So you want to start a community? that’s great! But first think about what kind of community you want to create. You probably have found a game where you want to start hosting your server, if not find a game you really enjoy playing. Do you want to be the next BIG thing or just a small/medium sized community with a core group of players? Let’s break this question down in several factors.
The game (you just lost it)
Your community is heavily dependent on the game server that you are hosting your server for. Nowadays lots of games have the “drop in, drop out” mechanics. Let’s take a game like CS:GO for instance. The majority of the players only use the matchmaking system and never play on the community section. Unlike the previous games, CS:GO has competitive, deathmatch, gun game and demolition built in within the matchmaking system. The same can be said about DayZ, server hopping is unfortunately a common thing nowadays. Although it is possible to build a community in these games it will be really rough in the start. If this will be your first community I encourage you to skip games like these unless you are starting with a group of friends (this due to player count).
How much time do you have to spare
Running a community is very time-consuming, so be sure you have enough time to spend on your community. First of all, you have to maintain your server(s), manage your staff and players also keeping your website + social media updated. If you don’t have enough time to build your community then join an existing one with your friends and meet new people. Within that community try to work your way up and who know’s what the future will bring.
Work in a team
When you want to start your community I advise you at least have a partner to work with. This way you can delegate tasks to speed up the process and make it less stressful for yourself. Let’s say you are a team of 3 people, 1 person can create the website and social media pages, 1 person can start setting up your first game server and the other person can start gathering players and setting up the voice server. All of this after doing research with the entire team of course.
Dedication & motivation
You need to be highly motivated and have the dedication to keep pushing yourself. Expect empty servers, leavers, trolls and be prepared to invest money into your community. There are two rough periods when running a community. One being the startup, getting members can be very rough in the beginning. Besides that, you need some technical experience when setting up and maintaining servers. The second one being that over a longer period you may lose your motivation. This is a natural thing and will be discussed in a different guide later on.