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Building The NHL'94 Community


aqualizard

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Updated Oct.26, 2017

Ideas Big and Small to grow and nurture the NHL'94 community.  The meat is in posts below, but here is the overview:

Big Ideas

  1. Overhaul NHL94.com
  2. Overhaul NHL94.com/forums    <--- this is the key to it all 
  3. Overhaul NHL94online.com
  4. Keep running awesome Live tournaments!! (Add a tweak or 2)

Smaller Ideas

  1. Newsletter (Jer_33 thought of this, and is willing to take ownership of it)
  2. Video tutorials to help with "Getting Started" 
  3. Have Business cards/flyers to hand out at tournaments with nhl94.com/joinus


Dream Ideas (in order of unlikeliness, for fun)

  1. Recode some tools (emulator, kaillera), or find new tools, to make online play easier  (.01% chance of happening)
  2. Recode NHL'94 in modern language (.00001% chance of happening)

 


 

Related Threads

 

 

Edited by aqualizard
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Updated Oct 18, 2017

NHL94.com Overhaul

I think that the main site, NHL94.com, should be scaled waaay down and made more attractive.  It should be one big, glossy  "brochure" page, with no other pages, and only a handful of links like:

  • High quality external Writeups like the Arda Ocal article on www.msgnetworks.com
  • Guide For New Users (link to forum) (I wrote this recently. See here.)
  • Upcoming events (link to forum) (See nhl94.com/events.)
  • A couple high quality articles (links to forum) (like some of Raph's masterpieces)


Bottom line, this site should serve as a slick looking "face" that then funnels people -- especially new recruits -- where we think they need to go. 

In my opinion all of the existing "articles" on the main site should be converted to forum posts.

The scaled down nhl94.com I envision does not need any navigation bar, but it should have some "hidden" vanity URLs like this:

  • nhl94.com/joinus -- with info geared towards recruiting people from live tourneys
  • nhl94.com/pixelated -- with info geared towards recruiting people from Pixelated Heroes credits
  • nhl94.com/events -- a redirect to the forum thread on events
  • nhl94.com/xyz -- any other short, easy to share URLS that can be used to funnel people to where we want them

 

Edited by aqualizard
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NHL94.com/forum Overhaul  <--this is the key to it all 

This is where I think all articles and content should reside.  The main site NHL94.com, should just point to articles on the forum.  The game upload site, NHL94online.com, should just point to articles and threads on the forum.

The forum needs major reworking, including:

  • developing "Getting Started" articles designed to make it easy to recruit
  • there is too much misinformation and old info
  • we need renaming, pruning, merging and overall SIMPLIFYING the forums... There should be less information when you look at the forums root... it is overwhelming atm
  • we need a "best of" index, that links to the highest quality articles
  • I think more "content Mods" should be added to tweak things, once a gameplan is established
  • there are too many stickies... some are no longer relevant
  • I think Mods need to be more vigilant of negative posts.  I do not want censorship, but sometimes posts are so negative that they need to be removed... hate when a great thread is killed by a stupid, negative complaint

 In a nutshell, this forum should be the heart and soul of our community.  99% of info should be put on it, and it should we organized and updated in a way that fosters recruiting people, and keeping people.

 

Edited by aqualizard
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Updated Oct 25, 2017

NHL94online.com Overhaul

Nhl94online needs to be reorganized and pruned.  It is an amazing site, -- REALLY amazing! -- but its mandate should be: scheduling, uploading and stat keeping.  

Everything else should be done on the forum.  (I think there should be only 4 Nav bar items on NHL94online: Standings, Playoffs, Stats, User Tools.)

Specifically, league registration, and info on getting up and running with hamachi and kailera and the latest zip of the emulator pkg, and confirming coaches can be moved to the forum. The forum is more visible, more readable, and easier to maintain.  Changing info on nhl94online requires FTP. Changing info on forum is "edit" message. And there are tons of Mods that can edit messages, but not so many with FTP access...

I really think it is critical to have ONLY the most accurate information out there.  New recruits need all the help they can get, and no dead ends.  So put information that needs updating in one place: the forum.

 

Keep Running Live Tournaments (With 2 Tweaks)

I really respect the awesome effort made by guys that run the tournaments.  It is a surprise to me how successful they are, and how they seem to be mostly made up of non-forum members (NFPs)!  Well these NFPs are ripe for the picking! 

Tweak 1
Edit: This Idea is happening.  See Business Cards For Tournaments.
At a minimum I recommend we have 1000 business cards printed out with only a few words on them:

Come play online at:
NHL94.com/joinus


We could all have a handful of cards in our wallets all the time, but the guys running the tournaments could have a stack of them to hand out to the people participating.  A flyer is a great idea, too.  But having these ready-made cards would be a nice backup plan (for when time runs out and a flyer doesn't get made, lol).

Tweak 2
Trojan (King of 94' WI) suggested that we have a single Twitch account, shared by all tournaments, to stream the games.  This will make finding the feed much easier, as well as let us have one great name (is "nhl94" taken?) for all of our stuff.

 

 

Edited by aqualizard
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Newsletter

Jer_33 suggested we have a newsletter, and I think it is a great idea.  He is even willing to spearhead it.

I am not sure if we should use a 3rd party "Newsletter" website, or if we should use forum software (is it a forum option, to email members), or make our own solution (not a lot of work in PHP, but why reinvent the wheel?)...

What I do think is that there should be a Newsletter that:

  • Gets sent out monthly, or possibly quarterly, or maybe only when warranted?
  • Copies of the Newsletters should also exist in HTML format, or just message format,  on the forum (there is now a "Latest Info" section, a perfect place for Newsletters)
  • They should be short, but highlight important NHL'94 info, especially Live tournaments. More focus should be given to offline stuff, or content not in our forum, since a people that partake in the forum probably know a ton already...

 

Edited by aqualizard
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Video Tutorials

If a picture is worth 1000 words a video is worth a million.

The #1 most needed video is: "How To Play Online"

I feel that the content http://www.nhl94online.com/html/getting-started.php should be made into a forum post.   Furthermore, a 2 minute video should be made showing somebody quickly doing a walkthough of this.  I can make a raw video, if someone can edit it, and add text overlays?

Edited by aqualizard
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damn, dude.  got a gofundmeth site we can contribute to so you don't come down from this driven level of passionate effort?

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Lol yeah I am feeling manic lately.  Got back from Vegas and got afraid this whole thing could wither away, and thought I have to quit relying on others.  It is time for ME to step up.  And hopefully a few others. (Not the same old guys, some new peeps.)

But thanks for your kind words. :) 

And plenty do their part, like yourself with your ROMs.  10% or so really contribute, in some way.  I want to be part of the 10%.

Edited by aqualizard
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I burned out after seven years of a high pace.  I have other games stalled as demos.  well, yeah -- be the revival.  I seriously support your drive.  get it!

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On 1/3/2018 at 2:20 PM, Blake said:

I've noticed most of the new members stick around for a day and done. I was surprised by how quick they left.

Being aware when  joins, and then having a plan to engage them is key.  I truly think we need to have some sort of alert system to let folks new someone has joined the channel, most likely via a bot.  We would then need folks to reach out and be friendly to the newcomer, and offering assistance in getting setup online.  Lastly, don't truck them 10-0 in your first online game if they are trash.

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2 minutes ago, King of 94' WI said:

Being aware when  joins, and then having a plan to engage them is key.  I truly think we need to have some sort of alert system to let folks new someone has joined the channel, most likely via a bot.  We would then need folks to reach out and be friendly to the newcomer, and offering assistance in getting setup online.  Lastly, don't truck them 10-0 in your first online game if they are trash.

Perfect.

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13 hours ago, King of 94' WI said:

Being aware when  joins, and then having a plan to engage them is key.  I truly think we need to have some sort of alert system to let folks new someone has joined the channel, most likely via a bot.  We would then need folks to reach out and be friendly to the newcomer, and offering assistance in getting setup online.  Lastly, don't truck them 10-0 in your first online game if they are trash.

 

Realize that most of the people who visit this site are not interested in playing online. We should make it easier for those who wish to play online, though.

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10 hours ago, chaos said:

 

Realize that most of the people who visit this site are not interested in playing online. We should make it easier for those who wish to play online, though.

That shocks me.  I thought the purpose of this site was funnel people into tournaments and leagues, while providing resources to help people get better at the game.  I can't think of a gaming community I've been a part of where the primary purpose of their site was to attract people to the associated activity.

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9 hours ago, King of 94' WI said:

That shocks me.  I thought the purpose of this site was funnel people into tournaments and leagues, while providing resources to help people get better at the game.  I can't think of a gaming community I've been a part of where the primary purpose of their site was to attract people to the associated activity.

Here ya go - 

 

 

Based on that poll, 9% of the people who visit just come because they love Evan.

The reason why people come here is for a multitude of reasons. The site was created not for the purpose of leagues, but to talk about the game that we all love. That I would say is it's primary purpose. Without discussion of the game and this site, we would have never figured out the weight bug, C/B checking, extracting stats, editing the game, editing the game to include updated rosters, making 30 team ROMs, etc.  Also, a decent amount of site visitors come and download updated ROMs.

I'm sure not everyone on the Tecmo site plays in a league.

I know I didn't stumble on this site because I was looking to play online, I was amazed that there was a site about the game. Then I was amazed that you could play online in leagues. So I joined a league. But, I don't expect everyone to have the same story. There are numerous guys on here who have contributed to make this game better, but have never played in any online league.

From talking to guys at tournaments, and suggesting they come join and play online, most are standoffish. Why? This is the question we need to answer, in order to recruit more online players. 

If you get 2 new guys out of a tournament of 30 to join online, I'd consider that a moderate success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.)

Edited by aqualizard
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I'll be bringing my business cards to the gaming expo on Saturday, trying to get folks interested in online, and our local tournament.

I think what brings people back to a community like this is engagement.  Whether that engagement be from a tandem ROM project, a local tournament, an online league, online exis, or educational article write ups, that engagement is what will keep people glued to the community.

I don't have access to metrics, or new forum signups, but I feel that at the very least, a welcome email to said members, with a follow up message would be appropriate.  We should be directing people into Discord for conversations, and for the love of God, no gay porn pictures.  Yes I'm talking to you @Quetzalcoatlus

 

 

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