GamesInMichigan.com
What is this site?
At the moment, this site is a placeholder for a future site to come.
My vision for this site is to provide a convenient site for game players to come to to find other game players and game activities. Whether a player is looking to play their favorite game or for a general gaming club, I want this site to be the place they come to to find it.
This site has existed before and a few of you have probably used it. During its first life, its primary function was a calendar of events for game tournaments. I would look for listings of Chess tournaments, Scrabble tournaments, Euchre tournaments, etc. and list them on the calendar. Other users could also list their events.
That site had very limited success, so I took it down with the intent of forming a new site with a different focus. That new site is coming soon, but “soon” could be loosely translated to “As soon as I get around to it.” In its new form, it will still have a tournament calendar, but it will focus more on clubs and activities. The archetypal activity listed at the older version of this site was a Chess tournament. The archetypal activity for this site will be a meeting of a local game club. For an example of what I’m trying to emulate, see meetup.com. I want to have that functionality, except that it will be
Free
Focused only on games
Limited to
What is a “game” for this site’s purpose?
“Game” covers a lot of ground, and for the moment I’ll be pretty flexible. Generally, “games” are enjoyable competitions. I’m focused on such activities as Chess, Scrabble, Magic: The Gathering, and Euchre, but pretty much anything that fits will work. When this site “goes live”, I’ll probably take anything that is open to the public.
There are two categories of activities I will try to avoid.
Gambling - Bingo events are in some sense “games”, but it isn’t what I’m going for here. A Chess or Cribbage tournament with a cash prize is ok, but if the primary purpose of the activity is to take money from some people and give it to others, I’ll turn it down for inclusion on my site.
Commercial activities – This one is even more nebulous to define. What I’m looking to exclude here is an advertisement for an established business like laser tag or miniature golf course. On the other hand, there are game stores whose events I would include. If a bar runs a darts league, I would probably let it go in. Weekly Magic tournaments at the local hobby shop would definitely be allowed.
To be honest, I hope one day to be forced to be very picky about what to include and what to exclude, but when I first go live with the new site, I’ll be surprised if I have to exclude much of anything. If I think it will be of interest to my target audience, I’ll include it. If I think my target audience will see it as spam, I won’t.
Is this site free?
Will it always be free?
This site is a hobby site. There won’t be any charge for the foreseeable future.
If the site is successful, at some point the cost for hosting the site will increase. At that point, I’ll have to do something about it, and find some sort of revenue source. I don’t see it ever being a commercial activity, i.e. one for which I actually make money. Much more likely is that I might start hosting paid advertising or have a small listing fee for certain kinds of events. For now, even the advertising will be free. I intend to host ads for game events, but there won’t be any charge for putting up an ad.
Why are you doing this?
Because I like games, and because I’m a computer programmer. This project helps me keep current with some programming techniques that I don’t use on my current job, but which I might need in the future.
Any questions?
Email dave@gamesinmichigan.com.