Pitfalls in Game Community Building
The always excellent Bokardo published the second entry in a series on Common Pitfalls of Building Community. (Look for part 1 here.) I thought the first point, not appointing a full-time community manager, was particlarly applicable for the games industry as more and more games look to build a vibrant community both inside and outside the game.
The MMO/persistent world guys have this all figured out. They appoint community managers from the day that a game is announced and carefully herd their community like a much-loved flock of sheep. That said, I still talk with developers on a nearly daily basis who think they can slam a server browser and some leaderboards into their game and - bam! - online and community is done.
Not so, kind sirs. Your community needs a manager, just as a party needs a host. They need an official representative to speak with, an advocate within your studio, someone to mete out justice, someone to set the tone and site mores.
Some of the folks we work with, like the Command & Conquer team, have known this for years and actively manage their community from the inside. (Hi, APOC!) APOC is in the forums every day talking with users, posting news and updates to the site and always on the lookout for troublemakers to punish and community stars to rave about.
For those who use our competition tech to create web-based ladders we offer community management as a part of our service. Take a look at the Star Wars: Empire at War space ladders for an example. [Guard]Valdimer is always there monitoring the ladders for suspicious activity and keeping the community up-to-date on ladder information.
One last thought: Don't make make the mistake of thinking one of your designers or developers can act as the community manager. Once your community becomes active, a place where thousands of users flock each and every day part-time just won't be good enough. Plan ahead for success. Build that CM into your live team's budget or give us a shout to help you out.
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