Community matters: How audience engagement in games is shaping other industries | Playable Futures

This series of Playable Futures articles considers how the design, technology, people, and theory of video games are informing and influencing the wider world.

While game communities are famed for their passion and power, our medium cannot claim to have invented the concept of courting a fanbase. You might remember, for example, when records came with a small card form to fill out and return, handing over your details in return for getting access to offers and announcements from the band.

By today's standards, however, what were effectively 'fanclubs' now seem charmingly primitive. They would breed loyalty and make customer communities feel valued – and yet there is only so much a quarterly print newsletter could really achieve.

Fast forward to the present, and industries across the world are increasingly eying how game community managers like Wooga's April Laws are evolving and enacting their craft. Laws first joined the studio known for its prowess with story-driven casual titles as a freelance designer, but now stands as the team's lead social media and community manager.

"It struck me how similar community management and design are," Laws says of her earlier days at Wooga. "Design is about solving problems and communication, and I feel I'm still doing exactly that at Wooga. Our community really has become one of our biggest assets as a company. I think the way that we in games do community is so powerful, and has really marked on our success, because it's a competitive industry. And so the community and their loyalty is really powerful. Valuing these relationships is one of the ways a game company can make lasting success, as there's a lot of other games people can play – but our community chose us."

"So many companies take their lead from game community management. Nike, Adidas and other fitness brands now have apps with leaderboards and challenges – community gamification in itself"

Community building and engagement, then, exists in a place between your audience and product, and works to help form an authentic bond that can be deeply rewarding for the consumer, and lastingly powerful to the company's success. And if you can get to the point of your customer base also existing as one of your most powerful assets, you really are getting modern community management right. It is a specialty open to everyone, whatever sector they serve.

What game community managers have in their arsenal that equivalents in other realms traditionally do not, however, is access to the power of fandoms, and understanding of their medium's engaging power. In short, converting customers into fans is lastingly powerful, while deploying many of the design theories that make games so compelling can significantly boost the impacts of community building. It should come as little surprise, then, that other industries want in, driven by a desire to see the levels of connection and active engagement delivered here in games.

Fandoms in particular are something any organisation would want to build, considering their habit of being deeply engaged beyond interacting with a given game itself, creating content and cosplay and evangelising the brand they adore day and night.

"As community managers we can support and curate what we see in fandoms," offers Laws. "This is the relationship we're trying to look for, really. When somebody makes fan art, writes a story, or dresses like a character, they're making part of their identity around your games, and building their lives. That's something to be cherished, and it's somewhere community teams can both help and really value that relationship. And I also just love to see that stuff. It's so fun, and these people are giving you their passion and love. I adore that."

It's obvious, then, that any product would enjoy what a truly engaged fandom can bring. But what of the notion of gamifying communities? That can start by extending a product with a game-like offering, or even fully integrating community into the service or platform provided; something very common in games.

"We see so many companies taking the lead from game community management now," Laws asserts. "Nike and Adidas and other fitness brands now have apps that have leaderboards and challenges, which is community gamification in itself. We also see those brands organise more on a local level, which is something we've been doing in games for a while now – running local tournaments and connecting fans in real life. You can also look at brands like Duolingo, which is all about learning, but they're driving it through community, with rankings and rewards so forth being core to their product.

"Another great example is creative software like Photoshop, where sharing and community tutorials and learning from one another is part of the core of the product. That's a big part of this new approach to community, where you're not learning from the top down, but from other people in the same situations, which really fosters great relationships, and all those gains community managers look for."

Community learning is also a model that proved significantly powerful; in the emergence of game engines like Epic and Unity in particular.

Laws also points out that organic community building online is now a mainstay of everyday life, seen everywhere from political movements to sport and hobbies. Simply put, the human beings that make up communities are now more open to and familiar with engaging with their fellow devotees online.

"When somebody makes fan art, writes a story, or dresses like a character, they're making part of their identity around your games. That should be cherished"

It should be noted that the increasing emergence of live service games as a dominant form – and the relative normalisation of early access as a release process – has also accelerated the craft and practise of community management in the gaming space, inspiring spillover to other sectors. In both those cases games continually evolve – with a door open to the community to have their say and input about the creations they love. While it would be unwise to be totally beholden to community guidance, these distribution models have provided a fascinating example of how deep – and powerful – game communities management can be. And again, it's hugely appealing to those looking to foster more success beyond games.

Laws is quick to observe that being responsive and listening intently is the secret that those from outside games will have to inherit.

"Anything you love, it makes your day if it talks back to you, and that's the power game community management has demonstrated. And learning the game community way is really not that complicated," Laws suggests. "Just listen first, and then take time to try to understand as well as you can, and then act. Listening is so important. When people tell you something, it is because they care, and they are the type of people you want to keep engaged with you. And you are benefitting from their engagement, and the way that you can show you value that, is to take it seriously.

"Take their feedback and engagement as more than just numbers. This isn't about bottom lines; there are people on the other side of the relationship, and there are real emotions at stake. So being able to look at that in a holistic way and take that to your product only benefits your game – or whatever you are working on – immensely."

The core, very human craft of community management, then, isn't about technological prowess or adopting disruptive new approaches; it is about communication. But from the likes of the band Coldplay recentring their community effort on Discord, to those gamified apps that let Nike constantly engage and expand its community, it's clear a great many sectors are learning from games – making customers fans, involving them with their processes, and rewarding their engagements with models based on achievements and leaderboards.

It looks very likely we'll only see more game community management in other places – marking yet another point where games are shaping the future of everywhere.