Board Gamers discussing sports?

So this week, like normal, when I asked for topic ideas for #BoardGameHour & got lots of good ones. The thing that made this week a little different was that there were some ideas in there that were a little more off the wall... Dare I say it unpopular! Now I am not someone to back away from a challenge so I decided to put two topics that I felt would be interesting but that are not "sexy" topics up for the vote. What I chose were (knowing that one had to win), "Book keeping in board games" or "Board games about sports". I could feel the ripple of discontent as I made the announcement ;0)

I understand this was a risky strategy and that it it might be just me and 2 other people chatting on Mondays #BoardGameHour but I think it is worth the risk and I want to explain why. I believe that we have a strong community who are both smart and have very interesting ideas. I also believe that there are a lot of board game related topics out there that are not often touched upon, because they are seen as unpopular. I feel that sometimes we should really take a good look at some of these and see why they are so disliked as a rule.

Just so you know, the winner with 56% and the topic for this weeks #BoardGameHour was "Sports Games".
I hear you shout; "but I don't like sport, what will we talk about that could be interesting to me?". Well my response is that I don't like farming but I enjoy Agicola. I defiantly don't like the idea of war, or killing people, but I like war games. Anyway, my point is, lets talk about this on Monday ;0)

So what is #BoardGameHour?

#boardgamehour takes place on twitter once a week. It's a virtual hangout for people who either love board games or want to know more about the hobby.

So the big question is how does #boardgamehour work?

It's simple, to join in during the hour, all you need to do is add the #boardgamehour hash-tag to your tweets. To see what everyone else is saying just search for #boardgamehour! It can be even easier than that too, see below ;0)

Each week we have a general topic, that you vote on and I, using @boardgamehour will post questions to help guide the discussion. Side conversation are always welcome as this is a virtual forum for you to chat with other gamers, I only try to make it as smooth and easy as possible :0)

Making #boardgamehour easier!

To make this live Twitter discussion easier, I have made a room on Nurph.com which we can all use. All you have to do is make sure you are logged into Twitter then go to http://nurph.com/BoardGameHour/chats and log in, using your Twitter account. You don't have to use this, everything will be the same as normal, but if you do us Nurph, it acts like a chat room for twitter and add the Hashtag automatically :0)

For one hour every week, it's time to talk nothing but board games. #boardgamehour happens across the western world Every Monday - start times are:

11am in L.A,

2pm in New York, (Eastern Time)

7pm in UK,

8pm in Germany,

9pm in Finland,

And many more places around the world!

As long as you have a twitter account, mine is @boardgamehour for instance, you can be part of this rapidly growing movement. See you on Monday :0)

Factions Contest

Everybody loves a give away! Well here is your chance to get your hands on a full Kickstarter version of FACTIONS – the tactical battle game designed by Ben Wolf.

It’s free to enter, but if that is not enough information for you, here is some more

Factions takes place on the once-thriving planet Telluric. Previously a home-world to billions, this planet has been ravaged by contending factions for its precious resources. Conflict has raged for centuries, desolating the population.

This is a highly customisable strategy game in which players take on the roles of opposing generals battling one another for supremacy. Players manoeuvre their armies towards critical Victory Points on a unique hexagonal tile board. Battles are fast-paced and exciting! Experimentation with different army configurations and strategies is endless.

FACTIONS is simple to learn, yet difficult to master! Do you have what it takes, to dominate this dynamic world?

Contest ends 3pm (EST) July 11^th 2014 

You can enter below, whats the worst thank can happen :0)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

See more about the game here:
http://www.theorycraftgaming.com/

Thunderclap your favorite board game

So I have just found out about a website called Thunderclap. Now you would think because I work in marketing that I would know all about every aspect of social media (I know quite a bit). Well It would seem we are all learning the whole time.

What is this Thunderclap? I hear you say, and how is it relevant to board games and the board game community? Well here's the thing... Its basically crowd sourced social media support for what ever campaign you like. So lets say for instance we really wanted to drop a big #BoardGameHour bomb over social media all at the same time. Coordinating that would be both a nightmare and would probably fall flat on its face. How about if you could pledge your support on a platform very similar to Kickstarter, but it doesn't cost you money, you just pledge a tweet / Facebook message. Well you can with Thunderclap.

The project owner sets a goal and a time frame just like kickstarter. If the goal (number of supporters) is reached, at the end of the campaign, the Thunderclap goes off... Everyone who supported the campaign automatically sends out a message on their chosen platform all at the same time. Imaging the impact / reach that could have for a game / project you really want to do well.

I have spoke enough, I will leave you with the first Thunderclap campaign I have ever backed, which is due to pop in a few days.. Its for a game I really like the look of called Factions.. Here is the link:

https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/13072-factions-by-theorycraft-gaming



Let me know if you have used this before or if there are other cool things like this at I don't know about.

See you Monday for #BoardGameHour

Nate