Fortress Forever, The Community, The Dedication, The Passion, The Hope

[CaptainAhab]

Hello Fortress Forever Community!

I realize that I am new around these parts. Regardless, this post reflects a philosophy that I live by, that was so eloquently put by Gandhi: “You need to be the change you want to see in [Fortress Forever].”

To get right to the point, I hope through this post I can get the ball rolling for community involvement in putting Fortress Forever on the map, so to speak, and in helping draw in newcomers to this absolutely wonderful game of skill and intensity. Outlined below are some ideas that I have that I hope you, the Fortress Forever community, take into consideration, and help expand upon to reach fruition.

Note that these are merely ideas in order to generate discussion.

1.Advertising
Advertising, I feel, is key to helping this game draw in newcomers as well as old timers (no pun intended) into the wonderful world of Fortress Forever. There are many ways to go about advertising. As I outlined in another forum post, posting advertisements from gamers, to gamers, on widely frequented forums is a fantastic way to get people talking about the game in question, and to at least raise awareness for Fortress Forever. I will be posting on ESR and GameSpot – does anyone here have accounts on NeoGAF, IGN, GameSpy, Steam Forums, or any other websites?

Furthermore, if anyone is willing to put up some cash, we could get some Fortress Forever advertisements on various gaming websites. League of Legends did this for a number of months, and look what happened. Just under 12,000,000 people playing per month. Granted… LoL is not Fortress Forever, but I was just trying to make a point.

Finally, streaming pickup games on sites like twitch.tv might help raise awareness for Fortress Forever. If it gets on the main “browsing games” page, that would be absolutely huge.

Even doing small things like saying “hey, if anyone is looking for a neat game, check out Fortress Forever!” in random online games might get some people to at least Google it, if not download and try out the game.

2.Word of Mouth
Do not underestimate what word of mouth can do for increasing a game’s popularity. This is how Minecraft really kicked off. I am in the process of attempting to reach out to all of my friends who have any remote interest in video games and games that, more specifically, require a higher degree of skill than most. This goes hand in hand with forum posts. Tell all of your friends to at least give the game a shot – it’s less than 1GB, even runs on my machine moderately well, and is 100% free. If you haven’t liked the Facebook page and are not ashamed to let all of your Facebook friends know that you play and enjoy this game, I highly encourage you do so.

3.Welcome Newcomers
There are a lot of things that can be done specifically to help newcomers to Fortress Forever and, more broadly speaking, the arena shooter genre. Small things such as saying a hearty “hello! Welcome to FF!” to obviously new players who decide to hop into servers coupled with offering to guide and help new players with discovering the many intricacies of Fortress Forever are key to building a strong and sought-out community.

Rookie IRC channel(s) and beginner-specific pub matches and pickup games/servers would be, in my mind, superb additions to help newcomers into the game if any of this popularizing stuff ends up working. There is a rookie channel for QuakeWorld that has been unbelievably effective in helping newcomers into the game and is still frequented to this day by newbies and veterans alike. Something like this might help ease people (like me! haha) into the world of Fortress Forever.

Mentoring programs. Veterans helping out newbies, such as adding them on Steam and sharing their passion for Fortress Forever coupled with inviting them to spec, observe, comment on, and ask questions about pickup matches would be huge. Maybe once every two weeks the community could hold a session with a lot of newer players in a locked server to guide them through the intricacies of movement, mastering the numerous weapons, maps, and game modes, all run and guided by veteran players and set up through IRC channels and the already bustling Fortress Forever forums.

I know this is a much longer shot, but if/hopefully when Fortress Forever begins to grow, through things such as IRC and the forums, rookie-specific pickups and tournaments could happen, with veterans speccing, observing, commenting, and generally being encouraging and supportive, and condoning a friendly but fiercely competitive atmosphere.

4.Promoting Pickups
Pickups are the beginnings and the foundations for a competitive scene in the future. I personally condone them whenever possible, and encourage as many people to get involved in promoting them as possible. If a number of people saw the intensity of really solid pickups, they might be enticed to at least give the game a shot. Friendly pickups and scrimmages are what help bring new players into the competitive scene, and are what help it grow. Games like AC are shining examples of this – new players are encouraged to hit up various IRC channels and certain people on the forums and in-game to get involved in the clan and scrimmage scene. Players run casual tournaments all the time. Stuff like this could happen in Fortress Forever once the player base expands a bit and could help foster a strong and active competitive community. Possibly, the TFC community could be pitched to. Maybe? I know the reception on The Catacombs wasn’t exactly… encouraging, to say the least. It’s worth a shot, in any case.

5.YouTube and Video Involvement
Reaching out to many of the widely followed and famous YouTube gamers could be one of the first steps in expanding Fortress Forever’s community, which goes hand in hand with advertising. I recently made a YouTube account and will be working on contacting people like TotalBiscuit, Yogscast, and trying to bring Towellie back into the scene to help it grow and expand. Honestly, TotalBiscuit could do one of his “WTF is ________?” videos, just derp around and make the game look half-decent, and 200,000+ people would at least see it. If he specced a pickup on the off-chance, the chances of it being more explosive would rise dramatically. Yogscast is Yogscast – they could do a video of them staring at a hedgehog and get 800,000 views and 50,000 likes. Furthermore, if Towellie streamed a little of Fortress Forever outside of World of Warcraft, it would definitely help put this game on the map. Many gamers look up to him, and would take a game that he says is great as a game that they need to play. The same goes for many other YouTube channels.

Frag videos are, as FDA so eloquently put it, “an unspoken language for gamers.” Impressive, promotional videos are a great way to help say to the gaming world, “look at this badass game where you can do stuff like this!” I know that watching dozens of frag movies is what initially pushed me to try out Quake after watching my brother play it all those years ago…

6.Leagues and Tournaments
Once we get the player base, I support the idea of promoting league and tournament play. Players who have been with TFC for quite some time can attest to how fun league play can be. I feel that this would be a great boon for Fortress Forever. I am looking into leagues that support games like Fortress Forever, but first we need the player base, as Absolute encountered when he pitched Fortress Forever to a league: we just need more players before anything can happen. This also relates to advertising, word of mouth, et cetera.

Player-run tournaments are something that I feel Fortress Forever would benefit from. Even small things like 2v2 and 3v3, small, afternoon tournaments would at least show newcomers that the game is alive, kicking, and full of passionate and dedicated individuals. Announcing these in IRC (and not just FF-related IRCs, multiple Quake IRCs) and the forums and possibly offering various prizes would only increase the interest in them, in my humble opinion. Prizes could be anything from a very small cash prize (possibly mail the cash to the winners?) to some “title” in-game (using a community honor system, allow the winners to put some title in front of their name that recognizes that they won some tournament) perchance.

7.Community Involvement
This is somewhat a summary of much of what I have said. Everything from IRCs, beginner pickups and servers, and mentorships to high-level, competitive tournament and league play. In order for any of these things to happen, the community at large needs to be involved, and needs to want Fortress Forever to grow.

So, Fortress Forever Community, what are your thoughts? There is hope. As FDA said, “don’t ever let anyone tell you that we can’t give this games what it truly deserves.” Note that the things that I posted up above are merely ideas. I just wanted to help get the ball rolling for (hopefully) changes to come in the future.

Hopefully this was a friendly wake-up call. We can – and in my opinion, should – do something.

Everything from constructive criticism to encouragement is, well, encouraged.

Cheers.

F.A.Q.

Q: Ahab, who do you think you are? Some newb who thinks he can tell us, people who have been playing these games forever, what to do? Who the hell do you think you are?
A: I certainly hope that my post did not come across the way – I am just throwing out some ideas that I hope will be discussed by the community and will lead to some positive developments.

Q: Are you the actual Ahab? Or an imposter?
A: I am. Captain Ahab.

Q: What if none of this works?
A: “It is better to have tried and failed than failed to try, but the result’s the same.” – Mike Denisson

[FDA_Approved]

Can we all stand in a circle and put our hands in the middle and say "GOOOOOO TEAM!" ?

[Drakonal]

I agree with everything the OP had to say, what of the down sides to our competitive play can be our destructive behavior and attitudes towards each other at times in pickups. Most of it is just friendly bantering mind you, but there is a few people who really are just trolls.



If we could get a big name doing a story for FF, or checking it out, that would indeed be huge player influx for us, and the ultimate tagline is it's free.


But we do need some carrots on a stick, perhaps like mentioned above a ranking system, with bragging rights titles.

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by Drakonal

If we could get a big name doing a story for FF, or checking it out, that would indeed be huge player influx for us, and the ultimate tagline is it's free.

I've posted comments on various YouTube channels, namely MMOHut and MMOBomb, who "review" a lot of free games. I @TGN'd in the comments section of Towelliee's video to see if he will be doing any more, and I will post on his forums later on. Unless I'm mistaken I posted on his YouTube channel as well, but who knows if these people actually read those comments.

TotalBiscuit doesn't take requests, so that's out.

Contacting Yogscast is like trying to contact Obama from a gaming perspective -- they get dozens of emails every day, and they have explicitly stated that they do not reply to all of them. Nonetheless, I will be sending them an email helping promote FF and seeing if they will do a video. The email is yogscast@gmail.com if you'd like to do the same.

If anyone knows of any other gamer channels that might be interested, see if you can hit them up and try to get them interested in FF.

This is only one of the many routes we can take for promotion, but I'm doing my best to see each and every route through to fruition.

[CaptainAhab]

Hmmm, looks like Towelliee has a Facebook. I'll post a little snippet there and see if he replies. :3

[NeonLight]

If you could get Towelliee that'd be great. He used to play tfc way back when in leagues in the clan |404|

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by NeoNL

If you could get Towelliee that'd be great. He used to play tfc way back when in leagues in the clan |404|

I will certainly do my best. @TGN'd him and posted on his Facebook wall. I'll post on his (relatively inactive) forums this evening, alongside making a reddit account. If anyone else in the community wants to ask him, maybe we can get him back in numbers.

[NeonLight]

I'll send him a tweet

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by NeoNL

I'll send him a tweet

:>

[eomoyaff]

He actually did a Youtube for Fortress forever, making what was called FFS (Fortress Forever ... Something. I forgot lol) But basically he spent a good amount of time on explaining the game, what it was about, and the purpose of some of the features. I mean he made it an Episode, and he'd planned on more, but nothings popped up in a good while.

[CaptainAhab]

Finally sent out some emails to Yogscast and TotalBiscuit. Here's hoping I'll even get a reply.

[XPelargos]

Well, you got a reply from me in the thread.

Did you get a reply from them in email?

[CaptainAhab]

I got an automated reply from Yogscast, and nothing from TB. Doesn't mean they didn't read them though. They get 50+ a day, so responding to them all would be a major undertaking.

I think spoon might have more luck with HuskyStarcraft, who has already expressed interest.

[Crazycarl]

TB is in the process of visiting the US for an extended stay, so I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't respond for a while if at all.

Also, from his channel description:

I do not take requests. I do not create WTF is videos about old games.

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by Crazycarl

Also, from his channel description...

Yep, I saw that too. However, some people told me to email him and give it a shot anyway, so figured no harm in doing so.

[moosh]

[Lynus]

LOL

[CaptainAhab]

Oh man, I totally forgot about this thread...

>.>

[WiFiDi]

Originally Posted by CaptainAhab

Oh man, I totally forgot about this thread...

>.>