New Plymouth first starting out tournament need help

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

I wouldn't say just because of large Asian population = better gaming scene as I believe its quiet multicultural. But if you are saying more competitive play/ hardcore players then yes most asians are as they tend to be the type that take gaming as a hobby/sport.

It IS quite multicultural, However in the case of your post, the latter breeds the former. Theyre not mutually exclusive.

This point still stands.

look at it this way, last tournament had like 15 odd asians?? just a guess, top 5 players where asian excluding Ben. Then the rest belongs to other group of people, but this is out of 47 entrants. Of course we can not take this as some sort of proper none bias survey but it gives you a good idea that it is not just because there are more Asians in Auckland that makes the gaming scene better/ bigger in anyway.

SF4 and the general gaming scene are two different ball games. SF4 is great because it DOES attract people from all walks of life. This is what makes it so successful.

The gaming scene in general too is broad, and also encompasses a lot of people. Console games in this country have an audience split between asians/islanders/caucasians/martians etc.

However,

The GENERAL FIGHTING GAME SCENE is a bit different. Look at yifans. That place is, for the most part, dominated by the asian masses. Im aware that in a lot of asian countries, gaming (specifically arcade gaming) is a lot more mainstream than it is here. So obviously, asians staying in the country are bound to bring that element of culture into our society Even PC games (DOTA for example) share this particular trait. Walk into any netcafe in Auckland and at least 70% of the people in there will be Asian. Additionally, the VAST majority of netcafe's are owned and run by asians.

Its not a bad thing. God knows it makes the scene more popular. But it IS true. Im not out to be racist, (though it seems youre taking it a bit this way) its just an observation. I shouldn't have said anything in the first place.

Something you said just reminded me about stuff i wrote heavily on for my intercultural communication paper at uni. (How gaming has integrated into New Zealand culture.)

But yea, sorry i said anything.

[baka101]

Well it was established in I GOT NEXT doco that the arcade attracts people from all different walks of life, no one cares your race as long you got skill then something like we can develop that etc, that was mentioned in the doco.

[massi4h]

Yeah and if you look at an xvsf machine in a fish and chips shop, whose gonna be there? Me and the rest of the islanders lol. It seems to carry on to the xvsf machine at uni, pretty much no asians there, some will occasionally play tekken tag.

[baka101]

Yeh Vic from Dogface show is a mad xmvsf player he is tops of his game, he wasnt that bad at sf3 either aye. I still play it occasionally on pc using nFB Alpha using HRAP3.

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

Well it was established in I GOT NEXT doco that the arcade attracts people from all different walks of life, no one cares your race as long you got skill then something like we can develop that etc, that was mentioned in the doco.

America and NZ are two VASTLY different cultures. What is the norm there may not even be close to the norm here. Additionally, if you take an American city with a decent gamer population, you will find that the percentage of Asian residents is considerably less than the percentage in Auckland. This is a numerical fact. Yes the arcade attracts people from all walks of life, but obviously it will attract MORE people from some walks of life than others.

(Devils advocate: Auckland actually has a larger percentage of gamers/non gamers than most american cities. This was an interesting fact i came across when i was researching my paper. However, OF THOSE PEOPLE, the point i stated about the comparative asian populus still stands firm)

Yeah and if you look at an xvsf machine in a fish and chips shop, whose gonna be there? Me and the rest of the islanders lol. It seems to carry on to the xvsf machine at uni, pretty much no asians there, some will occasionally play tekken tag.

I guess what it comes down to is location. Fact of the matter is, the largest hub's for these sorts of things happen to be areas where asian people tend to gather.

If theres a xvsf machine in a place where there is a predominant flow of pacific islanders, then obviously THEY are going to be the most common player for said machine.

In Auckland, your options for competitive gaming are: (in order of most commonly used)

A) Home. This is fine. Im in no way saying that there are more asian players at home than non asians, because that is NOT true.

B) Internet Cafe's. A generally diverse fanbase, but the significant majority are of asian descent. This is because it is a much more common hobby for the asian populus, as andy said.

C) Arcades. See above.

D) Misc. (ie. fish & chip shops, randomly placed 'spacies') For asian gamers, the process is a lot more social than it is for other races, which is why the larger hubs are for the most part, their 'venue of choice'. For caucasians and pacific islanders, it is considerably less-so. That is not to say it doesnt exist, because we are prime examples that it does. However, obviously, areas in the 'misc' category dont cater to this nearly as well as the other venues. People still use them, however it eliminates a lot of what the 'asian gaming' culture originates from.


Could we please stop talking about this. I compulsively feel like i have to make my point when someone says something i disagree with, but im getting really REALLY uncomfortable with this topic, as I have a great deal of respect for everyone here, regardless of their race, and i feel like im coming of as a complete racist asshole, which i really REALLY am not. (except to richard, but thats a different story.)

[baka101]

Hey I want to be friends with Asians I aint racist in the slightest, I have Japanese, Chinese friends, I do kendo and visit the Auckland dojo which has many Asian students practicing so I have no problems with them and would love more Asian friends so sign me up. So I was never stereotyping anything, but it is true the more competitive and changeling you get the more any culture in any arcade gamer community wants a piece of you and you will eventually become friends but I don't see many cultures becomes friends with scrubs in the arcade I don't see that happening much.

Plus I don't live in Auckland and this has been wrapping my brain for sometime, Yuffins I maybe wrong in saying this has the largest amount of arcade machines in one place than anywhere in Auckland.  Now are the owners islanders or Asians, do you ever see the main guy who runs the whole arcade, how do they afford the power bill with so many machines,how many watts is a Japanese arcade cabinet,how much is charged for power in a business situation for watt hours, do the consumers spend alot to keep the place going as I don't know the financial performance of this business as its hard to grasp how well its doing without the businesses financial documents, cause I know when I go there I put in $200+ in that place as there's no decent arcade here as you know.  

Thanks

Mark aka Baka101

[Lennysaurus]

Really?

I think that cause lots of asian people live in central auckland, when you go to yiffans there are lots of asian people.

In papatoetoe there is an arcade.  lots of arab/indian guys  play there.

There was an arcade in southmall about 6 years ago.  Lots of maori/islanders played  there.

I bet that if there were an arcade in germany... lots of germans would play there.

Seems really straight forward to me.

My advice Baka is that opening an arcade is no longer viable.  You are better off looking at something like RVB for the following reasons.

SFIV cabinet costs roughly $20,000-00
An XBOX360, 2 TE's, and a copy of SFIV is roughly a grand.  Arcades just dont work in NZ for that reason.  If yu want to get competitive at Street fighter, and fighting games in general, then definitely move to auckland.

Personally I think that Yiffans runs at a loss on purpose to take advantage of tax benefits, and in all honesty... other dodgy shit.  I cant understand how it makes money.  Consider not just the power and the maintenance.. but look at all the staff they have on.  Theres always the bouncers, cleaning guys, maintenance dudes.

[zos'la]

Bill, no one saying ur racist u twat!!!
You are right about Asian dominating Yifans, reason being is that most of them hang out in town, thats where everythign is!! pool halls, clubs, uni blah can go on.
If you have been to Hk they have so much to do there, where as here in NZ, what is there to do? SO they tend to gather at teh same place all the time, daytime = gaming pool blah blah, then night time is like cluds and more clubs lol.
There is NOTHING else to do. Central Auckaldn has always been crowded with asians for these reasons and thus why you see so many of them in yifans, if you walk out on queen street you will most likely find 30-40% of the people walking around are asians...

ok I was bored so had to waste some time

[stereomonkey]

Okay, stay on the topic guys.

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

Really?

I think that cause lots of asian people live in central auckland, when you go to yiffans there are lots of asian people.

In papatoetoe there is an arcade.  lots of arab/indian guys  play there.

There was an arcade in southmall about 6 years ago.  Lots of maori/islanders played  there.

I bet that if there were an arcade in germany... lots of germans would play there.

Seems really straight forward to me.

My advice Baka is that opening an arcade is no longer viable.  You are better off looking at something like RVB for the following reasons.

SFIV cabinet costs roughly $20,000-00
An XBOX360, 2 TE's, and a copy of SFIV is roughly a grand.  Arcades just dont work in NZ for that reason.  If yu want to get competitive at Street fighter, and fighting games in general, then definitely move to auckland.

Personally I think that Yiffans runs at a loss on purpose to take advantage of tax benefits, and in all honesty... other dodgy shit.  I cant understand how it makes money.  Consider not just the power and the maintenance.. but look at all the staff they have on.  Theres always the bouncers, cleaning guys, maintenance dudes.

I would say youre right on the money.

They do seem to cut costs here and there aswell. Our most 'high end' cabinets are the shells of KOF97 machines, and the tatsunoko machine has a wii inside it running the arcade board because it was cheaper than buying the full setup.

[baka101]

Sorry Stereomonkey, I need to know a few more things more from the members to add to letter to the arcade owners, of course this thread is on going I still need the help of those secret people in new plymouth, the questions are how much does a old american type arcade cabinet use in wattage compared to the new japanese arcade cabinets how much wattage ratings are they.

Thanks

Baka101 aka Mark

[fluxcore]

Well, not having a CRT would help with the wattage, but then the hardware is more powerful...

[baka101]

No flux should of been more clear, there arcade machines in toptown cinema 5 are all american type stand up variety and was wondering how much wattage they used compared to the new japanese arcade cabinets. Part of my plan in the letter is to try to prove the japanese cabs are better more efficient etc, but would like some links etc to see what the differences are in power drawing etc.

Thanks

Mark aka Baka101

[fluxcore]

Hrm, yeah really not sure. You'd need to ask on some arcade-specific boards I think.

[baka101]

Yeh I will be asking about pcbs, but I want them to replace there american cabinets with the japanese ones and maybe the whole japanese cabinets uses less electricity than the american ones might want them to change due cutting costs etc cause the arcade to them is save money make big money etc.  So I will research which ones takes the most power to run.