Sunday, February 8, 2009

Do Social Networking Sites Improve Your Gaming?

I'm talking Facebook, Myspace, or whatever it is you use.

Do you find new players this way? Keep contact with anyone in your group? Use any of their features for your gaming purposes?

Does anyone make business contacts or anything of real value on those things?

Right now I use Facebook more, and my Myspace is badly neglected (never mind that I approve every metal band that wants to be "friends" without even listening to them), but I really don't use them for purposes other than... well... I dunno. I used to just hit on girls on those things, so I can't find any real use for them now.


8 comments:

  1. Facebook to keep track of old uni/work friends.
    Linked In for professional networking.

    Never thought of using Facebook to look for new gamers. It's a good idea though.

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  2. Eh, if there was an internet backwater, MySpace would be deep in it... it must be the proliferation of teenagers, their predators, and bad site design. I have an account but haven't touched it in years.

    I liked Facebook better when it was only open to university students, because now it is swiftly spinning into MySpace territory. I still use it regularly, but only to maintain contact with family and friends, I never try to meet new people there.

    I use LinkedIn for professional networking, and while I haven't leveraged its potential yet, I think it does a good job of doing what it was created for.

    As far as finding new gamers, I would much rather do it by word of mouth or by hanging out at the local hobby store. This way I either have someone I know vouching for a player or I can at least observe their behavior before bringing them to the table.

    As far as electronic methods of finding gamers, I have used Meetup in the past.

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  3. There are quite a few gamers on Twitter. You can see what game related stuff I'm up to at http://twitter.com/robertsongames

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  4. My tabletop gaming these days is through the London D&D Meetup on meetup.com; I have to say though the organiser is the friend of an old friend of mine, I didn't locate it via meetup.com. Still, its existence has certainly improved my gaming.

    I don't use Facebook or Myspace.

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  5. I've only started using Facebook this past month, so the proverbial jury is still out on this one. I only joined up so I could check out the TARGA group there, but it occurred to me that Facebook might not be such a bad place to make my "home" for people who want to know where the game is. They have an "Events" feature that I've just used for the first time to announce my latest open-to-all-comers weekly gaming event, and provided it works the way I believe it works, I'll be posting photos, event updates, cancellations and soforth there.

    For what it's worth, MySpace lost my interest upon my second visit. I mean seriously..how MANY local "hardcore" bands does one city really need?

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  6. I created a D&D Zürich group on facebook because people were asking me about joining games and I've had to tell them that all my games were full. Plus nobody seems to use Nearby Gamers and a similar German site.

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  7. I only use FB to keep track of old friends. I've tried to use meetup.com with limited success. The only site that's yielded anything for me is Nearby Gamers, which is how I got into the Swords & Wizardry game I'm currently playing.

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  8. Nearbygamers has provided me with one contact thus far. Others I do not find very useful or use at all. StumbleUpon sometimes provides nice surprises, but the social side is kinda secondary there.

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