Starbase Arcade: How We Built Our Own Fighting Game Community
VDon;)
Jay "VDon" Nguyen gives us a run down of what it takes to build successful fighting game scene based on his experiences managing the Wednesday night sessions at Starbase Arcade. Everyone's scene is different, but hopefully these pointers will give players looking to start a scene or build upon their current scene some ideas on how to do so.
When I first got reacquainted with the fighting game community 10 months ago it was because of a little game called Street Fighter IV. I was excited to play and desperately looking for some competition. Like many others, I started my search online at the matchmaking forums of Shoryuken.com. Doing this enabled me to connect with a couple of local players. Like me, they also were looking for more competition and driving all across the San Francisco Bay Area to meet this competition. Our crew consisted of 1 fledgling player (me!) and 2 tournament players with a vast lack of matchup experience needed to win.
Today, we enjoy a flourishing fight game community. We hold weekly Wednesday sessions and have one of the largest attendances of any NorCal session currently active. Our player base has gone from 3 to an average of 25-30 players per session. We’ve had as many as 50 players at one of our casual sessions. Not tournament, just a casual session. How did this happen? When did this happen? What changed?
I’d like to share my experience from 10 months ago up until today and give a recollection of how NorCal’s North Bay went from nothing, to one of the hypest sessions this side of California.
Step One: Attending Other People’s Events
North Bay had a few issues when I first started playing here. First off, no one knew if there were any serious players here. The other issue is that our location is secluded from the rest of the scene. We’re essentially way off in the corner and for anyone to come to us, they’d have to pay toll, cross bridges and go a long ways to play in an unproven territory. Let’s face it; no one’s coming to North Bay just because we asked. We had to attend tournaments and sessions and prove ourselves. The first thing we did was practiced. A lot. Soon after, we attended tournaments all across the Bay Area. It was a long drive everywhere we went, but if people saw how dedicated we were, it might make them wonder how much of a scene we have back home. The goal wasn’t to win tournaments, although we did try our damnedest. The goal was to show consistent improvement and dedication so people knew that we were serious.
