GDC Session Summary for “How to Develop Social Networks As Part of Community Management”

Hey,

Went to a really interesting talk about applying web 2.0 to online MMOs. Specifically, Rich Vogel talked about community design.

He mentioned these principles critical to community design…
1) Create social spaces for the players
2) Highlight player contributions in the game
3) Develop a viral presence on the web. For example, XBox Live created those profile cards that could be posted on people’s blogs, etc. So it became viral.

These are some other interesting things to build community….
1) Develop social spaces (spaces for players, spaces for guilds, etc.)
2) Have a character builder so players can create/express an identity
3) Show off; allow players to express themselves
4) Build relationships
5) Facebook-like network out of game; profiler in game.
6) Highlight Player Contributions
7) Develop Viral Presence on the web. Use “Portable content” via widgets. Check out XFire and how they did this. Check out those XBox Live Character sheets.
8) Character Sheets
9) Quizzes
10) Portable Content (tickertape, in-game honors, etc.)…can wrap it up in a widget.

The Future….
1) Web will be the definitive content delivery platform
2) Community management will change how products are marketed
3) MMOs will become the next generation of brands