What Makes A Great Gaming Community? A ‘LiT Esports’ Case Study
Are there multiplayer games you wish you could play with friends but can’t because none of them own the title?
Are there any gaming masterpieces that you’d love to share/discuss with your buddies, but they haven’t played it?
The benefits of being in a gaming community is that this is almost never an issue, as there are plenty of people interested in playing the games you want to play or discussing the games you want to discuss about. This even goes for really obscure titles.
But what makes a gaming community worthwhile to join? We had a chat with some of the members of the LiT Esports community (a community of 250+ players founded in 2015) to find out what makes their community so great.
Here were there responses:
A Welcoming Environment For New Members
“We welcome new members immediately and provide an environment to get to know each other and find friends that can help you in your game.”
A welcoming environment is key to making a community thrive. One of the most common responses as to why LiT Esports is such a great place to join is because the community is friendly and non-judgmental towards new members.
When a new player asks a question, the community would answer it rather than complain about how stupid the question was or how often it gets asked.
A Common Platform to Meet Others
It’s no secret that friendships require a platform to grow and survive. This platform could be school, work, sport or any activity you do together.
But for gamers, the platform is usually the game itself — whether it is DOTA, Fortnite or CS:GO. It’s difficult to remain friends with someone who doesn’t have any interest in the games you play, unless there’s another platform where you can interact with them.
Stephen “HoneyBadger” Flanders, who was recently promoted to Admin within the organization, shares his thoughts:
“One thing that is really unique about LiT eSports is that if you’re playing a game, mainstream or not, you can always find someone that has played, does play, or knows about it and you have someone to converse about it with.”
And that’s one of the main benefits of being in a community like LiT Esports. It’s easy to find someone who has played a lesser known game that you’re looking to play.
Personality Match
Some people prefer to play with those who are loud and expressive. Others prefer those who are quiet and well-mannered. Whoever you prefer, it’s important you find a community for your type of people.
“I would absolutely recommend LiT to anyone and everyone. Although it’s better if you have tough skin here, there are plenty of people that fit in that are on the softer side of the spectrum.”
The atmosphere of LiT can be described as ‘a mix of friendly trash talk.’ Some members are nice whilst others like to banter.
An Active Community
Being able to join the community to play games on just about any day can be great, and you get to meet new people in the process. One of the things that keeps LiT Esports alive throughout all these years is that the community is always active.
“The Discord is very active. Most nights there’s at least half a dozen folks on hanging out in Voice Chat and the text lobbies are all very active.
I work full time and I’m married with 2 young kids. I don’t get on every night but when I do. I know there’s gonna be a good group of guys to shoot the s%!t with and that’s a load off my shoulders.”
With a community like LiT Esports, you can hop on at any time, and there’ll be someone ready to play.
A Supportive Network
In Esports, it’s natural to have some trash talk, and LiT Esports is no exception. However, it is also described as a caring community full of people who want you to succeed.
“The biggest thing I’ve noticed about people here is that everyone truly wants you to succeed. No matter how big or small it is. Whether you just want to get out of Plat in SC2, run a team, or just be a member of an awesome community, LiT sets people up to succeed. We will not do the work for you, but we will help you in every way possible.”
Some members see each other and themselves as part of a family, and this is why the community is so active. Members are looking forward to seeing each other everyday.
It’s also the main reason why people are willing to spend hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on those base building games such as Clash of Clans and Game of War Fire Age. These games have one thing in common: they are all community-driven, and players develop relationships with people whom they see as close friends or family.
Admins Who Care
“There are some of the hardest worked and most patient admins in these gaming communities. And I think because of that, there’s very little drama in LiT. Which I greatly appreciate.”
Admins also play an important role in facilitating all of this. They need to be caring and hardworking in order to build the community — keeping it active while potentially removing toxic players and troublemakers.
Here are the main takeaways from our discussions with LiT. In order for a gaming community to thrive, members should be welcoming to newer members, share a platform where they can meet like-minded gamers, be active (every day is a gaming day) and provide a supportive network of admins who can facilitate and provide opportunities to grow.
Special thanks to KoB, HoneyBadger and excloud from LiT. You can learn more about LiT Esports on their Twitter.
If you’re reading this and are a part of a community of your own, we’d love to know what makes your community tick. Send us your thoughts at team@gamerjibe.com.
