Reprinted from the Mary Margaret newsletter... but it's a good piece and wanted it to get more eyes.
One of
the odd offshoots of the rise of the internet was the creation of an
entirely new profession: the Community Manager. And while still in
its infancy, Community Managers do something that's likely critical to your
game's success: they work with your community of players. They're there
every day (and often nights), connecting people, putting out the messages
that will help your game thrive, helping to nourish a positive supplementary
game experience, and bringing back all of the info they gather to your dev and
marketing and CS and QA teams. They're doing their best to grow a huge
asset for your game: the community.
And
that community is even more valuable to you in tough times than it is when it's
all gravy. Your CM is a lot cheaper than new content development,
can help you keep customers that you otherwise have to spend marketing dollars
to acquire, and can help build brand loyalty so that even a less-than-stellar
title won't take the franchise down. And more, the Community Manager can
help foster ties between players that add a lot to their game experience,
making them that much more likely to stick around, rather than wander off to
the latest new release. And when they stay, they are building
further brand loyalty, or, in the case of the MMO, continuing to be an active
revenue stream.
COMMUNITY:
WHAT IT DOES
This is
the basics, but it bears repeating because it's easy to get lost in the shuffle
of new games and new technology. Your community can be an integral part
of the success of your game. If you have a good relationship with your
community, you'll reap a number of really exciting benefits, benefits that were
usually impossible to get to before the internet. Speak directly to your
customers on an ongoing basis? Build personal relationships with
them? Get day to day feedback from them? Inconceivable! But
it's not, that's the world we live in now, and if you're not building a
stellar relationship with your community, you are losing out on a rare
opportunity (and you can bet your competitors are not being so profligate).
Community
adds to the content in your game.
Whether
it's a shooter, an MMO, or a flash game played in Facebook, when people
interact they create content that you can't get otherwise.
Other players or teams or guilds are much more challenging than the best AI,
and they keep that challenge fresh by evolving new strategies and exploring new
competitive options. How many times have your players shown you game play
options that you hadn't realized were there? Whether they're exploits or
really clever new uses for existing game elements, players can be really
dedicated to finding the best winning combination (and using it on
others).
Community
creates an improved supplementary experience.
But
community doesn't just give you the ability to improve your game experience, it
also creates an opportunity for a powerful supplementary experience as
well. Everything from the creation of goods to support help in the forums,
from helping orient newcomers to giving you feedback on game changes, from
off-topic jokes to having a great time doing your marketing by making machinima
that ends up on youtube: your community can do great things outside of your
game to help drive your success. And have a great time doing it, which
improves their experience and reduces churn.
Community
forms bonds
And
community does even more than that really. Because when I use the term
"community" I mean the normal definition of the word. I'm not
talking about some random group, though there's some of that, I'm speaking
about a collection of people, united in a single interest (your game) that come
together to share that experience. It's really about the heart, it's
about people connecting to each other and forming ties that can outlast your
game. Weddings as a result of meeting through a game? Old
news. But it's important enough, I feel, to stress again: people
are having genuinely meaningful experiences together as a result of your
game. Do us all a favor and appreciate that, people don't make those
kinds of ties with NPCs. But they can with each other, and your CM,
and thus your brand. Support your community, and you'll reap the
benefits.
COMMUNITY:
WHAT'S COMING?
So
you've covered the basics, all of the stuff above was old hat, nothing
new. The next question is: what's coming? I've worked in community
for something like twelve years, and it's never stopped growing, evolving,
forming new was for people to connect and interact. Just as the internet
has created new ways to communicate, present information, and organize, so
interactive technologies have consistently created new ways for people to
connect. The ways people play with online identity are a new ability for
us, we've never had such freedom to experiment with how we present ourselves,
never had such opportunity to learn without disasterous consequences of
failure. It's consistently meant new levels of personal and social
freedom (and mostly we've done great with them).
I was
at the f8 Facebook developers conference last year, and was struck by the
architectural changes Facebook seemed to be making. Facebook is
highlighting the "feed" (of events, actions, and comments by
your friends and connections) which makes a powerful and fascinating
statement, but one that held a deep ring of truth. Throughout human
history, we've communicated our history and values and meaning in
stories. And the feed takes a static medium, the profile, and makes it
into something dynamic and evolving: rather than check out your friend's
profile because you're curious, now you've got an up-to-the-minute update of
what they've been doing. You've got a window into the evolving story of
their life, and one that you play a part in... and too, you're a story teller,
as you go through your day, and others in your circle, be they near or far, can
take part in your day.
And
that's a good example of both how online interactive experience can extend
existing social dynamics, but also create new ones. leisa reichelt
coined the term "ambient intimacy" (in the disambiguity blog ) to describe the sense of connectedness that comes with involvement in a twitter
stream or Facebook updates or something similar. It's the sense of
presence on a sustained level, a feeling that someone is close, even
though they may be thousands of miles away. And yet they are close, in
the sense that you can be sharing even small experiences
and impressions.
Web 2.0
has created a number of similar experiences, where people are able to connect
in very subtle and fluid ways, via tweets or updates or pictures or youtube
dialogs. The technology is still very much evolving new ways for people
to connect... and to form community. And so far, there's still a
tremendous opportunity for games to create new and exciting social experiences
for their players - experiences that will mean satisfaction for the players and
success for the game.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
http://racingonlinegames.net
Posted by: Margaret | August 03, 2009 at 04:43 AM