Written by ContentPowered.com
There are many reasons to build an online gaming community. Some people are seeking to invest their time, effort and money into a online venue that can host content, discussion and revenue-generating ads. Others are fans who want another space to talk about the game they love so much, connect to other players and learn the newest tips and best strategies.
If you’ve been dreaming of creating your own gaming forum, this guide is for you. Here are 5 simple steps to build the community of your dreams.
1. Choose the Right Game
The oldest and most popular games already have plenty of sites dedicated to them. At this point, it would be challenging indeed to build a thriving community for a game like The Sims. A quick search will show you that there’s already more than enough wikis, sites, forums, blogs, and customization communities for that game. People are a lot less likely to notice your site if it’s thrown into a huge mix.
On the other hand, if you chose a game that’s too obscure you’ll also have problems. If only a few hundred people have heard of the game, it will be hard to make a decent-sized forum. You need to find that sweet spot of the up and coming game that doesn’t have too many dedicated sites yet. Or else you need to find a new angle on an old classic. For example, you might create a site based around discussion of the best plan for Minecraft hosting.
2. Choose a Purpose
When setting up the site, you need to have a clear intention. Try to condense your vision of the community into a single sentence. Do you want to make a space for discussion of the latest mods in Civilization 5? Or host conversations for your WoW Guild?
Once you have a sentence that serves a mission statement, all your decisions will be easier. If you feel unclear about anything, simply refer back to your main goal. The clarity of your purpose will help attract those with similar goals.
3. Work Hard, Cultivate Patience
Like anything, building up a gaming community can take a long time. There’s the matter of building up a good solid infrastructure, including a simple and attractive user interface. The design you chose has implications a lot deeper than aesthetic ones. On the Internet, the way a website works determines how and in what ways community members can communicate with each other.
The social aspects can be even more complicated and difficult than the technical ones. It takes time for people to develop relationships, trust and common perspectives. Some amount of conflict is inevitable. Over time, you and the community will develop norms and figure out how you want to relate to each other in this virtual village you’re all building.
4. Reach Out When You Need Help
As the community grows, you’re going to need people to help out. You’ll definitely need some volunteer moderators, and possibly some programmers and graphic designers as well. Be open about what you need and be generous in your thanks. Make a point to give something back, if you can. Helping each other out is what community is there for; you can always try a gaming forum and ask people for advice; most forums are more than willing to help out.
5. Be A Strong and Reliable Leader
If you make rules, you need to enforce them. Someone will inevitably complain, but in the long term showing that your word can be counted on will build trust and respect. You need to demonstrate that you’re impartial and treat everyone equally.
Don’t forget to have fun. Remember you’re all there because you love the same game!
Matthew
says:Hello. I’m Matthew and I’m trying to start up an online gaming community. Essentially what I want to do is just set up a page to help bring together a variety of people from different consoles and game types to get together and find other people that like the same games. Like, have you ever found a game that you love and you can’t find anyone else who likes it? I want to bring gamers together in a fun group that will hopefully advance and be as large as possible. We’d have scheduled gaming, like COD on Xbox on Tuesdays and other games at other times, it would be fun. If you have any specific suggestions for what I’m trying to do or any just ideas, you seem to know a lot. If you get the chance you can email me at Thatjutzeguy@gmail.com. Thanks for the read and the help.
Theo Martin
says:Hey Matthew! I just sent you an email :). Theo // Leaping Tiger Community Manager
coolmark1995
says:Dear Theo Martin I am contacting you to get your opinion on this me and 3 other owners are currently running a community we have a decent user base as we have been arouns gor 4 months but after reading your post I was wondering how you keep a community going so strong I read your post and would like to know more if you could contact me id love to understand as of recent our own website has gone live as well my email is mark.hilt@wolfpack-force-gaming.com id love to get some tips and tricks from you as an owner. Thanks, Mark
Ash FAQ
says:Hello, I’m new in my gaming community (about 5 months in) and my subs are still not growing. What should I do to get things moving?
James Parsons
says:How often are you creating new videos? The best way to grow an audience is to give them something to crowd around. Useful content, funny content, shocking content; everyone has their own brand of content that makes that channel worth coming back to. If your content is boring or not worth watching for more than a minute or so, you should work on spicing it up with some humor, add in some nice editing, and teach your viewers something. Consider doing a series as well where you release a new video every week so you give them a reason to subscribe and come back for more. You have to stay persistent, growing a loyal audience takes time, but the more videos you put out, you’ll see your subscribers slowly climb. This is why some of the largest creators on YouTube have tens of thousands of videos; you won’t get there overnight!
Tyler
says:Hello I am starting a new “company/gaming community” we are in the beginning steps of the process such as building our PC’s, creating our website, etc.. when is it a good time to start recruiting others as “members” of our organization. I have a partner on this and he already has a discord and a few followers on twitch but he believes that we need to expand as quickly as possible, I’m trying to do this by the book and make it as professional as possible so people don’t view our missions, and concepts as a “joke”. If anyone has an insight on this please reply. I just want to make sure we are moving at the correct pace instead of sprinting to the finish line and doing things half done. Thanks guys and girls!
Derek Rolin
says:Good Luck! Be prepared to give it your life