If you’d like to see all the survey responses as raw data, download this .csv file. It’ll open in OpenOffice or Excel.

Let’s start talking about these highlights though. How are we going to move forward from here?

Starting An Outreach Site For New Gamers

A massive 90% of people think we need an outreach site for new gamers. According to the comments we had, this would include:

• Introductory information on modern board-gaming
• A “Top games” section with good introductory games
• Links and contact details for local board gaming groups

By its very nature, the site would have to be quite simple, maybe a dozen pages or so, and have great, easy to enjoy information. It’s basically a sales pitch for board gaming in general and some solid connection points to the New Zealand board gaming community.

We’re happy to build the site, but would love to have content and ideas from you. How should this look? What content would it need? What games should be recommended? Anyone good at copywriting?

A Kiwi Board Gaming Forum Or Community

The question over creating a specific online New Zealand board game community was much more difficult to answer. People seemed to like the idea, but wouldn’t have much time to give to it. That said, 30-40 people spending an hour or more each week would definitely give us some life!

Many people thought BoardGameGeek was enough for everyone; others wanted a recreation of most of BGG’s features (forums, rankings, etc) on a NZ-specific website.

It seems to us that there isn’t enough interest in this right now to give it its own domain and site structure.

We’ve been planning on setting up some forums here on SeriouslyBoard since shortly after the site’s inception, which will allow us to get started. As the community grows, we’d like to expand the features available and consider moving it to its own domain. The forums will be live by the end of 2010…but hopefully sooner!

So, let’s talk: how are we going to move forward from here?

Throughout the months of June and July, we’ve been entering every purchase into the draw to win one of 5 x $30 vouchers.

The clock is ticking, so if you haven’t got yourself into the draw, you don’t have much time!

Every game you purchase enters you into the draw, so if you buy two products, you’ll get two draw entries.  (It really is that simple!)

Additionally, one of those vouchers will exclusively go to a fan on our Facebook page, so if you want to impr
ove your odds, make sure you join us over there!

We’ll be drawing the winners at the beginning of August, so you only have a week to seize this opportunity!

If you’re looking for a chance to play some board games without having to commit to buying them, or if you’re looking for a regular challenge, we have a comprehensive listing of New Zealand board game groups for you to explore.

Board game clubs seem to be congregated around the city centres right now, but we’re seeing small groups crop up in smaller places such as the Matamata group we’ve blogged about previously.

If you run a board game group in New Zealand, please let us know so we can add your details and to see if we can help you out with some bulk order discounts for your members.

Wellycon 2010 is shaping up to be the best Wellycon yet, with an increase in numbers as the anticipation juggernaut gains momentum.

On the weekend of August 14th and 15th, the city of Wellington will experience an influx of board gamers, and you could be one of them.

SeriouslyBoard are proud to be involved again.  We’ll be sponsoring the Saturday, and, just as we did in 2009, we’ll have prizes on offer and a discount for all Wellycon attendees.

So if you’re in the Wellington area and you’re keen to meet other gamers, make sure you register here and make it to Wellycon.  And if you’re located somewhere else…make sure you get into the Wellington area in one month’s time!

The What: Wellycon 2010
The Where: St Patrick’s College, 581 Evans Bay Road, Kilbirnie, Wellington (Map)
The When: Saturday 14th August (10 AM to 10 PM) and Sunday 15th August (10 AM to 6 PM)
The Who: Andrew Rae, wellycon@gmail.com
The Wallet: $5 per person per day.

But do you reckon you could do better?

SeriouslyBoard is the only New Zealand retailer to import The World Cup Card Game 2010.

This is your ideal opportunity to show your footballing skills on the world stage…or on the table, anyway.  And at just $12, you’ll be hard pressed to find an award winning game at a cheaper price.

And if you’re more of an Agricola fan, consider playing this card in order to prevent your opponents from conspiring against you!

So…want it GST free?

Forbidden Island is a treasure hunting game, where players are seeking to collect the hidden valuables before the island sinks beneath the waves!

A fully co-operative game with variable difficulty, Forbidden Island has plenty of replayability and its short game time makes it ideal as a filler or for someone new to modern board games.

Although we’ll be listing the game for $29, you can have it with GST removed at $25.38.

If you’re keen, just comment on this blog with your favourite aspect of co-operative games before Forbidden Island arrives in stock, and we’ll be in touch to let you know your discount code.  It couldn’t be simpler!

Since we started SeriouslyBoard, we’ve been committed to growing and encouraging the board gaming community. That’s why we give games away at conventions, take time off our full-time jobs to visit community groups, suppliers, and manufacturers, run a New Zealand board gaming blog and host over 110 gamers on our Facebook page, making it the biggest NZ-run online community for Kiwi board gamers we can find.

But maybe it’s time for us to step up our game. Maybe we can give more back?

There are so many ideas floating around the BGG discussion boards, we don’t know where to start! So, to help move things along, we’ve created the following survey to find out what Kiwis want in an online community or outreach site.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/324319/boardgamenz

You can fill in this survey if you’ve only played one game or have been playing for decades. If you’re a Kiwi and keen on gaming, let’s build something amazing together. We’ll be publishing the results here and talking more about how to move forward and create a cool space where people want to hang out and/or an introductory site that’s super friendly and helpful for potential board gamers.

Do the survey now. And if you know someone with even a passing interest in board gaming, get them to do it too.

Now we’re reminding you so that you don’t miss out!

With the cold and wet weather really beginning to kick in across the country, now is the ideal time to make the most of the time spent indoors, and board games are the perfect antidote for the winter blues.

SeriouslyBoard are giving away 5 x $30 vouchers to randomly selected customers until the end of July, and every product you purchase puts you into the draw! So if you b
uy one game this month, you’ll get one entry into the draw.  If you buy two games, you’ll get two entries into the draw, and so on.

One of the five vouchers will go exclusively to a Facebook fan who buys a game, so make sure you’re signed up to our Facebook page to be in the running for all 5 vouchers!

The winners will be contacted at the beginning of August.

And remember, if you’re looking for something and can’t see it listed on the website, be sure to contact us and we’ll help you search for it!

As mentioned in an earlier blog, you now have the opportunity to pay tribute to the All Whites in game format with The World Cup Card Game 2010!

SeriouslyBoard are the only New Zealand retailer to stock this award winning title!

The game is incredibly popular, and at only $12, it’s easy to see why.

Make sure you don’t miss out on your chance for World Cup glory!

If you’re new to the world of modern board games, please read on…

Board gaming has come a long way since our childhood Monopoly memories.  There are now a whole host of board games with a wide range of themes, styles, and difficulty levels that don’t rely on the luck of dice to determine the winner.

Here at SeriouslyBoard, we’re unashamedly fans of the board gaming hobby, so if you’re looking for some recommendations, here are a few suggestions…

Carcassonne is a classic title and a great appetiser for an evening of gaming. Through the use of tile laying, players develop the area around the French city of Carcassonne.  Like many people, we rediscovered our love for board games through Carcassonne, a simplistically elegant gateway game.

In Settlers of Catan, each player battles it out to create the dominant settlement on the island of Catan, through resource gathering, trading, and building. An absolute classic, Settlers of Catan is one of our ultimate favourite games, and the winner of the Spiel des Jahres – the premier board gaming award worldwide – in 1995.

Ticket to Ride is the premier train-based board game. In Ticket to Ride, you compete against others to complete secret missions along a limited amount of tracks.  Elegantly simple, Ticket to Ride won the Spiel des Jahres award in 2004.

In addition to these, we have several other games, and if you’re looking for something we haven’t listed, please get in touch with us via our contact page.

You can also keep up to date by joining our Facebook page or by signing up to our mailing list below.

And in the meantime, we have a special discount for you that lasts until the end of next weekend, expiring at midnight on the night of Sunday July 4th.  When you add an item to your shopping cart, simply add the word ‘PAPER’ to the discount code field, and you’ll get 10% off your entire order excluding freight!

Not only that, but you’ll also go into the draw to win one of 5 x $30 vouchers to be drawn at the beginning of August!

So sit back and relax, join our mailing list, and save a few dollars on us in the brave new world of modern board gaming!