To further what Chaos said, I know I joined this forum in 2005, yet did not play online until 2015!! I just wanted to find out more about this game and read up on some tips and exchange info with others that shared my enthusiasm. There are many like I was.
BUT!! Once King of 94 came to Toronto, my home city, and I jumped into Live Play, I saw online players in person (and how amazing they are), and THEN I wanted t play online. If Kof94 didn't come to Toronto, I would still probably be sticking to the forums, posting a few times a year, and thinking the whole "online thing" is "too much trouble".
Now that I am doing online play, yeah!, I am personally interested in funneling people into playing online. And we need to make that as easy as possible, which is a big part (but not the only reason!) I started this thread. If we build the community as a whole, and make it better and more friendly as a whole, it naturally follows that the Online Community will grow, too.
(Unfortunately I lost a lot of steam after I started this thread, lol. But I had a very productive couple weeks.)