When did You 'Belong' to the Forge

[hix]

Okay, so you discovered this place however long ago and you got involved with everyone doing the whole posting and debating thing. But when and why did you first really feel you were part of the Forge community?

For me, it was Valamir acknowledging my comments on Robots & Rapiers in Indie Game Design a month or so ago. For the first time, I felt like I had made a contribution here.

Anyone else?

Cheers,
Steve Hickey.

[Lxndr]

I felt like I "belonged" to the indie-netgaming community around Memorial Day of last year, when the Weird Wild West Supers game happened.  I didn't really feel like I belonged on the Forge itself until after meeting them all at GenCon.

[Shreyas Sampat]

I felt basically instantly welcomed as part of the community; from my very first design attempt, it was a very friendly and illuminating posting atmosphere.

[Valamir]

For me, it was Valamir acknowledging my comments on Robots & Rapiers in Indie Game Design a month or so ago. For the first time, I felt like I had made a contribution here.

Anyone else?

Cheers,
Steve Hickey.

While I appreciate the acknowledgement (and definitely the comments) I'm somewhat disconcerted that you didn't feel at home here for the first 11 months of your membership.

[hix]

No need for the disconcertilation, Ralph. My experience here was basically one of enjoying hanging out with a group but not quite feeling like part of it.

Benchmarks for me in that transition period included: getting comfortable with the ideas behind GNS and Social Contract, identifying frequent posters and their personalities, trying out some games like Uni and Wuthering Heights, and freakin' loving Legends of Alyria when I realised it had dispensed with the "Equipment List" - the bane of my D&D playing life.

But I also had to learn the social norms here (like stay on topic, avoid 'me too' posts) - and most importantly, getting over my newbie fear of posting and making 'mistakes'/saying the wrong thing.

This is starting to sound like it belongs on the Thanks Ron and Clint thread, but yeah the Forge was a great theoretical and learning environment right from the start - but that community aspect, of giving back, that came a little later.

Steve.

[Rich Forest]

Gen Con 2002.

I'd mostly lurked for the first few months I spent at the Forge, logged in and reading everything that came through, occasionally posting in actual play about the occasional indie game when I tried it out (I'm thinking of Donjon in particular, and Final Stand as well). I also had volunteered that summer as an editor for Jared on octaNe, in exchange for a copy of the finished book. So I recognized a lot of names but hadn't posted enough to get my own recognized.

Then I went to Gen Con 2002, hung out and played in many of the demos at the Forge booth (TROS with fellow customers and Jake GMing; Dust Devils with Josh Neff, Mario, and Matt Snyder GMing; octaNe with Jared and Juergen), spent a good portion of an afternoon away from the booth playing Mike Holmes' Synthesis with Mike and Josh Neff, and played some Trollbabe with Ron, Jared, and Danielle: basically, I got the chance to meet people and game with them, chit-chat some, and generally socialize. I highly recommend getting to cons and meeting people--I'd do it again this year but, you know, there's the whole issue of plane fares...

Getting involved in various projects has helped as well. First with octaNe and now with the No Press Anthology, working with people on stuff for publication really builds relationships.

These yearly birthday forums (yeah, I know, now that we've had two), are just amazing, as well. I wouldn't want them active all the time, but as a once a year thing, they're great community builders. They refresh my sense of community membership by giving me a greater sense of who people are outside of their RPG focused posts.

Rich

[Christopher Weeks]

I started here right after last GenCon.  Since then, I've always felt like a child running around a country club pretending to be a grown up.  (I don't think this analogy is very clear, but I can't think of anything better.)

I suppose it's been incremental and will continue to be so.  Playing Universalis on IRC was a step.  Driving The Universalis Arena to reality wa a step.  Hooking up with Miller and Crane at Lolagazebo was a step.  Playing MLwM and Sorcerer FTF is a step.  I actually think these few days of off-topic discussion is a powerful step.  The more things that link me to the community, the more I "belong."  I dunno if and when it'll feel like I live here.

Chris

[Eero Tuovinen]

Actually, I don't feel like really belonging. I'm not that social a person usually, and then there's the language barrier for really doing anything useful. I'd have to start writing my games in english to really participate, and that wouldn't do any good for their language, let me tell you.

If I have time for some classy translating and actually get an English game done this summer, maybe I can then tell differently. Maybe stop falling from my chair every time some old hand acknowledges my post.

[clehrich]

Last year's birthday thread, when somebody mentioned me as one of the people who makes the site good.  Okay, he misspelled my name, but I can live with that (everyone else does, anyway).

[Rob MacDougall]

I felt like I was "in" last year, when, after participating heavily in the AD&D history threads, Ron asked me to be one of the readers on the Gamism essay and then cited me as the source of the term "cargo cult" (it's no Lumpley Principle, but hey we take our props where we can). Also, my friend Bryant came back from GenCon, and said people at the Forge booth knew who he meant when he mentioned me - "oh yeah, that Rob guy".

But then I think I dropped the ball. My comments on Ron's essay were late and I don't think especially brilliant, and I've been too busy since then to post as much as I'd like (I'm supposed to hand in my PhD dissertation next month), so now I feel like I've fallen out of the club again. Nobody's fault but my own, mind you, but actually being a live participant in something as fertile and active as the Forge takes effort!

One nice thing is that my gaming circle in real life is starting to connect up with Forge-related people. Chris Lehrich and I still haven't met, but I've met friends of his and we're tentatively in a game together; similarly I've played Kill Puppies for Satan and hope to play Dogs in the Vinyard with a good friend of Vincent Baker's, and Jared Sorenson is hopefully playing in either my upcoming Charnel Gods game or my Starchildren w/ Hero Quest rules game. So while I don't feel like I'm sitting at the cool kids' table, I do feel only a couple of degrees of separation away.

[orbsmatt]

I definitely feel that I became part after just a couple of posts.  The responses were quick and helpful and really helped steer me in the right direction for RPG design.  My thoughts on RPG design have changed a lot since I first joined.

Happy Birthday Forge!

[Marhault]

Oh, this an easy one.  Ron's and M.J.'s replies to my post in this thread.  It made me feel like I might have something to offer, and not like some newbie who everyone was ignoring.

[xiombarg]

I felt like a member of the Forge when I was derisively called "Forge Boi" by "Eyebeams" on LJ, who later decided to attack me here because of our argument about metaplots.

[Daniel Solis]

When people recieved my half-baked tribal robot concept so warmly and openly. That was great :)

[Shreyas Sampat]

How is that going, anyway? It was the awesome.