BGA Affiliation Program for Local Physical Stores? The Whole Gaming Community Would Benefit!
Posted: 06 January 2021, 13:45
I suggest that BGA might consider activating an Affiliation Program for board game physical stores, as well as gaming cafes and the likes, in selected countries. This would help the entire gaming community thrive and grow!
If that sounds good to you, please upvote the following suggestion ticket: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=31357 
Affiliated board game stores would be able to provide BGA with a network of "local chapters", enabling a whole new set of hybrid virtual/in presence experiences, thus enhancing the community building. People do need places where to gather, play together and belong, and this has become even more compelling because of the pandemic. Virtuality and face-to-face participation can reinforce one another, making one of the distinctive features of board games compared to other forms of entertainment.
As a suggestion, BGA might consider offering price discounts and/or coupons to Premium members, to be redeemed in one of the affiliated stores (e.g. a member's local store of choice). This might also include specialized e-stores, or hybrid (physical+online) ones. BGA might also consider offering such discounts and coupons to skilled players, e.g. as prizes for tournaments and Arena Seasons. This would enhance the gaming experience for dedicated players, and would be a stimulus for purchasing a BGA Premium membership, thus helping BGA being profitable and economically sustainable (without selling users' data, and without selling itsleft to a big corporation
).Moreover, affiliated stores should be able to share their game suggestions and reviews in a customizable profile page, which would act both as a virtual shop window and a virtual gathering place for its customers. Affiliated gaming bloggers and specialised websites should be able to do the same. Affiliated gaming cafes should be able to host tournaments within their BGA affiliated page. Those are just examples of activities the affiliated would be enabled to engage with.
US-based Bookshop.org is an exellent example of a virtual space managing effectively to help the physical stores network (in that case, independent bookshops), as well as the book lovers community at large: https://bookshop.org/affiliates/profile/introduction. By becoming an affiliate, local bookstores can share their suggestions to their custromers through their personalized page within Bookshop.org, and get a 10% share on each book sold through that page. Bloggers and literature review website can become affiliates as well, and earn money by sharing links pointing to Bookshop.org instead of, say, Amazon. Good news is the system seems to be actually working pretty well!
I see this as a potential virtuous circle
I think the main competitors for the board game industry are not to be found within the industry itself, but in distinct entertainment industries instead (e.g. TV series and movies streaming services, social media platforms, and the likes). Let's get togheter and grow even stronger!Last but not least, in building such an Affiliation Program, BGA might consider teaming up with one or more distributors and/or online stores, possibly one per country. For example, Philibert in France (www.philibertnet.com) already offers an affiliation program for websites and blogs sharing Philibert links on their game reviews. It also offers advantages for gaming associations such as ludothèques. As for Bookshop.org, it has teamed up with the US biggest book distributor, Ingram, which takes care of the entire selling process, from order taking to home delivery. Yet, Bookshop.org is still able to actually give money to independent local bookstores!
If you think the whole gaming community, including BGA itself, would benefit from an Affiliation Program with board game physical stores, please upvote this suggestion ticket: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=31357
I'd love to hear what you think about my suggestion: please drop a line, and let's make this happen!