It should probably say, 'why do MOST RPGs fail,' but I haven't actually done a count, so I'll just be vague. I think you guys all know what I mean anyway--you've seen it...searching for a good game, you click your way through a wasteland of RPG forums who died in their childhoods, with only a handful of members and a few hundred posts to their name before they gasped their last and joined the multitudes in the many strata of dead websites.
I always feel a little sad when I see a forum that didn't just die, but never got to live. Many times, there is ample evidence that the board was well put together, with a lot of care and time poured into it. Many times it's a game I myself would've joined had it just had a few people still posting to it. Nowadays when I want to try a new RPG and can't find one already going I start a thread in my own forum's multigenre section, which has always worked well for me. However, it doesn't erase the carnage out there...thousands of RPGs gone to waste. I have offered to affiliate with some of them, hoping a button link exchange might rejuvenate them, but more often than not, my offer goes unanswered as even the admin has given up visiting their own site.
Why? What happened? What DIDN'T happen?
A lot of it could be chalked up to some failure on the management level. Too little marketing, poor setup of rules, making the game too complicated--the list goes on as to why so many forums misfire. But I don't think it explains it all.
The truth is, it's just too easy for anyone to start up their own independent RPG forum.
Too easy? How dare I imply that it should be made harder? This is the internet, freedom reigns! But hear me out. I'm not saying it's a bad thing that anyone can go start their own RPG at the press of a few buttons. I am saying that this is the cause of a lot of forum failures--they call it oversaturation.
This is common in any market--eventually, the supply exceeds the demand. It means that unless your RPG {or whatever you're marketing} is truly a cut above the rest and you know what you are doing, it's unlikely to thrive, as it cannot rive above the masses of other competing games.
One way to get around this is by creating an RPG for which there is interest, but few or no other games exist yet in its genre. This is referred to as a "long tail" approach in marketing jargon. If you create a Warriors RPG, wolf RPG, high school RPG, Naruto RPG...you have literally hundreds of other sites vying for the same member pool as yours. What does your site offer that those hundreds do not? Think about it. "Build it and they will come" doesn't apply when there are 300 other available houses on the street. Are there REALLY no other sites in that genre that you want to play in? Ask yourself: why do I want to make my own game? Is it because you really can't find what you want anywhere else? Because you have this awesome idea that you just have to share with the roleplay world? Or...it just seems cool to be an admin? Because the cool starts to wear off quite quickly once your game is under way. Managing an RPG is wonderful when it works, but the key word is "work": there's a lot of it involved. If you go into it, go into it prepared.
I highly suggest that people look, and look hard, for an existing game of the type, size, style and genre that they want, before up and deciding to make their own. If you choose to make your own, make sure there's at least enough interest in it to sustain it. Know your market. One effective way to test the waters is to try it as a thread in a multigenre game, and see how much interest it garners; then if you decide you want to take this one step further, you'll also have a ready pool of members to go join up with you!
It's a dog eat dog world out there. Or is that cat eat cat? :P
Too easy is right! It's deceptively easy to form the 'physical space' in with to write. It really does go up quickly, even if you're self-hosting. I do agree with everything you've said here.
ReplyDeleteTo add, I think people don't go into this with a long-term mindset. Prospective admins don't take enough time to plan before hand and consider their scope and focus and if this is something they're willing to commit to as a part-time job, essentially. Do they think in advance about all the policies and procedures that will ultimately move them towards the ultimate goal - and do they even have an overall motivating goal?
At Absit Omen, ours is to facilitate good role-play and we define that as members initiating their own interweaving sagas with Curator facilitation. Good role-play to us, is cohesive, well-written and cooperative. Our Curator team came to this conclusion long before we downloaded any software or even named the board. Big picture needs to happen first. You need solid, focused vision.
Always enjoy your blog posts as well as your contributions at the resource forums. :)