Now it can be told: Starting in January 2011, Boardgame News will disappear as a standalone site to be reborn as part of BoardGameGeek. Perhaps you've heard of this site?I will be News Editor for BGG, and BGN will run on a new blogging set-up that Aldie, Dan and the BGG coding crew are building. A news module will be incorporated into the BGG front page, with headline-style links to the news articles, game announcements, columns, etc.
My focus as news editor will be on game announcements, game previews, interviews, designer diaries, industry news and game-related articles. I'll be pulling together this info for convention previews, too, and Gone Cardboard will reappear in a new form down the road.
Many thanks to Scott and Derk for making a place for me and Boardgame News. We had chatted about this-and-that over the years, and I felt they were good people – yes, even Derk – so when BGN ran into a ditch in November 2010, I decided to approach them to see whether they could help out. They generously made a place for me, freeing me from having to worry about technology, advertising, donations and all the rest of the stuff that was taking time away from writing – freeing me, in other words, from all the things I'm terrible at so that I can focus on what I do best. Sounds like a good deal to me. Hope that you'll agree when the news starts flowing again on BGG in January 2011...
Eric
Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteYour site will be missed, but it seems all the best bits are moving along with you - and in that sense the site will continue.
Good luck with the new adventure and I will look forward to more quality content from you.
Nicolai
Sigh. Another piece of the puzzle that makes BGG the Google of Board game sites. ;)
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I think this will be great for you, BGG and the community as a whole, in the long run. It'll be good to have BGN back in January!
Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteAwesome news Eric! Really looking forward to this!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they'll let you preview Winsome Games. =P
ReplyDeleteI really like BGG and all, but I'm concerned about their monopoly. BGN's advertising rates were quite reasonable for small publishers. It seems that BGG's aren't.
Perhaps it's time to launch Boardgames.org.
BGN's value was significantly increased by not being part of BGG.
ReplyDeleteAre you guys going to get your archives over to BGG somehow? That would be swell. I totally disagree with JC. Shock, I know. I think it is a great move for both. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteFelicitations! I am delighted that you will be able to continue doing what you love, and focus more on the fun parts and less on the finance parts.
ReplyDeleteCongrats. I will miss the clean uncluttered format of BGN.
ReplyDeleteWe're working on a competitor to BGG so it's not going to be a Monopoly for ever. It should open in beta in January with over 4000 products listed, heavy slant to reviews. Support from high level reviewers and store friendly. More soon...
ReplyDelete- James
And the BGG Borg grows even bigger and has less competition. Definitely NOT good news.
ReplyDeleteCatch you later, Eric. You ran a pretty solid site, but I have zero interest in interacting with the tight-asses, social retards, and Derks at BGG. Been there, done that, hated 95 percent of it. I'll follow your Twitter feed (if you'll still do one), but I'd sooner chew tinfoil than visit BGG for game news.
Nice to know that we'll read BGN again :)
ReplyDeleteAlessandro
Congratulations on finding BGN a future. Two wishes: you'll carry over the archive, and you'll keep your independendence.
ReplyDelete- John Mitchell
I enjoyed having an alternative to BGG, and BGN was always very well done. It did, however, take far too long to load, far too often. I hope the content will stay top notch and that this will solve the server issues (or whatever the issues were). Good luck!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the move. I enjoyed your independence from the BGG monolith. It is too bad it has ended.
ReplyDeleteThis removes one more avenue that small publishers have to get the word out. We can no longer pay to have prominent advertising for a moderate group of people, instead the half a grand to BGG will get us a split second of virtual screen time on people who are running adblock anyhow.
Good luck on the reviews and press, I will miss the independent information you provided.
Nich,
ReplyDeleteDo you have any basis of fact to what you're sayin'...? Just 'cuz we offer adblock to subscribers instead of them using browser scripts you just assume that everyone blocks ads...? I'm sorry if you think BGG doesn't support small publishers, but I think you're dead wrong.
There is a big difference: BGG makes money. BGN, from what snippets I've managed to tease out of Rick and Eric over the years.....doesn't.
ReplyDeleteI've been pretty sure for YEARS that I'd be seeing a closed sign on BGN. So this is a good outcome.
I was a supporter of BGN and am a supporter of BGG. I agree with some of the previous posters: BGN losing it's independence is unfortunate. There is much that goes on at BGG that I disagree with and I have always enjoyed reading the "news" seperately from the fluff.
ReplyDeleteIf the decision was made because BGN was financially unsupportable, then keeping it going is a good thing. If it was merely made to join with BGG, then that is a bad thing.
Clearclaw stated it correctly, BGN had much more value as an independant entity.
Peace
Very sad news.
ReplyDeleteThe community needed an independent voice to be objective and concise, with reportive journalism. Now we're under the behemoth of BGG drama.
Can I have a refund of my supporting membership to BGN?
Well, I guess I'm the crazy one who likes BGG. I'm glad you found a way to focus on doing the stuff you like to do, and look forward to seeing your stuff over on BGG!
ReplyDeleteDerk - marketing guys don't yell at customers
ReplyDeleteEric -- I'm glad that you will be able to focus on what you enjoy and are best at doing! That's very good news and much, much better than folding shop.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
Eric we have talked many times in the past and I wish you the best of luck over at BGG. But as you know we wish another entity to exist hat isn't the huge BGG.
ReplyDeleteAs promised long ago, we've finally opened the site for beta testing and data updating if anyone wishes to check it, feel free to do so but don't post the domain around yet.
We are seeking staff and contributors if anyone desires to participate at the ground level!
http://www.BoardGameInfo.com
BGG is NOT small advertiser friendly anymore. Especially after the changes to the text ads.
ReplyDeleteDerk -
ReplyDeleteYeah, $500 so that the people most likely to buy a small publisher game, don't see it because of AdBloc. Sure, thats like rent for every place I've lived at and most of my mortage now, but I guess its all chump change right?
Can you provide stats on how many BGG members are using AdBloc? You can't? You say it would sink your advertising into the toilet? Hmm.
Eric, very sad to see BGN go, but glad you are moving in a direction that's positive for you.
ReplyDeleteI agree that its unfortunate to see indie news die off.
While I'm happy the good folks at BGG have stepped forward to offer their space, experience and expertise, I'm sorry to see the columns die. If BGG is not the appropriate place for the columns, hopefully they will migrate to another site.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a big shame you didn't ever really open for community assistance with the BGN site as it was. It's pretty obvious to me as someone who gets slow sites running every day (be it Plone, Drupal, eZ Publish, Wordpress, whatyoumightcallit) that using some sort of web cache would have solved 99% of your problems in one go.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame Rustan didn't just put Varnish in front of Pressflow right away, instead of leaving BGN with a non working Drupal 6 install. But giving the site up so fast? I was sad to read that.
I like BGG for what it is, but BGN had it's own voice, it's own profile and as many have said was all the better for it.
This is unfortunate - as another commenter said it seemed like all that was necessary was using a CDN to help with the traffic. But I guess there were other concerns too - advertising and what not.
ReplyDeleteI will reluctantly give the BGG version of BGN a try but only out of loyalty to BGN.
Thats too bad, as i enjoyed reading the articles of new games and even made me fly over to other game conventions. Boardgamegeek is just way too busy a site and makes my eyes hurt. Instead of checking each day I will cut it back to once a week for about 2-3 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWell January isn't over yet.
ReplyDelete