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Clan TNU would be interested in doing the a gaming summit. We do miss the private tournaments and clan wars.

 

Apparently I am a little late to the thread. TNU, as I am sure many of your clans is experiencing a slow period. We have about 6-10 active members on PS4 including myself nowhere near our glory days in the previous socom titles. I know personally I had taken a slow period the past 4 years not playing much due to being in college and having a great time. Having recently graduated I have found myself with more free time than I expected so I picked up gaming again.

 

I think of all the systems call of duty would be the easiest to set up competitive gaming. The game has game modes designed for it, it even restricts weapons and perks which have been deemed unfair by the MLG community. I think it would be simple to set up a small tournament for a game like call of duty. I am pretty positive in my belief that if men had a reason to get online they would do it. As during college I only got online when I got a call from one of the TNU leaders they needed me for a war.

 

Additionally, Battlefield has a huge potential for clan wars. Although not in the sense that we have seen in previous years. An idea I had for a battlefield tournament was simple. I had played in some competitive tournaments previously where there was a "all star game." Leaders of all the clans voted on the top players for each clan and which those players played in a Clan war between one another. First rank team clan leader playing second...you get the picture. It was a great war and the competition was outstanding.

 

For battlefield I could see "alliances" between clans, Lets be honest the majority of our groups cannot house 32 members for a 32v32 conquest game. Why not have alliances with other clans for those 32v32 games. Hell why not have UF Host a BF4 server? I believe it would be popular and nice to see some familiar faces. Sure there is a lot of work to do with setting up a BF4 tournament but I think of all the games BF4 has the most potential to have some chaotic clan wars with last minute pulls.

 

If the community increases its reach and has a large community, one day when H-Hour is released it will be smooth sailing rather than running into rough trails right when the game is launched.

 

My PSN is PJw2013 if you want to add me. Formerly -xPJx-

Edited by xPJx
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Clan TNU would be interested in doing the a gaming summit. We do miss the private tournaments and clan wars.

 

Apparently I am a little late to the thread. TNU, as I am sure many of your clans is experiencing a slow period. We have about 6-10 active members on PS4 including myself nowhere near our glory days in the previous socom titles. I know personally I had taken a slow period the past 4 years not playing much due to being in college and having a great time. Having recently graduated I have found myself with more free time than I expected so I picked up gaming again.

 

I think of all the systems call of duty would be the easiest to set up competitive gaming. The game has game modes designed for it, it even restricts weapons and perks which have been deemed unfair by the MLG community. I think it would be simple to set up a small tournament for a game like call of duty. I am pretty positive in my belief that if men had a reason to get online they would do it. As during college I only got online when I got a call from one of the TNU leaders they needed me for a war.

 

Additionally, Battlefield has a huge potential for clan wars. Although not in the sense that we have seen in previous years. An idea I had for a battlefield tournament was simple. I had played in some competitive tournaments previously where there was a "all star game." Leaders of all the clans voted on the top players for each clan and which those players played in a Clan war between one another. First rank team clan leader playing second...you get the picture. It was a great war and the competition was outstanding.

 

For battlefield I could see "alliances" between clans, Lets be honest the majority of our groups cannot house 32 members for a 32v32 conquest game. Why not have alliances with other clans for those 32v32 games. Hell why not have UF Host a BF4 server? I believe it would be popular and nice to see some familiar faces. Sure there is a lot of work to do with setting up a BF4 tournament but I think of all the games BF4 has the most potential to have some chaotic clan wars with last minute pulls.

 

If the community increases its reach and has a large community, one day when H-Hour is released it will be smooth sailing rather than running into rough trails right when the game is launched.

 

My PSN is PJw2013 if you want to add me. Formerly -xPJx-

I actually completely agree with PJ here. He makes great points about starting a BF4 server for UF. Personally, i've had BF4 since the release of the playstation and have yet to play it. so if i had a reason to play it, i would hop on and take it for a spin.

 

My PSN is Awtrace if anyone would like to get together play with my guys and I

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Let's try distilling this down a bit. Here are the UF related talking points I want to discuss, which originally were points to bring up in the summit. Many topics come from members of the community abroad when talking about why the overall community declined and some things I witnessed when I volunteered my time here (end of S4/BO1 to start of MW3).

  • Noticed a strong shift from the former "Military Shooter Scenario-Based Tournaments" site to the current "Sony Exclusive" site which is a significant deviation from where UF started. A lack of identity on the front page (logos, content, etc). With websites, you have to tell viewers why they should be here (coming from 15+ years of website dev experience).
  • Issues with how sweepstakes and prizes are handled. Would prefer clans/community on/at UF being rewarded for supporting the website instead of nonmembers.
  • More public (and private) interfacing with community in regards to input and direction for UF as well as game related things. Improved efforts to interface with all clans and leaders.
  • Issues with where time and resources have been focused into. More effort in terms of community related items instead of PR, advertising, and industry relations would allow a solid foundation for the community which the latter then can be built from (one foot before the other).
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  • Directors

In response to @xPJx We are actually looking into adding a BF4 server, CBF has been hosting a server for a while and since Cntry and Money are on there most of the time they have been using their server...

 

 

 

Let's try distilling this down a bit. Here are the UF related talking points I want to discuss, which originally were points to bring up in the summit. Many topics come from members of the community abroad when talking about why the overall community declined and some things I witnessed when I volunteered my time here (end of S4/BO1 to start of MW3).

  • Noticed a strong shift from the former "Military Shooter Scenario-Based Tournaments" site to the current "Sony Exclusive" site which is a significant deviation from where UF started. A lack of identity on the front page (logos, content, etc). With websites, you have to tell viewers why they should be here (coming from 15+ years of website dev experience).
  • Issues with how sweepstakes and prizes are handled. Would prefer clans/community on/at UF being rewarded for supporting the website instead of nonmembers.
  • More public (and private) interfacing with community in regards to input and direction for UF as well as game related things. Improved efforts to interface with all clans and leaders.
  • Issues with where time and resources have been focused into. More effort in terms of community related items instead of PR, advertising, and industry relations would allow a solid foundation for the community which the latter then can be built from (one foot before the other).

 

 

Let me address your 4 points:

 

Point 1, the shift from Military based tournaments to a Sony exclusive site. This is actually a little off since we have always been Sony exclusive (primarily and up until Socom 4, almost exclusive to Socom) site. And the only shift from Military Shooter i guess is the lack of our header that had a military theme. Yes that is gone and we will continue to evolve with the PlayStation community offering tournaments for games that provide a platform for competition.

 

And as stated before the front page is still not complete, the new software has not been up for a week but the conversion had to be done before I left for Oklahoma. There will be additional changes to the front page. Some things had to take priority unfortunately.

 

Point 2 Sweepstake issues... While we do not require users to register on the site when we use the PunchTab system 99% of the time it is a member of the community that wins. They may not be active on the forums, but they may be actively engaged in our social channels or Twitch. All of this supports Urgent Fury in some form or fashion. This will remain unchanged.

 

Point 3 Interaction with Clans... We continue to interact with Clans that actively show interest in helping UF, this may be via these forums, party chat conversations, private message, etc. We have an open door and are always reachable especially through posting on these forums.

 

Point 4 Time and Resources... So out of the staff of 6 and 3 directors, the only industry related work falls into mostly my hands and of that, it may be a total of 6 hours a month maybe. There are however 2 to 3 events a year that are attended which has no adverse effect as well. This is not going to change anytime soon, if anything it may increase as we get closer to PAX South.

 

As for PR and Advertising, we do not advertise anywhere currently nor do we have any PR campaigns so there are no resources being used for this.

 

Now you say these are the topics that members says caused the decline of the community. I am trying to figure out how this is correct... let me site my reason for this statement based on your topics provided:

 

Topic 1: site redesign, this happened a week ago. The decline of the community started long before this.

 

Topic 2 Giveaway issues, since many of our community members are the ones that enter these giveaway it has not caused any decline in the community. If someone left because they did not win, well what can we do?

 

Topic 3: Interaction with the Community... this probably gives us the most insight into the decline of the community's activity. According to our community that actively interact with us, they are beyond fractured in their own communities/clans because of the Console Generation (not everyone has  moved to ps4 and many that did got rid of their ps3s. We expected this to happen, but did not anticipate how many did not keep their ps4's. As clans are now settling in on PS4s they are beginning to find the games that fit them as a group.

 

Topic 4: Time and Resources... Once again this has done more to benefit the community than anything else. It has given us avenues to expand our community by increasing our reach when we offer events, given the community early access to betas and helped us prepare for upcoming games. If this turns off community members it is a shame and not really anything that will change. We will continue to attend events and work within the industry when we have the opportunity and it benefits the community.

 

In reviewing the purpose of this original topic, these points listed are not what has caused Clans and tournament sites to go away or change direction. 

 

The reason lies within the gaming industry and how games are developed. The newer generation of gamers are not creating clans like we veterans do. It is all about building the best team to win a certain tournament. Back in the day it was about the pride of playing with your clan, whereas now it is all about getting the win no matter what.

 

With that mindset, we have seen nothing but issues with ringers, clans only lasting weeks instead of years, etc. As a tournament provider we have to decide where we are going to go. Do we sit in the past and cater to a group that is dwindling fast or do we move forward to cater to how gamers play now?

 

The obvious answer is the latter, we have to grow with the current trend. But with that being said we can still encourage gamers to learn pride and loyalty to their team. 

 

Destiny had all of the making to provide that kind of environment. Clan building tools both ingame and on the site, dedicated forums for your clan, etc. But even with all of those great tools, they cut the ability to set up clan wars. How do you expect clans to build up their foundation if you do not give them a purpose.

 

The last game that actually focused on Clans and gave clans true competitive tools was Starhawk. If more games took the tools like Starhawk and Destiny (almost), games would increase replay value. Socom did this right and that is why these games were played for years instead of months. Call of Duty tries to do this but does not give you all of the tools clans really need. Anyone can throw up a Clan tag even if they are not in a clan.

 

That is enough for now, I got to get back to what I was working on.

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Follow up questions.

  • You mention that UF's target audience has essentially expanded to include new areas. Assuming I am correct in my understanding that the purpose of this site is to host forum based tournaments, what statistics are indicating that this is benefiting the goal/purpose of the site? Is there a raised awareness of what UF does in that new clans are starting up, are old clans are finding interested recruits who originate from the new audience, is there an increase in number of registered clans, etc?
  • Outside of what UF is actively currently involved in (Twitch, Sweepstakes, Conventions), what can clans who previously participated in tournaments here who are not interested in participating in those things, do at UF? Especially given that the perfect game does/is not exist/active at this time. What happens if this hypothetical game never comes out? Will there ever be tournaments?
  • You mention that the industry has gone in the worst direction, how can you explain esports getting so big that it is reaching main stream news? The Season 3 World Championships for League of Legends had 32 million world wide viewers. CSGO just beat the EU LCS in head to head viewers with a record setting 409K concurrent viewers for CS. It just doesn't make sense that it can not be tapped into in its current state. DOTA2 just held a $10M tournament.

Tid bits. Just statements.

  • We are in agreement that games have changed. I mentioned previously in this thread that the shift from Server Browsers to Match Making had a strong negative effect on clans and sites like UF.
  • I don't understand why COD (besides being a poor game) is not capable of tournament play. It is currently the only game being played competitively on the console platform. It supports modified match rules (weapon restrictions, custom mode settings, etc), things needed for all the variety of tournaments hosted here.
  • It's fairly obvious that a site change just days ago is not responsible for the decline. However the gradual change from /aboutold.html to current day, could play a part.
  • I'm actually in favor of things like Hell Week or entrance tournaments as they tend to weed out the week/month-longers.
  • Not familiar with what Starhawk brought to the table. I am aware of what Socom did. Like I said, I don't see how games like COD don't offer what Starhawk does. By this, MW3 and BO2 had clan support in through the Elite program.

Thanks.

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Follow up questions.

 

Ok let me go through these for you

 

 

You mention that UF's target audience has essentially expanded to include new areas. Assuming I am correct in my understanding that the purpose of this site is to host forum based tournaments, what statistics are indicating that this is benefiting the goal/purpose of the site? Is there a raised awareness of what UF does in that new clans are starting up, are old clans are finding interested recruits who originate from the new audience, is there an increase in number of registered clans, etc?

 

Forum based tournaments is not correct though with the switch to IPB our System to manage tournaments will have to be rewritten. But we will continue to offer leagues and TacMaps will be a once a year offering. There is a continued growth of awareness if what Urgent Fury does as we reach out through various Channels such as Twitch, events, etc.

 

When we do a Tournament for a new game that we have not done before, generally the new clans vs old clans is higher. Examples of this from the past include Starhawk and Dust.

 

 

 

Outside of what UF is actively currently involved in (Twitch, Sweepstakes, Conventions), what can clans who previously participated in tournaments here who are not interested in participating in those things, do at UF? Especially given that the perfect game does/is not exist/active at this time. What happens if this hypothetical game never comes out? Will there ever be tournaments?

 

Upcoming League offerings will include The Last of Us, Battlefield 4 and COD: AW

 

 

 

You mention that the industry has gone in the worst direction, how can you explain esports getting so big that it is reaching main stream news? The Season 3 World Championships for League of Legends had 32 million world wide viewers. CSGO just beat the EU LCS in head to head viewers with a record setting 409K concurrent viewers for CS. It just doesn't make sense that it can not be tapped into in its current state. DOTA2 just held a $10M tournament.

 

 

I said that game development has shifted from  clan based gaming to team based gaming, see my post above. There is a big difference in Competitive Clan Play and eSports play. 
 
Tid bits. Just statements.

 

 
We are in agreement that games have changed. I mentioned previously in this thread that the shift from Server Browsers to Match Making had a strong negative effect on clans and sites like UF.
 
I don't understand why COD (besides being a poor game) is not capable of tournament play. It is currently the only game being played competitively on the console platform. It supports modified match rules (weapon restrictions, custom mode settings, etc), things needed for all the variety of tournaments hosted here.

 

 

 
I did not say COD is not capable for tournament play, I just said that it was not clan friendly. But again COD is not clan style play friendly. For eSports is perfect designed for 4 v 4 play.

 

 
It's fairly obvious that a site change just days ago is not responsible for the decline. However the gradual change from /aboutold.html to current day, could play a part.
 
 

 

 

TacMaps will always continue to be invite only but leagues will be open to clans to join and serve as their evaluation. 

 

 
I'm actually in favor of things like Hell Week or entrance tournaments as they tend to weed out the week/month-longers.
 
 

 

 

Hell week worked really well with Socom but it did not have the same feel when it came to COD. The gameplay is so different from Socom it just is not the same. We also decided long ago that with the Leagues, we could accomplish the evaluations without the manpower required for Hell Week.

 

 
Not familiar with what Starhawk brought to the table. I am aware of what Socom did. Like I said, I don't see how games like COD don't offer what Starhawk does. By this, MW3 and BO2 had clan support in through the Elite program.
 

 

 

Starhawk offered private servers with a server browser just like Socom, an in game clan system, passworded servers, naming of servers, etc. Basically most of the functions that if more games really should have to make the games more clan friendly.
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SOCOM was the perfect clan based game, it was a first on console to offer what it did. The game helped UF with it being server based, this giving UF a place to advertise itself through the game it competed on. 

 

Through the years server based has gone away and matchmaking has become popular, this we all can agree upon. This was the critical time for UF to switch how they recruited clans. I'm guessing here, but I feel this is why Undertow had implemented the Ranger program. The ranger programmed seemed to fail miserably. Like pliiorian has stated before it was just a status thing for member's clans. Not much got done in recruiting of new people here. 

 

As the new Directors were in the first few years here most of their focus should had been on bringing in new clans/gamers. While maybe the idea was there with UFreq TV, to bring people in, that backfired because of the show not reaching to right viewers. 

 

Towards my end here at being a staff member, I want to say there was only two staffers left who did tournament work. The media department was filled with close to 5x more staffers. UF had lost it's way in what it was. It no longer was a tournament site first. 

 

One thing I do not understand is why keep holding onto Sony and Playstation other than the fact you guys are fan boys? Sony killed SOCOM. They tried to change SOCOM 4 and failed miserably. Yet, everyone here still loves Sony... why? UF is proud of it's exclusive relationship with Sony, why? What has that done for this community? Nothing, because it is dead. I'm not saying being exclusive killed the site, but it didn't help. 

 

IMO it's time to dump what you have with Sony and opening up your options. Will it work? Who knows... It can't be any worse. eSports is XBOX exclusive, kids love watching these guys on twitch. It is popular, time to go with the masses. 

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I said that game development has shifted from  clan based gaming to team based gaming, see my post above. There is a big difference in Competitive Clan Play and eSports play. 

 

Perhaps you could elaborate on this more.

 

Certainly there is a significant difference between a clan and and esports organization (Cloud9, Fnatic, coL, etc). Orgs' goal is to make money and gain sponsors to fund their teams. Also in more mature leagues (like LCS) there are professional type league rules that you would expect to see in NBA/NFL. But when it comes to playing the game, there is not much difference. They play in tournaments, brackets, etc in games that support team v team lobbies/private matches. Additionally, there are hundreds of thousands of people watching esports who also play these games with their friends. Aren't these the people that should be targeted for participation in events/tournaments?

 

 

 

I did not say COD is not capable for tournament play, I just said that it was not clan friendly. But again COD is not clan style play friendly. For eSports is perfect designed for 4 v 4 play.

 

Actually COD is strictly designed for public mm in mind. So much of the game has to be taken out (weapons, killstreaks, incompatible map/modes) or modified the MLG ruleset which is much different than public rules. I haven't followed it of late but heard that MLG rules have shifted towards mm rules.

 

Over the years one thing that has shifted from map designs built for SnD (corridor) to area based maps built for Hardpoint/Dom.

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  • Directors

@@xPJx,

 

Sorry for the delay, I have been moving for the last couple of days. I think that is the plan, I am actually hitting the road today to go to Oklahoma for a few weeks... but this is def one for Bgcntry and Money will manage. 

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