KickstarterForum.org

Awesome title, no?

OK, so they won't literally kill you, but if you pull a Phil Fish and piss off the wrong internet troll, you can kiss your career as a game dev good bye. Yes, it's that serious, but no, this article is not about netiquette and how to stop being an asshole, nor will it teach you the right way to market yourself on Board Game Geek (BGG). I'm just simply going to tell you my story and hopefully by the end of this post you will have learned from my mistake and will be on your way to happy days at BGG.

First off, all would-be analog game developers need to believe me when I say this: the time to get on BGG is eight months ago. I didn't and my current project is suffering for it. More than anything--above polish art, banner ads, and showcasing your prototype at local game shops--you need to move onto BGG, establish a persona there, and shake as many digital hands as you can.

Right now.

But before you walk onto the battlefield, please take a moment and read on. Be warned: the denizens of BGG will crush you. Believe me when I say in Batman bold print: BOARD GAME GEEK CAN BE YOUR BEST FRIEND OR YOUR WORST ENEMY. I say all this because I'm only now getting into the BGG scene and it has been a roller-coaster experience.

You see, BGG isn't just an elite group of smarty-pants nerds you remember from your high school's chess club. BGG is an effin tribe! If they like you, they will carry you to the end of your life's journey with unquestionable loyalty. But if they don't... you are dead meat. If you piss off the wrong person(s), they will not only destroy your reputation, but they will eliminate you from the gaming scene outright! This means you won't have a demographic to target when you come back with your next KS project.

This almost happened to me... luckily I involved an Admin who stifled the flame before the thirty or so trolls could piss all over my name. Le sigh... I got a respawn. I get one more chance to go back in and do things right. But I know in my heart and from what I've observed on the internet (e.g. the crowd-sourced implosion of Phil Fish), I know that it was a close call. I could have lost everything in that exchange.

I just thought I should warn BGG newcomers of the risks involved for putting yourself out there on their forums. Cos get this. You wanna know why I was treated with such disdain? Why I was called a "failure" and "a laughing stock"?

Because I posted a pic of my game in the wrong thread, asking for people to check out my Kickstarter page. It was my first post ever on their site. *_* Holy cow.

As a member of the community, I must say that I haven't experienced anything like what you describe. I have seen it happen once or twice but usually when someone's game project is pretty obviously terrible and the game designer refuses to see the help people are trying to give them.

I didn't see what happened to you so I can't speak to that but I will say that part of what you posted is absolutely true: be part of the community long before you try and launch anything. Why? Because you are trying to get at their money! Why shouldn't you have to give something back to the community first?

Last week I posted a link to my kickstarter on there. In the wrong forum. And it wasn't even about a game. And you know what? I didn't get flamed at all, because I have invested time into that community. I haven't posted my project on sites that I haven't built any relationships (except for ones specifically about crowdfunding) because people have no reason to support me if I haven't given some of myself into their lives.

I don't mean to sound harsh but it kind of sounds like you are condemning people that condemned you without knowing you even though you really don't know them either.

I couldn't agree more with you. I was being very judgmental of the individuals behind the cyber-bullying fiasco. No one likes being picked on. I won't lie that it did give me a bad first impression of BGG, as I'd been warned about this sort of thing beforehand. Fortunately, like I said in the post, I asked an Admin to intervene and remove the post as spam so I could erase that little incident from my life.

But what's up with this elite club mentality? Why do I have to spend 40+ hours getting to know you before I can talk about my game? Deviant Art is nothing like this. I play usher to a lot of new users, many of which are total 15 year-old noobs. I don't flip out on them when they do ONE thing wrong. I don't know anyone there who would let into someone for simply trying to generate traffic to their Kickstarter. It simply does not happen there.

I digress. I am still wrong. I shouldn't generalize everything. It's not fair to the good people who are there on BGG, many of which have since helped me find the right path. The point of my article here was to inform newcomers to BGG of the risks involved. I'm trying to tell people to do their homework and make sure to meet and greet with the right people. Make friends. And THEN promote yourself, as you did.

My writing was incensed - and rather biased - I'll admit. I can't help it... I have a lot of pride. But hey, it's all under the carpet now, as far as I'm concerned. I hope to make a bunch of new friends on BGG and establish a long-lasting impression amongst the community! But I certainly won't let my guard down ever again! *_*

Thanks for commenting, dude! Hope your KS is a major success!

One more thing to note is that many of the big name board game companies have started basically using KS as a pre-order system and even those companies often run into product delays and components not being what was promised, etc. And I think perhaps much of the BGG community that tends to back KS projects are getting a bit jaded by every new KS that comes along. So other than jumping into the site with your hand out, I'm sure much of the rest of it probably wasn't your fault.

As you said there are lots of good people there that are willing to help out and in my experience they far out-number the bad.

Did you say chess is for high school losers? Maybe you should check this out and then rethink your opening statement. No hard feelings, but THIS version chess is out of this world.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1512777826/dominar