Discord - fighting isolation with a human voice
This Covid-19 situation has been a crazy ride. I haven't gone this long without gaming in years and social isolation is really tough on a lot of people. Early in quarantine I decided to setup a Discord channel for hobby work. I wasn't the first - and it's become very popular to have a Discord channel.
Lots of small companies have set one up. Most of them are either too cluttered with too many channels - or completely dead. Like any community it takes some moderation and care to grow it. This best facebook groups are the ones with clear rules and active moderators keeping it clean.
Lots of small companies have set one up. Most of them are either too cluttered with too many channels - or completely dead. Like any community it takes some moderation and care to grow it. This best facebook groups are the ones with clear rules and active moderators keeping it clean.
I'm very happy with the community that have grown on the Bloodbeard's Garage Discord server.
There's curently around 70 user on the server. There's a nice hangout area - where people post current projects, discuss gaming, share kickstarters and so on. But there three extra super cool things come from it:
Voice channel
Voice channel
People from around the world are hanging out in the voice channel, talking hobby while they work. Interesting discussions on painting, gaming, rules and the industry going on. It's nice. And not being the biggest talker myself, I've spend lots of time just listening in on other interesting people.
I've made new friends through the channel and gotten new contacts.
I've made new friends through the channel and gotten new contacts.
And that leads directly to
A convention
There's not really a miniature gaming convention scene in Denmark. There's some large tournaments in Warhammer 40k and some nice large conventions for playing RPGs. But nothing for the skirmish / indie gaming scene. GW is sitting even heavier on the market in Denmark than elsewhere.
We're making that now. This autumn, smack center of Denmark, we'll make a convention. At a nice location in the middle of Odense, we'll run a weekend of games. All those smaller scale and unknown games. Lots of cool boards. We want to connect the Frostgrave, TNT, Song of Ice and Fire, Relicblade guys to a weekend celebrating the completeness of the hobby.
Painted models, great stories, non competetive environment. It's gonna be cool - so thank you Discord.
Microblogs
The Discord server is growing with a number of super cool microblogs from hobbyists. They've gotten their own text channel and become moderators of it. Sure we'll see a lot of the photos shared around Instagram and in Facebook groups. But Discord connects it, shows the progress and the channel is only containing work from one person. It works really well and we're happy to setup more channels for new members.
The Discord server is such a nice place to hangout, that I've paid money for better options in there, deciding to go premium on the Mee6 bot - making even better moderation on the server, adding cool new features.
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| A snapshot from the #Hangout area |
Streaming - the frontier
I have never planned doing anything in the terms of either streaming or uploading videos to Youtube. Editing film is super time consuming and my hobby time is limited. But now I've taken the step anyway.
Why?
It's been so nice to voice chat with people while painting, I figured I might as well turn on a camera while doing it. I don't paint to a high quality and can't share many good tips. So I have made other plans for that new camera. So here's my new Twitch.
I'll of cause continue to write blogs on my terrain building and the step-by-step projects. But now I'll start streaming while I work. Hopefully (with a bit of brain activity) I can do it in a manner, that won't take too much editing before going on youtube.
Why?
It's been so nice to voice chat with people while painting, I figured I might as well turn on a camera while doing it. I don't paint to a high quality and can't share many good tips. So I have made other plans for that new camera. So here's my new Twitch.
I'll of cause continue to write blogs on my terrain building and the step-by-step projects. But now I'll start streaming while I work. Hopefully (with a bit of brain activity) I can do it in a manner, that won't take too much editing before going on youtube.
So expect to get some build videos with my modular dungeon project and the like.
Solo Gaming - 2020
Solo Gaming - 2020
It was my plan to make a lot of solo gaming this year. I like playing miniature games and I have so many systems with solo rules. ... haven't really gotten around to it in a manner that I want. So enter streaming and webcams again. I'll try to stream my solo plays (still gonna do written AARs with pictures) and make some 'let's play' videos for youtube. Huge expansion of my bloggerverse it is.
Play testing
But what about the games I have actually played? Well, lots of those games can't be turned into AARs yet, because they're top secret. With the last month, I've been lucky enough to beta read and playtest three different new game systems! How crazy is that?! Three games, three known and published authors. That's a pretty cool hobby achievement unlocked right there!
That's a lot of words about what's going on. New ideas, new blogging, new places to share stuff online. ... so many different platforms. If only there's was a social media AI, I could post stuff to snapchat and tik-tok as well.
But for know I'm on all these different places.
But for know I'm on all these different places.
The live by your influence life
I pretty freaking far from anything I want and could realistically achieve. I really love working as a school teacher. And I've already achieved the 3 influencer goals I set when making the blog a couple of years ago: 1. reach 500 likes on Facebook, 2. get shared by a company, who likes what you did with their kit, 3. try having someone send you free stuff.
And I would of cause like your help with the streaming adventure and growing the Discord community as well. Here's the Bloodbeard's Garage Bloggerverse:
As always, please consider helping the blog on any platform you prefer!
I enjoy growing this blog and its reach.
I appreciate your interaction, a big part of my hobby life.
The big one. Sharing the full blogs, the finished projects, a couple times a week.
Instagram: Bloodbeads_Garage
Every photo I take is posted here. Focusing on a single model or game at a time.
Every photo I take is posted here. Focusing on a single model or game at a time.
Discord hobby hangout: https://discord.gg/xwcRSs7
The nice new place. A great community to hang out in - lots of got people, come get a microblog and hangout.
The nice new place. A great community to hang out in - lots of got people, come get a microblog and hangout.
Twitter: @Blodskaeg
Maximum 4 photos pr tweet, I tweet about other stuff than miniatures as well, post when going live on Discord and Twitch.
Twitch: twitch.tv/bloodbeards_garage
The new one. I need followers on it to open op different functions. We'll see how it goes.
The new one. I need followers on it to open op different functions. We'll see how it goes.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTgzuhhOQBWUZleTzwXei3A
I need 100 followers on it before I can get a good url adress. ... 100... better create some content.
I need 100 followers on it before I can get a good url adress. ... 100... better create some content.
Hobby donations: paypal.me/blodskaeg
I've actually spend money on a community server and a webcam. And all the great streamers have a donate button.
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