As I mentioned in the comments of last night's Open Letter to the Various Online PDF & Print RPG Stores there really needs to be a place for bloggers, podcasters and publishers to meet, greet and arrange for reviews to happen.
It occurred to me as I was laying in bed last night that I have something here at The Tavern that could facilitate such a virtual location - a forum.
What? The Tavern has a forum? Yep, unused these days as it really didn't have much of a purpose when I set a page up for it but now I think we have a purpose. I'm going to rework the forum this weekend.
Here's how I'm currently thinking this will work ("this" being whatever we decide to call this community meeting place - currently called "The Common Room")
- A forum for publishers to introduce themselves and their products / product lines and give contact information. Publishers would list each product they would like to receive reviews for as separate posts in their thread.
- A forum for blogs to introduce themselves and their blog. How often do you do reviews? How often do you post? You could list links to your prior reviews, if any, in this initial post. Contact information would be helpful to publishers here. Follow up posts linking each review completed through the use of the forum.
- A forum for podcasters to introduce themselves and their podcasts. How often do you do reviews? How often do you release episodes? You could list links to your prior reviews, if any, in this initial post. Contact information would be helpful to publishers here. Follow up posts linking each review completed through the use of the forum.
- A forum for completed reviews. As each review gets done and posts, this would be the master list.Once a week I'd do a summary posts of the reviews completed here at The Tavern. It would probably follow the following format to some extent:
For the week of April 6th through April 12th, the following reviews were completed via The Common Room Review Program:
- My OSR Blog (linked) reviewed The Deepest Deadly Dungeon (RPGNow Link) (Table Top Library Link) (Lulu Link) (Open Gaming Store Link) (etc link) released by Damn Fine Games (linked). The Deepest Deadly Dungeon is an adventure for levels 1 to 8 using the Swords & Wizardry rules but suitable for all OSR gaming.There would be a permanent link to both the weekly review summary posts as well as the Common Room Forums in the tabs on top of the main Tavern Page. If we could commission a graphic for the program, I'd also place it on the right sidebar and other blogs / podcasts / publisher sites could do the same if the wished.
In the end, it's all about community.
So, give me your feedback. Yay or nay? Suggestions? Too much? Too little? Is there something that could really make this pop?
I like the idea
ReplyDeleteI've had one person contact me directly to do a review. All others were of what I thought of something I either downloaded for free or paid for.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a good place to get the two together.
I've got something cool in the works that I can't talk about yet, so more reviews would be a potential steady source of content for that.
I like this.
ReplyDeleteStop me if it seems stupid, but... would it seem reasonable to have a "point system" for reviewers, not for "quality" or what, but simply for "stuff received vs. stuff reviewed"?
This woul help us (the publishers) to direct material towards people more likely to review it.
we could very well do something like that. would take a little tracking on my end but doable
DeleteHard work on your end is an inspiration to us all with the benefit of keeping you from idleness or idolatry or whatever;)
DeleteHard work on your end is an inspiration to us all with the benefit of keeping you from idleness or idolatry or whatever;)
DeleteI like it! Mischief, Inc. would participate.
ReplyDeleteI like it! Mischief, Inc. would participate.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea. Small Niche Games would participate.
ReplyDeleteWould the focus be aimed at newer material? One thing that turned me away from some forum review sites was the abundance of reviews of old products. I mean there are only so many times I can read about someone's experience with Keep on the Borderlands or Tomb of Horrors.
I'd say the product would need to have been released in the prior 12 months
DeleteAs a blogger who's been considering doing reviews and a publisher myself, I like the idea as well and would participate where I could.
ReplyDeleteSanctum Secorum would certainly be interested. We already feature a show every episode and branching into posted reviews is something we have looked at to keep momentum on the site moving.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Pete, new products I would be interested in.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good idea.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWould revised products be considered new for these purposes?
ReplyDeletein my judgement, yes
DeleteI've done some reviews - mostly of SJG products, but branching out would be good for me. I even did a solicited review once, where I got to be pretty honest and the game was revised a tetch as a result of my feedback. Having a place to host them, and generate more interest in Gaming Ballistic as a review forum, would be nice.
ReplyDeleteI have done some reviews and have some products. I need to be more in depth with the reviews I write, however.
ReplyDeleteI like it too, Erik, but just don't over commit because it seems like this could very quickly become a lot of work.
ReplyDeletethankfully retired now. we'll see how it goes :)
Deletehttp://www.tenkarstavern.com/p/common-room.html#/
ReplyDeleteThe forums are up. Might not be ready for prime time, so consider this a "soft launch"
Will make an official post in a few, so if u read this comment first you got off to a head start ;)
For the lazy among us, http://www.tenkarstavern.com/p/common-room.html#/
DeleteI'm interested!
ReplyDeleteI used to own a publishing house, and had a number of contacts such as artists and editors. I'd be happy to provide some networking if anyone would be interested in that service.
ReplyDelete