Remember the GameFor app?

[sundancer 42979xp 0]

That think I advocated for so heavily, made by Uncle Adam/Tabletop Minions and his colleagues at Milk Can Studios? Well that has been canned some time ago, sadly.

Today I’ve stumbled across this Kickstarter called:

Vox Link: a Local Tabletop Game Finding Social App

Sound hauntingly familiar, doesn’t it?

Not sure how to feel about this plus it just feels… off? Maybe I’m just too burned on Kickstarter Software things. Your thoughts?

http://kck.st/3xJDPEu

[warcoloursParticipant 438xp 0]

The problem with this kind of apps is that they are only good if people actually register on them and most people actually seems not to. Most importantly, not in a diffuse way. I used GameFor, but only about three people were registered in 500 miles from where I live, so it was pretty useless…
I do not know what it would take in order to get people to register, but until there is a solid base of players I doubt any of these will ever take off…

[sundancer 42979xp 0]

3 within 500 miles? that’s thinly stretched. I think I was around 10 – 15 in a ~40 miles radius. Plus the FLGS and some clubs.

And it’s the “hen and egg” problem all over. Without the app, people won’t register. But without registered people there is no intensive to get the app.

Maybe that’s the main paint of failure for GameFor in the past. They just put the app out there for people to discover. By doing a KS before and generate interest (and a userbase) this might stand a fighting chance.

Proof will be in the pudding. Currently the funding goal is far away still.

[redscopeParticipant 2718xp 0]

Oddly enough I came across this yesterday it seems a number of “youtubers” are being paid to do adverts on it. I must admit my first reaction was why would you have a kickstarter for an App and want to pay for it 12 months in advance ? We have a raft of social media like facebook and discord to arrange games normally in the UK its all through local clubs or hobby shops.

The idea of the app is not bad but paying 5 dollars a month for some odd game dating app. I just dont see that enough people locally will sign up to get any use out of it.

It just seems really odd to me as well. But then again I am completely burnt out with kickstart due to my on going 3 year battle with mythic games to deliver.

[sundancer 42979xp 0]

As far as I can tell you don’t need to pay. There is a free tier when the app comes out. But you can’t pay coders and programmers on “free”

We have a raft of social media like facebook and discord to arrange games normally in the UK its all through local clubs or hobby shops.

yeah but that is a very British thing. We do have clubs here too but very little in the like of FLGS with actual play area. There are some but not even the majority. And if you live in an area with very little population and you need to drive some amount of hours to get anywhere finding local players with such an app is easier then go to places like facepage and discord. And some people don’t want to be on there to begin with so it’s a way for those to connect.

Anyhow: let’s see how this turns out.

[guillotine 16039xp 1]

And there was another one around the same time as GameFor which failed just as badly.

These apps try to solve a real problem: a person is into a specific game, but has no mates to play it. So, like dating. But the difference to dating is that the best solution for the lonely gamer is not to find another lonely gamer but a group or a scene. Those who are members of clubs, FLGS groups or whatever would have no incentive to join these apps, instead they are in typical social media or on websites like OTT. The chance of finding that other loner in an area that has no scene starts to get so diminishingly small the apps make no sense.

I’m in a lucky position to me a member of a super active club where I can find someone to play almost anything. But if I wasn’t, I’m not sure my desire to play something would overcome the awkwardness of reaching out to someone random to ask for a game. Or in fact receive such a message from someone else.

 

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