1km1kt: the hackerspace of gaming?

[kumakami]

I'm getting more and more into the maker movement. and the more I look into it, the more I see our little corner of the net being the RPG version of this concept... your thoughts?

[John Michael Crovis]

Well, lets see...

Wikipedia says: "A hackerspace or hackspace (also referred to as a hacklab, makerspace or creative space) is a location where people with common interests, usually in computers, technology, science, or digital or electronic art can meet, socialise and/or collaborate. Hackerspaces can be viewed as open community labs incorporating elements of machine shops, workshops and/or studios where hackers can come together to share resources and knowledge to build and make things.[1]"

I think that 1km1kt fits into this definition.

[Rob Lang]

I think this is the case. I would extend this to any player group that play tests the games that get designed here. Be it at a convention or as a regular group. Those playtests are an important part of the creative process as a whole and the feedback the designer receives goes back into the game itself. That makes those a hackerspace.

I also think (I'm full of opinions, you know) that we could be a bit better at being a hackerspace. We do give feedback and read each other's games (felt like I've read a thousand recently) but I think we could be better at sharing ideas at the early stage - rather than just when the game is finished. Sharing early (and often) would be good because it would allow us to see each other's creative process. Being able to see how other people design/create/playtest games might help others do the same or recommend new ideas into the mix. We already have a forum appropriate for this (roleplaying games), I think I might have to kick off a thread about my loosely put together Commando 1940 game.

[Onix]

1KM1KT is definitely a hackerspace for RPGs, it's not the only one, but it is one of the most friendly. The big ones tend to be very judgmental or at least they were years ago when I decided not to hang around them. I've commented before on the "That's crazy I want to see you do it." attitude here and I think it's great.

If people are going to do more development sharing (I'm fine with that) I'd suggest formalizing that mindset of encouragement rather than judgement. That might be difficult to do. There is going to be some judgement (has to be). Maybe you could say that the point of sharing is encouragement and positive progress not impediment and harsh criticism.

[kumakami]

I 'm loving the feed back on this thought so heres a little more of my 1.34 cents....

We need a more helping threads, for people that have hit writers block bad. Plus a group effort thread would be fun. voting on which ideas are going to be used...and all that.

just and idea

[Rob Lang]

Do we need a hackerspace forum where people can stuff half-baked games and ask for help? As for collaborative, that's a good use too but I've given my experience on those in .

Or perhaps we should repurpose the 'Game Support' general forum to a hackerspace one? I am concerned that we'll end up with forum bloat.

[kumakami]

true enough, our compo's tend to do this well anyway.