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Can Tabletop Games Codidact be given as the support site for a board game?
If I design a board game, can I list Tabletop Games Codidact as a place to ask any questions?
Does this depend on whether the game is free or paid for? Does this depend on whether the game is open or proprietary?
I imagine there is a difference between saying "Here is a site where you may find people who share your interests" and saying "This is the official support site for this board game".
My specific situation is that I'm considering releasing a board game which is free and open in the sense that anyone can make and sell boards without needing to apply for a licence or pay royalties, and anyone can release modified versions. As such I'd like players, board makers, and modification designers to be able to ask for help here. I'm interested in where the lines should be drawn in general (if there are any).
1 answer
My personal opinion, not speaking for anyone else:
A user-run community can't generally be the support site for your game or other product, but it can be a support site. Your players can get answers here from other players, just like for other games, and if people posting answers (like you!) provide links or other sources, they might even get authoritative answers.
But just plain outsourcing your support to a community generally doesn't work. First, if your game is new or obscure, the chances of somebody else being able to answer those questions aren't high. And second, there are types of questions or problems that only you can address. For example, bug reports obviously need to go to you, though questions about how to work around them could go to you or to a Q&A community.
Tabletop Games is a community of gamers and game designers helping each other. You can best support your game here by being active in the community yourself. Look out for questions about your game that you can answer -- and help guide the people who ask them if they're new. Help them have a good experience. Also look around for questions that are already here, and if you can improve existing answers, edit or comment -- you'll help lift up other people who can answer questions about your game this way. Vote. While you're here, see if you can answer questions about other games too and be part of the gamers-helping-gamers goal.
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