What happened to the Mechaton Community?

[SAW]

So, I just recently discovered Mechaton, however, when I started to read the various blogs, they all seem to have died out around the same time (between like March and July of 2009). Does anyone happen to have any insight as to why that happened? Everything seemed to be quite active, but then all of a sudden they all just stopped--no explanations or anything on their sites. They just stopped posting.

I'm just curious if there was an actual reason for it, or if it was just a strange coincidence.

[Mantisking]

I think the community just ran out of gas.   There's only so much you can talk about Mechaton before it starts getting a little bit stale.

[Simon C]

Yeah, Mantis has it right.

A few things combined - Malcolm getting busy on his thesis, us getting a bit played out on the game, running out of things to talk about on the blog.  It was lots of fun to do though, and I still play from time-to-time.

[Zeek]

My hard drive crashed, (all my lego ldd files and my Mechaton PDF gone) and then I lost my job in the same week.  I am still recovering, but I have started posting again.

http://nobsjustabs.wordpress.com/

Darrin in Kent Ohio

[Mantisking]

Looks like things are heating up again.  DivNull Productions (http://divnull.com/blog/) has posted three new frames and a bunch of LDraw files for classic frames.  And Woodelf has posted an awesome battle report (http://woodelf.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/losing-at-mechaton/).

[David Artman]

I might have another factor, at least from my perspective.

I came late to the Mechaton party and discovered that there's a lot of additional "house rules" and "stuff Vincent's been thinking about"... and, I admit, I found myself just waiting to REALLY get into it when a new rule book came out. It seemed eminent.

As for actual play, there's a Mechaton event at our local con in November (MACE), so it IS being played. Maybe just everything's been said--it's not like it's as complex or nuanced a system as DitV or IaWA. It's a simple minis game with a relatively small set of "mods" or "extensions" from the community. Sometimes, a game can really just be "done" and there's nothing left but the pics and APs.

Just speculating....

[Mantisking]

I might have another factor, at least from my perspective.

I came late to the Mechaton party and discovered that there's a lot of additional "house rules" and "stuff Vincent's been thinking about"... and, I admit, I found myself just waiting to REALLY get into it when a new rule book came out. It seemed eminent.

It really did, didn't it.  It felt like we were building up to a new rulebook, then "poof".  Enh, these things happen.

As for actual play, there's a Mechaton event at our local con in November (MACE), so it IS being played. Maybe just everything's been said--it's not like it's as complex or nuanced a system as DitV or IaWA. It's a simple minis game with a relatively small set of "mods" or "extensions" from the community. Sometimes, a game can really just be "done" and there's nothing left but the pics and APs.

True, which is what I think is going on.  Someone new discovers the game, posts some things online, and the community gets fired up for a while.  Then, after an indeterminate amount of time, things cool off again.

And speaking of someone new discovering the game, there's been some activity on RPG.net in the Other Games Open Forum (http://forum.rpg.net/forumdisplay.php?f=25).

[Ar Kayon]

I was reading the battle report.  In a melee, why not just have your robot grab a limb or protrusion or something so the other one can't step away to shoot you?