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Our Fuzzy Neighbors: Further Confusion 2016 (Part 2)

With Smash growing by leaps and bounds month by month and year by year it is incredibly impressive to say the least. However as we continue to grow it is a great idea to take inspiration from other growing communities to see what we can learn from them to improve ourselves.

While visiting Further Confusion 2016, the furry convention sharing a venue with Genesis 3, to report on their own Smash event I had a chance to learn a lot about how they run their events. When I learned they were taking notes on our events to learn and gain ideas for their next convention I realized how clever that was I started to take notes of my own.

After having a full tour of the event and experiencing a small taste of the convention I have found a lot of things we could bring back to improve Smash events we host. Some of these ideas have started to be implemented at only a few events, others not yet implemented at all. Before continuing on be sure to read Part 1 where I discuss the Smash tournament at the event and my impressions of the community in general. Ready to learn what the furry community can teach us on running better events? Let's get started!

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Use Of Print

Pictured above is the cover for the Further Confusion 2016 pocket program. I was able to pick one of these up when going into the convention. It included a map of the venue which helped navigation to an extensive degree, a map to all restaurants close to the venue with price estimates, places to find banks and ATM machines close to the venue, a detailed description of the schedule and events, numbers to help in case of emergency, and MORE.

While smartphones are now prevalent these days there are times that the convenience of print is simply much better. Plus if a phone loses its charge that can lead to a rough time. This convenience helped a lot of people navigate and get to where they needed with much less struggle.

This doesn't stop the printed media for the event either. Outside of this regular booklet there is a full convention book filled with pictures from artists at the event, further explanations of what is happening and special guests, stories, advertisements from vendors and sponsors, and more.

So how could we apply this concept to Smash? These are both wonderful souvenirs of the event to start, and with the potential to add a few blank pages for signatures from favorite players could end up being a cherished keepsake from the event.

While we may not need two books considering the smaller number of events we hold, imagine a convenient booklet with all the information an attendee could need and explanations to keep the hype exciting for new fans. Who are these players and what is a crew battle? Why is this match in the salty suite important? Where is doubles being shown on the screen and at what time? All of this alongside an opportunity for more exposure for sponsors or creators in the form of ads is great for the community at large as well.

Print-A-Badge

One of the things that the organizers of Furcon enjoyed was the size of our badges, the were large and easy to see compared to the smaller sized versions. However one of the most impressive features was on site printing for badges. These badges had whatever name you wanted on them and people could preregister to have them printed in advance.

The coolest thing about this system is its potential in smash. Imagine if each player had their names on badges to make the easy to identify. How about the ruleset on every card, or even the exact pool information with times for each player? All printed the day of with registration done without giant binders of paper with names that some still use.

Promote Upcoming Events

Genesis 3 itself did this with various advertising for other upcoming majors, and the furry community was very clear that it was a huge point to their success. Some even took tables at the event to promote their own upcoming convention to those at Further Confusion.

Whether people are attending or just watching at home knowing exactly when the next event to do so is with details is a great way to keep people invested. The more majors working together to help the next one out the larger the train of following can be as well so the entire community gains when each member helps each other.

Compendium: A Different Style

The furry community has been taking extra money fro those attending to better their events for much longer than us and most events have all funds going to charity on top of it! They've been around the block. One thing I found particularly interesting is how their way of doing things is compared to ours.

Instead of a large fund everyone puts into, most of the rewards help individuals going to the convention. Everything from the usual t-shirts to special badges that show you were a donor at the event and even special meals for people at certain levels. This added on to regular admission to events, not done as a separate fundraiser with goals once everyone meets them. The rewards received are for those who donate and those who donate only.

This has its strengths and weaknesses but this style should be potentially explored, especially smaller events that could use extra funds but are not ready for a full scale giant compendium.

Something For Everyone

What happens to those players that go 0-2 in tournament? While the hype at live events is something incredible to experience, most know that it's very difficult to catch all of the events even with giant screens and its simply impossible to catch all the action happening when there's food to be gotten and friends to see. At times it can be easier to sit in the hotel room with Twitch and Twitter to keep up on all the news. This makes it harder to convert some of the more casual fans into becoming invest people in for the long run.

So how can this be combated so that even the most casual of fans will want to come to events? The answer is to find more ways to provide value. Events like Super Smash Con have begun to do this and its easy to see why it gets such rave reviews. There was something for everyone to do. I was able to participate in Karaoke, but also had the opportunity to learn about self publishing, voice acting, how to hire the best artists, and even see a full on animal show!

While some of these things wouldn't work in a Smash environment I am sure we can better ways to provide value at tournaments for little added funds and effort. An autograph booth to help players hunt down top players, a cosplay photo shoot area for anyone interested, a panel on how to write for Smash (#bias), how to make stellar combo videos... The possibilities are endless and it helps make the events really worth their time even for the weakest competitors or fans who just like to watch the game and help aspiring fans or members of the community who want to contribute learn how to better.

One of the biggest things touted as amazing at Smash events is the ability to run i into old friends and see people for the first time in a long while and it is amazing for this, but why not make it better? Every night a dance was held and offered up a great place to just hang out without a controller for a while.

Its these little kinds of things that can make an event go from great to the number one planned for event that no one ever wants to miss.

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There are plenty more small tidbits and interesting things but they could not all fit into a single article. For tournament organizers who want to learn about other hidden tricks and cool technical bits and pieces be sure to contact me via private message if you want to know more.

As we close out this unique series I want to once again thank all of the people at Further Confusion 2016 for being so welcoming and thank the community here at Smashboards for being open to the series, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! Have a comment on some of these ideas? Drop them in the comments below and stay tuned: more news and articles are always on the way!
 

Comments

Kinda unrelated, but congrats SmashCapps for getting Grey!
Just thought I'd say that here since I can't comment on your profile, lol
 
Imma cut to the chase here.

Respect us and we'll respect you. It's not a fetish but it's a hobby. Yeah it's weird but here you are on a gaming website about a game made in 1999 reading an article about the very same thing you find weird. Any normal person would find it weird.

Also if you're a furry on Smashboards here's the furry group.
 
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FurCon sounds exceptionally organised, a lot of event organisers could learn from them in and out of Smash.
 
Yeah really, I don't see why there's so much hate on furries.
I mean, it's a stereotype that all of them go to deviantart....
 
Hi there! Thank you for the nice coverage of our event. This year I was the publications director and designer of the conbook and pocket program, and I'm really flattered that you found them well-designed and useful.

For what it's worth, if anyone is interested in seeing just what our book looked like this year, we have it online at furcon.org/schedule (direct link: furcon.org/pocketprogram).

I hope all involved had a lot of fun this last weekend, whichever event you were attending! :)
 
User was warned for this post
Imma cut to the chase here.

Respect us and we'll respect you. It's not a fetish but it's a hobby. Yeah it's weird but here you are on a gaming website about a game made in 1999 reading an article about the very same thing you find weird. Any normal person would find it weird.

Also if you're a furry on Smashboards here's the furry group.

excluding a certain ****er with a Goku avatar the feedback seems to have been generally positive dude.
 
If this comment section could not have any blind hate that would be just swell :)

We got all the hate out in the last time right?
 
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Why a 2nd article...? 1st one was fine, but why even discuss this further? Might as well discuss the girl's volleyball tourney then.
 
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Honestly, I feel that the whole furry fandom is really strange. I also feel the same way about bronies and other similar things like that. That's not meant to be disrespectful, but it is admittedly kind of a strange and out there thing.

I don't particularly have any issues with them though because it's nothing illegal and people can do whatever strange crap they want, fetishes or not. Maybe some fit the stereotype and maybe some don't. Either way, it is what it is. I accept them for who they are and obviously respect them as human beings like everyone else, but I also have the right to think that the hobby/fetish is a pretty strange thing in general.
 
Why a 2nd article...? 1st one was fine, but why even discuss this further? Might as well discuss the girl's volleyball tourney then.
Shoving EVERYTHING into one article made it far too long, most people won't read an article of THIS length sadly.

Plus this covered a different subject than the first, albeit from the same information. It felt better split up.
 
This is very interesting, and would most likely help the smash community in the long run. Good read, SmashCapps!
 
Intersting article nonetheless. I've got to say that the community is a pretty interesting case where you express your love for all things hairy and full of character. I've never really got the stigma against it and my exposure to several of them (including certain users) is enough for me to see that they aren't bad people. Isn't that's what Nintendo is all about? Having fun with many people near you and around the globe despite their differences in personality or interests. While I may be no furry, I wholeheartedly welcome our fuzzy overlords into the fandom.
 
This part had all the juicy bits when it comes to how this relates to Smash. There are certainly some ideas here i hope to see at events in the future.
 
D
I could careless about this, but it's interesting to say the least.
 
Imma cut to the chase here.

Respect us and we'll respect you. It's not a fetish but it's a hobby. Yeah it's weird but here you are on a gaming website about a game made in 1999 reading an article about the very same thing you find weird. Any normal person would find it weird.

Also if you're a furry on Smashboards here's the furry group.
it can be both a fetish and a hobby if you wanna get technical.

believe me there are some out there who take the furry fandom to far more then just a "hobby"

Hell there is erotic furry "art"/porn out there, and there are some furries out there who do actually have sex with their partners in fursuits.

Yeah not all furries are like that, and those who aren't, might look at some of those acts as disgusting. But again, the furry fandom can be both a fetish and hobby for people.

Technically anything can be a Fetish if it gets someone off/arouses them sexually, and for some, furries do just that.
 
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it can be both a fetish and a hobby if you wanna get technical.

believe me there are some out there who take the furry fandom to far more then just a "hobby"

Hell there is erotic furry "art"/porn out there, and there are some furries out there who do actually have sex with their partners in fursuits.

Yeah not all furries aren't like that, and those who aren't, might look at some of those acts as disgusting. But again, the furry fandom can be both a fetish and hobby for people.

Technically anything can be a Fetish if it gets someone off/arouses them sexually, and for some, furries do just that.
This was really well worded. kudos to you
 
I feel like there needs to be a new term for the word furry. It's too big of a group to defined by a single word. I personally think the ones that draw porn whether it's for themselves or for the money should be ashamed of themselves, they're the reason why we can't have nice things.

What I don't like however, is when people stereotype every single person to be like this just because they have a character with a fox head on a human body.

That's like being a Street Fighter player and calling competitive smash bros players 12 kids who like party games because they saw a bunch of casual players playing FFA with items on.

To put it simply, I feel like there is a general misunderstanding for furries in general, we all actually do dislike that small percentage that everyone always talks about, but thats the minority. A new term needs to be made for the good group instead of using this clearly derogatory word that the world has defined it as.
 
Most of this is pretty standard convention stuff. Making huge smash tournies into mini-conventions would be awesome though.
 
Really liked the ideas you had for the use of print and inclusion of more con-like aspects towards the end of the article.
A lot of these changes would be great for the tournament and community scenes, casual and competitive, in my opinion.
It would bring in a lot more casual play, which can lead many to dedicated play, boosting the base.
A nice read, SmashCapps.
 
Imma cut to the chase here.

Respect us and we'll respect you. It's not a fetish but it's a hobby. Yeah it's weird but here you are on a gaming website about a game made in 1999 reading an article about the very same thing you find weird. Any normal person would find it weird.

Also if you're a furry on Smashboards here's the furry group.
Nobody is disrepsecting anyone but you need to understand why some of us hate your hobby.
 
User was warned for this post
If you are going to cover this furry trash, you better have an article on the volleyball tournament too. I believe they were actually closer "neighbors" than furry trash
 
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