The Reason Boardgamenews.com hasn't made the Big Time?

I had high hopes for the boardgamenews website. I really did. The design was well thought out and more adult than BGG even despite the Eurogame bias so prevelant on the site.

Although Rick Thornquist was an Arch Enemy of mine he still was a Titan in the realm of boardgames.

The retirement of Rick Thornquist spelled doom for Boardgamenews. The most excitement they had was the recent Barnes interview but with Terry Bailey Sr.'s hissy fit about resigning, the site unfortunately fell into the junivile trappings that were, and still are so prevelant on BGG.

Larry Levy's lack of balls drags the site down again with his silly awards. His inability to pick a winner is unprecedented in any awards in any arena. His recent Meeple's Choice Awards again had 3 winners. His 3 way ties are his way of sparing the oh so fragile feelings of our hypersensitive game designers. I often wonder how these hypersensitives survive in the real world!!!

Let's not forget the new site manager W. Eric Martin. Take a look at his recent article

http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/w_eric_martin_another_world/

He truly is in another world. Reading the magazine Asian Woman. Eric is not reading this magazine in the cool way Clint Eastwood read Cosmo in the movie "Heartbreak Ridge" in a "I'm trying to understand women kind of way".

Eric is reading the magazine like a hen in a beauty shop. Look at his quote



"She looks much younger with her hair cut"

W. Eric Martin has put the final nail in the coffin in Boardgamenews. Even the most recent Essen Survival Guide written by Rick Thornquist can't pull the website out of its death spriral.

BGN like F:AT just has a tiny following. BGN with it's ol'buddy's of the Gathering throwing a few ducets to keep it afloat, and there's everyone else that might peak at it weekly to see what's on the horizon. However it has next to zero "community" attached to it. So it goes nowhere. It is what it is, and will always be just that.

Look at the essen preview, no one wants to pay for gaming advertisements.

Then again F:AT is little more than that, just this tiny little niche' of like minded folks with great writing skills. But it is what it is, and will always be just that.

Neither site will ever come to the the level of community that BGG has.

I think it's funny that he thinks "Little Mosque on the Prairie" is exotic and strange. It's a sitcom that's filmed in Saskatchewan.

FYI, you must be mistaken in some way re: the Meeples Choice Awards. I haven't read Levy's article, but the MCA is voted on. So either he's talking about something other than the MCA or the tie isn't Levy's fault.

Neither site will ever come to the the level of community that BGG has

You know I hope F:AT doesn't get as big as BGG...the bigger you are the more wankers you get.

MWChapel wrote:

Neither site will ever come to the the level of community that BGG has.

I disagree. F:AT or other sites can be better communities than BGG. There's nothing on BGG that can't be duplicated, or improved upon, by another website.

Mad Dog wrote:

MWChapel wrote:

Neither site will ever come to the the level of community that BGG has.

I disagree. F:AT or other sites can be better communities than BGG. There's nothing on BGG that can't be duplicated, or improved upon, by another website.

Agreed, it "can" be, but it won't.

Neither site will ever come to the the level of community that BGG has.

That depends on how you define "level of community." BGG's is bigger, I'll give it that.

ubarose wrote:

Druen Kree wrote:

Neither site will ever come to the the level of community that BGG has

You know I hope F:AT doesn't get as big as BGG...the bigger you are the more wankers you get.

Even a fraction of the size of BGG is a huge headache. I used to help my friend with her community site. When she got to the point of over 2,000 members *cough*whigning bitches*cough*, I called it quits. I don't need all that Jr. High School drama.

I get enough Jr. High drama at work as it is, and I'm sure that when my oldest goes to middle school in 2 years, my head will blow up from overload.

--Mike L.

Hey, our daughters must be the same age. Jeez, I hadn't thought about the fact that she'll be in Jr. High soon. I'm going to have to ramp up her "mean girl" training.

Maybe Eric Martin will lend them his "Asian Woman" magazines. The girls might pickup some martial arts tips.

ubarose wrote:

mikelawson wrote:

I get enough Jr. High drama at work as it is, and I'm sure that when my oldest goes to middle school in 2 years, my head will blow up from overload.

--Mike L.

Hey, our daughters must be the same age. Jeez, I hadn't thought about the fact that she'll be in Jr. High soon. I'm going to have to ramp up her "mean girl" training.

Heh. A friend of my wife's had her daughter to to middle school last year, and she came home one day after a sex ed class and declared "Boys are gross!" Her mom said, "Keep thinking that way until you're 25."

--Mike L.

Oh, puh-lease. Frank Branham just posted an excellent article there about pimping out Descent:RtL. Sheesh, some people are just too freakin' hard to please....

Larry writes some excellent articles there IF you are into heavy euros. He *did* try to explain what his designer award was all about and the discussion was somewhat interesting even if he couldn't make up his mind.

Eric does a pretty good job at the news part of the website, I think. I only read a few of the reviews he writes because most of the games he reviews look like crap to me. It totally sucks as a community because I often can't be bothered (okay, remember) to go back and look at comments on articles that I've already read. BGG and F:AT are MUCH better as a community.

Larry *did* try to explain what his designer award was all about and the discussion was somewhat interesting even if he couldn't make up his mind.

It wasn't just his indecisiveness that made his awards irrelevant (I don't really get how he managed to be indecisive when he didn't even have an opinion in the first place). It was also that he was awarding (and later eliminating) designers for their games that he had never even played, based on a) insignificant differences in BGG ratings (which are pretty much useless in the first place), and b) a geeklist that generated little feedback.


But I will check out that Descent article.