Every community, no matter how big or how small, has its founding myths, a filter through which it comes partly to define itself. For what is, after all, a relatively small community, The Fortress seems to have rather a lot of them. I’m not sure quite why this should be the case, but after having had a user suggest it might be of interest to some of our newer members to go over how this site came to be, and not being one to pass up an excuse to bang my own drum, I figured to might be a good time to clear the matter up.
The birth of this site is, curiously, related to the birth of my eldest daughter in early 2006. Neither of my girls have been good sleepers, and both managed to keep me largely housebound for the best part of three years (still ongoing with the youngest). So, as a result, I stopped playing games. This had the unexpected side effect of making me think about games a lot more, and that in turn meant I felt compelled to write about them a lot more. So I started increasing the volume of lists, reviews and sessions that I was posting on boardgamegeek.com. But I didn’t want to limit myself to reviews and lists: there seemed to be so many more interesting and worthwhile things you could say about games. Analysing mechanics, looking at historical trends, assessing wider social impact, talking about gamers themselves. Opinion/editorial material, in other words. The trouble was that BGG was a bad place to showcase this sort of material - it had to go in the site-wide forums where it was likely to be rapidly buried under avalanches of crap.
So I started to think about writing my own blog. The trouble was that I didn’t feel I had either the time or the inspiration to write enough to make a whole blog for myself worthwhile. So here comes the first of a number of lucky breaks that we got: these thoughts happened to coincide with the emergence of what you might call the “Ameritrash consciousness” in the BGG community. A group of vocal people who decide they didn’t really like a lot of the dominant Eurogame genre on that site, and who were tired of being told that the sorts of games they preferred, heavy on randomness, excitement and narrative, were old-fashioned and worthless and were starting, individually to buck against the trend.
There was no defining moment to this. The first time I became aware of it was in the response to something I’d written, a geeklist called Seven Reasons to hate Eurogames in May 2006 but that’s not trying to take credit for it, just natural I should have first spotted it relation to one of my own pieces. If you look at the comments on that list, you’ll see a number of people who would later become prominent in the development of this site. Another important milestone was another geeklist, Robert Martin’s A Tribute to Ameritrash not only because, again, you got the same rough group of people chiming in, but because that’s the very first time anyone used the term Ameritrash to define the genre. And as these sorts of posts went up, I started to get a sense of a group of talented people around who shared my tastes and opinions, and with that I got the idea that rather than starting a blog on my own, I could start a team blog and the subject could be these newly-resurgent Ameritrash games.
The first person I approached about this was naturally the man who was rapidly become something of a figurehead for Ameritrash, thanks to the high volume, eloquent construction and devil-may-care, rabble rousing attitude of his posts. That was, of course, Michael Barnes. Once we’d agreed this was a good idea, the next order of business was to find some more like-minded people to join us. Robert Martin was top of both our lists, but beyond that we had rather different ideas. I don’t now remember exactly who was on each of our lists but what I do remember is that pretty much everyone who went on to make substantial and ongoing contributions to this site were on Michael's list, not mine. That, if for no other reason, is why he’s rightly entitled to claim co-founder status here even though I made the first move: without his suggestions and contributions in those early pre-launch days, then my team blog would certainly have rapidly fizzled due to a death spiral of declining participation and declining interest, and come to nothing.
There was a small exception. One of my nominees was a guy called Brady Severns. He was on the team in the early days and had access to the blog engine but, as far as I recall, didn’t post a great deal. What he did do though was come up with the Fortress: Ameritrash moniker when we were discussing names, and it ended the discussion instantly, one of those perfect moments where it’s obvious someone’s stolen the show and no-one else is going to cap it. And for that his place in the mythology of this site is forever assured.
It was decided fairly early on in proceedings that in order to differentiate ourselves from other gaming blogs that, aside from the Ameritrash focus, there would be two principles. First is that we’d spend some time covering what we called “trash culture”: films, books, comics, music, video games and the like that were of general interest to gamers and geeks. Given the frequent tie-ins between those genres and games it seemed a bit crazy that no-one had done it before, and an obvious void to fill. Second was that although the people writing preferred Ameritrash we were going to try hard and make sure we gave coverage to all games that were worth the time, regardless of mechanics or theme. Good games are good games, and we didn’t want to repeat the Euro-exclusiveness found on other sites in reverse.
So we had a team, a name, a vision, a plan and a blogger account and were all ready to launch. And then came another one of those co-incidental strokes of fate that have helped define the site. Just prior to us getting ready to make the first post, Michael got banned from BGG. This is probably the biggest myth in circulation about F:AT so it bears repeating: all the bones of this site were in place a considerable time before he got that ban, and the fact we launched right afterwards is a complete coincidence. We didn’t initially build this to give Michael a new platform, or as a place for people appalled by the moderation politics over at BGG a refuge, but the fact we launched after that ban meant that we became both. It also meant we had a ready-made and eager audience as we launched at a time of maximum publicity around one of our members. That’s been a two-edged sword all along. On the plus side, it almost certainly meant we got a bigger audience than we would otherwise have had. On the negative side, it’s meant that disaffection with BGG became a central theme of this site's community which has haunted us since day one. It’s not good to be defined by what you’re against rather than by what you’re for.
The honour of the first post went to Michael Buccheri whom some of you may know better as Malloc. I wanted to get in there myself, but he beat me to it. So I sulked for a few days before making my own first contribution on the subject of the Euro-domination of “best games” charts. On re-reading it’s not a great piece and not a particularly important subject but what is interesting about all these early posts is how they accurately foreshadowed a lot of the things that eventually became running themes for the people who write here. In the early days those people were me, Michael Barnes, Robert Martin, Ken Bradford, Frank laTerra, Tom Hancock and Michael Buccheri. A few others made one or two contributions and then drifted out of sight. After we realised that we’d lost a number of contributors and could perhaps do with some new blood to fill the gaps and someone - I think it was either Michael or Ken - suggested we get Ubarose on board. At first we figured she’d just be another great writer to add to the stable. Little did we know she’d quickly become the primary motivating force, at first for moving the site from the blogger engine to its own address and platform, and later for pretty much everything we do, putting an enormous amount of unrecognised and unpaid effort into keeping the site and the community together. As I said recently to our newest recruit, the only rule we have here is that you do what Shellie tells you, and that’s only because she’s always right.
And the rest, as they say, is pretty much history. I imagine most of you will know most, if not all, of what followed. We’ve had our ups and downs, our trolls, our eruptions of disagreement over internal politics but we’re still here, still posting stuff about games and most importantly of all, still growing. I was reflecting recently that, biased as I am, I think I can claim hand on heart that Fortress: Ameritrash has the best quality written articles on board and card gaming anywhere on the internet (these guys are also pretty amazing, but they largely do video). Authors on other sites and blogs are sometimes interesting and sometimes entertaining, but only here are there people who regularly manage to be both. The other thing I think we do better than other board and card gaming sites is community. We veer from intense, serious debates about game mechanics to politics to family stuff to cock jokes and, amazingly it all seems to work. You make it work. All of you. Whether you contribute pieces or post in the forums or just come here to read, the continuing success of this site is down to you.
Thank you.
The Founding of the Fort
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but i heard that FAT was formed to ensure mutually assured destruction after the great dice holocaust at Rio Games in 88.
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It kills me that The Artist Formerly Known As Andy has bypassed using certain keywords that TKWIL's version of NSA can lock in on, using the chemical C2H5OH nomenclature. Quite clever. But all of these stories just go to reinforce my belief that he is a raging ethanolic. I laughed so hard I almost spit coffee when I saw that particular composition and realized who was writing it.
Neat story, Matt. It's really intresting how it all came about in a series of what amounts to chatting between friends or acquaintances and has turned into what makes this place awesome. While I do get a "Land of Misfit Toys" vibe in the forums since there are quite a few BGG decriers, the stronger vibe I get is that this is the place to have frank discussions, with Frank, even, about which games suck and which don't.
This is a very unique and beloved place, and actually, my last refuge!
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I tried reading through your geeklist you link "7 Reasons to Hate Eurogames" and made it through three or four entries before I had to stop.
Things I did learn: #1 I want to charter a small jet and fly me and a bunch of the Fort to England so as we can play games. From your comments, I'm sure we'd have a blast.
#2 Randy Cox is/was a douche.
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http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/14579?commentid=132721#comment132721
Quote:"There is a big problem about non-Eurogames, at least the "good old ones".
We were playing them lots during our High School years, too... maybe too much. Now, I can tell they have one big problem - they are not suitable for experienced players.
As the time passed, we learned to know the games and each other so well, so was no point to play these games further. The winner was decided not by the better strategy, but partially by luck, and mostly (and this is the biggest issue) by other players.
Most of old type strategic games for more players are just that bad. The winner is not the one who manages to win, but the one whom other let to win. You might say it is a "diplomacy" or "persuading skill" or whatever, but this doesn't work once all players are strong enough, and experienced enough to see what is going on. Moreover most of these games have the depressive mechanics strong enough to stop him. In almost all games of these old format is a situation, in which one player decides about order of other ones (especially, a player with no chance to win at the time decides who wins). And there is no satisfaction to know you have won because one or more players decided to let you win.
This is in some degree problem of all multiplayer games, but good eurogames have reduced this aspect to minimum.
The old games were great at their time, but not because they were that good - just because we were not experienced enough to see their weaknesses... "
~ Vlaada Chvatil (Prophecy, Mage Knight)I got a laugh out of that. Amazing how times change.
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SuperflyTNT wrote:I got a laugh out of that. Amazing how times change.
Don't get it. Chvatil has made a career out of making thematic games that conform to precisely the qualities he outlines in that comment. He might be somewhat misguided in his views, but how have "times changed" for him?
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I look at the "good old ones", and while I think he may be talking Risk, I am looking at Talisman and Space Hulk, and those sorts. Prophecy, for me, is the Talisman killer, or at least his Russian National Hockey Team to Talisman's US team*. So for him to decry, 6 years ago, that a game like Talisman, which is primarily a luck game with strategy is flawed, and then to create a game that is just like it, with the exception that the movement is less luck-based, was what I found funny.
*(Yes, I know he's not Russian, and yes, I know Talisman was made in Great Britain)
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I would like to say that I have been here since day one and haven't contributed shit, and that is no myth.
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Awesome read! Thanks.
I've been a member of BBG for more years then I can re-call, but truth be told I only ever used it to keep track of my growing collection of games, as well as get a feel for a certain game I was already looking for. I didn't really read the forums there as they were almost always filled with the same troll wars, and usually not worth reading.
I actually do look forward to reading through the forums here, never mind the quality written words by the regular contributors and the constant improvements to the site layout and functionality. You all deserve thanks for putting together this community. I actually enjoy spending my lunch hours (and in-between hours) on your site.
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"In the beginning there was nothing. Then there was light. There was still nothing, but now you could see it." -Bob and Doug Mckenzie
...thanks F:AT, for showing me the nothing.
SuperflyTNT wrote:http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/14579?commentid=132721#comment132721Quote:"There is a big problem about non-Eurogames, at least the "good old ones".
We were playing them lots during our High School years, too... maybe too much. Now, I can tell they have one big problem - they are not suitable for experienced players.
As the time passed, we learned to know the games and each other so well, so was no point to play these games further. The winner was decided not by the better strategy, but partially by luck, and mostly (and this is the biggest issue) by other players.
Most of old type strategic games for more players are just that bad. The winner is not the one who manages to win, but the one whom other let to win. You might say it is a "diplomacy" or "persuading skill" or whatever, but this doesn't work once all players are strong enough, and experienced enough to see what is going on. Moreover most of these games have the depressive mechanics strong enough to stop him. In almost all games of these old format is a situation, in which one player decides about order of other ones (especially, a player with no chance to win at the time decides who wins). And there is no satisfaction to know you have won because one or more players decided to let you win.
This is in some degree problem of all multiplayer games, but good eurogames have reduced this aspect to minimum.
The old games were great at their time, but not because they were that good - just because we were not experienced enough to see their weaknesses... "
~ Vlaada Chvatil (Prophecy, Mage Knight)
I got a laugh out of that. Amazing how times change.What a great comment. What's awesome about this comment, right or not, is that it inspired him to go on and create his own genre of games that are not quite the eurogames being panned in the GL nor quite the AT games of old that are championed in the GL but his own genre of games that are unique and fun. Still filled with randomness (Galaxy Trucker and Space Alert) or with more strategy (TTA and MK) and always adhering to the basic principles you see the germ of being outlined in the above comment. Clearly inspired by what he thought were the shortcomings of those games to make games that did not have those same flaws (but instead had different ones). Obviously he is a man of vision and dedication. I know that sounds kind of high falutin' but just remember I mean that in regards to board games. That should bring it down a few notches.
Thanks for makin' the only website about games I can feel half way comfortable at. I have nothing against the other sites, I just feel more comfortable here.
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I came here for precisely the reason Matt identified -- BGG has no channel for broader gaming discussions and as best I can tell they're very happy with that.
That's their business, but considering my writing style and topics of interest posting to the blog roll here was a much better outlet for what I had to say.
The level of conversation is also much higher here. New people show up looking to deliver the usual bullshit, but then get steamrolled and either lift their game or leave. That's pretty uncommon.
S.
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That's where I'm at with it, Sag. Where else can you find Thrower and Barnes laying board game reviews and info out in a way that is rarely seen, and have the crowd cheer "Lay Smoke, You Dick...AND USE OVERWATCH" in applause.
This place is the stuff of legend.
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Sagrilarus wrote:New people show up looking to deliver the usual bullshit, but then get steamrolled and either lift their game or leave. That's pretty uncommon.
S.Do you mean for articles or for just trashtalk posts? Cuz for articles, we already have Ken and to a much, much, much lessor extent MikeBarnes' articles already raising the bar hella high. Any self-respecting writer is going to up their game if they want to post here. I don't know if steamrolling the newfish is the way to go? It seems like steamrolling is par for the course at BGG but here people actually converse.
Maybe you meant something else tho
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This place was awesome until Black Barney showed up, now it's balls.
You can definitely see the difference in the "BBB" era of F:AT and the "ABB" one. It's like the bottom of the intellectual barrel fell out and we hit rock bottom.
Who wants to talk about the comic books?
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Ken said you wanted me back! You sound like Kristy in Hellraiser II who keeps complaining that she opened the box by accident. You knew what you were doing Barnsey when you summoned me, what you were in for.
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Black Barney wrote:Any self-respecting writer is going to up their game if they want to post here.
Clearly, I have no self respect.
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Nono Petey, you're an exception since you've clearly come to terms with your handicap.
/really needs to stop trolling Matt's really great article
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Quote:
I tried reading through your geeklist you link "7 Reasons to Hate Eurogames" and made it through three or four entries before I had to stop.
Things I did learn: #1 I want to charter a small jet and fly me and a bunch of the Fort to England so as we can play games. From your comments, I'm sure we'd have a blast.
#2 Randy Cox is/was a douche.Hell man, it'd be a bit easier for me to fly out to all of you. And really there's little in the world I'd like to do more than spend a couple of weeks touring Amercia, meeting and gaming with all you lovely people. Really. But I am short on both time and money, so realistically it's not going to happen anytime in the near future. Sorry. :(
And there are some priceless idiot comments on that list. My personal favourite is the guy close to the bottom of the general comments thread who's so convinced of the moral and mechanical superiority of Euros that he can't decide if I'm posting for real or making an ironic joke.
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I was one of the people who came to the place after I realized that Barnes (my favorite writer at BGG) had gotten banned.
Having been here that long, I realize that my particular myth is that I have probably posted the least amount per length of time on here.
What a lazy motherfucker.
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Quote:Maybe you meant something else tho.
I did, and I was talking about reply posts more than blog posts, although the blog posts here are often top notch material as well.
I was specifically referring to replies both to articles and in Trash Talk. People that write bullshit posts get disassembled by regular members with solid insights and writing skills. A reply like "you're just saying that because you're a gay fanboy" gets a list of damn good reasons for the original opinion in reply, often from two or three veterans. When someone comes here they realize pretty quickly that they're sitting at the adult table. They're welcome to stay, but they have to think a bit before they type. That can't be enforced by an admin. That's about the web site's culture and community.
S.
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Great quote from Bob and Doug JJ and now I can see it too. I came here following a one day ban on BGG not because I had nowhere to go. I'm not a constant poster, but because I was tired of the self righteous naval gazing. I still use the site because it's a good collection of game information and I'm not fussy where I find that, but I find myself posting there less and less.
I like it here. It's comfortable like old shoes and you don't have to continually swat gnats.
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Sagrilarus wrote:People that write bullshit posts get disassembled by regular members with solid insights and writing skills. A reply like "you're just saying that because you're a gay fanboy" gets a list of damn good reasons for the original opinion in reply, often from two or three veterans. When someone comes here they realize pretty quickly that they're sitting at the adult table. They're welcome to stay, but they have to think a bit before they type. That can't be enforced by an admin. That's about the web site's culture and community.
I think a lot of credit goes to Mr Skeletor for how Trash Talk's culture came to be. Its one thing to write interesting articles or blog posts, but its another to know how to deal with the aftermath of douchebag replies. He made it clear from the start that its not a mod's place to mollycoddle every member. You either stand by what you write, be man enough to let things go, or you fucking leave as a crybaby. Other sites are so afraid to lose members they let the crybaby whiners turn the site into a nanny-state. The Fort and Mr Skeletor wisely took quality over quantity in that regard.
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The fact that I am here says a lot about how the original intentions succeeded.
I joined BGG just as the Ameritrash war was coming to a head. I had basically joined to find games to play with my wife. She had read an article about German games and was intrigued, as all our previous attempts at board games together had failed due to her not liking conflict. So I was in the blissful ignorant state, whereby I was in love with and being indoctrinated into Euros, as finally after 15 years I had found a mutual understanding with my wife.
And then there was this fuckwit who kept saying my new found bliss was wrong. He made me angry, and kept butting into places he wasn't welcome, so when Barnes was banned, I was all for it. But the weird thing is, as much as he annoyed the hell out of me, there was something to his writing, and in this weird period of self-denial I started reading the blog too. I felt the views there were wrong, but something kept drawing me back.
Thus slowly over quite a period of time I kept reading more and more of the site, starting with the articles and slowly moving to trash talk, had my Ameritrash epiphany, before finally joining up in mid-2009 when Barnes pissed me off so much I had to say something. If the initial quality of the writing hadn't been so good, I wouldn't be here because I was so fundamentally against everything you were saying (And I love it here. I knew I had found the most appropriate place for myself on the internet when my wife looked over my shoulder and said "What the hell is that place? You're having a discussion with people about Zardoz and you didn't start it").
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Mad Dog wrote:
I think a lot of credit goes to Mr Skeletor for how Trash Talk's culture came to be. Its one thing to write interesting articles or blog posts, but its another to know how to deal with the aftermath of douchebag replies. He made it clear from the start that its not a mod's place to mollycoddle every member. You either stand by what you write, be man enough to let things go, or you fucking leave as a crybaby. Other sites are so afraid to lose members they let the crybaby whiners turn the site into a nanny-state. The Fort and Mr Skeletor wisely took quality over quantity in that regard.Agreed, Skeletor is the original reason I came here and even though he doesn't much like me and doesn't frequent here anymore I can certainly see how his posting style really helped turn this place into what it is today just as much as the high falutin talk from others did. I stayed cause all the other people were cool and I didn't get instantly shat upon by a thousand nerds for having a different opinion.
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Mad Dog wrote:Other sites are so afraid to lose members they let the crybaby whiners turn the site into a nanny-state.
Ken, this is what almost happened to Decktech but then Neal banned members and saved it. For a while, it was a total nanny-state. MadDog totally describes that situation perfectly. What a nightmare place to be when that happens.
Sag, thanks for the clarification. I totally agree.
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Thanks for the great article and thanks to everybody for making this such a great web site.
I got to game with Brady Severns a few years ago when he lived in Bloomington. I think miniatures were more his passion and he was a great modeller, terrain builder, and painter. But he was always a welcome addition to any game, miniature, board, or role playing.
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An enjoyable read. But I'm surprised there's no mention of Mr Skeletor until Mad Dog's post. Frank's forum rules were ground-breaking and the 'stand by what you write' attitude moulded the forums. Sag commented on the steamrollering of douche bags and I strongly believe that that is one of the effects of Frank's rules.
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Notahandle wrote:An enjoyable read. But I'm surprised there's no mention of Mr Skeletor until Mad Dog's post. Frank's forum rules were ground-breaking and the 'stand by what you write' attitude moulded the forums. Sag commented on the steamrollering of douche bags and I strongly believe that that is one of the effects of Frank's rules.
Well I named him as one of the important early contributors and so he was. I haven't really focussed on anyone in particular apart from Michael and me. But FWIW I agree, he was a stellar presence when he was here, and contributed a lot toward the feel and culture of this place before he blew.
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Notahandle wrote:An enjoyable read. But I'm surprised there's no mention of Mr Skeletor until Mad Dog's post. Frank's forum rules were ground-breaking and the 'stand by what you write' attitude moulded the forums. Sag commented on the steamrollering of douche bags and I strongly believe that that is one of the effects of Frank's rules.
He's mentioned in the main article. Skelly is Frank La Terra.
The realisation, in a flash of inspiration, of the name Fortress Ameritrash, reminds of a naming meeting I once had.
When I first came to TKWIL, the darts league was the main social outlet. You go round other peoples houses and play darts while drinking copious amounts of C2H5OH on the equivalent of a Friday night. My friends and I needed to start our own team but we needed to emphasise we were more into drinking than competitive darts play.
Many ethanol and cokes later, just as I was about to go comatose, I had a 'Paul on the road to Damascus' moment. Suddenly, it all came together and I shouted out 'Mine's a Double'. The team was born. It is still going today but, sadly, without the original members. Holy Shit...what a great name for a darts team.