How did you hear about FAF and what made you interested?

[SeraphimLeftNut]

Question for new players (not GPGNET veterans), for the purpose of understanding how we can reach new players.

How did you hear about FAF and Supcom FA?
A friend? A video? Google search? PC Gamer?

When you looked into it, what did you look at?
A review? Wikipedia? Video? www.faforever.com?

What did you see that made you interested?
Graphics? Economy? Community?

What are your suggestions for showing people this game and getting them hooked?

Looking forward to your ideas.

[Andywhoa]

How did you hear about FAF and Supcom FA?

Well nearly everyone knows about SupCom at least, I'd played it a few times at LANs where no one seems to know what they're doing, someone's overheating P4 laptop is making the game run at -10 and the biggest difficulty is sending an order through to your monkeylord to attack the enemies base after the pathfinding has died.

I'm not sure where I heard about FaF, a few gaming websites have covered it and it is generally also quite well known. Places like teamliquid.net and reddit always have little groups of people that play it so it will come up in any discussion on active online RTS communities.

When you looked into it, what did you look at?

I wanted to play SupCom with some friends last week but we all had different version and a quick google said FaF was the answer. I actually installed it and made an account a long time ago iirc, but never actually played it. I just a had a nostalgia kick to play SupCom but didn't have any friends that wanted to play so I never bothered actually playing it.

What did you see that made you interested?

As far as I'm concerned the game is a very easy sell as an RTS. The economy, the tech tree, the flying units that aren't just hovering tanks, the naval that is actually cool, the artillery, the radar, the commander blah blah. There's no question it's an awesome game and I think the main reasons it didn't take off at release, that being high sys req and crappy online implementation are no longer big problems so it's in a very good spot atm.

What are your suggestions for showing people this game and getting them hooked?

I think just youtube vids are great. There are some awesome casters out there. I watched this when I was thinking about playing some more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwFgZj0qJOw and who wouldn't wanna be apart of that. This guys FPVODs are a lot of fun too, http://www.youtube.com/user/ZaphodX1. You can see the multitasking and focus needed and also the cool UI features used when playing competitively which is a pretty big turn on to someone who has played other online RTS but is looking for something different.

[TartarusMkII]

I've always liked to play SupCom against AI, but after meeting JARG in a different game, he recommended FAF. I didn't like to bother using mods with my SupCom and playing via LAN is so annoying to me, but JARG insisted that FAF is a lobby system. I said, oh that sounds interesting, and gave it a try.

Now, what makes me so interested, personally, is two main things:

1. The lobby system itself is so very impressive. It's modular, it's useful, easy to understand, and contains so much all within itself, like ratings, replays, etc.

2. Match making! Using the rating system, even custom games are easier than ever, and this lobby system, to me, far surpasses the system that many AAA titles use themselves.

[Crunchy]

I've always loved forged alliance. The resource system is brilliant and I love the realism. Also love how diverse a game can be. other RTS your pretty much stuck doing 1 or 2 builds or you die. I just never got that into it back when it was out first. Played a few games with friends over lan but wasn't really into multiplayer RTS at the time. Since then I picked up starcraft and was playing that quite a lot. Enjoyed watching the casts too. Gave supcom 2 a go but they really fucked the economy and tech in that game. Recently had a lan at my beach house and cause we have no internet had to think of games that we could all play that didn't need internet and one of my mates had supcom.

Had so much fun getting back into it I decided to search up and see if there were any good supcom casts. Found Gyle's channel and was amazed to learn that there was still life in forged alliance. Watched through his replays and then knew I had to start playing xD

And now your stuck with me. I'm never going away.


I'm not quite sure how we can get the word out more. I suppose people just have to tell their friends. Starcraft players are at least good candidates, as they're into the genre, as well as competitive play
I wonder if its played enough to have physical tournaments yet?

[da_monstr]

I first heard of SCFA from a local gaming magazine. (the review: link)I was so impressed by the game I just had to have it and bought the gold edition asap.
I found FAF when i was looking for replays and mods, possibly on GPG forums. Oh, and of course TA's youtube casts where he mentioned it.

[GallantDragon]

I'd heard about FAF when I was bored and looked up forged alliance multiplayer. I kept seeing people talk about this forged alliance forever thing, so I looked it up. I have to say, the use of Rake's videos on the front page is masterful. Watching any of those videos gives me the instant urge to play supcom, and I've never looked back. I managed to persuade a friend to migrate to FAF from the steam FA community after I told him about integrated Sorian AI, and the mod-integration is definitely a big plus in FAF's favor.

[BLITZ_Molloy]

Bought SupCom because I played TA online a lot. Liked the multiplayer to some extent but lost interest.

Got back into it from seeing the Youtube commentaries.

[Kof]

I started playing FAF in Jan 2013.

I had bought FA a year or two before from Gamersgate (based on good reviews on GG and web). Stopped playing it because the AI was too easy to beat.

I found FAF on Google, went to fafoever.com and the rest is history.....

I'm no expert on how to increase "penetration" (if you will), but comments on forums of other strategy games is one way I can think of, off the top of my head. Paradox etc.

[Culverin]

Grew up playing TA.
Played SupCom, then FA.

Took a break, played some other games.
Tried SC2, but hate the micro required, it's a game that forces you into 1 type of playstyle due to an intentionally crippled GUI.

Ever since the Planetary Annihilation announcement, I got the RTS bug again, naturally Forged Alliance is what I would fall back to.
Heard about FAF on the PA forums.
Thought I'd give it a try, loving it so far.

[Valki]

How did you hear about FAF and Supcom FA?

A commentary on YouTube from Gyle, recommended by Youtube, probably thanks to Google's dilligent analysis of my personal information, e-mail and searches.

When you looked into it, what did you look at?

The website, the forums, and more videos.

What did you see that made you interested?

Grand Strategy, lots of options.

What are your suggestions for showing people this game and getting them hooked?

Buy a writing pad, buy a pencil, and buy SC2: Heart of the Swarm... take notes how Heart of the Swarm slowly introduces new players to the game and to the ladder.
Then, shamelessly copy that.

Also, more commentaries on Youtube.