Participation in the July Community Playdate & Getting the Most out of YOUR Community

Last night we held our second monthly 2old2play Community Playdate with mixed results. Though we were able to get several rooms spanning multiple game titles going for the better part of two hours, the turnout was much lower than the event we held in June. This may simply be due to the day of the week that this event was held - we moved it from a Friday to a Tuesday night to accomodate folks who typically have family or other obligations during the weekends. It may also be due to the fact that the Chi-LAN is just around the corner and folks are getting geared up for that. The question is how do we maintain a decent level of interest and participation in these types of events?

It seems that site activity as a whole is down a bit this summer. This is an observation that has been brought up by several folks in blogs, forum posts, online discussions during games and via PM's to me and other members of the staff. This lull in activity may be attributed to several factors, including the time of the year (summer), the economy and maybe even the crappy weather that some of us have seen over the past two months - if it rains once more here in New England, I am moving back to Florida. One can always come up with countless reasons why we experience cycles of activity like this. I myself have been crazy busy with multiple jobs and other personal obligations which have kept me from actively playing any games for close to six weeks up until last night. I find myself spending any free time online working to help promote this site, the LAN and the incredible community that we have here. That is a personal choice that I have made. Last night made me realize how much I miss actually playing the games upon which this community has been built. It also reminded me of how bad I still suck with the shotty in Gears, but that is another story.

While working to set up rooms and people to help run last night's Community Playdate, I received a ton of correspondence. Most consisted of offers to help and interest in participating. However, several messages were bascially of the "Why didn't you ask us (a clan or given group) to lead a room?" These messages caused me no small amount of frustration for several reasons. I find it confusing, with all the announcements, blogs, twitter feeds and other means that we commonly use to promote events here at 2old2play, why so many times it appears that folks feel that they require some form of formal, one-to-one invitiation, to come out of their "neighborhoods" (i.e. clans, forums or specific games/console of interest) and participate in 2old2play community events such as the CPD's, contests or the LAN. (I fully understand that the LAN is a beast unto itself, with the cost of travel, hotel accomodations and incidentals, particularly this year). Do these same folks sit in their homes and refuse to attend any events, parties or other social gatherings unless the organizer(s) personally walk up to them and hand them a written or verbal invitation? I find such a scenario to be very unlikely. So what is it about our online community here at 2old2play that places such mental and/or social barriers to participation between the average (non-staff or clan overlord) member and the programs that we organize?

In discussing this issue with several people recently, one thought that has come up is that this community was built on the foundation of a single Clan that focused on a single game (Halo). Over time, as new members arrived, bringing with them more diverse intersts in games and subject matter, new clans (and forums) were created to focus these interests and bring like-minded people together. The Halo folks had their clan (or clans at this point) and so it was logical that the Gears, Call of Duty, PS3, Racing (etc.) enthusiasts would form their own clans as well. However, why should the existance of numerous clans predicate a move toward isolation within the 2old2play Community? Just as one has their close group of friends and neighbors in "real" life, but still ventures out to participate in larger community events such as concerts, parades and holiday celebrations, should we not also expect that members of a given clan or given sub-group here at 2old2play would emerge from thier separate forums on occasion to participate in the Community as a whole?

Looking at 2old2play, this is certainly a true Community (note capital "C" here) as I see it, a fairly large group of individuals and sub-groups that come together via interactions and commonalities to form a greater whole (my definition and interpretation).

To refer to a more reliable source, Webster's Online Dictionary defines a community as follows:

1: a unified body of individuals: as a: state, commonwealth b: the people with common interests living in a particular area ; broadly : the area itself <the problems of a large community> c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society <a community of retired persons> e: a group linked by a common policy f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests <the international community> g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society <the academic community> 2: society at large3 a: joint ownership or participation <community of goods> b: common character : likeness <community of interests> c: social activity : fellowship d: a social state or condition

I took the liberty to bold out key traits in the definition above to make a point. If 2old2play is indeed a community, then what are our commonalities? What brought us all together under the 2old2play banner to start with? The most obvious trait is age, since we are a "community for gamers over 25" and actually have an age requirement for membership. The fact that most of us are older (though not necessarily more mature) than the average online video game enthusiast, denotes that we must share some common traits such as careers, families, kids, home ownership, myriad responsibilites that if anything, would dictate that we have less time to enjoy our activity of choice, playing video games. Yet we all still find time to tune out that real world and sit down in front of our consoles or computers to play games with our online friends. The reality is, without the rise of modern onlne gaming, this community would not exist in its current state. Gaming, much like this community, has become an inherrantly social activity.

The social nature of the modern video game experience is what brought many, if not most of us, to this community in the first place. How many of us literally fled what I term the "Tribe of Timmies" to escape the inane and childish behavior that accompanied the rise of online gaming? We were seeking gamers with a common, or a least similar, outlook on life and gaming with whom we could enjoy our time online. When we were young and games were new, we sat next to whoever we were playing. These were our friends, or at least friends of our friends, and thus were more likely to share common interests and behaviors with us. If someone anoyed us, we either kicked them out of our home, or left their home to find more appropriate partners to game with. In essence, by creating and joining this community, we have rebuilt that structure of home and friends on a grander scale.

Now that that home has been built, have we then proceeded to subdivide it into separate rooms, blocked the connecting hallways with doors and locked the doors that separate us? I see no issue with the existance and prominance of clans in this community. I myself belong to Art of War and primarily game with my "room" of close friends more than anyone else. However, I also make an effort to open the door to that room and walk down the hall to check out what is going on in other area of this "house". I strongly encourage everyone here at 2old2play to do the same. Enjoy the comaraderie of your clan mates, but also stick your head outside your clan forums once in a while and check out what is going on in the community at large. Think of it as venturing into the family room to check out a movie, play a game with the family or simply to check in once in a while. I think you will find that there is a lot of cool stuff going on "out here" and who knows, you might even meet a new friend or two who have stopped by to visit while you were sequestered in your room playing that one game you love so much.