Community Focus: 2014 Review

John Parker

I started 2014 with the intent to get more involved in the card and board gaming community and to try to provide some value to it. Hopefully I have made at least a start in that direction and some minor accomplishments. So, what did I do in 2014 to advance the hobby?

  • It took longer than desired to get this site up and running, but since I did get it online, I have regularly posted blogs notebook articles, links to resources, and downloadable tools and one PnP game (though minor).
    • At this point essentially no one is reading these posts and therefore, the community is not benefiting from them. Note: If people were reading them, they wouldn’t necessarily be beneficial even then, but at least they (and I) would be tested.
    • Also, so far the only comments I have received posted to the site were awesome health and financial remedies that had a life altering impact on the poster’s brother/mother/cousin/best friend.
  • I have officially playtested 2 games for a major game producer.
  • I have unofficially provided rules edits for 3 games approaching publication.
  • I have provided feedback on several other work-in-progress games to their designers and publishers.
  • I have provided some content approval on BGG, but not as much as I would have liked.
  • I have provided feedback and kudos to posters on BGG, but also not as much as I would have liked.
  • I attended my first convention and randomly taught a table Robinson Crusoe. I also encouraged several players who were struggling in games that I played.
  • I started 2 new game groups with new gamers and restarted another that had been in hiatus for many years (like, 20 years).
  • I have taught probably 40 total games to about 20 total people (excluding Lori, who has had to learn many more).
  • I started participating regularly in the Board Game Hour.
  • I started by listening to every podcast I could find and have whittled my regular listening to about 15 of them. Maybe this is mostly for me, but it helps me stay attuned to what is going on in the hobby and has provided me some opportunities to support the podcasters.
  • I have financially supported a few boardgaming information and design outlets (primarily Dice Tower and UnPub).

Now that I have listed out the main things that come to mind, it looks like a pretty good list, but really only a pretty good start. It is a load more than I did in prior years. Hopefully, I will have the time and the opportunity to do much more in 2015. Watch for a preview of 2015 in the next week or so.

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