Where's the Indie Game Forum For Me?

What's a good forum about playing indie computer games?

I've been enjoying http://story-games.com for my tabletop roleplaying discussion. It's pretty great, though some complain that it's gotten too crowded of late. Anyhow, it has a couple neat features:

• The moderator has to approve you before you start posting. Although he approves just about everybody, that simple step culls a lot of crap posts.
• It's specifically not about designing games; it's about playing them. So people talk strategy, favorite games, post play reports, what games they're looking forward to, ask 'I'm looking for a game like X, what is there?'
• It has a narrow focus - it's not about roleplaying games in general, it's specifically about playing-for-story.

I'd like to find a forum for indie computer games that does the same or similar things. (TIGSource and IndieDB seem like they're mostly for game makers.) I'd like a forum where players of World of Goo, Journey, Desktop Dungeons, Lugaru, N, Cave Story, Braid, and the like (btw, what is the like? what binds these games together in my mind?) congregate and talk about play.

Anything like that out there? 

Comments

[Andy K]

Heya! Andy from Story-Games here!

The main thing is, I asked that very same question 7 years ago: "Where's the RPGNet/'Forge Birthday Forum' for indie roleplaying games?" There wasn't one, so I *made* it. It didn't spring up in a vacuum! I had the same questions you did, but since no one else was doing it, I made it myself instead of waiting for someone else to do so.

Oh, incidentally: The moderation step means I basically approve every single applicant in but spammers. But the great thing about that step is that it *is* a step: You have to sort of "want it more" to post there, which I think has created a community of mostly okay people with a low ratio of bitter posters/trolls. Some folks have complained loudly about the elitism that such a step implies ("What, I have to ASK to join!? Elitist!"), but honestly its unexpected emergent behavior was to prevent a tiny but insurmountable barrier to douchebags. :-)

Good luck!

[Xander]

I enjoy the indie game threads on Something Awful, but they aren't separated out from the rest of the games forum.

That having been said: it's a friendly and honest community, strict modding keeps the trolls away and threads are divided by subject matter, so you won't have a million Mass Effect threads. Right now Dwarf Fortress, Starfarer, Crusader Kings and Day Z are on the first page.