Diving Deep into the P:G Community, Buzz, and Other Stuff

It's interesting to take a look at the communities behind MMOs and see what's going on there. Ever since being a "community leader" and eventually a "community manager," I can't help but look at what's happening in games and their social networks.

Here's what I've noticed so far:

Company Social Media:

• The Homepage! Yup. It's a good place to start.
• Facebook -- They have around 1,900 followers, but it's not linked to from the home page of Project Gorgon, so I don't know if it's official?
• Twitter 1 -- @ProjectGorgon has around 6.700 followers.
• Twitter 2 -- @GorgonMMO has around 1,200 followers . . . but yet seems more active of an account that the other.
• YouTube -- GorgonMMO has around 500 subscribers.
• Reddit -- Project Gorgon's Reddit page has around 3,100 adventurers to its name.
• Discord - The unofficial player-made Discord channel has around 1,200 members. But, honestly . . . I don't know how many people actually use that Discord channel. 
• Official Forums -- The forums are hosted from their official website and has around 4,650 people registered with probably many more lurkers.
• Official Wiki -- This wiki is also hosted from their official website. You can actually access this wiki in game with the "/wiki" command.
• Steam community -- The Steam page is always a great place when looking for reviews and news.
• Kickstarter Page -- This is the page that started it all!

Looks like Etibule Keep in its early stages

News Site Coverage:

• MassivelyOP -- MassivelyOP seems to be the main MMO news agency to keep your eyes on when it comes to Project Gorgon. Justin Olivetti is keeping us in the know or at least dropping the name of the Gorgon when he can.  
• MMORPG.com -- Suzie Ford has been covering Project Gorgon for MMORPG.com but looks like they've lost track of the MMO as of last April.
• Ten Ton Hammer -- Most of this is old news from the Kickstarter.
• Gamespot -- Just a few pictures I think?
• MMO Pulse -- This appears to mainly just be a general review of the game from around the time of the Kickstarter.
• MMO Huts -- This is also a review of the game from about two years ago.
• MMO.com -- Yet another review of the game from yet another MMO news site.

Developers:

• Eric Heimburg -- I found a Twitter account, but the last he posted on it was back in 2013. He's much more active on the Official Forums as "Citan"
• Sandra Powers -- So, she has a Twitter account that I found, but she doesn't post much. There was one post that concerned me, and that was this:

I have a sister with MS, and it is debilitating for her. I certainly hope she's ok.

• Connor Brace -- I was happy to see that the Composer for the music for Project Gorgon, which is quite good btw, lives here in Austin, Texas. I should reach out and see if he'd let me buy him lunch!

Picture from ConnorBrace.com

A full list of all the developers can be found here: http://wiki.projectgorgon.com/wiki/Developers -- I'd dig deeper, but it all began to feel a bit stalker-y.

Community Leaders / GMs / Volunteer Guides:
Not so much a site per se, but just wanted to point out that there is a GM presence of sorts on the game itself and the main one I see while playing is a fella that goes by the name of "Jackncola" -- pointing out his favorite type of drink perhaps?

I caught a screenshot of him in game one day when we were having a party. He had boosted his character size up to double that of a normal character.

Quite the presence in the game . . . Literally!

Twitch
As for Twitch streamers, it looks like Uncle Retro and Straggiz take the lead spot for a "regular" streamers. Both seem like really nice older guys. I can relate. lol. Both seemed very worth of a follow if you're into that scene and both seemed to upload their streams to YouTube as well.

Watch Halloween Events! from UncleRetro on www.twitch.tv

YouTube
 YouTube is an interesting beast since it's kind of a deluge of different players, but there was a really nice "Let's Play" from a couple of guys named Battle-Ax Theater. They just wrapped up a nine video series with their final thoughts just two days ago. I appreciated that they bleeped out the swear words . . . um . . . at least for the first 12 minutes.

Blogs
I hunted just a few pages deep on Google trying to find a few bloggers that had written a touch on Project Gorgon. Most had only written one or two posts, but I found what I would call an invested few (and familiar names to me) that made at least three posts or more about the game.

• The Ancient Gaming Noob -- Wilhelm seems to have last played the game back in March 2019, but has also mentioned the game in passing.  Good stuff here as always.
• Inventory Full -- I just discovered Bhagpuss's blog from the recent Blaugust. He seems to have really given the entry part of the game a good go and thoughtfully wrote about his experiences. I'd love to see him write more about the game.
• Bio Break -- Syp hasn't written much about the game since March 2018, but what he has written is highly entertaining. He's a true professional.
• Endgame Viable -- UltrViolet has a great handful of posts on Project Gorgon. Again, as with all these bloggers listed, it's a great read. Very well written and thoughtful.
• . . . and me . . . hi.

Podcasts
A little digging has shown that currently there doesn't seem to be a dedicated podcast for the game; although, it was really fun to listen to the folks at Control Alt Record when they discovered Project Gorgon. They were clearly in love with the game and unfortunately the honeymoon didn't last longer than just a couple of episodes:

Episode 18: Project: Gorgon the new (old) MMO
Episode 19: Project: Gorgon New Player Guide and Quiz

It was also pretty cool to hear how excited one of the guys from The Sandbox podcast was about just getting off the demo island.

Episode 114: A Glimpse at the Gorgon

Other:
This isn't a social media site, but since I've got a big encyclopedia of links above, might as well include this: Gorgon Explorer. This tool pulls directly from Project Gorgon's database library and adds new functionality like the ability to plan out your "build."

~~

Most of the podcasters all had the same reaction that I had about the game play. There's just something really satisfying about this game. It's hard to describe unless you play it. They all talked about that horrible Loot Box UI pop up. It's all a blend of rants met with the highest of compliments.

And that's something funny I've watched myself do when I try to tell someone that I'm playing this game. Every time I buffer the conversation with things like "look, the graphics suck, but . . ." or "it's super grindy, but . . ." "There's no mounts or housing system yet, but . . ." or any of the other qualifiers one might put before talking about the game.

I wish I didn't need to do that, but I guess I do. Especially given the amount of games that are out there that you could be playing instead. For me, it's the core game play. It's smooth and addictive. The plethora of skills is the game's strongest point. I certainly am not done with the game yet: too much to do and I'm still having fun.

Speaking of addictive, dang, the loyalty of the small Project Gorgon fan base is HUGE.  All the old Asheron's Call players that flocked here is a thing of beauty.  They loved their game. They miss their game. Project Gorgon is its natural evolution but yet a totally different game.

My end thought is . . . I guess I don't think the majority of these people care about the social aspects of their game.  The Vocal Minority flocks to the Global chat in game, the forums, and the in-game events, and that's enough for them.  Everything else is . . . great . . . but I just don't think these fans are also fans of the fans if that makes sense. They just want to play the game and when they go hunting for information, they want to find it as fast as possible.

The vibe I get is "Less talking, more playing." That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

If you have more sites that you know of, please feel free to share them in the comments. Would love to hear about any and all.

Happy Dueling!