Thoughts on Mountain State Gaming

I’m sitting on the 10th floor of ESB right now. It’s very quiet up here, which may be due to the fact the elevator only goes to the 9th floor. I’m blogging to pass the time while I wait for my research partner to show up.

We’ve been working very hard on getting Mountain State Gamers ready to go. I drew up a logo a few nights ago, and Matt’s been playing with it a bit while I’ve been busy with real life. I believe we’ll have a basic page with forums in a month or so. I’m excited to be returning to a gamer community.

Nothing quite beats the real feel of a gamer community. I remember the thrill of checking the LANville/Pre-LANville forums daily to see what new duscussion had started or what a crazy response someone had posted while I was away. This feeling was probably compounded by the fact that these were all local people. We were in east reach, but the forums were fun when we couldn’t get the whole group together. It was indeed a tight community.

I’ve been thinking about MSG and wondering how we can build a stronger community outside of the school atmosphere. There are plenty of pro’s and con’s at play here.

The pro’s are obvious. We are no longer forced to obey the school’s code of standards. Swearing can be allowed (although I think a swearing filter should still be in place to an extent.). Leadership cannot be forced out of their positions as easily if the leadership is the highest level of the organization (i.e. no school advisor). The selection of people to follow in footsteps is also much broader. This prevents new leadership being picked from the “best available options.” There are more pro’s, but these stand out at the moment.

The con’s are mostly related to funding and promotion. A standalone group no longer has school funding at their fingertips and must find another path to receive funding. An accounting staff and finacial account support is also normally unavailable for no charge. Promotion of a site and event are also much easier on a college campus. Few people would disagree, although exceptions are certain to exist.

So, where does MSG stand? Since our separate departures of LANville, the original staff have moved on to learn new things. I’ve personally learned a thing or two about getting sponsors and gained more insight into leadership through my job at WVU MAE. We are all reuniting with our original drive to stand out while bringing our new found knowledge to the table.

Several things will be different. My experience enables us to talk to video game developers for contests on the site. We have the advantage of having key people across the state to promote without stepping too far from their normal routine. We’re also acquired the foresight to not strive to wipe out other communities. Our goal is to unite communities and provide a mechanism for easy communications. Wiping out a community with competitive practices goes against that goal PERIOD!

I hope that MSG will exist as a vehicle for wonderful things, to unite gamers and their communities, to promote the positive and often overlooked aspects of gaming, and to stand up for political issues in the state that are important for gamers (I’ll elaborate on this further later).

Stay tuned for more MSG info!