SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

This scene will never grow
 

I'm sure I will cop a lot of flack from the SC2SEA circle jerk brigade for this, but I just want to give some insight as to what this website has become from an outsider's point of view, and why it is highly unlikely that any new talent will join the SEA Starcraft 2 Scene (apart from the fact the game is dying).

I very rarely visit this site; but when I do, I'm greeted by 1 of 2 situations:
1) No new content has been posted
2) Several blogs have been posted, all of which serve no purpose but to create senseless drama.

From the point of view of a player interested in joining the community, both of these situations are enormous turnoffs. No new content gives the impression of a dead community, one which is not going to provide me any motivation to continue playing the game, nor to actively involve myself in the scene. Similarly, visiting the website and seeing a number of abusive blogs, mostly written with the linguistic skills of an autistic hamster and so obviously skewed to present only one side of a story makes me think that this is a community filled with unpleasant people where I can't put a single foot wrong or I will be eaten alive.

Guess what? situation number 2 is exactly what this site and community have become.

The number of prolific players in this community has been steadily decreasing since the release of Heart of the Swarm (perhaps even earlier). With more people leaving the community than entering it, what has developed is an almost 'ruling elite' group of people within the community. Person X will post generic blog or clan war thread Y and persons Z, A, B and C will post boring, formulaic responses D, E and F - and then everyone will have a jolly giggle, celebrating how incredibly witty and clever they are.

This may seem like harmless fun, but it's actually making current community members less interested in the scene, and intimidating prospective recruits from taking that first leap into the scene.

If, on my first visit to SC2SEA.com, all I see are threads filled with in-jokes I don't understand, or unintelligible whinging, I am immediately going to feel distanced from the community and find it very difficult to involve myself.

Many of you will instantly jump to the conclusion that what I am suggesting is required to make the scene grow is a 100% serious, no drama, tournament focused community - but that's not the case. Drama develops a players' public persona and creates hype; hype creates community engagement; community engagement and inclusiveness makes for a scene which is easy to approach and encourages new players to join. There is, however, a difference between drama for the sake of drama; and drama to create healthy competition amongst rivals - something this community desperately needs to learn.

TLDR: This site doesn't have to become a mechanical, tournament-spewing community - it just needs its 'inner circle' of members to show some maturity.