Community Building Focus Transition.

I will be changing content direction slowly. I have a ton of old posts and material, which I will evolve to be more System Agnostic. Game in the Brain will be shifting to Open Gaming Community Building.

This means DIY Projects, Organization, Consolidation, and Sharing of best practices in Open Gaming. This is not just RPGs, but any form of Gaming (including some LARPing, Heavy Combat, Adventure Games, and Combat sims). It is moving away from the traditional model of Gaming where we produce a product and sell it, instead we build a community which enables the people to Game by their own terms.

Community management is being able to create an environment that draws the resources of a crowd  and manages the negatives of diversity, dissent, and personal tastes and goals. Inclusive, the focus allows families to find more avenues to play together, and play with other families. Its a gaming community that is not just an Adult pursuit, where parents can have their children participate in creative and constructive ways. Where they will learn many skills through these pursuits as well as socializing with a range of people, topics, and disciplines.

I believe through this model Artists, Writers, and Designers can find a more sustainable means by selling their services and modular products designed to grow the community and lower the entry, complexity, and personalization barriers.


Projects:

• Open Gaming Starter Kit   - This defaults in the Philippines because I only have local knowledge of how to source materials there. But it serves as a template of how to create user friendly DIY instructions that include how to find the materials needed and benchmarks of costs. One thing is to tell a person how to make something, the harder part is finding the materials given the limits of their surroundings. 
• Racing Game System - A simple system that allows parents and children to play with the cheap Die-cast cars in a friendly competitive race game where they can make their own maps, cars, devices, and genres (from Tokyo Drift, Off-Road, to Post Apoc Road Warrior, Prison Death Race etc...). Take your map ma
• Templates for the Creation of Custom War Games, RPGs, and other Table Top games.
• DIY Repository and Wiki allowing people to speedily evolve their best practices. 
• Finish that Homebrew Projects - basically projects where groups can finish together their Game Systems they set out to do. An exercise of project management, creating feasible deadlines and objectives, and working with all the limitations. Growing the Skills that can be applied to tackle anything really. 

Why this focus

In the Freemarket of Ideas, things Change and Evolve. I believe that we are transitioning or creating a niche where Gaming is about community building through playing together and making games. Game in the Brain cannot be just one system, since that is a dogmatic approach and should focus on a more Adaptive Approach to gaming - evolving best practices and allowing real life skills to be honed as we play. For me, Gaming as a Coping Mechanism for learning, dealing with difficult problems (both personal and professional), and Socialization. 

There is room for Gaming as a traditional product that needs to be sold to a market, but we are entering an age where knowledge and tastes are more individual and nuanced. that Gaming is more about relationships with others than the Game System, and realizing that then cultivating a community that is sustainable, and able to draw from many positive habits will create a better game experience and people who feel better about themselves and their situations.  

There will be barriers for entry, learning, and personalization. This is where artisans come in, producing services and goods to grow the community, allow greater personalization, and improve their craft and skills. 

Its not for everyone. Its indeed Altruistic, and everyone has their own disposition and circumstance where this perspective does not work for them. Its just an idea, and its only looking for those who share in it and its goals. The more the merrier, and we get to learn from each other and feel good knowing others are learning and sharing as well.

Consider such a community an exercise in Diplomacy and getting along with minimum use of hard tactics and authority (and being very open and honest despite the cogntive biases that reduce the common good with honesty). Minimize Externalizes and Manage Conflict and Dissent and Difference of Perspective.