Popularity

[JBJ]

How well attended is gamesoc these days? Is membership strong or do people generally stick to computer games?

I ask because i've never roleplayed before but have had books given to me as presents which have captured my interest. I was thinking of giving it a go at uni (st andrews is a possible destination for me).

Hopefully someone can help me

[October]

Quoting JBJ from 22:49, 12th Apr 2008
How well attended is gamesoc these days? Is membership strong or do people generally stick to computer games?

I ask because i've never roleplayed before but have had books given to me as presents which have captured my interest. I was thinking of giving it a go at uni (st andrews is a possible destination for me).

Hopefully someone can help me

Game Soc has a good attendants, it's varies from year to year. But this year, we had a fair few guys. I ran a game that had 9 players most nights, and wasn't the only game being played.
That said, the powers-that-be have seen fit to change the name for very (their own) petty reasons, and I think this will have an effect on numbers of new members, with most people wanting to play their games outside the society.

My advice would be just go to the first meeting, and see if you like it.


[hr]

Does no-one feel that giving geeks a justification such as Article 31 a bad move? - Frank

[Spiryt]

Hey there, glad you're considering St. Andrews.
GameSoc certainly does not suffer from a lack of members- if anything we can't get enough DMs / Storytellers to satisfy demand and a lot of people end up doing their own thing as a result. Personally I'm planning to run a D&D 4e game, perhaps see you on the other end of the table!

[hr]

I meant every word I said, But only said half the words I meant
There's a load more where they came from, I suppose will get left unsent

[Power Metal Dom]

Once semester starts again I shall be a paid member pulling up a seat at GameSoc. Should be fun

[hr]

Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool

[Spike]

maybe we should try and branch out with wiredsoc and have a joint-lanparty sometime?

[hr]

From Rock to Opera

[Jono]

Quoting October from 12:38, 15th May 2008

Quoting JBJ from 22:49, 12th Apr 2008
How well attended is gamesoc these days? Is membership strong or do people generally stick to computer games?

I ask because i've never roleplayed before but have had books given to me as presents which have captured my interest. I was thinking of giving it a go at uni (st andrews is a possible destination for me).

Hopefully someone can help me

Game Soc has a good attendants, it's varies from year to year. But this year, we had a fair few guys. I ran a game that had 9 players most nights, and wasn't the only game being played.
That said, the powers-that-be have seen fit to change the name for very (their own) petty reasons, and I think this will have an effect on numbers of new members, with most people wanting to play their games outside the society.

My advice would be just go to the first meeting, and see if you like it.


[hr]

Does no-one feel that giving geeks a justification such as Article 31 a bad move? - Frank

I should point out that the name-change to Warsoc was passed by AGM. It was presented, explained and there was plenty of opportunity for discussion and dissent.

As for membership; We have a pretty good run! I find that once most people get over the initial aversion to gaming, and realize that Minority interests are well represented and accepted at Uni, they're more willing to try new things.

But as Spiryt says; we have a chronic shortage of GM's. The main reason we've had for people not coming is that they want to play something more obscure, and don't want to play anything that is being run; or are unwilling or unable to run anything themselves. Of course, without somehow deputising every GM in the society, I don't see how we can coordinate that very well.




[hr]

I disagree with you in principle.

[Dave]

I don't think people wanting to roleplay away from the main Wednesday night WARSoc meeting is necessarily a bad thing. It's always been the case that some people couldn't do Wednesday nights - or the mood in the Salad Bowl wasn't right for a particular game. Before there was any significant means of electronic communication (i.e. before the internet was a reliable means of communication), WARSoc was able to function as a co-ordinating hub - allowing people who couldn't make Wednesday night (or didn't want to) to find likeminded people and set up games outside the society meetings. That should always be the case. I think it's a sign of a strong hobby that people want to do it on nights other than (and including) Wednesday. I think where WARSoc lacks at the moment is in the co-ordinating. It used to be the case that every member filled in an "interests" form - stating what they wanted to play, what they wanted to run etc. That list was published in Opening Shots within a month of the beginning of first term. I see no reason why the society website (is there one still updated?) couldn't carry that information - assuming appropriate signatures from the membership permitting use of the information.

As for games being run on Wednesday night, you really only want about 4 or 5 - there's only space for that many. The University's current semester set up doesn't help keep people coming on Wednesdays though - before semesterisation, there was a straight run from mid/late September through to late December (no reading week) - a straight run through early January to mid April (things didn't stop for exams - and there were no reading weeks after any exams finished) - then a straight run through late April to mid-June. The disruption that exams and reading weeks now bring mean that students can leave (because they can't afford to stay in St Andrews over reading weeks) and that affects games - making them less regular. The Union also now holds exams which it didn't used to do - making it difficult to hold meetings during exam periods.

All this contributes to people preferring to game outside the society meetings. I don't think that it has anything to do with the name of the society. We used to have a fairly regular 80-100 membership throughout the 90s with the name WARSoc. Admittedly only about 40 of them ever came to the meetings - but as I previously said, the society should not expect all members to be regular attendees. The society should function to support roleplaying and wargaming in St Andrews - which is not the same as getting lots of people to the meetings. I personally think WARSoc has been doing quite well recently considering the obstacles I've mentioned that the University has deemed to put in place. Sure there's room for improvement (there was a burst of visible wargaming a few years back - which has become less visible to me recently (it used to be the case that we held mini-cons - booking out the salad bowl all-day Saturday (about twice a term) for wargaming (which would attract 15-20 people) - although that that was before the limits on room bookings (although I should point out that all societies had to pay for all rooms booked in those days)), and we need to address the co-ordinating role that the society could be playing, but other than that, it seems to be a lot healthier than it was just after the society first changed its name to Gamesoc.