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

MWChapel wrote:

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 both sites have the opposite "problems" (if you call them that).
BGN has the approach, but doesn't seem to have the community for some reason.

I think we have a great little small community here, but what stops us being bigger is the staff don't really have anyone with big plans driving it to the next level. While it's always nicer to have more readers, I'm happy with the level this thing is at, and I suspect most other staffers are as well. Without someone who will put the work in to go to the next leve we will stay as we are, which I am totally fine with.

Personally, I think this site has a better community than BGG. It's not populated by snobs who thumb their noses at certain games.

mikoyan wrote:

Personally, I think this site has a better community than BGG. It's not populated by snobs who thumb their noses at certain games.

Two unrelated responses to this:

1) Are all communities judged by the people at the extremes?

2) tinyurl.com/67upxe

I suppose 2 is debatable if you consider the "snobs" part of your statement to be the important one rather than the nose thumbing.

Yes and yes.

I'll give BGN credit for occasionally presenting some interesting gaming news. I've had the site on an RSS feed for about as long as I've known what the hell an RSS feed was.

It's just too bad that you really have to do a lot of mining to unearth the rare nuggets of news. Three-quarters of their writers are beyond useless and I have no patience at all for the Gathering Of Snobs articles that dominate the site. (Really, BGN "writers": I don't give a shit how long it took you to unpack after you got there).

And community? Please. It's like eight columnists just talking to each other.

SusanR wrote:

heavy euros

"heavy euro" is kind of like saying "this book is difficult for 8 year olds".

Octavian wrote:

mikoyan wrote:

Personally, I think this site has a better community than BGG. It's not populated by snobs who thumb their noses at certain games.

Two unrelated responses to this:

1) Are all communities judged by the people at the extremes?

2) tinyurl.com/67upxe

I suppose 2 is debatable if you consider the "snobs" part of your statement to be the important one rather than the nose thumbing.

First off I think your responses are very related.

1) Yes they are. Those are the people who stick out the most.

2) I think what noses are thumbed at here is not the game per se, but the "this is the game of the century, but you won't play it, because you're not IN" ("full disclosure" ) attitude, which the few people who played it convey. => Just the stuff Barnes pokes fun at in his Game Z article.

I don't read boardgame news because;

a) Most of the writers blogposts/articles are boring. This may be a personal thing, but I just don't care about your con experiences or how your kid had a fever the other day which kept you from attending game night so instead you're going to talk about what its like to read a newspaper. I'll stress again that I started this with "Most".

b) I don't care about Eurogame related news that much. That is to say I don't really need to know much about a game that isn't going to be released in English until two years later. Until its in stores (and gets non-insider reviews) its not even on my radar as a possible purchase and I'd rather try-before-buy regardless. Plus, any worthwhile news reaches other websites before the game is released anyways.

c) I'm not paying $25. for the priviledge of reading game advertisements pre-Essen. And I'm even less enthusiastic about Gathering prototypes (i.e. games that aren't even news worthy yet) than I am about games that have been picked up but aren't released yet. Better information comes by waiting.

d) There's a decidedly anti-Ameritrash, anti-NotOneOfUs vibe there. Even moreso than BGG since BGN has a higher concentration of people who talk about games like they're wine tasting and are all part of the same circle of friends, or so it seems. Not to mention the review bias due to knowing or playing with the designers, publishers, etc.

e) They don't even have the latest news anyways. F:AT totally scooped them on the Game Z announcement.

the*mad*gamer wrote:

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

I suspect Eric has some other Asian Women magazines under his bed.

Shellhead wrote:

the*mad*gamer wrote:

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

I suspect Eric has some other Asian Women magazines under his bed.

This post should have gone in the "New Wanker Announced" thread.

I used to be a daily visitor to BGN, but that was before my awakening to the glory that is Ameritrash. Once I figured out how much more fun AT games are than the typical euros, BGN suddenly became dull as dishwater for me. Coverage over there is completely dominated by euros. Eric reports news on AT and other non-euro stuff, but the columns are 100% euro dogma. zzzzzzzzzz......

F:AT is where it's at right now (for me). I can get AT news, reviews and commentary here, along with crybaby free discussion about all kinds of games, pop culture, etc. I hope F:AT never hits the Big Time to the same degree as BGG, because that's when the whiners and crybabies start showing up. BGG is a fantastic resource of game info, but the forum discussions can be like fingernails on a chalkboard.

the barefoot killer wrote:

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.

Yeah, and then there's this nugget in the comments section:

I think the important thing to take from this issue is that there are a multitude of such niche areas throughout the world and they continue to multiply and be maintained.

Evidently, being an Asian woman or a Muslim is a niche lifestyle choice, comparable to being a board game hobbyist.