I have a domain that I like, notes.vg. Years ago I created a blog called gamenotes, which was supposed to be a group blog so our friends could coordinate their gaming activities, and have a place to share assets, like screenshots and in-game stories.
It didn’t really take off, but the idea stuck with me. My last idea was for a BuddyPress-powered instance with a bunch of custom post types for talking about various aspects of gaming in general, to include tabletop and card games as well. Stuff like having a character sheet builder, and inline comments.
The specific tech has never been a big deal for me, and Discourse (the software running this site) actually does a lot of what I wanted (just wait until we start using it for role-playing, OMFG!). And one of the neat things the developers did was build a plugin that hooks WordPress into Discourse, by creating a new thread for each post, and the syncing the popular replies back as comments. Very cool!
So that brings us to today, where my latest idea is to have a group blog (meaning we would open posting to it to many folks, and not just people I know, though some minimal vetting process would be in place), about games, which posts to a category here (I call them talkgroups, that is kind of the theme…).
Some topics I am interested posting about:
- Game changelogs/updates - I always wanted to have discussions about game changes, specifically in MMOs
- Deals - Primarily humble bundles; it would be neat to talk about which games people are going to/have play/ed. Another way to coordinate gaming.
- Big news stuff - “OMG, the Occulus Cardboard Rift Plus hooks into the New 3DS and can connect to any toaster!”
- Interesting stories/screenshots - someone sent me a screenshot from GW2 the other day and noticed something in the background, and it was pretty cool
Before asking for feedback, let me say that I have other plans for fiction and roleplaying. I think building out fiction/worlds deserves its own resources, and tabletop RPGs fall enough under storytelling that I want to build that out (I will make a similar thread about that soon). Video games are more an interactive medium, and they have their place in a person’s expression, merely by talking about it, but those two realms are separate enough that I am okay.
However, what about games that don’t really get into roleplay, or storytelling? Magic: The Gathering, for instance. Or Settlers of Catan. Euro-style board games are an interest of mine, so do I want to talk about them with video games, include them in a “tabletop entertainment” (doesn’t feel right, since I play a lot of them online as well) site, or do I clump them in with storytelling?
Fortunately, I never really defined what vg meant, so I’ve alternatively referred to it as “notes, various games”. Does that make sense? All our gaming stuff in one place? It would even let us separate news from storytelling discussion, one specific instance being I don’t particularly care about every industry change in the TRPG market when I am world-building, but I might like that for reference elsewhere.
Let me know whatcha think. 