The Power of Community: How Player Engagement is Transforming Diverse Industries

This series of Playable Futures articles examines how the production, skills, and design of video games are influencing and impacting broader society.

While gaming communities are recognized for their enthusiasm and vitality, our medium can’t claim to have invented the idea of engaging a fanbase. Consider how, for example, when printed publications included a small card that allowed you to sign up and return, providing your details in exchange for access to offers and news from the brand.

By modern standards, however, what were once known as ‘fan clubs’ now seem endearingly outdated. They would foster loyalty and create a sense of belonging among customers – and how much a quarterly print newsletter could truly achieve.

Fast forward to today, and industries around the globe are increasingly looking at how game community managers like Wooga’s April Guidelines are innovating and executing their roles. Guidelines initially joined the studio renowned for its expertise in narrative-driven casual games as a freelance designer, but she now serves as the group’s chief social media and community manager.

“It became clear to me how similar community management and design are,” Guidelines reflects on her earlier experience at Wooga. “Design is fundamentally about problem-solving and communication, and I believe I’m still doing just that at Wooga. Our community has genuinely become one of our greatest assets as a business. I believe the approach we take in games to foster community is incredibly powerful, and it has significantly contributed to our success in this competitive industry. The loyalty of our community is indeed formidable. Valuing these relationships is a key strategy for a gaming company to achieve enduring success, especially considering there are numerous other games players could choose – yet our community selects us.”

“Numerous companies are now drawing inspiration from game community management. Nike, Adidas, and other fitness brands have launched apps featuring leaderboards and challenges – a form of community gamification in its own right.”

Community building and engagement thus exist in a space shared between your audience and your product, working to establish a meaningful connection that can be profoundly rewarding for the individual and ultimately beneficial to the company’s success. If you can elevate your customer base to become one of your strongest assets, you are indeed mastering contemporary community management. This is a field of expertise accessible to everyone, regardless of the industry they belong to.

What game community managers possess that their counterparts in other sectors often lack is access to the fervor of fandoms and the concept of their medium’s captivating nature. In brief, transforming customers into ardent supporters can be immensely powerful, while employing various design principles that make video games so engaging can significantly enhance community building efforts. It is no surprise, then, that different industries are keen to engage, driven by the desire to replicate the levels of connection and active participation found within gaming communities.

Fandoms, in particular, are something that any organization would be eager to cultivate, given their tendency to be deeply invested beyond mere interaction with a specific game, often producing content like fan art and cosplay and passionately promoting the brand they adore.

“As community managers, we can support and curate the content we observe within fandoms,” Guidelines explains. “This is the relationship we’re aiming to foster. When someone creates fan art, writes fan fiction, or dresses as a character, they are integrating their identity with your games and shaping their lives around them. That is something to be cherished, and it’s where community teams can both support and genuinely value that relationship. I also simply love to see that creativity. It’s incredibly enjoyable, and these individuals are sharing their passion and affection with us. I cherish that.”

It is clear, then, that any product would greatly benefit from having a genuinely engaged fandom. But what about the idea of gamifying communities? This can begin by extending a product with a game-like offering, or even fully integrating community elements into the service or platform provided – a strategy quite common in video gaming.

“We observe numerous companies taking cues from game community management now,” Guidelines affirms. “Brands like Nike and Adidas, along with other fitness labels, now offer apps featuring leaderboards and challenges; this is a form of community gamification in itself. We also witness these brands organizing more at a local level, which is something we’ve been doing in games for quite a while now—hosting local tournaments and connecting fans in real-life settings. You can also observe brands like Duolingo, which focuses on learning, but enhances that experience through community engagement, with rankings and rewards being central to their product.

“Another excellent example is creative software like Photoshop, where sharing and community engagement play a vital role.”