My First Bgg Post
Below is the first post I ever made on BGG. If you wan to see the full post and conversation that takes place in the post’s comments, the link below will take you there. If you keep reading, you will see the post reformatted here for the blog.
I’m a nobody in the world of board games. I’ve been heavily entrenched in the hobby for about three years, but I’ve been around games my entire life. Paula Deming has a great video showing the evolution of a board gamer.
While everyone has slightly different tracks they carve out as they go through the hobby, I would guess that almost everyone in the hobby who watches her video can find at least a small part of the evolution they connect with.
One part Paula doesn’t touch on is those of us who push the “game designer” path of this game hobbyist tech tree. I know I’m not alone in this journey; many of us post about it on BGG and other community threads. So, what makes me feel special enough to write and publish a post about my journey? Nothing. I think that’s the reason why I’m doing it. I just want to open up and talk publicly about where I’m at in my journey for those who might be in the same spot as I am. Also, it will be therapeutic for me after clicking the publish button at the end of the day.
I was initially going to title this something along the lines of “A one-sided conversation I’d love to have with Jamey” because Jamey Stegmaier has been a huge guiding light for my forward movement on this path I’m on. Having someone like that has been a tremendous positive in the direction I’m heading but can also be a pitfall for a few reasons.
When I started viewing myself as a “game designer,” I relied on Jamey for everything. I was on his blog whenever I wanted to work on game design. He has a great wealth of information that was huge for getting started.
How to Design a Tabletop Game
It was great; I would read the posts, watch the videos, review his answers to others, and participate in his weekly livecasts. He put all this time into putting out free content, and I was soaking it up like a sponge. It felt great, and I was making strides on game concepts. I then plateaued. I can pinpoint when it happened. It was when I first DM’d him a question about game design. He answered my question quickly and directed me to where I would be able to get more information in the future. He didn’t have to do that. The problem it created was that I felt tempted to continue taking that shortcut. I was no longer carrying my fair share of the work; I was mentally putting all the work on Jamey. That is when he posted this video:
About 10 minutes into the video, he discusses having a strategic plan for contacting publishers. It hit home because it also applies to how you engage with designers and content creators. I felt ashamed at first because Jamey was right; I was being selfish. This shame made me take a step back from designing for a little. Looking back on it, the same wasn’t totally from taking up Jamey’s time. I did feel sorry for unintentionally doing that, but his video helped educate me on taking the time to do the research before just taking the easy route. What caused the feeling of shame was taking the easy road instead of doing the work. That discredited my ability to be a researcher, a learner, and a designer.
After enough time away, I have found the “game designer” tech tree path again. This second go-around feels different. There are a lot of different ways to describe feelings. Some sound conceited, some sound hyperbole, and some are obvious, but they all feel right.
There is no shortcut to doing the work. That’s the biggest takeaway I’ve had so far on this Journey. The second is to keep thinking about giving back to the community before trying to take from it. I like to think I’m proactive and conscientious about how I do things, but often I look back at how selfish they can come off. I know it’s never intentional, but I always keep reminding myself to look at the other side of the coin first to see how those impacted by my actions might receive them.
Selfishly, I will be DM’ing Jamey a link to this post. Selfishly, I hope this post starts a conversation, not necessarily with him but with others in the same spot as I am. I believe most of what Jamey would be able to add to the conversation he’s already put out in some form of blog or video post. I think this because since coming back to working on game design, I’ve been able to dig up and find what I need from him.
I guess I’ll sign off this letter by saying thank you. Thank you to Jamey, those who read this, and everyone in the hobby. I take so much enjoyment from this hobby, so thank you all for allowing this world to exist.
