What are your opinions on what makes a gaming community (Organization) run well or what ruins them?

[The Bearded Hermit.6824]

[ I am going to be posting this in a couple of places and compiling some of the information I get out of curiosity and knowledge for myself. ]

I keep finding myself leaving various communities over the years for different reasons and wanted to hear what others thought.

Some things that could spark conversation:Communities having rules that are too strict or not strict enough.Communities that play 1 game vs communities that are multi gaming.Communities that have a website / forums VS communities that only exist on discord / other voice chats.Any other things you’d like to add?

These are just a few things but there are MANY other things to be talked about and I'd love to hear anyone's opinions on gaming communities and what makes a good one / or a bad one.

[if this is posted in the wrong place i apologize, again, I'm just looking for multiple places to ask the same question to get different answers. ]

[DakotaCoty.5721]

Before getting into what the community offers, I always check that communication is on point. Without communication problems occur, and it keeps piling up - then it turns into "but this officer said that" then "no but he said this" then "she said that so I didn't do what he said".

If your communication effectiveness is high, between the leader(s), officers, members and recruits then I think that is one of the strongest qualities a community can have.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

I think people being in it and actually talking. Not discord, but the actual in game chat. I have left so many because it was dead quiet, but they were all on discord instead which isn't always an option for me.

As for the organization part, I have been in so many with me being an officer in many of them too because I just happen to play the game a lot. I don't know; I am trying to think of good things I liked in the ones I was apart of. They all worked though in one way or another, so I can't really say.

[The Bearded Hermit.6824]

thanks a lot guys, adding your comments to my list :)

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Personally I look at political leanings and extremism. If a community is too far to the left or to the right, it generates a lot of problems. To paraphrase Nicholas H. Cummings, "An industry needs both a left and a right wing in order to soar". He said this about psychology and psychiatry, but it makes sense in most contexts. Too extreme breeds isolation, which reinforces group think, and without a fire to test bad ideas you end up with some really dystopic policies.

The second dimension of extremism is the casual vs. elitist scale. I occupy a strange niche that exists between these two, but I can't stand the far end of either. I can't stand players who refuse to self improve and drag everyone else down, but I also can't stand players who think I exist solely to earn them money. A game is supposed be about both having fun and winning, and divorcing those concepts from each other results in players that nobody likes.

The third factor I look at is how inclusive they are. If I step into the forums and have no idea what is going on because everyone is talking in 5 word epithets referencing other things, it is a bad sign. If all you see "Shaka, when the walls fell", run like hell. On the other hand, if the group has too little community moderation, you'll end up with kids who do nothing but secrete metaphoric cancer all over the place.

[Chadramar.8156]

Point one for me is a solid code of conduct based on respect and zero tolerance for bigotry and abuse, and the willingness to actually enforce it. Sometimes you see the code and think it looks good on paper, but when members or even leaders of the community repeatedly make transphobic "jokes" or bray about sexual violence this, sexual violance that, and nobody shuts it down ... it's a hideous feeling.

I get it. I've been a guild leader in another game, and I'm naturally conflict-averse. I know it can be hard to actually enforce such things, especially towards popular people from popular guilds. But if a code of conduct applies only on paper or if the person violating it is a nobody, it's not even worth wiping your butt with. And that brings me to point two: a community needs leaders who are willing and able to put in a lot of work for little or no gain, to be the "spoilsport" when someone's idea of "fun" is abusive, to handle flaky people who make commitments and then don't honor them and let others down in the process, and so on. Not everyone is cut out for that, and that's fine as long as one or two of the leaders are and have the support of the rest.

Communication is also important, both in terms of transparency and speed and in terms of the medium used for it. Personally, I prefer a combination of forums and in-game chat channels, though GW2 is much worse for that than say WoW due to its lack of player-created channels, which I suspect is one reason for the popularity of Discord.