Summer Jam

[Fallsmyer]

I tried this before, but I got literally no interest last time. Well I'm back again to try and see if I can stir up some VO action on the East Coast. Summer Jam 8 is a major East Coast Fighting Game Tournament. It will be on August 29th-31st, 2014 at Holiday Inn Stadium in Philadelphia, PA. At this point, I'll have two setups for VOOT and two Twin Sticks for those who prefer to play with them. Entry fee will either be $1 or Free and if I can at least get 10 entrants I will add a pot bonus. The tournament is still far away so again, I need to gauge interest before I can actually run anything. Provided I get people to enter and play I will also be streaming the matches.

So I ask, is there anyone here that would be interested in attending a VOOT tournament?

[DarkraiZero]

I might play... But not completly sure. I want to focus on BBCP training... And my Xbox has been acting funny. I don't think I will be able to practice VOOT but it shouldn't be a problem to compete.

[Fallsmyer]

I don't know how many of us are even in the East Coast. But even if I can get some setups and people try and play it that would be better than the current state of affairs. I want to push this game so we can get people to play it again, but if there's no one even willing to play it for free then we're left with nothing.

[Porcupine]

Pushing the game in real life is not going to do anything. Most people aren't going to be interested in this series simply because it's too old. There's nothing wrong with old games and they are often better than current games, but the graphics are dated which is the main problem. Although compared to other games of their generation the VO series' graphics hold up better than most, partially because robots are easier to draw than people, which in my opinion is a part of the reason people still play.

But aside from that there are still a lot of new USA players out there who have this game but only played it once or twice because they could not find anyone else to play with during USA hours. When I idle in lobbies for prolonged periods of time I do find people. Recently we had a new players' day in VOOT where I had randomly found 6 new players all at once and managed to get them all to play with each other. Unfortunately that only lasted a few days, then many of them seemed to have stopped playing.

All this scene needs is for the new players online to find each other and play regularly. Don't stop after a few days, and in particular the new players should try to play with the other new players so that they do not become discouraged by the skill level of veteran players. It's up to you guys to do it, and you guys aren't doing it.

That's why I cleared my entire Friends list of english-speaking VO players recently. I became angry that I could not find people to play with. That was selfish of me, especially considering that I also go through periods of inactivity. But when everyone goes inactive at the same time, I feel that is indeed something I can blame everyone for as a collective.

[Zaarock]

Nonsense, there's a lot of fans of the series who happen to not play it online. There can also be people who might get into the game through seeing it in a tournament rather than running into it online.

No point in bashing on a tournament startup like this. Also porcupine, a lot of the new people have kept playing, I don't see why you need to get mad at these people who still play the game and post here. There is a weekly online meet again so we do have regular matches. In the end it's also just a game, everyone has reasons for quitting or moving on.

Maybe on a pure improving the communitys skill standpoint online is more important since all the top players can share techniques with eachother (I'd imagine this is why online is so competitive in japan), but lag does hurt it more for us. Honestly I'd certainly have trouble adapting to lagless gameplay over all these years because the only other finnish player quit a long time ago. A lot of the techniques & 'flowcharts' people use with lag become punishable with faster reaction.

[DarkraiZero]

I don't think we need to push anything Porcupine. It is up to the players themselves if they want to keep on playing. KBMF is just trying to host a friendly side-tournament. Summer Jam is a major tournament in the Philadelphia along with Winter Brawl. Even though VOOT is not a major event and just a side tournament, I agree with what Zaarock stated. Someone passing by might see it and might check the game out. I also can understand the graphics statement. However, you have to realize that most in teenage and young-adulthood years only care for graphics in this generation and pretty much judge a book by it's cover. It saddens me to say that but it's true in a way. VO is great game but has had no US competitive players for all of these years. KBMF is at least giving it a shot to bring notice to the series like the Vector Strike tournament. There is not really much to lose since there is not much of a competitive fan-base in US in the first place. I still enjoy VO... However, I don't really find it necessary for me to actually improve at it. It's never played at any major event to give any reason to improve. Heck, No one really cared about VO at Vector Strike and everyone was just waiting for Gundam. To me, VO was pretty much just an opening act to people despite the great players that competed.

[ChexGuy]

I'd really like to come and check this out, but I really don't have a means of getting myself to PA despite being so close (NY).

Heck, No one really cared about VO at Vector Strike and everyone was just waiting for Gundam. To me, VO was pretty much just an opening act to people despite the great players that competed.

You'd never be able to tell from the stream chat, though.

[Schooly D]

I'd really like to come and check this out, but I really don't have a means of getting myself to PA despite being so close (NY).

Heck, No one really cared about VO at Vector Strike and everyone was just waiting for Gundam. To me, VO was pretty much just an opening act to people despite the great players that competed.

You'd never be able to tell from the stream chat, though.

My biggest regret was that I never saw the stream chat all night. I would have loved to see what people were saying about the games.

[DarkraiZero]

I'd really like to come and check this out, but I really don't have a means of getting myself to PA despite being so close (NY).

Heck, No one really cared about VO at Vector Strike and everyone was just waiting for Gundam. To me, VO was pretty much just an opening act to people despite the great players that competed.

You'd never be able to tell from the stream chat, though.

My biggest regret was that I never saw the stream chat all night. I would have loved to see what people were saying about the games.

All the chat was saying "Hey! I remember this game! Good fun!" and discussed memories of the game during VO4... midway through Force, you would see "When's Gundam?" pretty often and less VO talk then they talked about SEGA Cup since one of the commentators mentioned that it was coming up around the time. However, The few people that shown interest in VO were very passionate about it.

[ChexGuy]

I was pretty much throwing links to oratan left and right the entire night

People that didn't really know the game were really interested in twinsticks but were like "oh the Horis are 400 bucks" so I tried nudging them towards the customs people have made.

[DarkraiZero]

KBMF, I forgot that I saw you around on Dustloop and added you. Since that monthly is coming up soon, you won't probably won't be able to give alot of people notice but maybe you could host a small VO tournament at CGJ sometime? Maybe a tournament of all 3 VO games? I could provide a 2nd Xbox with OT and OMG for it. My Xbox sometimes freezes but not for VO most of the time. If it's in a cool temperature room, It will be fine. You could still do Summer Jam but I think it will at least give you an idea of how many people in our area our interested. Maybe you could get the people on the Philly thread to get into the game if they don't know about it?

[Fallsmyer]

I generally don't show to the standard Guard Breaks, as I usually only drop in for special requests/occasions. A few of those guys are a bit interested in the game and learning it. But the GB for this month will be for Love Max launch. I can bring it around if you want to do a few offline games. I can bring my equipment over for this run if you want to go a few rounds. It would be a bit difficult to make this a common occurrence as I'm not local to that area. But we can see what happens.

[DarkraiZero]

I mean do a separate thing just for VO. I wouldn't mind a entry fee either. Lol Not as a part of Guard Break

[Porcupine]

I looked at the stream chat for a few seconds but then I ignored it. One thing that bothers me about video streams or uploads is that I rarely think the video quality is acceptable. Other people said the stream was better for them but I rarely got more than 10 frames/sec, with low resolution and a lot of MPEG artifacts.

I wish all uploads were 60 frames/sec.