I've been spending a bit of time poking around online, reading about various "indie game" designers and publishers and I have noticed something: the Gloranthan community has a pretty scattered presence.
Now I am not really talking about glorantha.com - which is still pretty good (one of my new-to-Glorantha players said she found it really fascinating!) and well maintained; although is still not ideal. There is no release schedule, no up-to-date future plans (how could I try and contribute to future works if I don't know what they are?) and when I click on Announcements and Press Releases the last one is from December 2006. Has there really been nothing release-worthy since then? Why not?!
I found out about Glorantha (again) and got interested in it because I found the research stuff that is now located on the glorantha.com site. I think it's really important that it is a go-to location for information about the game(s) for people who are interested in Glorantha and Gloranthan gaming.
I think the lists are a problem too. By their very nature they are exclusive rather than inclusive. People who are curious can't access them and, as a consequence, the community can seem pretty dead to outside observers. This, to me, makes a mockery of the idea of attracting new players to Glorantha.
Forums, although they have their issues, are a much more open way for a community to communicate. Outsiders can see what it going on and it, in some way, lessens the feeling that the Glorantha community is a bunch of arcane obscurantists. It can be hard to find out what is happening if you are on the lists, it must be effectively impossible if you are not.
Glorantha is a literally astounding setting. It has been given some very powerful tools to realise stories that take place within it - whether you are excited by simulation or by narration. What it doesn't have is a community that rises to these standards. I don't think this is because of the community's constituents - I think that the people on the various lists are easily the equal of any roleplaying community out there at present, and are a lot more interesting, useful, and amusing than many of them. I just think that we (yeah, I count myself in that last bit...) need to use some different tools to make the most of it.
Let the savage critiques er discussion commence!
--
John Machin
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
- Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.
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