Game match and finding players app

[donpaulo]

Hello all,

I was wondering about the complexity of setting up an app that would connect GM and players using some filter criteria

Although I am very thankful for the forums and have found some great games and people there, I think that some kind of searchable database would really be a great feature

You will have to accept my apologies as I am not a coder nor do I really know about the effort involved in such an campaign

If the app had some simple search terms like day, time, game along with contact information filled out by the GM/Player wouldn't that streamline things ?

How much does something like this cost to implement ?

How much "coding" and fine tuning time does it require ?

Could we work with FG and create some sort of online financial campaign to get this kind of thing rolling ?

The idea of hunting and pecking for interested players/games is a bit daunting when you consider that some folks do not post some critical aspects of the game involved and the only current way I know is to click on each heading and read it. Then perhaps discover that a player has already been found.

Hoping this thread will at the least educate me about some of the details involved in this kind of endeavor

TiA

[Valyar]

Depending on the experience of the developer, this can be something that can take relatively low about of efforts (because of existing frameworks that can be used to set up the backend and only focus on the frontend) to quite a lot of time for unexperienced guy. Take it few weeks average.

The more important question is - why set up something, as there are already places you can do that. One example is: https://www.rpgtablefinder.com

Problem is the fragmentation of the community - people who use Roll20 use their forums to recruit and etc.

[donpaulo]

Depending on the experience of the developer, this can be something that can take relatively low about of efforts (because of existing frameworks that can be used to set up the backend and only focus on the frontend) to quite a lot of time for unexperienced guy. Take it few weeks average.

The more important question is - why set up something, as there are already places you can do that. One example is: https://www.rpgtablefinder.com

Problem is the fragmentation of the community - people who use Roll20 use their forums to recruit and etc.

Thank you so much for the response

fragmentation is certainly an issue

then again so is using the forums

I just spend a few minutes looking for a game only to find that is was full, quel dommage

[Valyar]

Facebook did a lot of damage to communities and forums, literally killing them. Majority of the population want to have it the easy way and therefore Facebook provided this to them, though the groups there are so useless in terms of keeping a topic up, searching and etc.

What I do as GM when I have to search for players is to advertise the game at several places: Facebook groups, discord serves and forums if needed. This way you can find majority of places. Now, if you are player - you have the same fate if you are dedicated to the hobby.

In the end of the day, both sides have to spend some effort.

[donpaulo]

Yes this is why I started the thread

something "in house"

Tabletop wizard has almost zero FG games listed

[Valyar]

Well, it might share the same fate, because every platform like that lives and dies by the whim of the people who participate. There is no way to force people to use it. :(
Sorry if I am a bit on the negative side, over the years I have been maintaining RPG forum and we wanted to have one place for the local groups, but FB and other reasons killed such initiatives every time.

[donpaulo]

Well, it might share the same fate, because every platform like that lives and dies by the whim of the people who participate. There is no way to force people to use it. :(
Sorry if I am a bit on the negative side, over the years I have been maintaining RPG forum and we wanted to have one place for the local groups, but FB and other reasons killed such initiatives every time.

thank you for the clarification and no problem at all with the glass half empty approach, I appreciate your candor

from my perspective I prefer quality to quantity

I'd rather have 100 vetted candidates to 100,000 unvetted, but perhaps that is just me ?

I never even considered looking for players on FB. No thanks...

I will try discord, but prefer here first because I've found the price point of FG tends to filter out some of the "rif raf"

[Valyar]

You will be surprised how many people are using Facebook and consider it "the Internet" and ignore anything else because it is easy. They don't want to use forums, maintain accounts, log in via browser and etc. A LOT of people in the RPG circles use just that and Discord even is something hard-code. I am an old timer and clearly don't take all the bullshit that FB, Google and etc. tries to force us into. If there is some initiative to have such place I would gladly help. Just this time probably won't be the one trying to drive it.

[donpaulo]

ok fair enough

I've been around sol quite a few times myself

[LordEntrails]

The challenge is the humans in the loop, not the technology. You have to get people to keep tings up to date and to centralize, and humans just won't do so reliably.

[Nylanfs]

Humans are the worst, lets eliminate them. :D

[donpaulo]

The challenge is the humans in the loop, not the technology. You have to get people to keep tings up to date and to centralize, and humans just won't do so reliably.

Hmm doesn't seem like rocket science to me since all current systems are designed for and utilized by said humans err dirty monkeys

yet another reason not to try I suppose

[donpaulo]

Humans are the worst, lets eliminate them. :D

Hmm there is much truth in what you say

I wonder which species will dominate after the humans are gone

[Primo]

there's also StartPlaying (https://startplaying.games/) doing this for a while successfully

the worst thing about this idea is the humans, yes, but because the TTRPG (and mostly DnD) old timers are so nostalgic to how things WERE played that they don't accept (meaning "use" or "support") anything new that changes how things "should"(in their own terms, even if they say it otherwise) be played. We honestly had a good boost in online TTRPG because of the pandemic situation, but people (mostly) are expecting everything to settle back to normal so they can go back to in-person playing.

[donpaulo]

there's also StartPlaying (https://startplaying.games/) doing this for a while successfully

the worst thing about this idea is the humans, yes, but because the TTRPG (and mostly DnD) old timers are so nostalgic to how things WERE played that they don't accept (meaning "use" or "support") anything new that changes how things "should"(in their own terms, even if they say it otherwise) be played. We honestly had a good boost in online TTRPG because of the pandemic situation, but people (mostly) are expecting everything to settle back to normal so they can go back to in-person playing.

Muito obrigado Primo

Appears to be a pay site

To each his or her own I suppose

but like the aforementioned FB that is a hard pass for me and I'm a GM...

Further I am one of those "old timers" who wants to keep on top of developments. So far I've heard some reasons why its not a good idea because its already been done, that FB sucks (which we already know), a site that has 1 listed FG game and this new one that wants players to pay in order to play online D&D.

Many thanks to those that have posted productive or at least humorous things so far

I guess at this point I am hoping to see/hear/read some further suggestions

tia

[donpaulo]

A way to limit "dead" or "inactive" games would be to have a timer on said posts right ?

again I know very little about coding but that seems a no brainer

am I missing something ?

[LordEntrails]

No, you are not missing anything. The technology is easy. There are various places that already do a lot of or all of what you want. But, for some reason(s) they have not yet taken over the RPG world. Maybe time would best be spent solving the non-technology problems that are preventing such from happening.

[Valyar]

Maybe time would best be spent solving the non-technology problems that are preventing such from happening.

Agree. Fix the people, the technology is already there and working. :)

[Trenloe]

From the people perspective - if you make it too easy to find a game, people are more prone to sign up and not turn up.

Currently under discussion in FG College: https://strawpoll.com/5bxox3pxq?fbclid=IwAR0HTD_x6ITUNanzqv9ltB3YYvPvvW8 d6eUZZ_KuUjYCO44EvUEAKvFbo6c

And I hear that Roll20 has a massive issue with no shows. I know it's all part and parcel of starting up a game with strangers over the Internet, but if a potential player isn't invested in the game (i.e. it's simple to find and click "I'm interested" or some such) then there's more of a chance they will ghost the event/session.

I agree it would be nice if there was a more FG specific way of finding FG games. I don't know what the answer is - I don't think there's a perfect solution. A lot of it relies on follow up once the initial event has been posted somewhere. We learned a lot with running 16 FG Cons - we forced everyone to use a specific booking system and requiring them to register. But once in the system it was fairly straightforward for people to find games, review their current bookings, etc.. We sent automatic emails to players with initial session info. We asked the GMs to email the players directly to start a dialogue and create a before session relationship - if they didn't hear back from a player then their booking was cancelled. We still had some no shows, but not to any significant level that it seriously affected the convention. An approach like this obviously creates a lot of work - for both the admins and the GMs, but it seemed to work for us. I see a lot of posts on these forums where GMs have had to constantly work at player communication - even for long running campaigns. I think this is necessary. I send reminder emails for my games - even to good friends who I know are pretty reliable to ensure that we're all aware of when the game is and can communicate if there are any issues. Expecting complete strangers to turn up on time after them taking one second to click a button and doing nothing else is going to result in a low turn out rate...

Anyway, I don't want to derail the discussion about an app - I just think wanted to add some food for thought...

[donpaulo]

From the people perspective - if you make it too easy to find a game, people are more prone to sign up and not turn up.

Currently under discussion in FG College: https://strawpoll.com/5bxox3pxq?fbclid=IwAR0HTD_x6ITUNanzqv9ltB3YYvPvvW8 d6eUZZ_KuUjYCO44EvUEAKvFbo6c

And I hear that Roll20 has a massive issue with no shows. I know it's all part and parcel of starting up a game with strangers over the Internet, but if a potential player isn't invested in the game (i.e. it's simple to find and click "I'm interested" or some such) then there's more of a chance they will ghost the event/session.

I agree it would be nice if there was a more FG specific way of finding FG games. I don't know what the answer is - I don't think there's a perfect solution. A lot of it relies on follow up once the initial event has been posted somewhere. We learned a lot with running 16 FG Cons - we forced everyone to use a specific booking system and requiring them to register. But once in the system it was fairly straightforward for people to find games, review their current bookings, etc.. We sent automatic emails to players with initial session info. We asked the GMs to email the players directly to start a dialogue and create a before session relationship - if they didn't hear back from a player then their booking was cancelled. We still had some no shows, but not to any significant level that it seriously affected the convention. An approach like this obviously creates a lot of work - for both the admins and the GMs, but it seemed to work for us. I see a lot of posts on these forums where GMs have had to constantly work at player communication - even for long running campaigns. I think this is necessary. I send reminder emails for my games - even to good friends who I know are pretty reliable to ensure that we're all aware of when the game is and can communicate if there are any issues. Expecting complete strangers to turn up on time after them taking one second to click a button and doing nothing else is going to result in a low turn out rate...

Anyway, I don't want to derail the discussion about an app - I just think wanted to add some food for thought...

Thanks again for those participating
Don't think we can fix people, so perhaps putting that somewhere else might be prudent. We do fix pets however, just food for thought

Quality v Quantity seems to be grindstone issue as I see it so far. Further I don't see anyone arguing a pro quantitative position unless they are in sales :bandit:

The strawpoll was very interesting, thanks for sharing. I've signed up for an event or two over the years but due to my time zone I was unable to attend. Will be more careful about clicking the interested button in future...

Maybe using FGAcademy is a better path to follow. Players already registered there are motivated enough to join and bringing in newer players is good for the hobby