A little update about the Esoteric Order of Gamers forums.
Righto fellow club members! Things are a little quiet around the forums, and while personally my natural state is to prefer a bit of hush so I can read a rules summary in peace with a good single malt, we can’t have forums just sitting here doing nothing! There’s been a decent stream of new members – 67 have joined as of this writing – but no one seems to be posting anything, and a couple of chatty posts I’ve made have been greeted with silence.
I’ve recently made a few small improvements behind the emerald curtain—the registration and lost password pages have been much improved, so the process will hopefully be less arcane than it was before. Also, you can now create personalised signature blocks under your posts.
However it’s time for us all to rally round and get these boards humming. I’m very much open to suggestions on what I can improve this end, so I’m relying on you club members to inundate me with ideas. Post threads, suggest new topics or even whole new rooms – argue, pontificate and remonstrate! But no duels please gentlemen (and ladies); getting the stains out of the upholstery is a damned inconvenience.
Joseph Highmore A Club of Gentlemen Google Art Project by Joseph Highmore – PAFRDy5Es1PqMA at Google Cultural Institute. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Hmm, my two cents worth. I think it’s a little tough to jump feet first on a new forum. A lot of people (myself included) will lurk for a good long while before they may feel at home in joining in the topics of conversations. I guess I should stop procrastinating and join in myself as there are a lot of articles and games on here that pique my interest. To get the ball rolling, I’m building Deadzone (sooo much assembly), have Warhammer 40,000 second edition boxed set on order and am currently too afraid to un-box my Infinity starter set (it just looks too beautiful to sully with opening and assembling). Keep the faith mate, I’m sure people will come around, starting with me. Is it pretty easy to join the forums?
Thanks for writing Mark. The EOG has been going for about a year and a half now, and I must admit I do sometimes look slightly enviously over at the 200+ comments that every post on the wonderful Shut Up and Sit Down seems to get, and the thriving and friendly community over there. Sometimes I do feel like I’m chatting away in an empty room! But I do know these things take time.
You’ve no doubt seen my videos on Deadzone; it was quite a big job preparing the game but I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got around to playing it. I got the last Warhammer 40K boxed set for the hell of it and painted half of it before I thought “what the hell am I doing?” and abandoned the project. Infinity looks nice but I’ve never been excited by the figures, which are very well designed but all look very similar to me.
Anyway, the forum is built, and perhaps one day they will come!
I decided to look in at Shut Up and Sit Down. Mate, they’ve got 3 or 4 guys working together and they’ve been going for at least three years. And they’re in England, Mecca for tabletop and board gaming. You’re down in New Zealand, small fry in comparison, and you seem to do most of the work on your site and videos yourself. Your website is awesome, easily matching up against the others I’ve come across. Can I put in a request for some more in-depth battle reports (like the Deadzone ones, as you seemed to really get into the nitty-gritty a bit more on those ones).
Personally I love what you have done here Peter! I stumbled across the Order through the Deadzone series of Youtube vids as well , and have a lot if the games for which you have made excellent player aids for. The Deadzone ones in particular came in very handy when I was teaching my kids how to play last week.
As for generating forum discussion, thats a toughy, but I think advertising may help. I made a plug for you on our gaming blog The Mancave, when reviewing my Deadzone purchase.
Hang in here !
Thanks James. Luckily I had an established audience through my many player aids on BoardgameGeek, but even then it’s tough building a community and getting the word out—I hat to think what starting from absolute scratch would be like. Anyway, things are picking up a bit in the forums already I think. Good to have you here!
I’m one of your youtube subscribers. Just wanted to say thanks for all the great stuff coming out EOG. Your tutorials on painting and foam core inspired me to start my own projects. And your rules summary are the best.
Thanks again for all the great work.
Thanks Ted, and a hearty welcome sir!