“We
fear change.”
–
Garth, Wayne’s
World
The announcement that Google is shutting down
Google+ by August 2019 has sent shock waves through the gaming
communities that found refuge and flourished there in recent years.
Many users are migrating to other platforms – MeWe seems to stand
out for me, and I’ve joined – but others seek to retreat to their
blogs and no doubt some might withdraw from this kind of social media
engagement altogether (goodness knows I’ve considered it). Amid all
the social media turmoil I look back and examine how essential
platforms like Google+ have been in forming gamer communities that
share inspiration, give us voices, and connect us through a common
hobby.
Certainly the interwebzes have transformed all aspects of the
adventure gaming hobby over the years...particularly how gamers
connect and find inspiration. Gamers can now connect with each other
and publishers through e-mail, forums, chats, blogs, and social
media. Over the years my favorites have come and gone, some
disappearing and others falling by the wayside as they fail to engage
or satisfy me. I’d never done much with social media before Google+
came along (Griffon Publishing Studio maintains a Facebook page more
as a formality). A gaming friend invited me to the beta of Google+ in
2011 and I really found it useful. Here I could create circles of
fellow gamers, both to share my work and to find inspiration among
theirs. Those in my contacts and communities helped broaden my gaming
horizons through exposure to their personal posts, blogs, fanzines,
game lines, and the Old School Renaissance movement (OSR) that
cultivated fan followings on Google+.
I’ll really miss the concentrated access to the gaming community
Google+ offered. The platform served as an easy-to-use tool to
communicate with various gaming communities about my work in
development and new publications; but it was also a venue where I
could buy and sell used games, offer occasional promotional
giveaways, share and comment on gaming-related facets of my life, and
find near-constant news, content, and inspiration to broaden my
perspective on the hobby. I suppose my Google+ stream was like an
old-style gaming magazine, like Dragon or Challenge,
beloved print publications about which I’ve opined before. The
people and groups I followed cultivated similar interests; their
posted content, curated by their inclusion in my circles, offered a
steady stream of new perspectives, gaming inspiration, exposure to
novel game products and experiences, links to blogs, companies, and
designers to follow elsewhere, and a feeling of being connected to
the greater gaming community. Like any edited magazine or curated
experience it contained nuggets of pure gold and some complete dreck.
Not quite as physical as a print magazine, and certainly subject to
the transience of the ephemeral interwebzes, but it offered a daily
flow of interesting gaming material to inspire and inform.
I’m not looking forward to seeking and rebuilding a new community
hub that can satisfy all these needs. For the moment the Google+
gaming community seems to be migrating to MeWe. I’m reluctantly
going there to try re-establishing my contacts with gamers and
communities leaving Google+, but I don’t look forward to hiking up
that steep learning curve to get used to a new social media platform.
Hopefully the gaming community will find a new home where it can
continue to flourish with the same vibrancy as Google+. Until then –
and toward that goal – let’s keep creating, keep sharing, and
stay connected.
