LogFAQs > #980188137

Sad_Face posted...

I've looked into other mobile games and was super hesitant about starting one. I watched videos of this one game, Brown Dust 2, but it didn't jive with me that I was watching a paid advertisement video. And of course when I went to the message boards, basically dead.

What shocked me even more is that I finally started a new mobile game, Blue Archive, but when I checked out the message board here, DEAD. And this is one of the bigger titles, with tons of fan art, concerts, and even an anime currently rolling.

Bringing up the dead message boards. Thats actually a problem for indie devs. Original IPs dont come with their own built in communities. If some mobile game studio gets the Batman IP itll come with a userbase of millions. But if its something original like Crashlands it wont come with anyone who cares until the game comes out or does a paid beta test.

But if you turn GameFaqs into a platform that allows for pre-registration, then you actually get to siphon the audience of established IPs and send them over to original IPs.

Like the Batman Arkham mobile game is giving away an exclusive skin to anyone who pre-registers. So thousands of people rush to GameFaqs to do so thus brings in new users (and gets Fandom paid by WB), then once those users are here they are going to browse to see what else is around and theyll find Crashlands.

Theyll pre-register for games they never had any intention of playing due to FOMO. But once you pre-register you automatically opt into push notifications for updates on the game. Including when the developers themselves post on the forums the user clicks that push notification and is taken to the topic to join in on the discussion. Now that indie dev has a thriving community.

You charge WB for the service. You dont charge Crashlands. Its feee for indie devs because they are helping GameFaqs with user retention by actually interacting with the community gives gamers a reason to stick around.

That makes Fandom money (from the AAA corporations), gets Fandom new users for free (also from the large gaming studios), it gives independent game developers a much needed community before launch (which is free), and in return those devs help Fandom retain its users by providing unique value in the form of dev to fan interaction.