SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

Fading community - needs change
 

An open letter to the greater sc2sea community and sc2online...

Hello friends,

I have noticed of late, how desolate and empty this website has been. The once bustling hub of South East Asian Starcraft 2 community is reduced to streambot and the occasional tournament bracket being linked.

Obviously the community is significantly dwindling and there are less active members of the community, but I do believe there are still a larger amount of active members of this site, just NO ONE posts or talks to each other anymore, its a bit of a catch 22 - not conversation > so you don't post either > so there is no conversation.

I don't want to just sit by and watch it all fade away... I believe there are two major decisions that everyone needs to make for this hub, or cultural home of this community to survive.

Firstly, Post - talk - share.. make conversations with no one, eventually others will continue the conversation. I remember how great it used to be to have conversations with so many various opinions and characters within the scene. There are a few less people, but still plenty to make a conversation.

Secondly, and this is an open request to Eddie... Get rid of SC2ONLINE website and bring everything back to the hub. There is minimal activity in sc2online - no one ever wanted to split the community onto two websites but yourself. I understand you wanted your own thing and a bit of control on the site - but this is the page everyone has book marked, you're not going to change that. I love what you've created there, but there isn't the spirit behind sc2online that there is here. Perhaps there is a better way of doing this rather than scrapping what you've made there... Take over sc2sea? bring in other blizzard games to a larger community site? implement significant changes to sc2online so that we can feel at home. What do I mean by that? 100% with out ANY doubt, the hub of this community has been the chatbox. Front and centre as it is here... it was the #1 feature used by everyone in this community. There are more chat lines that forums post by miles. Implement this COMMUNITY focus and then the community will consider moving. Without it, the tournaments are not with the community and both will (and will continue to) suffer. Also fix up the website, a community is built around a forum and a chatbox, all the other promotional stuff on sc2online is secondary without the community. The functionality of that website isn't for the community, its for your amazing tournament series, while that is flourishing, the community the develops the talent to fuel your tournaments is not. You have to see this as what fuels your future success and understand it is vital

Please share your thoughts on what I have presented above, I only hold one opinion, but I believe its not an uncommon opinion.

One Love.
ChadMann.

EDIT: A few people have messaged me saying they would like to contribute to news articles and fixing up the site... PAPERCLIP - can we please get some new people mod and news article access please? - Who else is an active mod besides me and Nem?

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

idk dude, you're not the first to say the things you've said - and you defs won't be the last... it's the consensus among members of the community that the splitting of SC2ONLINE/Sc2sea (in a community sense) fractured what little community we had left.

Although many, including myself use SC2Online as nothing more than a glorified calendar (sorry Eddie & co, but the social aspect - or any other aspect of SC2Online apart from supplying signup links and countdown timers is non-existent), it's not as simple as 'shutting it down'... it's a brand that Eddie & co. have built up and nurtured continuously to reach where they want it to be...

Something else I'd like to add - claiming a decrease in chatbox activity (either on sc2sea or sc2online) is in any way related to Discord/Skype chats is stupid and completely wrong. Back in the day we had 30-40 person Skype groups and a 24/7 scrollbar on the sc2sea chatbox user sidebar... people use private chats to bitch and share news etc, but chatboxes like sc2sea's still have a role to play.



Aaaaaanyway, ranting done.

The almost impossible task of breathing life back into the corpse that is sc2sea will only begin with the active participation of site admins/owners (paperclip, nirvana, mods etc - anyone who can sticky content and/or change information/layouts on the sidebars)... sure people can come chat however much they want, but without regular news postings (x-posts from reddit/twitter even.. like news of who qualifiers for what from SEA...) or updated information on the side (and the removal of a lot of the OSC shit that clogs up the page) - it's completely unappealing to even visit this site anymore...

Vote Jessie for site overlord in 2017 - I won't let you down. Make Sc2sea great again.



(bring back post rep pls)

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Fair call..

Scrapping sc2online isn't the best idea, but taking tournament sign ups away from sc2sea killed it and sc2online DIDN'T fill the gap. I don't think you could save either site by hoping everyone moves over to sc2online and giving better features there - this is still that cultural hub.... It needs to be consolidated here.

Maybe Nirvana could give/sell the site back to the community for us to update..... ?

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Eh, the problem and unfortunate fact is that less people play the game these days. I came here while I was actively playing sc2 to talk to people who did the same which would often lead to different conversations and allowed for all the various opinions you mention.

There are a lot of people like me, likely you ChadMann, likely you Rize that probably won't stop coming to the site (my sc2sea still opens up on Chrome startup) because of the friendships and attachment built with the site but there are so many that didn't build these as strongly, possibly moved on to different parts of life which required more attention or actually do talk to these people on discord/skype etc that allows users to talk to anyone rather than the niche this site pretty much is, if I wanted to talk to someone from sc2sea I would just message them on discord/skype more than likely because it's something unrelated to sc2.

My point, and this all comes back to less people playing the game, is that unless you somehow got an influx of players new or old back into the game I really don't think we'll ever see activity like we did in 2011-2016 (I can't speak for 2010 and i'd say lateish 2016 was when it really started to die) and it's important if you want sc2sea to remain, to find a way so that newcomers stay (which is pretty unlikely) and the people that already come here often also stay, which I think just out of habit still will for a long time.

So really the only outcome I see here is that the site is kept alive with minimal activity with people that frequent it still which is unfortunately what's happening, however currently this is probably nearing the very minimum in terms of minimal activity. You could maybe say skype/discord is to blame or the lack of clan involvement but even a lot of skype chats and clans are not active because not many of us and just people in general don't play the game anymore.

Also if this post doesn't remove my lurker status on sc2sea im leaving too.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Was hoping for more response and discussion.....

Hopefully something from sc2online.......?

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

What's there to discuss that hasn't been discussed a million times already?

Why would sc2online say anything?

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

I agree, I think chatbox can have it's place in this community if we get rid of the streamer spam, nobody comes here for streams, anyone trying to begin any conversation is killed by spam. Less people play this game yes, but we used to have people who sat in the chat who didn't even play at all. Chatbox was once a place where you could talk with anyone in the community, whether it was: that silver scrub, that difficult opponent you never knew or that GM hero you idolize.

This website is no indication of the community activity. I play and talk to SEA players all the time, there's still activity, just it's not here any more for some reason. It's sad because this website was a great resource and welcoming for players, can the page be revitalized at this point? Maybe if enough people care.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

I am in complete agreement with Chris in this aspect.

To be honest, what do you want to achieve through sc2sea nowadays? The scene itself, I mean sure it has always been small relative to other regions, but what player base do we have nowadays to sustain an active community.

Personally for me, irrespective of the platform, I'd be looking to interact with the people from sc2sea. Maybe a direction that needs to be considered moving forward?

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Yeah, I'm with Spartaz on this. I'll be honest, I miss the old days, it was really fun despite all the drama.

But it's just that this site isn't really going too good anymore, we're at the point where a lot of us actually interact on other platforms, etc.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

There defently needs to be new mods and updates on this site. and not have the community split between this and sc2online.. There should defently not be a split between 2 sites and since then there has been no scene, I agree with chadman and there should be only 1 site and core site sc2sea, it has been the main site ever since the start, the fact that the SEA scene was so small and niche before sc2online was released and eddie had the nerve to try and make something out of OSC by making his own site and expanding to other countrys, OSC was "Okay" before you made a new site and made it all about OSC and "expanding sea" which actually killed the scene completly. SEA was allways a small community and to be honest i could say for most the players that were here, we didnt really want to expand and vs only koreans or americans or europeans on there times or there servers, SEA players much like myself like to play amongst the community and if we wanted to play against others from other countrys we would go in there tournaments.

Sorry for bad grammar

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

bring back xmoon http://www.sc2sea.com/blogs/showentr...&cutoffdate=30

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

omg girl gamer

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

My only thought on this is that I'd probably come here more if it was a hub for more than sc2 considering how much diversity is in the sea scene compared to 2010-2012 when this was actually the place to be.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Totally open to having new people take leadership, new mods, news posters, etc. I've just been too busy IRL to keep up and honestly I have no idea who's active anymore. So, anyone who wants to step up, please just let me or another existing mod know.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

o/ o/ o/

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Pick me!

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Welcome our newest mods Rize and Spartaz!

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Goodluck boys i hope you do us proud and can put out content !

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Yes and yes :O

Would love to see the community come back at some point, but with most people I also dont have the time to sink in help with things. The old style BSG and GPD were great, and when in that situation were good fun ways to play without being super serious. Masters cup same deal and everything else was great then.

If it came back to life I might be more likely to play on the basis of I have people to socialize with and play, although mGG is great to do that with (even if the skype is a bit casual :P)

Well since this is all in ideas and maybe things will happen, I will offer my services to cast if needed and im free :P. Also I do officially freelance with illustration so if that helps anyone in anyway hit me up!

I want to help out but yea guys just ask me and will do what I can

BTW hi everyone long time no see :P

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

sc2sea #1 .

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Exactly this!
If anyone wants to take over the leadership of the site, let us know.

p.s this is what I do now. Thomas (blysk) worked with us for a year before joining the mandatory army.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VscFRmzkZjg

I doubt SC2SEA will even be popular again because everyone would have grown up already and sc2sea was the last great RTS. SC2SEA had its moment and now it's gone but that's life. everyone has grown up etc.

I am fine just keeping the site alive in memory of what the site once was. So i still pay the bills no worries about that.

On a sidenote, I just saw Benji streaming, what a familiar sight hahaha.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

This is just sheer dedication to the community. CMIIW but isnt paying to keep the site up pretty expensive? (Like 200 to 300 dollars per month or somethin)

Not sure if anyone is going to read this though, but honestly I spent roughly 2 years of my life being a part of this community, starting from a humble bronze league protoss that can only do 4gates in every matchup into getting accepted into Team Night and eventually getting into clan wars and BSG weeklys. I still remember nemesis acting like the responsible parent in the mGG clan and hanging out in the channels with Aetheros and cruXKiss if I am not mistaken.

Now everyone apparently has moved on with their lives, and I am no exception. To see this site this empty is bittersweet - knowing the fact that people has moved on to something hopefully better in their lives but knowing that you just lost a once precious community.

Well, time to reminince the past by looking at my previous posts, damn time flies by so quickly.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Yeah man, its certainly bittersweet to have such a drop from the community we once had... I've also had some great times being part of things here and this site will always be special to me.

Good to see you on here again, I'm sure there will always be people here and I hope the community builds back a bit in the future.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

I think it's pretty clear a lot of people would love this to be back to where it was but a mixture of declining player base and the time investment vs reward being too low right now for people to put the effort in has us be where it is.. plus to be completely honest it would feel forced in a lot of ways.

StarCraft Remastered is our best chance of any resemblance of a community atmosphere returning. It will provide a surge in active players but it will be a tall order to get enough momentum off it - but it's the best chance. I would suggest efforts go into planning on release of that.

I'll see if there's anything I can cook up from ESL / Blizzard side upon its launch.

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

LotV launch was your best chance. SC:R outside of Korea will be pitiful, and the hype will be very short-lived.

So many players (including myself for a bit there) were hanging out, patiently hoping that there was something big after/during the initial LotV release time - but people started fully dropping the game out of frustration with the recycled 'soonTM' line.

This year's been a great year (and will continue to be) for grass-roots events. Probe's been doing incredible work hosting his LANs and PSL events, whilst they might be smaller events than those 2015 ACLs, the local skill & community are there.
If what I hear about some of the grass-roots/local events later this year are true - I guess things will be fine anyway. Hell, I'm even pushing for a decently-sized Adelaide LAN Q3/Q4 of the year. ^^

Don't get me wrong though - having been to my first ACL events in 2015, and experiencing the community & atmosphere - it really sucks to be without that for so long, and I'm extremely thankful to you & everyone else involved in the management/organization of those events. ♥

Re: Fading community - needs change
 

Baldie you can try to capitalise on the hype with a Remastered LAN, but you might get good turnout at one event if its close to release. After that the number you'd get wouldn't be any higher than an SC2 LAN.

Honestly though I don't get it, the last two ACL events in 2015 seemed like they were very successful. If they had all been ACL Sydney 2013 shitty levels of attendance I'd understand not hosting more, but you haven't really given the community a chance since then. Events such as PiGsty Cup should be hard proof that the interest and community atmosphere is still present, it just needs big events to cultivate it.