I really love MF0 (if you haven't noticed it by now). it impacted my life in such a positive and multidimensional way that I'll probably write a separate topic about it in the future. I want it to thrive and survive in our contemporary ever changing culture, so I stopped to think: "What can be done?"
I claim no authority here, it's not my business to tell the community, Joshua or anyone, what to do or how to enjoy MF0. But I still believe I could start an interesting conversation.
I'm also not interested in changing MF0, it's a bloody good concept and a solid game experience. It suffers from being in a niche of a niche, so it's quite natural it will never have the mass appeal some games have. Still, I believe it could reach further if the right conditions are met.
Part 1: New book
I've been part of online communities of other games to know that the main stirer of new conversation are news about official expansions and versions of their respective games.
From what I talked with Mantisking and other old members, the peaks of conversation in the community were around the book kickstarters.
So, should we simply pester Joshua a lot until he comes up with something new? Unfortunately I'm afraid this is not very feasible, or polite. In the end of the day, Joshua is really only one person and there's only so much he can do at one time, and it seems he is very busy with other projects right now (which are just as valid and interesting as MF0, as I said, I'm not here to tell Joshua what to do).
An aggravating factor is that selling the two existing books doesn't seem to be all that profitable for Joshua, even the Kickstarter era ones (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong and you're reading this). So I'm not sure how much of an incentive he has.
We could try to counter that by releasing fan made material, but making those in a polished manner demands real work and it's not for everyone. I myself always toyed with the idea of coming up with a full on new book myself, but I sincerely don't have the expertize to do so currently, and that would demand some self imposed training and learning that I'm not sure I could commit myself to alone right now.
Still, if anyone has a project idea, I would be glad to talk about it and help a little if possible.
Back when I made the 2017 frame instructions, I was super happy to see how many mof0s were able to help directly, making instructions and renders in a truly coordinated and organize manner. It was truly an honor, and I would be glad to take part on something like that again.
Part 2: Old book (kinda)
Maybe Joshua could simply release a revised version of RA, IO or both. Maybe something as simple as including an extended frame/ship instructions roster, some mild clarifications based on the errata written on this very forum and other minor inclusions would be enough to attract attention. Let's face it, most game companies release things like that every time.
Would be cool to see RA 001.1.
Something that needs to be addressed is that Joshua still has copies of the old versions to sell, but I suspect that it would actually boost the selling of those on the long run.
Again, if Joshua isn't available, we could talk about trying to build those ourselves in the near future.
Part 3: Social media
Something that we all already do to some extent is expose MF0 to the interwebs, the very act of posting here already counts. But I believe we could go further.
Something that's super hot right now is youtube reviewing videos. Maybe one of us could mail a package of frames to a mildly famous internet unboxer/reviewer hoping to get some exposure. Again, I toyed with the idea of doing that myself but... I live in Brazil... Shipping would be expensive for me, to put it mildly.
Talking about videos, lore videos are somewhat hot around nerd circles as well. Videos talking about the setting or the vehicles of MF0 made by some of the bigger lore channels could raise the exposure of MF0 exponentially.
Part 4: Real life
Go play the thing in real life, of course! Somethings never really change after all, and actually playing the game will always be the best way of keeping it alive.
It always saddens me reading people saying they have nobody to play. You know what, they are wrong!
People are more open minded that they seem sometimes. I, as pretty much the only Brazilian person who knew MF0 even existed at the time, had to build groups from scratch, and, you know, it wasn't as hard as it sounds. Most people, even complete non geeks, from all ages, will delight playing it, even if they don't enjoy the game all that much in the end. Having a nice new experience and something to talk about is something most of us can enjoy.
Back in my college days I would pull random people I found in my matches, most of them never came back (some certainly did), but they sure all smiled all the way and had a great time, even if just for the novelty of the situation.
That's all for today, what you folks think about the subject?