Inside Good Game: With Nikola Stolnik
We’re always delighted to be able to introduce you to the people behind the awesome .ME sites you can read about on this blog. This time, we’re extremely pleased to introduce you to Nikola Stolnik, CEO and the man behind the Good Game project.
We’ve written about Good Game before, and brought you both the introductory article and the post–event recap. The main idea behind Good Game is to create the first charity gaming tournament in the region, where the leading technological companies would battle for the title of regional champions while helping children in hospitals and hospital wards around Croatia.
When Gamers And Charity Combine
We asked Nikola to introduce us to Good Game, and describe to us what the tournament is.
Good Game is a charity eSports tournament for tech and startup companies. Or CETTSC for short. Just kidding, that would be ridiculous.
What we’re trying to achieve is tri-fold: Firstly, to offer Tech and Startup companies with a different kind of networking.
We’ve identified that the majority of networking options for tech and startup professionals revolve around conferences and panels, where everyone is just trying to sell you something. It’s mostly just vanity fairs. People need a place to unwind and fill up with positivity.
Secondly, to get mature gamers out in the spotlight.
Most gaming events or messages are geared towards young audiences or gaming professionals, but there’s a huge gap with young and mature professionals which is not being addressed. As a gamer myself, I’d like to see more 23-45yo people enjoy gaming, and conversing with like-minded folk. We see a huge opportunity here for the future development of Good Game, where the young to mature professional will be able to compete in amateur competitions with their colleagues and competitors.
And thirdly, to do good.
People have an inherit need to do good. And if you provide the means, they will undoubtedly build on the positivity of the cause, and spread the good feels like wildfire. This is why we’ve pledged 50% of the competitor’s entry fees towards supplying Children’s Hospital Departments across Croatia with gaming consoles.
A Life Spent Gaming Sparks Great Ideas
When we asked Nikola about what gave him the idea to start this tournament, he said that it was pretty obvious to him, because he is a lifelong gamer. Also, he said that he did not know about any similar type of tournament, so he decided to try something new and interesting. He noted that he always tries to find ways to combine things that seem very hard to combine, and gaming and charity are one of those things for sure.
When asked about the response from the companies regarding the tournament, Nikola said that he was taken aback by the overwhelmingly positive response to the idea. When the team asked the companies to be a part of the tournament only one company turned them down, and that one was because they simply weren’t in Zagreb at the time of the tournament. The last two spots were reserved for the fastest two companies to apply, and the entire roster was full the day applications were open.
To be honest I was kind of taken aback by the overwhelmingly positive response. From all the companies we’ve reached out to, only one turned us down, with the explanation that they were having off-site sessions and not enough employees would be in Zagreb at the time of the tournament. We’ve strategically left 2 last spots open for general registration which was advertised on Netokracija.com, which led to us having to decline 5 company applications. This insight will help us shape the future of GG and where we want to go with it.
From a gamer standpoint, the tournament was on par with the best tournaments in the region. The game of choice was Counter Strike:Global Offensive, which Nikola says is the best contender because of its simplicity and teamwork. It’s not easy for someone to get good at Dota on a high level, says Nikola, but CS:GO is relatively easy to get into, and eliminates the skill gap between teammates by pitting teams of 5 people against each other. Nikola also noted that the team has plans for games like Fifa and Rocket League, so we’ll be seeing a lot more of Good Game in the future.
Our choice game was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, for two main reasons: simplicity and teamwork. It’s very easy to sit someone down at a computer, show them where to move forward and where to click to shoot. On the other hand, a game like Dota requires extensive practice. We’re talking about hundreds of hours just to get mildly ok in the game.What we plan to do is to have supporting tournaments for 1-3 person teams in games like Rocket League and Fifa.
Next Stop – Who Knows?
Considering Good Game is an eSports tournament, we wanted to know how does Nikola think Good Game will fit in with the newest trends, and what part of the market does he think Good Game will fill.
As eSports is still kind of marginalized, and geared towards younger audiences and gaming professionals, there is a huge chunk of the market no one is touching yet. This is where GG comes in. With Good Game, we have a proven concept for reinstating the gamers flame with people who grew up with the first LAN parties and online gaming. And to make competitive gaming accessible to previously uninterested people. We are exclusively targeting young and mature professionals between 23 and 45 years of age, a market set which is currently uncared for. This way we bring in new eSports audiences, and introduce proper decision makers and market shifters to the concept.
Now the tournament is finished, how did the people who participated in the tournament react? What’s the next step when you round up the info?
It was very important for us to get proper feedback from attendees, which we received and which is being used in improving the overall experience. With an average score of 9.40 out of 10, and 100% Yes responses on ‘Will you be coming to the next GG event’ question, we’re blessed and burdened with very high expectations which we plan to deliver on. The team was incredible. No other way of putting it. And a special shout out to the amazing volunteers.
Now back to the question. The next step is getting all the feedback round up, constructing a ‘successblueprint’, and applying it to the next country.
We, of course, wanted to know how did Nikola and his team choose .ME for their domain, and how does .ME improve the overall appearance of the Good Game project.
It was just an incredible series of events which led us to .ME. As I attended the .ME presentation in Zagreb, Croatia a few months ago, and met with wonderful .ME people, it just made sense that we try to incorporate GG positivity with the recognizable .ME domain. On a more serious note, when I was planning the whole GG concept, it just clicked that it had to be an .ME domain. We already started to joke about verb-ifing the name ‘Good Game me’, with the meaning of ‘make me one with good game’.
Considering the tournament was primarily a charity event, the money raised was used to purchase PlayStation 4 consoles and games for children at hospitals throughout Croatia. We asked Nikola in what phase is the actual charity part, and he said that we should expect consoles in hospitals before the end of April.
The consoles have been ordered and now we’re awaiting shipment. We’re expecting that they should be in hospitals all around Croatia by the end of April.
So that’s it! .ME was a proud sponsor of the first Good Game, and we’re certainly going to continue supporting wonderful charity projects like this one. We wish Good Game the best of luck, and we’ll keep you updated with all news related to Good Game.
