Clubhouse, the drop in audio chat for iOS, launched 1 year ago in March of 2020. As it slowly gained traction with communities and invited more users, I was given an opportunity to join the platform. The platform lets people talk using voice chat in a virtual room about various topics, like for us, board games. Users raise their hand to come up on stage to participate in the discussion, or just coming in to listen to the discussion and learn from others. The new board game club is a reason to celebrate because whenever a user opens a room within the club to talk about anything board game related, it will ping all members to come join.
Now, you can talk about board games to others who actually care instead of your spouse or friend who pretends to understand. But before getting too excited, the platform is currently for iPhone users only, and will be developed into Android or other systems sometime in the future.
However, if you do have an iPhone and want to come chat about board games, come join our club by simply searching “board games” in the search under the club tab. The club is recently new, as it takes time to get a new club approved, but Paul Shapiro from Board Game Squad formed the club and now many members are logging on to listen or talk about board games.
Rooms
Currently anyone who is a member of the club can create their own room with whatever topic they would like. I have met so many people within the board game industry or just random board game players, that this app really helps you to connect with others that have that same love of board games that you do. Rooms with various topics are made all the time, but Paul Shapiro of Board Game Squad, James Correia of Little Meeples, Daryl Andrews a board game inventor best known for designing Sagrada, and myself host a weekly chat purely talking about games.
For example, this past Thursday our topic was Co-op games and we had a great conversation about good co-op games, what we like about them, what we don’t like about them, and why they seem to be so popular. The conversation was great as Daryl had great stories to share about his and other designer’s experiences, content creators including myself have been exposed to many co-op games and it was great to hear and talk about these newer or preferred games, and then board game players also joined in the conversation to either ask questions or continue the discussion on what they like or don’t like about co-op games.
Another example, one night after work believe it or not, I had a strong desire to talk about games, so I opened up a room. In popped in Rachael Blaske from Wise Wizard Games, and Ami Baio of Pink Tiger Games. As we chatted about games we have been playing or games we had seen on Kickstarter, I got to learn more about Pink Tiger Game’s new game that was on Kickstarter at the time called Rabbit Rabbit: A Game of Superstitions.
What I’m trying to say is, if you have the app or the desire to come talk about board games, you should! Join the club, and start following myself of course, board game designers, game publishers, board game personalities, and other board game lovers.
Here is a small list of people I found on the app that you might know:
Rodney Smith – Watch it Played
Scott Alden – Owner and founder of BoardGameGeek
Daryl Andrews – Designer of Sagrada and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (currently on Kickstarter)
Heather O’Neill – CEO of 9th Level Games
Dan Kazmaier – Steeped Games and designer of Chai, and Chai: Tea for 2 coming soon.
Grant Lyon – Comedian and creator on Grant’s Game Recs
Erica Bouyouris – Game Designer, Co-host of The Meeple Syrup Show
Sen-Foong Lim – Game Designer, Co-host of The Meeple Syrup Show
Brenna Noonan – Board Game Developer – Quillsilver Studio
James Hudson – Director of Tabletop Games of Skybound, Owner Druid City Games
Peter Vaughan – Designer, Developer, Publisher – Cardboard Alchemy
Monique – Gamefreakgeekgirl
(all information for above users taken from Clubhouse profiles)
Now how cool would it be to listen to or even talk with all or some of these people? Pretty cool I’d say, so come on, into the boardgame clubhouse.
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