Technology is my day job, L(a)RP is one of my hobbies, but in the world of 2017, technology is a major part of any considerations in regards running, hosting or attending a game, whether it’s a L(a)RP, a roles playing session, or a table top gaming event. There are several considerations you should make before you dive into the world of web hosting and domain names, as of 2015 there were already 298 million registered domains! so likely your first choice is taken, but gaming deals with fantasy and science fiction subjects so most likely your concept is just enough of the well beaten track to allow you some room to be creative with a Domain name. But do you need a Domain? What is a Domain? Let’s talk about some things first before we tackle that!

Name and presence, You’ve either decided it, thought about it or think you know what it could, and should be! Look at this site Red Circle Games the name is in my opinion engaging, what is a Red Circle Game? it’s easy to remember, once you understand the ‘What’ it’s also descriptive and luckily at the time of creation inspired by a 1960s film noir movie it was available, no not in it’s original form RCG.com/co.uk I wish, 3 letter acronym Domains all were taken in the 80s and trade hands for small fortunes. Why not redcircle although not a website the domain is taken, but also it’s not suitable, the What? is more laboured, there is no descriptive element, no games. So Red Circle Games works. So that is the consideration of name, what about presence? Who are you appealing to? How far do you want to reach? Who are your audience? Friends, Players in an established game, new players for a new game, locals in a student union, locals in a regional area, or a sub community of L(a)RP with a like of specific genre! Does it matter? I believe it does, as does your budget.

Hosting is the activity of using services or hardware to ‘host’ a website Domain, Domain names are effectively addresses in the network postal system where a ‘Domain Name Service’(DNS) will tell network traffic to go to a servers ipaddress once it is published in one DNS it is repeated to all on request until they all know it. So going down the path of renting or buying a server or service that provides one, and an ipaddress to attach to the server or service so a Domain name can be registered against the ipaddress and then any one entering your Domain name into a web browser can find your website. But do you need to? The most famous domain in the world today is probably Facebook love or hate it, like many social platforms it provides capabilities to host spaces for group activities, Pages, groups, events can all be managed with no need to know or understand Domains, hosting or ipaddresses all you need is a name and a little time to click and fill in web forms. If you don’t think there is enough freedom in being bound by Facebook in such a way as https://www.facebook.com/redcirclegames/ (it does exist but is unpublished). Then there are still options before you dive into hosting as a service or hosting your own website, Google domains, Blogger, wordpress.com are but 3 examples of hosted platform content management services that will let you build websites, theme them and alter the domain to your own. I’ll tell you a secret http://redcirclegames.co.uk is in fact equivalent to http://abuxton.github.io/rcg. I work in tech, but by using the services of https://pages.github.com/ they provide security, hosting, DNS, scaling and availability. I trade some dynamism of a full content management system such as Wordpress, or the User interface of services such as WIX, but that’s OK I do not suffer the adverts those sites inflict upon my content. So think about this when you consider your choices,

  • Do you have a name, is it a good name.
  • Do you really want a named site?
  • Do you have the money to pay for domains, servers, hosting?
  • Do you have time and skills to host, manage secure and maintain your website?
  • Do you have money to pay for being popular should you get lots of exposure, network traffic, scaling, further security?
  • Do you have the skills, time money for design, imagery and content?.

Content is your consideration too, website pages, blogs, wikis, forums, pictures, videos, documents. All of these commonly make up websites, look at the popular L(a)RP sites Profound Decisions and https://www.facebook.com/empire.lrp/, Conquest and https://www.facebook.com/liveadventure/ both of which offer content rich sites with mixture of events, content and usage of hosting, services and Facebook presence.

  • What do you need to provide your players?
  • How will they book your event?
  • How will you tell them about your events, and updates?
  • How will you provide the content, pictures, articles for blogs, content for Wikis?
  • How will you pay for it?

See it’s not just simply naming your game company or organisation, it’s not simply hosting a form, or a webpage, it’ not simply creating a Facebook page. Consider these things, try them, and see which work for you.