Drastic Idea for FF publicity

[Hammock]

Okay, tons and tons of ideas and suggestions have been mentioned talked about and not very many acted on.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thought of this idea and it's definately been done for other games, but who knows if there's enough support for it it could work.

Cash Prize league's.

We're almost all adults here and have the ability to sign up for paypal accounts (I'm sure many already have them).

But if you were to start a cash prize tournament it might be good promotion for FF.

If I've learned anything about online gaming in FPS, MMO's, and other stuff people LOVE the prospects of winning/earning cash. Ebay and MMO's were huge people are willing to spend money for virtual items, and people are willing to work to get these items to sell them.

Like wise with a tournament. I'm positive people would be willing to spend $10 for a 1-2 month tournament or something like that. Winnings devided by the winning team.

But think about it, even if you only had 5 teams and say bare minimum each team had 5 players, that'd be $50 per team. $250 for first place, divided by the 5 players is $50.

And that's just bare minimum. Many teams have 7 - 10 players, infact it might be better to do a 7v7 league.

Once money get's involved things get serious. There's less joking around and way more focus from the players.

If it was made a regular thing, like once one tournament ends another starts up it could draw people in. I have a feeling the first few tournaments would be us just handing over our money to the fellas but I'd have no problem paying $10 for a month or two of fun and to do it again. In the grand scheme of things $10 is quite minimal.

If it ever did escalate and grow big, then different divisions with different buyins could be established (long term future possibility).

It's just a thought, it's a pretty extreme idea to impliment though, but who knows money is a very good driving force.

I'd be game for it, who else would be?

[Dr.Satan]

Me and 4est toyed around with the idea of making trophies for the UGC league back before it started, but we were never able to get it going.

I terms of a league doing this...I doubt you will find any of the current leagues interested...not offically saying that as I'm way to far down on the totem pole to make that kind of a decision, but I think most of them have probably discussed it before.

I personally think it would be a really cool idea and would be fun. Like you said 10 bucks really isn't that much in the grand scheme of things and it would be cool to play. I doubt FF would be able to endorse or support it in anyway, but if a new league popped up that was designed for this...it would be pretty sweet.

[zE]

It´s a good idea, but the thing that i think will bring more players to FF is to, have a place in steam, in modes, cuse i personally and a lot of other plp have knowlage of modes is from there. That popup that opens when a new mode its launched have a visibility of thousands and thousands.

[pF]

I gotta say, i like the idea. An amount around 10 bucks really isn't all that much.. especially if you consider what some of us leave at the poker tables or in bars/clubs. The cash league would have to be accompanied by a concerted publicity campaign though - or else it'd be the same league(s) we have now, just with an additional 200$ bonus on top. Also, obviously people with a spotless "record" have to be organising this. And then there's the issue with cheats.. most cash prizes for gaming are awarded at massive LAN's i think.. makes it easier to catch cheaters.

But yeah, good idea imo.

[BinaryLife]

It's not a terrible idea. I supposed you'd need to price out trophies in the first place and then find a reasonable, reliable trusted person to make the purchase.

Lots of sports leagues and the like have entry fees in order to get on board. In their situation the entries fees go to trophies and prize money for the winners. Not being in a clan my statement that I'd go for it means very little.


But for what little it means from me: I'm a gamer. It sounds like a good idea.

[Rutabeggar]

Openly publicizing FF is a drastic idea anyway...that being said I like the idea, it's actually something worth looking in to instead of all of us sitting around twiddling our thumbs hoping something happens.

[Hammock]

Yeah I thought of that cheater issue, when it's for money people will go to any lengths to win.

About starting a league up and doing this to start why would we have to?

If we could get all the current clans in the 5v5 UGC league or the STA 7v7 league on board we wouldn't need to create a whole new league from the start.

We can use their format complete, their scheduling, their rules, their rankings..etc.

And over here on this website we can have someone keeping track of who's paid up and handle the money just in a paypal account.

This would take coordination of all the clan's and clan members, only those that paid the $10 registration fee will get a precent of the winnings, anyone who didn't pay the $10 just gets the "win". That way we keep it fair and only pay out who's actually paid in.

Ideally we'd like everyone in the clan to pay up, higher payouts = higher turnouts down the road.

And yes we would need someone in charge who's trust worthy. But again not that big a deal, since all we're doing is paying $10 each. The thief (if he did steal it) only makes us each out $10 and he would never be in charge again, for a one shot $250 theft.

[dys]

It's a good idea but the game needs some work before it can be turned into a "pro"-league. I'm not even talking about the visible aspects, i'm talking gameplay, class-specific stuff that's obviously been mentioned a million and one times already. In contrast to my 2.0 expectations, 2.1 needs to deliver.

The necessary changes are not all that far fetched or newly implemented stuff, it's a mere balancing of what already exists.

[Hammock]

Originally Posted by dys

It's a good idea but the game needs some work before it can be turned into a "pro"-league. I'm not even talking about the visible aspects, i'm talking gameplay, class-specific stuff that's obviously been mentioned a million and one times already. In contrast to my 2.0 expectations, 2.1 needs to deliver.

The necessary changed are not all that far fetched or newly implemented stuff, it's a mere balancing of what already exists.

I have no idea when 2.1 will come out, I haven't heard anything about it. But with that said, it can't hurt to try and brainstorm this idea to see if it could work out.

Trust me, I think organizing a money league tourney thing could quite possibley take just as long if not longer to setup than the release of 2.1 There would need to be rules and regulations and cooperation and all sorts of other shit that dealing with people with online tend to drag out.

[KubeDawg]

I have an idea. How about we hire an animator? I'm sure it wouldn't cost an arm and a leg for a halfway decent one, and we could even have a donation campaign. First, that shows that you are willing to go above and beyond to try and make the game better, and 2nd, that in itself brings publicity. People start seeing what we're all about, and not just some alternative to TF2 or something.

[Klute]

I would think something along the lines of a tournament, like what was done in the North American TFC tournament.
The teams were done by regions and a draft was held after a player base was signed by appointed captains. Admins from leagues were present during matches to keep cheating and sportsmanship in line.
This I felt this was the right approach and it was fun. Teams were done as fairly as it could be. Many would not even sign up if for example top tier teams entered. However if those teams were busted up for the event, then a player base can develop.
Have a small entry fee, take those monies and add to it with donations and toss in some prizes.Even MVP, D MVP and O MVP awards as well. Perhaps a web page "trophy" placing the winning teams players and title, its cost effective and each player gets some bragging rights.
Make it an annual event and your on to something. It could grow to become popular with manufactures adding to the prize bin.
New friends were made then and new ones could be made here, and from there new clans formed.

[!nF3D4L]

i think it would be cool if we could do a world champ type thing like they did in tfc, that would be pretty awesome imo

[Hammock]

Originally Posted by Klute

I would think something along the lines of a tournament, like what was done in the North American TFC tournament.
The teams were done by regions and a draft was held after a player base was signed by appointed captains. Admins from leagues were present during matches to keep cheating and sportsmanship in line.
This I felt this was the right approach and it was fun. Teams were done as fairly as it could be. Many would not even sign up if for example top tier teams entered. However if those teams were busted up for the event, then a player base can develop.
Have a small entry fee, take those monies and add to it with donations and toss in some prizes.Even MVP, D MVP and O MVP awards as well. Perhaps a web page "trophy" placing the winning teams players and title, its cost effective and each player gets some bragging rights.
Make it an annual event and your on to something. It could grow to become popular with manufactures adding to the prize bin.
New friends were made then and new ones could be made here, and from there new clans formed.

That's a great idea, I like that idea of busting up the tier 1 teams and deriving all the tourny teams from a pool. I like that idea better than using the current clans.

Plus you get to meet new people and play with different people you might have never played with before (theoretically speaking of course, we're such a small community now we all play with eachother rofl)

[Gwarsbane]

I would never join a tourny over the net where I had to put money into for the chances to win money. Why? Because as was mentioned, cheaters. People cheat now and there is no money involved, just think what it would be like if there was.

Only way I would go into something like this is if it was held in a location and the people running the tourny were the ones that set up the computers for use (as in, no one uses their own personal computer.

If I remember right there was a TFC one years ago, but it was over the net and they said it was secure because of stuff like punk buster and stuff like that, but I've seen cheating on punk buster protected servers so I said screw it and didn't bother. There was no money on my end involved but I knew there would be at least some cheaters in it.

No the best way to advertise this game is to get it out on every site that provides gaming news.

Make sure there is a single working full installer that is linked to a fast server so that it won't go down if you get a rush of people.

Make sure there is more then 1 download location, There are many file hosting services out there and I'm sure if you asked people nicely there might be a few people with access to a fast server who might be able to host the file (if he asked the owner nicely that is)

Point out the differences between TF2 and FF. This doesn't mean putting TF2 down, just make sure people know its a totally different game.

Make sure that people know its FREE as long as they have HL2DM (maybe even provide that ATI link thats been floating around that gives people with an ATI card HL2DM for free).

Also point out that there are quality game servers where anything goes AND there are quality game servers that are kid friendly.

One other thing that has to be done is keep the beta maps out of rotation unless you have a server dedicated to playing rare maps and beta maps. Also make sure that all the maps that are located on the server have fast download access.

Also screenshots. Good quality screenshots, and even videos if possible, either direct download or on youtube.

[Hammock]

Originally Posted by Gwarsbane

I would never join a tourny over the net where I had to put money into for the chances to win money. Why? Because as was mentioned, cheaters. People cheat now and there is no money involved, just think what it would be like if there was.

Only way I would go into something like this is if it was held in a location and the people running the tourny were the ones that set up the computers for use (as in, no one uses their own personal computer.

If I remember right there was a TFC one years ago, but it was over the net and they said it was secure because of stuff like punk buster and stuff like that, but I've seen cheating on punk buster protected servers so I said screw it and didn't bother. There was no money on my end involved but I knew there would be at least some cheaters in it.

No the best way to advertise this game is to get it out on every site that provides gaming news.

Make sure there is a single working full installer that is linked to a fast server so that it won't go down if you get a rush of people.

Make sure there is more then 1 download location, There are many file hosting services out there and I'm sure if you asked people nicely there might be a few people with access to a fast server who might be able to host the file (if he asked the owner nicely that is)

Point out the differences between TF2 and FF. This doesn't mean putting TF2 down, just make sure people know its a totally different game.

Make sure that people know its FREE as long as they have HL2DM (maybe even provide that ATI link thats been floating around that gives people with an ATI card HL2DM for free).

Also point out that there are quality game servers where anything goes AND there are quality game servers that are kid friendly.

One other thing that has to be done is keep the beta maps out of rotation unless you have a server dedicated to playing rare maps and beta maps. Also make sure that all the maps that are located on the server have fast download access.

Also screenshots. Good quality screenshots, and even videos if possible, either direct download or on youtube.

This is stuff that should have been done already, like upon the first month's release.

instead of all of us sitting around twiddling our thumbs hoping something happens.

That's exactly the very reason nothing has been done. I know the community and players would like to help out, many can't. I know some have done decent jobs with the vids made. But in all honesty the dev team should have had someone completely dedicated to advertising the game, a PR rep if you will. It's not all just about coding, it's about the advertising too. But I don't see anyone "officially" in that position so everything is left to a group of very disorganized players who really just want to play rather work.

You may not like the idea of spending a bit of money due to hackers. But I know there are TONS of people out there that jump at the chance to make a little extra cash. With a small buy in there's really not much to loose because 1 tourny would last almost 2 months wouldn't it? $10/2mo = $5/mo = 17cents/day.

I'd be pissed if someone was hacking but really I wouldn't feel like I've lost a whole bunch. Obviously we're not attracting the casual player but hardcore players would come if it was done right.

[Rutabeggar]

Publicity and advertising has been debated for months...guys, please just listen to me when I say this...

If it hasn't been done by now, it's NOT going to get done. We (the community) have begged for something, throw us a god damned bone or something here, we are pleading to help you help us help this GAME. It's so unbelievably frustrating when there is little to no forward motion with this game! I'm not talking about the man cannon rubbish, I'm talking about public and aggressive advertising, I'm talking about a damn DONATE TO FF HERE PLZ LOL. It isn't begging if it's a DONATION from a loving, dedicated, PATIENT community. Fact of the matter is this player base will NEVER grow because on top of the people we can't bring in, we can't even keep the player base we have now simply because the game is a stagnant, unorganized pile of NOTHING. It has SO MUCH potential, but we sit here with our thumbs up our asses wondering what we're doing wrong...it's been painfully obvious for months what's wrong. There are so few things that need to be animated, throw up a donation button, offer the guy $1500 to animate the rest of whatever is needed, maybe teach someone a thing or 2, then have him go about his business.

Sadly, everything I just said has PROBABLY already been mentioned/asked about/yelled and stomped feet over and obviously fallen upon deaf ears.

[Klute]

gwars,
Having an invited league(s) admin(s) present during the match will stay a lot of the cheating.
Cheating is present in all sports from little league baseball to NCAA football to the NBA.
I'm talking 70 players putting up 10 bucks each. 10 teams with 7 players.
Thats 700 in prize money, maybe even more.
heh, the admins will do it just for the chance at popping someone hacking, cause this is where they will try it lol.

I think thats a small price to pay, for something that can bring a lot of advertising to this game and have fun doing it in the process.

Always give something back to something that has given a lot to you.

[Klute]

Kinda hard keeping this thread on top with others posting about updates for another game

[Circuitous]

Originally Posted by Rutabeggar

Publicity and advertising has been debated for months...guys, please just listen to me when I say this...

SIMPLE MATH.

DONATES != UPDATES.

The devs are working on non-FF stuff. Unless you want to find a completely new team capable of starting over from scratch without anyone to give them proper access because they're all busy elsewhere, then you just need to wait.

I don't like it anymore than you do, but I can keep quiet.

[KubeDawg]

But we don't want to wait!