Rethink Games with Scott Novis

In this much-delayed final episode of my 7 part series on starting an esports program, I want to touch on perhaps the most important part of the program. Play! It is a short episode but don't let that fool you. There's still some great information.

Continuing my series on starting a recreational esports program, I tackle part 6 - Progress. Players join communities for a variety of reasons but one of the most important is their desire to improve. There are a variety of ways to make sure your program cultivates the potential of the players.

Over this 7 part series, I am touching on the key elements for establishing an esports program. The list 1. People 2. Purpose 3. Place 4. Platform 5. Process 6. Progress 7. Play! Today I focus on the process part of the equation. I hope you find it useful. You can find more information at scottnovis.com, or my company bravous.com.

# Starting an Esports Program Part 4: Platforms In the "trade" we call the computer hardware that video games run on the platform. There are three: 1. Personal Computers 2. Consoles 3. Mobile While mobile is becoming a thing in esports, in this episode I'm going to focus on PC and Console, talking about the tradeoffs and how to think about them.

When you are investing in creating a healthy esports community, place becomes the next most important item on your list. If you have great people, a clear purpose, now you need to know where to focus your efforts. You can listen to this episode on Anchor.fm or where ever you get your podcasts.

This episode runs a tad long at 14 minutes, however, this part of the content I think is pretty essential for starting a program. You want to get clarity on your program's purpose. The transcript and more is available on my website at scottnovis.com/blog

It's all about people In this week's episode, I return to the topic I intended to start about two months ago. Sharing what we had learned from working with colleges and municipalities across the country with esports. Namely, how do you start and build a healthy esports community? Like most things, it starts with **people**. In this episode, I share some of the best practices we have found working with top colleges across the country. Find out more at bravous.com and scottnovis.com

In this episode, we dig deeper into the psychology and feelings associated with the natural tension between our need to learn and our desire to execute. I share some of the best practices and resources that can help us accelerate skill development.

In this episode, I want to share lessons we have learned about working remotely. Some of these come from the video game industry, and much of it comes from the science and psychology of Group Norms. As we learn how to work together online, the 5 elements of the "culture pizza "have never been more important.

In this episode of re:Think Games, we resume our 7 part series with part 2: Purpose. When starting an in-person esport program it is important to have a clear vision for the purpose of your organization. This needs to be something both the club president and the faculty advisors are in agreement on. We explore the choice between a competitive program and a community-focused program. #rethinkgames #gamefullife #esports4everyone #recreationalesports #communityesports #campusesports #competitiveesports #consoleesports

Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 1 In this episode, I discuss how we took our Esports Open event online with Virtual Esports Open. I share how we looked at our values, evaluated what survived not being able to meet in-person, and realized that our core values translated to the virtual space. Since we launched our virtual tournaments, we have been doing events for colleges across the country. You can follow our events live on twitch.tv/bravousesports You can find out more about Virtual Esports Open at: https://rebelleevents.com/ and at https://bravous.com

This podcast is part one of a seven-part series on starting an in-person esports program. In this episode I outline the seven principles, and then go into Principle 1. The people!

In this episode, I share some ideas for co-operative games you can play together on the couch. Turn off the News and do something fun together! Co-operative games are games you work together to achieve an objective, solve a problem, or a puzzle. You don't necessarily compete with each other (although you can). The four games I list (with one bonus game) are 1. Overcooked Franchise (1 & 2) - available on everything. 2. Mario Party - Virtually all Nintendo platforms (lots of fun mini-games, many of which are co-operative) 3. Snipper Clips - Nintendo Switch Only puzzle solver 4. Tools Up - New Multi-platform co-operative puzzle game. Finally, let's not forget Minecraft, the crane daddy of cooperative games. It's available on everything and most platforms let you run four player.

With all the shelter at home provisions, everyone in the world just became an isolated gamer! In this episode, I share 5 tips for working remotely as a team. The whole idea is to maintain a better connection with the people you work with. As a big believer in in-person events and colocation work facilities, remote working is a challenge for me. Here are some tools for handling it. The five tips are: 1. Use weekly video updates to keep the team informed. 2. Setup "coffee" breaks between team members. 3. Use book club or topic chats with groups of 10 or more. 4. Share visit me at home shares from team members 5. Schedule one on ones

During this historic time, Friendship has never been so important. This week I want to share some ideas for tools you can use to stay connected to the people you care about most. The websites for the tools I'm talking about are: https://slack.com/ - global platform agnostic chat/texting app https://zoom.us/ - awesome video conferencing https://www.marcopolo.me/ - Android and iOs video "texting" https://discordapp.com/ - Voice chat for gamers. https://www.minecraft.net/ - amazing shared world with integrated text chat. (Combine with Discord!)

In this episode I share the most successful strategies I have used at home and at business to end game time without a fight. I share what is happening for the players, and how you as a parent can get a better outcome with less drama.

Welcome to Re:Think Games, a podcast about a fresh, new way to think about video games. I cover esports, and how video games effect the people you care about at home, school, and work.