Why I Left the Fudge RPG Community Yahoo Group
On April 3rd, 2011 I left the Fudge RPG Community Yahoo Group. Now this is not very big news, but I wanted to share my reasons for leaving the group. I think that it is only fair that when a person decides to leave an organization, any organization, that those who remain know why that individual left. This is not for the purpose of taunting the group, but so that the group can determine if they are on track or not. You can’t make everybody happy, but if a person leaves your group because he or she felt that it was not accomplishing what the group was intended to do your organization needs that feedback.
First things first: I did not leave the group because of any personal problem with any of the other members. No one insulted me or upset me in anyway. The members of the group were polite on most occasions (no group is polite all of the time).
The reason I left the community is because I did not feel like I was part of a community. My attempts at promoting the “Day of Fudge” (more on that tomorrow) and “The One Month Adventure Challenge” (more on that in about 2 months) never seemed to ignite much enthusiasm. I cannot think of another event that another member of the group proposed, but maybe I wasn’t looking for one.
So I joined the community hoping that the members as individuals would collaborate together in order to accomplish bigger and better things. Yet it felt like the other members of the community were not interested in such things. My primary reason for joining the group was not being met.
In addition to the community not meeting my expectations for a community I feel that the group was focused on individual game masters working on tweaking Fudge to suit their individual games. I wanted to work with others to create actual products that would take Fudge in radical new directions if possible. My impression of the topics in the mailing list was that they were focused on more surgical alterations of the common Fudge rules. So my secondary motive for joining the group was not being met either.
So that is why I left the Fudge RPG Community Yahoo Group. Nothing sinister about it. I just was not getting what I wanted out of the group, and I suspect that I was not contributing what the majority of the group wants from its members. I wish all of the members luck with their projects though, and I hope that they continue to expand their ranks and promote Fudge as they see fit.
i think all fudge and game fans want to do their own thing – like you. 🙂
i wish you the best, patrick.
I think it’s because it’s a niche of niche thing. Talking about Fudge, you have to draw a line around Fudge. I’ve found the list handy as a touch-base but most ppl who create full-fledge games seem to contribute less or quietly leave the list over time, because an individual game becomes more than just Fudge and must stand on it’s own, not just on Fudge.
@jlcsusara: That really is over simplifying the matter, because I can say “I think that all people want to do their own thing.” So what? It is our ability to share our consciousness in the form of ideas (literature, scientific research, philosophy, etc.) and then to collaborate with those ideas that has resulted in our progress as a species.
And my own thing in this case does not negate anyone else’s own thing. The “Day of Fudge” and the “One Month Adventure Challenge” actually rely upon people doing their own things. Working with others to help them produce products also relies upon people doing their own thing. None of my objectives for the community were counter to a person doing their own unique work.
Yet my objectives were incompatible with the group because I still wanted something different. I want to see a group working collectively to promote Fudge and to expand upon it. Others don’t want to do that, or perhaps they want to do it an a different way. And when a person’s objectives do not line up with the group’s objectives a change has to occur.
@Mark Cunningham: That might be exactly what is happening here. An individual needs to take the initiative, because the Fudge RPG Community Yahoo Group (which to be clear is not the Fudge community, but a part of the larger Fudge community that is the whole) doesn’t have a mission. It has a purpose in that it brings Fudge fans together, but that is it. Once the Fudge fans are collected there it is just open discussion. It is probably just not the place to get a product or an event off the ground. It is just a place to communicate and to possibly recruit others from.
I understand your frustration – I left and rejoined the old Fudge list several times. I have a long running love/hate relationship with the the Fudge community. I love the people in the community but I get frustrated with the lack of community spirit.
You and I have talked in the past about one of the things that frustrates me about the Fudge community is the desire to make something new from scratch rather than build on something that already exists. I see this in the Fudge community a lot. We don’t see many people who want to add on to Fantasy Fudge – but there are plenty who want to make a new generic fantasy fudge game. No one wants to write up spell lists for 4×5 magic (or any of another dozen or so published magic systems) – but new magic systems are fairly common.
When a new game comes out there is an immediate call to ‘Fudgify’ it or to convert it to Fudge. I have to confess to falling into this kind of behaviour.
One of the reasons I have for not supporting Day of Fudge – and one we have talked about in the past – is why make Day of Fudge a new day when the larger roleplaying community already has FreeRPG day. Why have a special day for Fudge so close to another day that is already set aside for all the roleplaying community? Why not plan for Fudge activities in conjunction with FreeRPG day. I understand your reasons for wanted to have a unique day for Fudge – I just don’t agree with them.
I wish you all the best with your projects – including the Day of Fudge.
@shaneknysh: I do understand your logic in regards to the “Day of Fudge” and “Free RPG Day”, but while I may not agree with you I like that you are still advocating for a community driven effort on “Free RPG Day”. I wish that those groups that have the word “community” in the title were doing more to sponsor such efforts.