More than a week ago, I asked a Burning Question about your gaming community for this month's blog carnival. Since I haven't been getting the response that I was hoping for, I thought maybe I should start off first, describing what the gaming community is like in my hometown in Borneo.
Where is your gaming community located?
I live in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. On the world map, we would be the northern part of Borneo where the tallest mountain in South East Asia is located. Our state is sometimes known as the Land Below the Wind.
How big would you say it is?
There is barely what I would call a community in KK. Everyone that I've played with were introduced to the game by me or had heard about it in passing but haven't actually played it, even that is a rare breed to be found. If I really had to count the handful of us, I would probably put it somewhere between 30 to 50 people at most.
What games are being played? Are there any games more predominant than others?
If anyone who has any inkling of what a P&P RRG is, the second name that comes to mind is probably Dungeons & Dragons. I've only heard someone mention Talisman once so that's an exception. Besides us who play Dungeons & Dragons (4E currently), I don't think there's anyone else playing other games. Some of my group mates have played White Wolf games before but we're sticking to 4E.
Is it easy to find other players and GMs outside your gaming group?
Easy but only because all the DMs I know that already playing in my group.
For players, there are many that have shown interest but we are unable to fit them into our group. We are suffering from a huge gap between the player/DM ratio with probably 10 willing players for each DM (and in my count there's only 4 of us who has DMed before).
If I was looking to join another group outside my own, I probably have a much better chance just starting my own again.
Are there any community activities being run like conventions or something to attract new players?
No, it's a gaming desert here in terms of community activity or conventions. There just isn't enough people to make any sort of these activities worthwhile. One of my group mate is keen on bringing up the community but so far any semblance of community activity would be this Facebook Group page that we started for D&D gamers in KK.
Hopefully by next year, we'll have something more concrete.
How many game stores are there in your community? Do they run any RPG-related activities?
I used to work in the only one in town until it was closed a few months ago although it mainly sells just Magic: The Gathering. The shop didn't participate in any of the D&D related activities for retailers from the beginning.
The only other place that I would call a game store is where my current group plays at. It's a boardgame cafe where you order drinks while playing the boardgames they have available at a certain rate. The boardgames are for sale too. The reason why we're playing there is because there is this nice, big round table that is big enough to fit our battlemats and group together.
Is there a LARPing community?
Nope but there's a cosplaying community if that counts for anything.
How does the wider community look at the gaming community?
I would say that we are pretty much an alien group. People here give us the weird stare and curiosity glances when we are playing. I've never encountered the satanic scare when I was playing in a catholic school so it seems like we are relatively left alone.
Alright. Now that I've done my part, don't be shy and tell me about your gaming community.
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