EPTFor my site, I'd like to do ratings, reviews, player spotlights, interviews, a limited forum, have it all be ad and subscription free, have a staff, etc. For working for a tournament, I'd like to do statistical analysis, web development, A/V, community management, or really anything.
I'd go on and on, but you get the idea. There are a lot of ways to be involved, and a lot of ideas to sort through. Some of the ideas are pretty bad, some are great, and some remain to be properly evaluated. Even the ones that are great might be beyond my reach - like being an agent for players. That's something I'd really like to do, and something that's been called out in the community as being needed - but I don't have the proper skill set (yet), and I don't know if players are willing to be signing over 10% of their contracts to an agent just yet.
That said, I'm always in the process of brainstorming and trying to find new ways to be involved, or ways to do what I'm already doing better. The lesson I've learned from this is to entertain every idea - no matter how terrible, and to reach out to people around you for ideas. Let me give you an example:
This last weekend, I was introducing pro starcraft to my dad, older brother and one of his friends. My brother and his friend are bronze league players, but they understand the game, while my dad had no idea what was going on at first (thankfully it was a TvT so the units made sense). After the matches, we talked about what I was doing with my website, and my efforts to get involved in the community. They, of course, started spitting out ideas. Since they weren't very ingrained in the community, or aware of how we all think and function, a lot of their ideas were really bad, or already done. One idea that was spit out was: "Make a girly version of the game, where girls can trade things and be catty with each other. You know, like they're always stabbing each other in the back and being catty."
I kid you not, that was an idea. Let's look beyond the blatant stereotypes at the basic idea: Create a version of the game that appeals better to a female audience. Even that assumes girls are not a strong target for this game, so let's make the idea more basic: Make a version of the game that appeals to a niche that it doesn't currently. Ok, now we're getting somewhere. With this, we could make a Mod, or some cool custom map, etc. Of course, that's still like saying "Make the next DotA" - a crazy idea that is way beyond what I'm able to do right now.
Still, it's important to listen to all the ideas and not dismiss anything upon first hearing the idea, because every now and then, some half baked or poorly phrased idea is actually awesome when put in a different phrasing or different context.
For example, I was spit-balling ideas with drogith and some others on alternative names for the SPGL (Semi-Pro Gaming League. If you don't know about it, go check it out, it's totally awesome). One of the ideas that got tossed out was League of American Gamers -> LAG. We all laughed and started to move on, because, I mean, who'd name their League LAG? After some more crappy ideas were tossed about (remember, don't hold back an idea just because it sucks), we came back to LAG. I mean, it's a catchy name. It's funny, it's short, and it's easy to remember. The only problem is that the SPGL doesn't just cover the USA, and even though American could refer to the continent, everybody would just assume it meant the USA.
So, somebody said, "What about League of Amateur Gamers?" And we all mused on it for a while, and kept spitting out ideas (some were pretty funny), until eventually drogith settled on SPGL and LAG (to make up his own mind later). In the end he used SPGL because LAG has too many other trademarks and similarly named things (among other reasons).
Anyway, back to that night where I was talking with my dad, brother and brother's friend. After spending two hours talking about starcraft, my site, things I could do in the SC community, etc., and producing no viable ideas, we called it quits. On the way out the door, my brother's friend made a small off the cuff remark which turned out to be an amazing idea. I'm working on it right now in fact! :D (No, I wont tell you what it is yet =p).
So, again, just because somebody's been throwing out useless ideas all night, and just because they don't know the scene very well, doesn't mean you should ignore them. The gem I got that night makes the hours of conversation totally worth it, and I educated some people about SC too (rimshot).
When it's all said and done, the lessons to learn are: You can never have too many good ideas, always entertain every idea - no matter how bad - and explore it's possible variations, and talk to everybody you can.
I know it's be wildly helpful for me.
