.
 

Narpas_sword

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To make a scene grow, dont focus on the top players who are already great.
Put aside spot prizes for things like people who improve etc.

and now, to kick the hornets nest.

You can't deny that the game is still going strong. No point in excluding the most popular entry in the franchise.
'popular' only in a very tight sample size.
If you're looking at NEW players, melee is hardly going to be the most popular is it?
They're likely to come from brawl or 4.


Also, Football gets rule changes, effectively 'patched'.
 

gmBottles

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'popular' only in a very tight sample size.
If you're looking at NEW players, melee is hardly going to be the most popular is it?
They're likely to come from brawl or 4.
I disagree. I still consider myself a new player. I went straight to Melee as I knew it had the biggest following. I think that people seeking fast gameplay will probably do the same, but you are right about new players going to Brawl and Smash 4. I don't think many will though.
 

gmBottles

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No, but I think that the fact that most people in the Smash community play wither Melee or PM says something. I still agree that new players will go to Smash 4, but most people who want to get into competitive are probably going to start with Melee.
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
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Decided a give-a-way would be the most helpful. Giving anyone who attends our tourneys or shares our flyers on Facebook and entry each time to win a free copy of Super Smash on WiiU when it drops. Seems like it is getting people excited again. Thanks for the suggestions.
 

Darklink401

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Also if the top tier dude is your friend, you can ask him to sandbag a bit every once in a while, since its a weekly thing.
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
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Aug 28, 2014
Messages
36
Also if the top tier dude is your friend, you can ask him to sandbag a bit every once in a while, since its a weekly thing.
Yeah, he is a really good buddy, so he has agreed to only play every other week. When he plays some of the newer people he also takes it easy a bit so he doesn't stomp them. He is really understanding about how he needs to chill the hell out and stop being so damn good.
 

popsofctown

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I don't think adding additional worship to the player who wins the tournament is an effective strategy for improving tournament attendance at all.
The random giveaway might help.
 

The Prince: SDJ

Smash Apprentice
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Mar 8, 2014
Messages
175
If you have a low number of attendants, do swiss pools instead of double elimination so more games are played
 

victra♥

crystal skies
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victra#0
If you have a low number of attendants, do swiss pools instead of double elimination so more games are played
We've actually done the opposite of this in our region for our weekly drop in events. Low turn out we did round robin pools + double elimination bracket. When we got more and more players (upwards to 70+) it ended up being a easier logistically to run swiss brackets
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
Messages
36
I don't think adding additional worship to the player who wins the tournament is an effective strategy for improving tournament attendance at all.
The random giveaway might help.
I am hoping the additional worship for someone who wins would help bring out better players from the area. I know north of us in Atlanta there are great players so I am hoping the final boss status and the free Smash for Wii U give-a-way will bring in the better players. More people more money so they keep coming back. Thats the plan anyway. Here is the link for the give-a-way if anyone is interested. https://www.facebook.com/gamermingle
 

thetreepenguin

Smash Cadet
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Aug 28, 2014
Messages
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Incase anyone in this thread is interested in how this is working out, we have a little more than 40 different people signed up to win the wii U smash and our first final boss was defeated last night and replaced by a new comer! Everyone seems to be having a great time at the tourneys and the turnouts are growing marginally.
 

Thor

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Agreed. We have a lot of people ask for Melee but the price of the discs and the new Smash coming out have deterred me so far.
Then tell people, "If you want Melee, I can host it, but I can't provide setups. You'll have to bring your own disks if you want the event." I'm sure if people really want it, they'll bring it.

And holding multiple events will probably also help bring people back, since they can play in multiple events and thus have hopes for doing well in the other event(s) even if they do poorly in one of them.

So unless you REALLY only have time for one event, host PM and Smash 4 when Smash 4 comes out - I think that would draw even more interest, and it might cause people to be interested in both = more reason to keep attending = larger tournaments which seems to be the goal here.

Haven't you heard? Release date is the main contributing factor to how good and fun a game is.
That explains the never-ending PM updates that may fix one character but break two more - always something else to patch = newest release dates = of course it's most popular! *this was sarcasm*

I just made a post in the brawl boards that very conveniently holds relation to that comment, actually


turns out, only appealing to the kind of people who will drop you and your scene immediately in favor of the next smash game the second it comes out isn't very sustainable, who would have thunk it
For the record, Brawl DID have Brawl players, just not nearly enough to make a thriving national scene the way Melee had Melee players [FOW for instance stated on his stream that he still plans to stream Brawl Wi-Fi once a week even after Smash 4 Wii U comes out]. But that's life for the (relatively few) Brawl players out there, I suppose...
 
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