Building a video game community

need tips on building a video game community

[gilliganmn]

Hi all,

I've written a video game information site which is a user-driven game information site much like GameFAQs or IGN. It's built to scale to all video games and is a combination of a knowledgebase and forums where each game has its own area with game documents (reviews, cheats, hints, etc.) and a game forum.

I'm having trouble getting people to sign up and contribute. There are larger, more established game sites out there so I know it will be slow going at least at first, but I feel if I can reach just a few motivated users I'll be able to start building a decent, self-sustaining community.

I've tried posting on a some video game newsgroups without much success as well as Google adwords which get slowed for me right away. Can anyone share their secrets for building a successful community?

Thanks!
Jay

[edited by: rogerd at 9:16 pm (utc) on Jan. 28, 2005]
[edit reason] No specifics/URLs, please... [/edit]

[vkaryl]

You almost HAVE to have a few dedicated "groupies" (for want of a better descriptive). If you're trying to promulgate a model based on IGN, you're years behind to begin with. You probably should be trying to get LINKS from IGN, The Ironworks, Atari (problematic: I tried, I've been around Bioware gaming since BG1, they were "polite" but not helpful), etc.

You NEED those dedicated folks to produce content to get you listed in searches people do. So you should get friends etc. to post post post away.... QUALITY posts, mind! No junk need apply....

[Dalgar]

My suggestion would be to focus in on a couple of games or genres initially. It will be easier to get links and recruit contributers.

Once thats started, expanding to all video games should be a slightly smaller hurdle.

[gilliganmn]

All,

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll redouble my efforts to find those few key users.

Thanks,
Jay

[vkaryl]

Keep us posted on your successes (well, failures too I guess). It's always nice to have ongoing reports on building efforts outside one's own knowledge-base.

[gilliganmn]

Hey,

I sure will. I have two reasons for building the site actually. The first is to build a viable video game community of course. The second is to use the site as a reference for approaching video game companies and related sites about how I can improve their community efforts.

The forum and knowledgebase software I customized is a highly scalable and customizable J2EE enterprise app; for sites that are struggling with their communities, seeing an example of this software in action is a powerful argument.

Thanks,
Jay

[vkaryl]

Haven't run across that before; I'll have to take a look....