Gamers’ Passion Comes To Life Through Social Media

by Jose Boza | 13th July 2010

It is truly magical when a name captures the feeling of a product and its community. This is the case for “The Gaming Tailgate,” where their slogan is “Everybody’s here for the game.” The site is a sports gaming community website where their founders Chris Jacobs, Jeremy Bennett and Tommy Gschwend bring their passion of gaming to life. The website provides news on sports gaming and other video game platforms.

In addition, they cater to die-hard gamers by sharing tips and strategy for the various sports games in the market including NCAA 11, which launches today (Tuesday, July 13). The Gaming Tailgate’s staff works hard to make sure their site is desirable 365 days a year, not just from May through July.

How name “The Gaming Tailgate” came to be:

“Our goal was to create a gaming site that conveys an atmosphere similar to that of a tailgate – friendly banter, the ability to share differing opinions, yet we are all there for the same reason – the game.”

The three friends are not new kids to the block when it comes to sports gaming sites, as they have been tapped for years by EA Sports as community leaders and that is evident in their current roles as EA Game Changers. Jacobs and Bennett know each from their college days in 1999, where they both attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Bennett still resides in Lincoln, and Jacobs lives just north of Lincoln. Gschwend lives in Brookland, Arkansas, and has known Bennett and Jacobs from various gaming sites since 2005.

After all those years, it was in May 2010 when the three decided to come together to create “The Gaming Tailgate.” The goal was to be ready by the time that EA Sports’ launched their NCAA 11 game on July 13^th. It has been a hectic couple of months for the team to get their website up and ready for the target date, but so far the website has exceeded everyone’s expectations and that includes the Rhino.

We’ve establish a great group of site members in a short time and the offers of assistance from the community during our site launch and initial feedback have been very humbling and encouraging,” said Jacobs.

The Gaming Tailgate team understands the importance of social media to market their product, especially because their website recently launched. They have a social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and their website Forums, which assists them to reach their target audience in real-time and receive instant feedback. The collaboration of their website with the many social media platforms they have for The Gaming Tailgate has created an early buzz for the site among the gaming community.

When we asked Jacobs about social media’s role for The Gaming Tailgate, he said that most people rely on social media sites to attain the latest news they are seeking and this includes gamers. Their staff makes sure to get news on The Gaming Tailgate forums as soon as possible and also share links on their social media pages to inform their community site members including new visitors to the website. Some of their gaming community members are not fans of forums/message boards, but they do prefer social media sites when it comes to receiving their gaming information.

With their prior knowledge of working on gaming community sites, they truly understand the basics of social media and how engaging in conversations with their members are keys to their future success. If you plunge into their community board forums, you will see topics on gaming news, overall team ratings, overall gameplay, etc., which are full of content life and excitement brewing throughout their site due to interaction between The Gaming Tailgate team and their community evangelists.

The Gaming Tailgate offers regular podcasts and unique content, and the staff is currently working diligently to increase community interaction after the release of NCAA Football 11. Their motto is they want everyone to have their voice be heard and considered equal, which is essential for any company/product starting off and is seeking to build an identity among potential consumers.

The Rhino gives its readers an exclusive NCAA 11 game preview with The Gaming Tailgate team.

There a lot of new additions for NCAA 11, which includes its Online Dynasty that gives users the capability to recruit, see their team’s stats, etc. from their computer at home or work and even from their IPhone. This includes the opportunity to share game recap stories with friends on Facebook and Twitter or even put them on blast after a lopsided victory. We wanted to ask the experts at The Gaming Tailgate their thoughts on NCAA 11’s newest additions.

Rhino: What are your thoughts on the online Dynasty function and how it is going to revolutionize online league gaming?

Gschwend: This continues NCAA’s trend of taking the game out of its box and into your gaming console, and expanding the idea of what a game is. You are no longer tied to sitting at your console & TV in order to participate… you can do it from work or where-ever and have that same connection.

Jacobs: To build on what Tommy said, with Online Dynasty, Team Builder, and now Dynasty Wire, the NCAA 11 development team has created what I like to call the “NCAA Football Experience.” You no longer have to be in front of your TV and console to interact with the game or to share your experiences. Highlights are on the web, recruit online, create teams on the net – the game lives outside of the disc and I hope this starts a new era in sports gaming. The development team doesn’t get enough credit for what they have they done in this regard.

Bennett: Everything is going to be at a gamer’s fingertips. Gamers will be able to plan and scheme on their recruiting while on break at work (or when the boss is away). They will be given an in-depth set of stats to see how they stack up with the rest of their buddies in the Dynasty. The web functionality is a great base for the bond and competition among a group of gamers who like to get together.

Rhino: Your overall thoughts on NCAA 11 (gameplay, graphics, overall display, online Dynasty, etc.)?

Gschwend: Polished… one word for the game this year. Everything added or existing is really well done this year. Most of the new additions will be things that gamers will have to experience for themselves whether it’s “locomotion,” the new visuals, the recruiting interface, etc.

Jacobs: In my opinion, it’s the biggest one year leap in the history of the franchise – even more so than NCAA 08 to 09 with Online Dynasty. With a new Executive Producer for NCAA 11, the teams seems willing to bite off more than they ever have and with them considering this a “foundation year.” I think fans of the NCAA franchise should be very excited for the future.

Bennett: I’ve been playing NCAA Football for quite a while, and I think this could quite simply be the most complete package ever. The game is sharp on all aspects. The linear lighting makes the game stand out graphically like never before. Gameplay refinements such as “locomotion” make the game enjoyable and more realistic than ever. Since we probably have not reached the halfway point for this generation of consoles, you can expect even bigger and better things down the road for the NCAA franchise.

Rhino: Does your site have anything special planned for the launch of NCAA 11? Any tournaments, social media contests, leagues, etc?

Jacobs Along with Shopmaster of MyMaddenPad.com, we are putting together the EA SPORTS Game Changers Championship Series. People can find out more information here. www.gamechangers.mymaddenpad.com . We also have Online Dynasties and will be doing some unique content throughout the college football season.

Rhino: Is your site only focusing on NCAA or other sports games? If others, what are those games?

Bennett: Last year I had formed a golf league around the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 game, and we have just kicked off the first season of the Tailgate Golf Association for the Tiger 11 title. Each season this year will consist of two rounds every week for ten weeks, and crowning a champion in the end. Once we complete the first season, we’ll go back and see if any rules and such need tweaking and roll out another season.

Jacobs: Our typical user is a pretty big gamer, so we have an ‘Other Video Games’ section to talk about the latest games and happenings in the industry. On our forums, it feels like people are very excited for NBA ELITE and NBA 2K11 and that was even before the free agent frenzy. Come this October, it wouldn’t shock me if we have quite a few people playing basketball titles for the first time in years. Like Jeremy mentioned, we have a Tiger Woods 11 league that is a blast to play in. Echoing real life, football gamers enjoy golf gaming as well!

How to find “The Gaming Tailgate”: