Event Please :)

Honestly, the best way to have Seattle grow is to have the West Coast itself grow. What mades Texas and what makes the Northeast such hot spots, is the proliferation of chapters. With NW, OR, and CA being inactive or disbanded, there are fewer chapters to spread the love, so to speak. Right now, most players who learn of NERO are already in the Seattle region, so you're tapping an already-tapped market. What would work best is to have more chapters. Get OR active again, come up with another more central/eastern WA chapter, maybe get an OR chapter up and running further south of Portland.
 
Or perhaps recruit more people. I brought 2 newbies to the last event, they are hooked. If we actively recruit amongst our friends and coworkers...or maybe just someone you want to hit with a boffer...who knows.
 
Don't take this the wrong way. I love having new people.

But if the goal is to have an overall player population capable of supporting a 200 player extended (5+ days) event within a yearor two's time, adding one or two players here or there won't cut it. A chapter attritions that many off on a regular basis anyways, due to lack of interest, oog chapter politics, and life events.

The reasoning is that if you add a few players, then you haven't increased your potential playerbase from the local region. A fifty-player chapter with nine or ten new players is still only a sixty-player potential. On the other hand, if you had three more regional (let's say, Central Washington, Salem, and NorCal) achapters open up with fifteen new players each, you've increased your potential players to 95. Add to that, each chapter is drawing from a totally separate body of potential players, and within a couple year's time, with good coverage, each chapter will be able to field their own independent 45 player event, making the number of potential* players for your extended event 180. With 180 possible *regional* players, you're more likely to draw the long distance travellers.
 
Yep, like I said... we would do it as a Big West and we can't do that until there are more chapters on the west coast. Of course we will still try to get new players, we like new players. A 5-9 day event is a nice thing to think about it, but it will not be in the works any time soon.
 
/bump...

More info coming later today or tomorrow.
 
Well, i know there's about 25 people interested in playing down here in southern Oregon(roseburg grants pass area), not to mention all the college students at Umpqua comm college i see smacking each other with boffers and such. The biggest problem(around here anyway) is noone even knows what nero, sca, or any of this sort of hobby is about. My whole town flipped when they found out i have a suit of armour. Surprisingly most people around here just haven't ever heard of anything like this. And from asking around alot of people think it would be fun. Lots of roleplayers(d&d and what have you). And, there's a plethra of parks and sights(and even a few people i know that own enough land) to host an event pretty much any size short of woodstock for cheap, and it's kinda a central hub for people from Wash, Cali, Nevada. Any way could i get maybe a hard copy or flyer or something for nero seattle so i can (spread the word). I feel like Johnny appleseed. If you build it they will come. More (good) people, more fun for everyone(and more excedrin for the plot people).
 
jpariury said:
Add to that, each chapter is drawing from a totally separate body of potential players, and within a couple year's time, with good coverage, each chapter will be able to field their own independent 45 player event, making the number of potential* players for your extended event 180. With 180 possible *regional* players, you're more likely to draw the long distance travellers.
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If getting more people to show is the point, an active recruiter with marketing skills and persuasive attitude is needed. The Seattle area is hardly reached a saturation point for NERO. With 4+ million people in the puget sound area, the prime age market is 15-30, which represents %32 percent of the curve (that's 1.2+ million in the target age category). Add in some older player ranges and that bumps up very quickly to about 2.5 million population. Assuming there are 10 LARPS in the area with 75 players each, there are roughly 750 active players. Triple that number for "touched players" who have dropped off or don't play anymore for various reasons and you have tapped 2250 people.

2250 out of 2.5 million is a penetration of only .0009 percent.

From a marketing perspective on active sport and entertainment venues, saturation points for most markets is 2%. There is plenty of marketing a growth possible even in a very small area with such high population/customer density. I agree with JP's assesment though to a different extent, that having a chapter in Portland or some surrounding areas can tap into several other markets. However the first market really has much room for development (or any market that size with only a minimal penetration.)

~Barry

 
the bump was really regarding the fact that we may be getting a July event...
 
Well, yeah, but its still good to talk about marketing strategies. Always a good thing to try to get more people to play.

To share in the wonderful plot, of course.
 
Tex@5 Ru1z0rz j00

Pennsic (SCA) and Estrella (also SCA) are hell events, but everyone walks away with a smile (and a limp or two)

Texas has more than just a ton of people/chapters, they have several different games (many of which are a stone's throw from a copyright infringement lawsuit by NERO) One just closed. The DFW DragonCrest chapter recently sold their land, and they moved most of their players to international's DFW chapter (since most of them grew up/ went to TAMU together)

California has a ton of people, and lot's of games... it also has a shady history starting after bill sold his chapter. I would be seriously surprised to see a CA chapter anytime soon, and I mean SERIOUSLY...

Long (and Looooong) events are great, but remember that most people can't survive one weekend, let alone 2 (96 hours of IG will break almost anyone)
I wear (60 pounds of) armour, plus my rucksack(10-20 lbs.), swords(negligible weight), and cloak (another 10 pounds). Fully loaded that's about 80-100 pounds... 7-9 days of that is murder. (since I keep most of that on ALL the time) Marines don't get worked that hard... SeALs don't get worked that hard...

I would do exactly what plot did to JP if I was on plot at that event (Toss keys, go home)

Long weekends, and back to back weekend events would work better for the meantime... but I have no idea of the acutal numbers seattle has.

Generally 100 PCs actually attending an event means it's time to get more sites, run more events, or start a high-level campaign seperate (but influential to) the main plot.

With any luck, all this post did was raise my post count by one :p
-Gid
 
I wear (60 pounds of) armour, plus my rucksack(10-20 lbs.), swords(negligible weight), and cloak (another 10 pounds). Fully loaded that's about 80-100 pounds... 7-9 days of that is murder. (since I keep most of that on ALL the time) Marines don't get worked that hard... SeALs don't get worked that hard...
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I beg to differ, Marines DO get worked that hard on a regular basis.......come on....you telling me you can't figure out a way to lighten your load..... I mean, if you HAVE to have it..... Hire your very own NEWBIE Caddy!!!! LoL

but seriously, I have attended many 4 day events with the LARP organization I came from, and they ARE great, but I have to say I agree with the general consesus about this 9 day thing, it would be absolutely AWESOME, but it definately NOT feasible for a LOOOOONG while....


just the thoughts of a Gypsy from 5000 miles away!!!

Love you all!!!
Matt
 
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