SRK's MN Meltdown: MN Summer Neo Gathering '08 - 9/13/08

[UPDATE, Aug. 4, 2008: Go to post #92]















It's time to plan the next gathering. Yes, now. As those of you who attended this past Winter 2008 Gathering saw, we've started to get people driving in from ND and IA in addition to actual sponsorship. Thus:

Its time to define where we see the Gatherings going, and our expectations.

To kick off, here's djdelly's post from the previous Gathering thread:

djdelly said:

about 3 weeks ago John Lo posted up on SRK that he was promoted at Denny Hecker Scion and had access to $3k a month spending budget for "scion sponsored events" with little or no hassle and he wanted to start doing some video game and music related events, so we started talking and well you saw where it lead..... surprise

Now we are at a "crossroads" in the Neo gathering and we can have this conversation now or at another time makes no difference to me. We can go massive and lose the focus of the Neo gathering and have SSBB, Tekken, VF, GG, etc....and have should Scion sponsorship for future events, have it be a two day event... at a larger venue with people from all over the midwest going (which John and I have discussed), or try to keep it more "Neo" centric and not have it be around the size of this past event or smaller... Either way I don't care and I would suggest that we go back to a "Neo" gathering once a year in the winter and then work with john and Plan a massive tourney for various games held in the summer.... maybe SS2, MOTW, KOF 98 and one or two other SNK games, but 3s, GG, MVS2 Tekken, VF and SSBB would definitely be the big draws.... so what'cha ya think?

Click to expand...

If we think moving forward with the larger Summer Gathering is a good idea, it will involve a lot of planning (much more than previous gatherings). I know all of us in the MN Neo group would love to see it done right.

We should discuss the logistics of holding a bigger gathering, then decide whether its something feasible for us to accomplish. That way when the time comes, we can have a roadmap to success already in place.

Thanks for starting it off!

Speak up let me know what you think and we will plan it accordingly. I just want to do what the majority decides... I really like the idea of keeping the winter gathering a small, more neo centric type thing, and then having the summer gathering be large and not so neo....

Right now I'm thinking end of August/ early September, so we don't have to compete with EVO.

I would like to go big... have mostly non neo tournaments and throw in SS2, MOTW and KOF 98 for good measure. Now we have a lot to discuss:

1) How many days?
1 or 2

2) Tourney's ?
Since we have some top people in MvC2 and ST those are a must, SSB will draw big, but does anyone really care about that? What neo games, 3s and what else.

3) Have a separate room for casual gaming?
you know neo stuff rock band... stuff like that for the people who are not into the tourneys.

4) Equipment....
How much are we going to need and how are we going to get it?
I don't think we can expect people to travel and bring tv's, systems, games and what not, so we need to figure out how we are going to get those things.

5) Are we really ready to do something this big?
It's going to take a lot of people to put this together... lots of thread babysitting, promoting, sponsorships do we really thing we can pull this off...

there is a lot more to discuss, so talk about your thoughts, concerns, pro's, con's.... all that stuff.

lol "road map to success"

I said something similar in your warroom thread, but...

I like the fighting game tournaments (even though I'll never participate in one), and I like the people they bring out. That said, my best times at the last few gatherings were (new to old): Alex bringing Cave shooter PCBs, Neo Alec's 4 player League Bowling, Paul's gay shooters, Vince's Laseractive (Road Avengers?), Magical Drop 3 competitions...

It seems Paul, Vince, and Alec don't come anymore. Maybe that's an inevitable side effect of getting big and changing focus (or maybe people are just busy!), but if we do expand from here on out, lets just make sure that we still maintain an environment where people can share and enjoy some off-beat, non-competitive stuff.

Nick Goracke said:

It seems Paul, Vince, and Alec don't come anymore. Maybe that's an inevitable side effect of getting big and changing focus (or maybe people are just busy!), but if we do expand from here on out, lets just make sure that we still maintain an environment where people can share and enjoy some off-beat, non-competitive stuff.

Click to expand...

.... Paul and Alec done' come because of me...short story is I'm an asshole... pm me if you want the long story.... Vince was in CA and his schedule didn't allow him to make it....

The idea of Neo Alec being banned from any future event is stupid, yeah he rubs some of us the wrong way, but he can show up if he wants.... and we won't kill him...

djdelly said:

2) Tourney's ?
Since we have some top people in MvC2 and ST those are a must, SSB will draw big, but does anyone really care about that? What neo games, 3s and what else.

3) Have a separate room for casual gaming?
you know neo stuff rock band... stuff like that for the people who are not into the tourneys.

Click to expand...

2) TSS is good. Variety is good way to get different people involved. Why were tournaments like MD3/League Bowling/Tetris dropped? Not enough interest? Or not enough organizers?

3) Yes.

Nick Goracke said:

2) TSS is good. Variety is good way to get different people involved. Why were tournaments like MD3/League Bowling/Tetris dropped? Not enough interest? Or not enough organizers?

3) Yes.

Click to expand...

Puzzle games might be an interesting addition....

they were not ran because of interest and no one to run them. we had tourney's running from 1 Pm to almost 3 am....

It seems like MN will be the cultural hearth of neo gatherings

Populous said:

It seems like MN will be the cultural hearth of neo gatherings

Click to expand...

I would love to plan a Neo-geo.com meet up that would be held in MN, but I don't know what kind of turn out we would get... so we are starting out with this.

djdelly said:

1) How many days?
1 or 2

2) Tourney's ?
Since we have some top people in MvC2 and ST those are a must, SSB will draw big, but does anyone really care about that? What neo games, 3s and what else.

3) Have a separate room for casual gaming?
you know neo stuff rock band... stuff like that for the people who are not into the tourneys.

4) Equipment....
How much are we going to need and how are we going to get it?
I don't think we can expect people to travel and bring tv's, systems, games and what not, so we need to figure out how we are going to get those things.

5) Are we really ready to do something this big?
It's going to take a lot of people to put this together... lots of thread babysitting, promoting, sponsorships do we really thing we can pull this off...

Click to expand...

1) I believe keeping it a one-day event is fine. Extending this to a two-day event would thin the numbers and make better use of space, yes. But it was also cut out a large chunk of the excitement and arcade atmosphere that comes with having 20+ individuals in one room, playing an assortment of genres.

2) I'll step up and coordinate a couple tourneys. TSS, Garou, or LB2?

3) Again, the current setup is fine. Though it may be an issue of space, especially if we expect more people to show up for the summer gathering. I'd say the space at the Sheraton was adequate (and a major upgrade from the previous summer gathering), but it may not be enough for the next go-round. The location is great, maybe we can rent one of the rooms adjacent to the memphis rooms, using the service hall for access to both rooms?

4) Aside from coordinating a couple tourneys, I plan to focus on DS stuffage next time. I'd like to take the initiative into maintaining some DS lovin' (which there was none the whole time I was at the gathering). Maybe some Big Brain, Tetris DS, and Super Mario Kart tourneys (other games)?

5) I think we're ready for it. We definitely need a continued, strong partnership with SRK peeps. This event is becoming less like a Neo gathering to more of a meeting of like-minded individuals; we all love games.

Side Notes
This last gathering, to my knowledge, showed that security was not an issue. Even though there were people from various outside functions coming in to see what we were doing, nothing was stolen, and folks equipment, systems, and games were respected. Should we risk extending our invitations further (other websites)?

djdelly said:

Vince was in CA and his schedule didn't allow him to make it....

Click to expand...

Yeah, I believe he's has or might be permanently relocating there for work.

The idea of Neo Alec being banned from any future event is stupid, yeah he rubs some of us the wrong way, but he can show up if he wants.... and we won't kill him...

Click to expand...

Good!

Magician said:

1) I believe keeping it a one-day event is fine. Extending this to a two-day event would thin the numbers and make better use of space, yes. But it was also cut out a large chunk of the excitement and arcade atmosphere that comes with having 20+ individuals in one room, playing an assortment of genres.

2) I'll step up and coordinate a couple tourneys. TSS, Garou, or LB2?

3) Again, the current setup is fine. Though it may be an issue of space, especially if we expect more people to show up for the summer gathering. I'd say the space at the Sheraton was adequate (and a major upgrade from the previous summer gathering), but it may not be enough for the next go-round. The location is great, maybe we can rent one of the rooms adjacent to the memphis rooms, using the service hall for access to both rooms?

4) Aside from coordinating a couple tourneys, I plan to focus on DS stuffage next time. I'd like to take the initiative into maintaining some DS lovin' (which there was none the whole time I was at the gathering). Maybe some Big Brain, Tetris DS, and Super Mario Kart tourneys (other games)?

5) I think we're ready for it. We definitely need a continued, strong partnership with SRK peeps. This event is becoming less like a Neo gathering to more of a meeting of like-minded individuals; we all love games.

Side Notes
This last gathering, to my knowledge, showed that security was not an issue. Even though there were people from various outside functions coming in to see what we were doing, nothing was stolen, and folks equipment, systems, and games were respected. Should we risk extending our invitations further (other websites)?

Click to expand...

One day would limit us to.... 6-8 fighting game tourneys depending on turnout, amount of equipment and a few other things... My guess is that any Puzzle game tourneys would need to be run in a different room then the fighters.

The sheraton has much larger rooms that we could use, so I don't think that will be a problem.

Posting it up and promoting it on SRK will allow us to get a much bigger draw and would be done if we decide to make the summer gathering a larger affair. IF we go big for the summer gathering, I would like the focus of the winter gathering to be mostly neo... and maybe no planed tourneys... if we decide to throw something together (like they did with ST) that would be cool, but mostly kick it old school and just play games all day and night.

I'm going to reply to a mix of delly's questions and Magician's and Nick's answers... I like this dialog a lot.

Magician said:

djdelly said:

1) How many days?
1 or 2

Click to expand...

1) I believe keeping it a one-day event is fine. Extending this to a two-day event would thin the numbers and make better use of space, yes. But it was also cut out a large chunk of the excitement and arcade atmosphere that comes with having 20+ individuals in one room, playing an assortment of genres.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I'm for a one day spectacular --I still don't think we've maximized the possibilities for a day, let's do that before we decide to go two-day (which itself might be a mental thresh-hold for people "wow, 2 days?")

Nick Goracke said:

djdelly said:

2) Tourney's ?
Since we have some top people in MvC2 and ST those are a must, SSB will draw big, but does anyone really care about that? What neo games, 3s and what else.

Click to expand...

2) TSS is good. Variety is good way to get different people involved. Why were tournaments like MD3/League Bowling/Tetris dropped? Not enough interest? Or not enough organizers?

Click to expand...

I agree with Nick, I'd like to see more --I believe the issues to expand these tourneys are:

1. Lack of personnel to run them
2. lack of tvs/systems to play (MSX got hosed when TVs and Neos were commandeers for the fighting tourneys)
3. they need to be more casual (e.g. probably no entry fee, but limit the entry spots)
4. tying it all together: organization and coordination of the whole room(s)/equipment/personnel

Magician said:

djdelly said:

3) Have a separate room for casual gaming?
you know neo stuff rock band... stuff like that for the people who are not into the tourneys.

Click to expand...

3) Again, the current setup is fine. Though it may be an issue of space, especially if we expect more people to show up for the summer gathering. I'd say the space at the Sheraton was adequate (and a major upgrade from the previous summer gathering), but it may not be enough for the next go-round. The location is great, maybe we can rent one of the rooms adjacent to the memphis rooms, using the service hall for access to both rooms?

Click to expand...

I don't know if they'll allow acess to the service hall, but I could see us using a larger room or multiple rooms (walking the halls isn't too bad). We could have a tourney room and a non-tourney room... or by genre (fighting and not), there's a lot of potential. If room-rent costs can be kept in check, I favor the casual room.

I think we need to brainstorm and see if there are better, even more space-efficient ways of working the rooms --though that might not be possible if we have found the best set-up.

Magician said:

djdelly said:

4) Equipment....
How much are we going to need and how are we going to get it?
I don't think we can expect people to travel and bring tv's, systems, games and what not, so we need to figure out how we are going to get those things.

Click to expand...

4) Aside from coordinating a couple tourneys, I plan to focus on DS stuffage next time. I'd like to take the initiative into maintaining some DS lovin' (which there was none the whole time I was at the gathering). Maybe some Big Brain, Tetris DS, and Super Mario Kart tourneys (other games)?

Click to expand...

Great idea, Magician.

I think we may need more equipment --particularly TVs and systems.

Magician said:

djdelly said:

5) Are we really ready to do something this big?
It's going to take a lot of people to put this together... lots of thread babysitting, promoting, sponsorships do we really thing we can pull this off...

Click to expand...

5) I think we're ready for it. We definitely need a continued, strong partnership with SRK peeps. This event is becoming less like a Neo gathering to more of a meeting of like-minded individuals; we all love games.

Click to expand...

Agreed. We're ready and I think we can have it be a cross-promoted/named event.

Side Notes
This last gathering, to my knowledge, showed that security was not an issue. Even though there were people from various outside functions coming in to see what we were doing, nothing was stolen, and folks equipment, systems, and games were respected. Should we risk extending our invitations further (other websites)?

Click to expand...

I'm a bit torn here. All it takes is one incident for things to turn a bit, or at least that's my fear.

djdelly said:

IF we go big for the summer gathering, I would like the focus of the winter gathering to be mostly neo... and maybe no planed tourneys... if we decide to throw something together (like they did with ST) that would be cool, but mostly kick it old school and just play games all day and night.

Click to expand...

Agreed, I think most people are fine with that. I could see SRK, if they really like the system in the summer, possibly holding a similar winter gathering for pure tourneys. That's up to them, of course.

I think Tekken would be awesome.

Tekken, 3s, MvC2, ST, would be in for sure.... GG: AC, CvS 2, Motw, SS2, and Kof 98 I would also like to do, but that puts us at 9 and I don't know how well that will work... We did 9 at the last gathering, but 3s was that largest with 19 people (I think) and I would assume that it will be much larger with more promotion....

I'm defiantly looking for input from people that have been to a lot of large tourney's...

Hey, good we're thinking this far ahead.. You can never plan too far ahead.

1) How many days?
1 or 2

Click to expand...

Let's start with one and see how it goes.

2) Tourney's ?
Since we have some top people in MvC2 and ST those are a must, SSB will draw big, but does anyone really care about that? What neo games, 3s and what else.

Click to expand...

I don't have a whole lot of experience with tourneys, nor do I play fighting games so much anymore (I do play Samurai 2 and KoF 98 though), but they are a good thing because I don't think there's much going on for tourneys in MN, and it draws people.
If you do Smash Bros., you'd have to advertise it in the right places. I'm not too plugged into that scene, but I'm sure there is someone who knows. If you advertise it right, you'd get a huge turnout I think.

You might want to expand to other competitive genres like Tetris, DDR, Beatmania, etc.

3) Have a separate room for casual gaming?
you know neo stuff rock band... stuff like that for the people who are not into the tourneys.

Click to expand...

I'm all for it, seems like when you have stuff out to play that are non-tourney games, people will play, so there's definitely some interest. At least have a separate area.

4) Equipment....
How much are we going to need and how are we going to get it?
I don't think we can expect people to travel and bring tv's, systems, games and what not, so we need to figure out how we are going to get those things.

Click to expand...

This is kinda tough. I don't have an answer to this one. Maybe we should ask around to people who hold conventions in other parts of the country, and see what they say. One place I found is Magfest in the DC area that gets like 1,000 people. They do it all - industry speakers, tourneys, gaming. They get 1000 people at their fest, so they went through growing pains and could probably help out. Maybe we could email them for some help and advice going forward. I bet they'd be happy to help.

5) Are we really ready to do something this big?
It's going to take a lot of people to put this together... lots of thread babysitting, promoting, sponsorships do we really thing we can pull this off...

Click to expand...

Why not put up a website? That would make it easier, but I'd be willing to do thread babysitting for other forums. I'm on the net most of the time.

As far as sponsorships, that could be some work, but it shouldn't be too bad. Some places I think that would be interested are energy drink co.s, local game stores.. Maybe a radio station?

Don't bite off more than we can chew. I'd suggest adding a few tourneys, and center it around tourneys, and go from there. It would be cool to see it morph into a full-blown convention at some point though.

My biggest issue with "going big" is the manpower and equipment. I brought 5 monitors, a projector, a TV, and 6 game systems to this last gathering. Delly brought a ton of stuff as well, including his entire MVS collection. Personally, that's just not really practical. Especially if we have even more folks attending next time around.

I'm thinking we would need around 10 Tv's, PS2's, DC's for sure to run a 3s, Tekken, MvC2, tourney. That would allow us to go through a field of 40 in about 3.5 hours... including set up and what not.... and we would have to run the tourney's back to back with no overlap....

neo stuff is a whole other thing.... coming up with 10 neo's and copies on MOTW isn't going to be easy or cheap.... I highly doubt that any of the neo games will have 40 people in it.... my guess is 20 people max so 5-7 should be good enough....

It would probably be easier to pick up empty cabs, 1 slots and copies of motw, SS2 and Kof 98... hard to store and move, but much cheaper.... and less less to worry about when it comes to theft....

djdelly said:

It would probably be easier to pick up empty cabs, 1 slots and copies of motw, SS2 and Kof 98... hard to store and move, but much cheaper.... and less less to worry about when it comes to theft....

Click to expand...

Would it be possible to connect those to be viewed on a monitor or projector to lessen over-the-shoulder viewing?

EDIT: Btw, SSBM will attract a LOT of kids under 14.

Yes with one of these

Katraqueyous said:

EDIT: Btw, SSBM will attract a LOT of kids under 14.

Click to expand...

Interesting point. That brings up an important issue: Minors.

Minors present potential problems for a number liability-related reasons. At the same time, I wouldn't be opposed to making it somewhat family friendly since it more-or-less already is --so long as parents are fine with kids playing games that might be considered "MA" for whatever reason. Heck, folks have already brought their kids. At the same time we don't want this to turn into a giant high school bash... (but do HS kids really play fighting games anymore?) Lets hear some opinions.

--------

On another topic I wanted to bring up but is somewhat related to this, I think if this gets big we might want to limit access to the hospitality suite to people we know --it could be like a NG.com (+ friends!) rec room; you sometimes see things like this at large conventions. It also falls close to the minor issue due to the unsupervised booze.

Bobak said:

Interesting point. That brings up an important issue: Minors.

Minors present potential problems for a number liability-related reasons. At the same time, I wouldn't be opposed to making it somewhat family friendly since it more-or-less already is --so long as parents are fine with kids playing games that might be considered "MA" for whatever reason. Heck, folks have already brought their kids. At the same time we don't want this to turn into a giant high school bash... (but do HS kids really play fighting games anymore?) Lets hear some opinions.

--------

On another topic I wanted to bring up but is somewhat related to this, I think if this gets big we might want to limit access to the hospitality suite to people we know --it could be like a NG.com (+ friends!) rec room; you sometimes see things like this at large conventions. It also falls close to the minor issue due to the unsupervised booze.

Click to expand...

I never thought about that, as most gatherings have been ppl that have been 18+, but that could very well be an issue with SSBM. I have no idea if HS kids play fighters anymore.. Maybe Tekken and VF because they still get regular updates on the new systems.. If you'd do DDR and Beatmania tourneys, you'd probably get the younger set too.

Some of the big conventions just have ppl set up their games and stuff in hotel rooms and leave the rooms open for people to come in and play, but I think the NG.com rec room should be limited to acquaintances and friends.

Bobak said:

At the same time we don't want this to turn into a giant high school bash... (but do HS kids really play fighting games anymore?)

Click to expand...

When I attended Central High School (in Saint Paul) a few years back, the anime club hosted video game tournaments after school at the schools basement/theater room. This lasted until the anime club leaders graduated, so I dunno if this continues. Maybe they just play "dat Madden"...

The games featured was MvC2, Tekken 5, SSMB, DDR (which will draw a nice turnout too, hint hint), and GGXX #R (which no one entered in). The turnout was pretty decent, even kids from other schools came by to play. One kid lost his calculator and another kid lost his ps2 controller.

So I think HS kids still play fighting games, I'm judging a nice amount of them attended the gathering.

For the summer gathering, you can always set it for kids under 12 must have a legal guardian with them, or some ish.

Katraqueyous said:

For the summer gathering, you can always set it for kids under 12 must have a legal guardian with them, or some ish.

Click to expand...

I would probably put the age a bit higher (maybe under 18 since 18 is the age of majority), but I think something like that would be a good idea.

I'm thinking no SSBM, None of us have any interest in it and i don't really want a bunch of 12 year olds running around...

Neo-geo.com hospitality sweet sounds like a great Idea.