Thursday 6 February 2014

Exclusive Communities?

An extremely short one today that I would have asked over twitter but there are not enough characters so I felt it more suitable to put here.

In short I have a question for those within wargaming communities:

"Do you find your communities are exclusive for one game?"

I've noticed over the past year, but even more so in the past six months (but this could be for another reason which I'll cover in a sec) that the Twitter Based Malifaux community is very exclusive over it's content.

By that I mean they are very quick to cover 'Malifaux Only' content, and almost denounce and exclude content that while being about wargaming is not exclusively about Malifaux.

Now don't take this the wrong way, for starters this is not a reflection on the community as a whole and there are still a good few people who I keep in contact with, I read and listen to their productions, and they do the same with mine, but there have been others who are not the same.

The thing is, I am largely ignorant outside of the Malifaux wargaming community, as it was this game that brought my wargaming presence online. That said what GW based blogs, or just 'other game' blogs I read, they tend to be just about wargaming and whatever the author is currently playing. If however you read the majority of those that cover Malifaux, then a huge (and I mean HUGE) proportion of these are Malifaux exclusive, describing themselves as a Malifaux blog rather than a wargaming blog.

Now perhaps a part of this is me feeling butt hurt, seeing events like #ToMB and wanting to take part, but as I'm not playing v2 Malifaux and have no intention of doing so feeling a bit excluded, while at the same time seeing a good number of blogs that used to link to mine removing their links, and when asked being told it's not about my content per se, it is just they only want to link to Malifaux blogs, and even though I still enjoy v1 of Malifaux, I am not a 'Malifaux Blog' and therefore shouldn't be linked to.

So I'm just left wondering, is this normal for wargames? Are there a tonne of 40k Exclusive blogs out there that I'm just unaware of?

Before I finish I need to say, while I am saying I have recently seen an increase in this, I need to add that I am aware that there is a large portion of this could be because I have stopped playing the new game, as such I am no longer a part of this 'exclusive' group. It could be this separation which is why it is more prominent to me now more so than before, and actually it's always been like this.

- one last thing: I am also aware that very often a wargaming community is full of low self esteem R-Tards who need to put others down to make themselves feel better, and so it would make sense if the Malifaux-Twitter community did block off others to try and separate themselves from the dicks of the wargaming world.

I dunno, just throwing the idea out there while I have a quiet moment.

Stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

3 comments:

  1. I think this is a great question. On a personal front, I have had "been involved in "public media" surrounding wargaming for a fair while now between my blog and podcast. On the one hand, I do see some exclusivity in what a subset of a community covers and links to being constrained to specific games. On the GW side there are a number of blogs (and less so podcasts) who stick to GW games. These tend to wander around the GW sandbox a bit but rarely reach outside that sandbox. If I look at my readership stats for my blog over 6 years I would guestimate that exclusivity makes up around a quarter of the community in general.

    Now, with that said I would point out a sad trend I am seeing. Prior to the initial launch or M2E the Malifaux community online seemed very open (to me). There was lots of cross linking, there was lots of open discussion, and a huge range of shared interest that included ideas and material not directly related to Malifaux. Since M2E I have seen a drastic shift in the Malifaux community as a whole. This is by no way saying that the community individuals are "bad" or anything along those lines. I have experienced the Malifaux community at larges (Blogs, Podcasts, Forum) take on some traits I rarely (if ever) saw prior to M2E. It has become insular, almost actively avoiding any input that deviates from that "inside the circle" and supporting the group think of M2E. It has taken on a hive-mind, or group think quality where there is an approved way to think and view the game and anything not close to the constraints of that view is treated as hostile to the community. It has also become very defensive, moving very quickly to attack even the slightest perception of nay-saying or negativity (perception as defined by the previous hive-mind mentality).

    Overall, this is one area that not only saddens me but has pushed me further from the game itself. It's a change in the community I certainly do not like to see.

    Just my opinions.

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  2. Thanks Bill.

    I've had over twitter quite a few replies most of which say that they have found that almost every gaming community has it's fair share of 'exclusivity' and as I commented on myself, I am just unaware of these blogs and comms because I've never seen them.

    I think that I have noticed the same as you with the MFX community, but I am becoming more and more aware that I was just as bad when I was heavily into the game.

    I think with me that because I was inside the circle I never saw it was there, now I'm outside I am aware.

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    1. You have a fair point, it's always amazes me how tough it is to see the walls when your inside the room (so to speak).

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