How Important Is an Online Community?

I've been a fan of online gaming communities ever since I discovered a forum dedicated to Ogre Battle 64. Not only could I find an accessible knowledge base, but I could talk about anything related to the game we all loved. Since then, any time I find something I'm passionate about I will immediately find the most popular forum where people are talking about it.


I'll admit that I tend to like popular games. I mean they're popular for a reason! Because of that, I've always been able to find a buzzing online community where I could log on once a day and take part in a new conversation. So I was very shocked when I tried taking part in the Malifaux community, only to find that there's no hub where people gather to talk, and therefore hardly any dialogue happening at all.

I realize that games exist because people play them at a local level. But with how connected we are today, it's difficult not to use the health of the online community as a representation for the overall health of the game. So when I started logging on to the Maliufaux forums every day, hoping to see read some guides and see some general chatter, warning bells started going off in my head.

Now part if this is the fault of the forum layout. There are 32 Malifaux-related forums to post in, with 4 more forums that are a bit less focused on the game itself. Any time I log on there are always several users online, but a given forum only has 1 or 2 people browsing at a time. That really dilutes the harmony of the community because no one really talks to one another outside of their pet forum(s).

As a contrast, the Muse on Minis forums have a simplified layout with 9 forums for people to use. So is the answer to just reduce the options? The official Warmachine forums have just as many options as Wyrd, yet everyone congregates in General Discussion, and each faction-specific forum has 1 or 2 leaders that keeps those subforums alive by providing guides, discussion, and consistent posting.

So the only thing happening with Malifaux is that people don't talk about it. People obviously play it, and it's popular enough to have several blogs and podcasts related to it, but the broader community seems stagnated. This is most concerning because the game just launched a new edition, and I'd think that would be enough to really get people talking about it. Old players should be picking up the game, new players like me are checking out the game and trying to join the community, and regular players should be making every effort to promote the game via community.

When that doesn't happen, I get concerned. Any time a game doesn't have someone who cares about it enough to step up, make guides, and be the go-to person of the community then I have to ask whether the game is on its last leg. If people aren't excited enough to crunch numbers, test theories, think outside the box, and engage everyone else in their excitement, why should I expect the game to be anything more than a disappointment?

The problem with that is that I know the game is going to be good. I've read through the rulebook a few times, I've studied my starter box, and I'm more excited for my first Malifaux game than I have been for any other game in a long time. But when I browse their famous wiki and find that the sections dedicated to the new edition are skeletons with very slow progress, I have no reason to believe the game is popular. If the huge online community isn't buzzing about it, how can I expect it to take off at a local level?

That's why online communities are so important to me. Reviews and demos can tell me whether the game is good, but the life of the community tells me whether it's good enough to hold my attention. That's probably an unfair burden to place on a game, especially if the game itself has nothing tied to an online presence. But that's how I assess games, and right now the community is the only thing that has me concerned about committing to Malifaux.

What do you guys think? Do you find things like list discussions, strategy guides, and just general dialogue with strangers important in your gaming? Does a community's activity accurately reflect a game's health? I'm curious to hear opinions on this one!

See you tomorrow!

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