Please comment if you are interested in a Game Pass focused "book club" type thing. Focus on shorter games.

In my New Years resolution blog I mentioned that one goal this year is to play at least some of every game released on Game Pass in 2022. There was talk in the thread that it might be fun to do a "book club" focused around Game Pass. Now that the first games of the year have dropped on the service I'm trying to find out if there's any real interest or if it's just one of those "it would be nice" thoughts people sometimes have.

The way I would conceive of it working is that every two weeks or so we would pick a game on Game Pass (could be new releases but wouldn't have to) and start a discussion thread on it, with the goal of everyone finishing in an allotted time (I would think two weeks but that's obviously up in the air.) Then if the game has a story that could be spoiled we would do a spoiler thread at that time. We could also set up a Discord chat if that's what people want to do, but one of the advantages of message boards is that you don't have to log in at any particular time, which fits with the different time zones of various people and for people with busy schedules.

I think it would be best to focus on games that are A) Available on PC, console, and preferably streaming so the maximum number of people could participate, B) relatively short so that it's not some huge time commitment to finish something like Scarlet Nexus in 2 weeks, and C) relatively easy so that people wouldn't feel intimidated or like they couldn't participate because of skill limitations.

Those things would all be negotiable depending on who wants to participate, what hardware they have, and what they're comfortable with but if you're on the fence because you don't want to commit 10 hours a week or something ridiculous, the goal would be to avoid that and focus on games where the maximum commitment would be along the lines of 2 hours a week.

If only a few people want to participate then we would pick a game via consensus, if it's a larger number we would do a vote.

I fully realize that there might be zero interest in this but I'm going to be playing at least part of these games any way as part of my resolution so if even one other person is interested I would do it. I'm on the Game Pass train this year anyway so if anyone wants to join there's plenty of room.

My Game Pass is about to expire, but I'm definitely interested in this idea. I've followed along with various "book club" style game podcasts and I've always enjoyed it. I would agree with your focus on shorter, easier experiences, too. I certainly wouldn't be able to keep up with games that require a large time commitment on a two-week cycle.

So count me in! Thanks for getting this started.

This is an awesome idea @bigsocrates! I would be interested in joining up, especially with the focus on shorter games.

Same! I don't think I could participate every 2 week cycle, but definitely interested and would help bring out more value to this subscription I'm paying for but not using a lot.

I am intrigued by this idea. I think shorter games is the way to go and 2 weeks seems about right. If it were a month, that would give people more time to finish a game. At the same time, if it was longer than 2 weeks, the time between games may be too long for people to remember or long enough there is less pressure on the deadline, which could mean people pushing stuff off.

I'm not sure how much this divide still happens, but it would be good to pick games that are both on PC and Xbox to avoid any platform issues. (I don't have an Xbox and have only used PC Game Pass, or whatever its called)

I'm well up for this :)

This is a great idea! I may not be able to every single two-week span due to school, but this would be a great way for me to actually play more games as they're released. I'm so down for this.

This seems like a really cool idea.

I've been on the fence about getting Game Pass for a while just because I don't think I would play the games much, so this would definitely be a good incentive for me. Count me in.

That's a cool idea I'd tentatively be down for, although I don't doubt that I'd eventually fall off it as I got busy - I already came back from my holiday vacation to about 200 emails, which put the kibosh on my own little project I was planning. Feel free to make appropriately catty comments about me not showing up though, just to give it that true book club feel.

FYI I've also got a list of the games that were on GamePass for Xbox as of December if you need one to look through.

sounds neat

Count me in. It would have to be games on PC Gamepass for me to participate though.

I’d love to partake in a game pass book club as there are lots of interesting games to play but sometimes I miss the social aspect of talking about it. I’ve got ultimate with a PC and Xbox.

That's more interest than I was expecting. Excited!

So I'm definitely going to set something up and we'll see how it goes. As a first game I propose Gorogoa, just because it's new to the service (though not an actual new game) and it's very short (2 hours according to how long to beat) and something I think everyone could get through. The Pedestrian and Olija were also added, and those are both reasonably short so if people would prefer one of those (or a different game) sound off below. For now the only "requirements" I think we should stick to is that the game be relatively short and available on both PC and console. We can revisit those later, of course, but I think that's the best way to start.

If we select Gorogoa as our game I propose that we set January 17 as our proposed completion date. That's slightly less than 2 weeks but it's a short game and it puts us on a good cycle to complete by Monday, giving people two weekends to play.

My proposed structure would be that I'll put up a forum post announcing the game after we agree on a selection, and we can have non-spoiler (or at least spoiler-tagged) discussions as people play it, then I'll edit the post on the 17th to announce that it is spoiler open season and we can have our final conversation at that point. If people would prefer to organize it another way (or wait until the end date to start discussion) we can do that, but my feeling is that we'll get the most participation if we let people comment along the way so not everyone has to log on on the 17th. We can also set up a Discord conversation if people want to.

All of this, including game, date, and format is up for discussion.

Also, if people want to skip a game because it doesn't interest them or they're busy and then join in later, that's fine. This is not meant to be an exclusive club, it's meant to be an open forum for discussion and just a way to focus on playing something communally. All are welcome to join in or skip as they prefer. If people don't have Xbox Game Pass but we select a game you have access to through other means you are also, of course, welcome to join in.

So that's my initial proposal, please let me know what you'd like to change or make alternative proposals for games or ways of doing this that interest you.

Since I completely chickened out of my 2021 resolution to write a review on every game I played, I’m in for this one. My vote on the format is for discussion thread, for the reasons op stated are advantageous to most people.

Both console and PC are viable for me, though lately I’ve gotten more custody of the Series X (as most of the games my wife wants to play are on Steam at the moment).

There are a ton of games that can be done in 5 hours or so, even less. So that's not a bad idea.

That sounds like a fun organized way to beat “the backlog”. I’m Game

I'm definitely up for it!

Gorogoa sounds all right. I... think that's a card game of some sort? I actually don't know what it is but I'll download it and play it and have some thoughts on it.

@bigsocrates: I was excited to see Gorogoa added to Game Pss so I’d be fine with this being our first choice. Discussion thread is also cool with me.

I would like to get in on this.

I like the Gorogoa pick since it’s not a game I would otherwise play. Going to download it later. Looking forward to reading others’ opinions.

Great idea. Gorogoa is a fantastic game. Have fun, duders!

Super cool idea!

@damodar: I’d say it might work if you use a random number generator to pick the game. Allowing people to vote on this will have you fizzled out by March. Also if you use the random number generator then it might line up with a game that people happen to own which opens you up to more people participating in the discussion if they are on the other platforms.

Random generate the total number of games and just commit to whatever the game spits out. You let people decide and the tears are going to be as boring and persistent as the “I just bought this and now it’s games with gold … boohoo”. Good luck.

Sounds interesting. I’d definitely try and pop my head in when you’re doing a game I’ve already played and would want to have a bit of a chinwag about. Would also be the kick I need to eventually join the discord.

I'm going to give people until the end of the day to comment on my proposal of Gorogoa for the first game and if there are no objections I'm going to put up the post and kick this off. I realize this game may not be to everybody's taste, as no game will be, but if we choose a game that you don't want to play...you don't have to. Drop in, drop out, change your mind and decide to comment (or not) anyway, it's all up to you. We're going to be freewheeling and fancy free here.

This sounds awesome, count me in!

Will we have a name for the "book" club? The Breakfast Club? The Breadcrumb Club? The Bomb Club?

@donutello: I was thinking something like "The Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club" which is a bit long but gets the idea across but if other people have better ideas that can be changed.

Not sure we should call it The Breakfast Club unless we want Zombie John Hughes' decidedly non-zombie lawyers to sue us/eat our brains.

Not sure calling it "The Bomb Club" is the best idea unless we want to be hauled in by the FBI and questioned and then have our brains fed to Zombie John Hughes.

@bigsocrates: Good point, i would like to keep my brain!

I'm tempted by a name with a reference to GB, like The Croissant Club (reference to Jeff's pronunciation video) or name in the style of GB show series, like Bring Your GP-game or something silly like that

what do you think? Any fun ideas?

I don't have Game Pass, but as Gorogoa is 70% off on the Steam sale and I have always been intrigued by it, I decided to pick it up. If you are talking about games I already own or have played in the future, I might check out the discussions. I won't be joining a Discord for that though.

This doesn't really need a name, does it? Off the top of my head, and keeping with the bomb theme, you could probably do worse than something like the "Demo/Listen Crew". Or just "Demolition Crew" if that wordplay was a bad stretch or too cute by half or whatever. Because you're demoing games. And demolishing backlogs.

I'm definitely down.

@donutello: I don't want to include the Giant Bomb name for something that the site itself has no affiliation with besides hosting the forums because I feel like it might mislead people into thinking it's some kind of official thing. If people wanted to name it like the "Tiny Sparkler" or some other reference I'd be fine with that, but I just don't want to do anything that might incur the wrath of @rorie. You know what that looks like? One big chomp.

We also don't need to decide a name right away. Something may come organically.

@bigsocrates: oh right, i didn't think about it this way

I've been trying to do something like this on a discord I belong to, and its been hard to get everyone on board for a single game, we started with Sable but a lot of people bounced off it. But I would totally be down to participate, been enjoying game pass games, and even though a lot of us bounced off Sable my Son and Wife completed it.

Gorogoa works for me. It was on my GOTY list the year it came out, but I'll play through it again to see how my feelings hold up.

I’m good with Gorogoa. It looks pleasurable and peaceful enough. The kind of game I can relax with some tea and chill out.

Awesome idea, downloading now!