Thursday, May 28, 2009

ANOTHER ONE BITES IT, TGN GOES DARK

In the realms of tabletop nerd news, tabletopgamingnews.com has pretty much been it for me for the past 4 years or so. I went there 3 or 4 times a day. Sure there's the old standby, theminiaturespage.com, but that place is an internetz eyesore from 1992 that is filled with bitter, bitter, beardy old nerds I'd like nothing to do with. I'm sure they're jumping for joy. Though, now where will they get their news from?

TGN was always a great impartial site filled with info and news on the tabletop nerd scene. It covered a wide spectrum as well. Lots of gaming companies gladly supplied TGN with news and updates on a daily basis. More often than not, these folks would get involved in the comment sections to clarify questions and points. It made for a welcoming comunity. This direct and underground approach was lorded over by a guy named Zac Belado, who kept the site's tone civil and impartial.

But, due to server costs and personal constraints or something, it is no more. The site is for sale. I'm fairly certain there are other sites out there that'll pick up the slack, or maybe someone will buy it and bring it back to life, but I have some reservation about any new versions being as simple, clean, and no nonsense as TGN was. Here's to hoping though.

To invoke a line from ol' Kirk, in terms of TGN's ability to broadcast news and blog about nerd stuffs: "His was the most...human."

I am a sad panda.

Nerd Update:
It seems that Zac Belado has been approached by game industry folks to keep the site up and running in some form. As I've pointed out, this bloggo was pretty much the best on the web for what it did. And industry people have benefited in $$$ form due to the free advertising the blog basically served as. I know I've spent quite a few bones due to a heads up from that site. Definitely even stumbled onto some games and miniatures I wouldn't have if they weren't posted there. So, maybe something good'll happen after all. Just so long as GW doesn't get it's ghoul-dirt encrusted claws in there anywheres.

3 comments:

Chris Horse said...

That would entail those making the decisions at GW having an appreaciation for something not created by them.

Their new webby is the be-all and end-all of websites in their eyes and the rest can go pound sand.

No need to be concerned here.

Ack Ack Ack said...

Well it looks like someone in the industry or a rich crazy person stepped up and said, "we'll pay your ass to do this as it's cheaper than advertising ourselves" or in the case of a rich dude "I like to read things on the internet, here is some money".

Sounds positive. Site'll be up and running next week apparently. On a better server and such. I'll have stuff to read still! Yay!

As to GW's new webchild. Well, if I just paid a few million for a turd, it'd say it was pretty neat too.

Wordo said...

Maybe we can resurrect the Zombie-smash-up-Flash-game and give it to TGN to celebrate its return.