I haven’t made a single blog entry for more than a month and I feel its time to explain myself. There are different reasons and I better split them up in the two main categories:
Beer
It don’t take any great amount of time to write the small reviews I do but it takes time when I don’t want it to take time – when I’m enjoying my beer. It has gotten harder and harder to write about beer and it almost feels like a burden to have a notebook, or a notepad application on the phone at hand when I play cards or just have a lazy Friday in front of the TV. Last month I have even been avoiding buying beer I haven't drank before just to not having to review them. This is not fun and it really should be.
The solution is easy – from now on you will only get a picture, the data and the rating of the beer I drink. Instead I will link to Ratebeer for you to read real reviews by real beer geeks. Maybe I’ll add a comment or two when I feel like it but don’t count on it. I will instead try and write an article or two when I get the time to do so.
Jyhad
A little the same here. I have been playing less the last couple of months. I really don’t want it to be that way but I fear that it in some ways have to do with the fact that the game is not produced any more. It has been harder to get a casual game lately and for the first times in the last couple of years I have not been able to gather 4-5 players. The tournament scene in Gothenburg is also as good as dead. Where we have been stable with 10-20 players each month it’s now hard to gather more than five. For the scheduled tournament next weekend three players have signed up. I know that I really shouldn’t be writing this for the greater good of the game but this is simple and sad facts that makes writing about the game I love so much harder.
Last tournament I had an Expectation Analysis written but since only nine players showed up I decided it was not worth outing my deck so I played another one instead (and managed to end up at last place). I am still as active as I can be – had three lovely games yesterday but I will only write when I have something to say. I have noticed that my analyses of my decks are popular and that is what I will be focusing on. Maybe also some more opinion articles since I think that the community needs to be led the right way now when everything is risking falling apart. I won’t go into any details until I have sharpened my arguments here but let’s just hint that I think that there need to be something instead of the newsgroup
Well – I will keep blogging on both subjects but it will be a little different from now on. Happy drinking and bleeding everyone!
Hi Stefan,
ReplyDeleteSorry that your tournament/casual game scene is suffering lately. What sort of recruitment work do people do in your area? Players leave all the time; getting them to join VTES is an eternal struggle.... Since we last talked I've made a few beers. I just made an ale that tastes like a pilsner, a red ale, a celebration ale and an IPA. Investing the $40 in a bigger brew pot was a good move. Now I can make more consistent batches without needing to stir so furiously. Made any beer yourself?
Fact is that very little or no recruitment work is done and I am to blame as much as anyone else. Some new faces have shown up but they are players from other parts that have moved to Göteborg. Apart from my initial recruitment wave when I started playing again some years ago I haven't lifted a finger, mainly because it is such a hard game to teach and most of my gaming friends avoid collectible card games like plague or standard lager.
ReplyDeleteWe have brewed an IPA (partially with hops from my parents' garden) but we made the mistake fermenting it in the same vessel as the cardamom porter so it took up great amounts of cardamom taste and it was.. different. We are planning on buying some bigger equipment as well so we will hopefully soon be able to brew 50 litres but there are some details to be solved yet.
When me and my wife can afford travelling over seas in the future I'll drop you a note Brandon and we see if we can arrange something including beer and Jyhad.
If you end up coming over to California, I'll definitely buy you a beer! Let me know if you plan to come and we'll set up a VTES event, too.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Stefan, we met at GothCon. By chance, I've actually moved to Gothenburg now. I haven't brought any cards down yet but I'll try to bring a couple of decks soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame to hear that the scene is suffering from low activity. Is there any forum or anything where the gothenburg vtes players lurk so that one can see upcoming games?
Anyway, I'd love to play a game or two in early -11.
/Markus (proud owner of the yakuza shirt)
Great to hear! V:tes Sweden at Facebook is a safe bet:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=168865889052