How to create a gaming community

"I don't have friends to play this game with" – many customers

We all know playing board games with friends is awesome, but what if there's no apparent gamers in your area or nobody that like the game you love the most? The worst thing to do is to do nothing.

Here's a short guide on how to create a successful gaming community in your area. These tips are based on my own experience after I moved from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in 2015.

1) Search for existing groups

It might sound obvious, but the first thing you should do is to search for existing groups in your area. Maybe there's already a gaming community that you are not aware of.

In my case, I searched on Google and Facebook with keywords like "Chiang Mai board game". I did find a Facebook group, but it didn't look active at all. I joined it anyway to make sure I wasn't missing out anything.

2) Create your online group

If there's no group in your area or the existing groups are not suitable, go ahead and create your own group. Facebook groups are very easy to setup and they are free. Make sure you give your group a name that is descriptive so it's easy to find on Google. If you name your group "Black Spider 123", nobody will find and join it. A name like "Hat Yai Board Game" or "Warhammer Phuket" is the way to go.

I myself created a group called "Chiang Mai Board Games Meetup" on Meetup.com, a platform that is widely used by foreigners.

3) Find a suitable venue

Before organizing your first event, you'll need to find a decent place to play games. It could be your house, a board game café, a restaurant, or a room at your university. Some things to look for are:

- Central location
- Opening hours
- Access to food and drinks (could be a 7/11 nearby or from the café itself)
- Aircon
- Table space

If you plan to organize your event at a café or restaurant, talk to the owners first to know their expectations. They should be happy to get extra customers, but probably not if you play loud party games for 6 hours and all sip water.

The very first location I found through a member of the existing FB group was a place called "XL Cafe". It had snacks, drinks, big fans, plenty of tables, and not too far from the city center. I was ready to go.

4) Create your first event

You now have a group and a venue to organize your first gaming session. Even if you are the only member of your newly founded group, go ahead and create an event.

Pick a date that is about 2 weeks further down the line to give people time to see the event and register. If you are using Facebook, don't do a simple post. Create a proper event. Most importantly: make your event recurrent. This is the key to build a successful gaming community. Make it happen every Saturday, or every 15th of each month, as long as it's regular.

I believe my first Meetup event was called "Let's Play Talisman". I wrote a short description of the game, how many players could participate, that it was free to join, etc. I decided to have it happen every Saturday. Then I waited...

5) Don't give up

Make sure you go to your own event and that you arrive on time, even if nobody officially registered online. Many people don't like to book and commit themselves. If you get 1 joiner, that's already a success. You're not alone anymore.

If nobody showed up, don't give up and focus on the next one. Hey, why not spend 100 THB to boost your event on Facebook if it means finding gamers that have the same passion as you? You can also try to educate new gamers by organizing a "Learn to play board games" event.

My first event had 2-3 joiners. We had a lot of fun. I made sure to take pictures and reminded everyone that next week we would meet again.

6) Post pictures, chat, and improve your recipe

You hopefully took a few shots of your first successful event. Post them in your group so everyone know you really exist and these events are really happening. People are more likely to join an event if they can see pictures and know what to expect.

Create a chat group on Line or Facebook. Whenever a new player shows up, add them to the chat and keep asking the group "Hey, who's coming this week?".

Take feedback from joiners and adapt your formula. Don't be afraid to change location or time after getting to know the other players.

After a few sessions, I personally decided to move our Meetup to Meerkatto. They had more food, good coffee, a game library, aircon... Our group slowly grew from 4-5 players to more than 20 players during some weekends. All that because I decided to create a group and made it happen every single Saturday.

Four years later, the group grew so big that it split into many smaller groups with different preferences (Euro games, war games, card games, etc.). We now have a board game group meeting every Wednesday and Saturday, a Warhammer 40k group playing every Thursday, a Magic the Gathering group every Friday, a Warhammer Age of Sigmar group every Sunday... One of our chat group has over 70 members and the old Meetup group has 849 members.

Don't wait for imaginary friends to show up or for your local store to organize your dream event. Don't be shy. Make it happen!

Jean-Sebastien Dupuis - Founder of Golden Goblin Games