Content Creators’ Most Valued Asset: Trust

Gamers dont’ trust AAA developers like they used to. That’s why influencers are so important.

There’s a trust deficit between those the companies that produce games and the people who play them. It’s far from universal, and, like anything else, it’s very individualized; everyone still has their favorite studios, their favorite game designers and directors, for whose work they’ll patiently wait, ready to scoop it up at the earliest opportunity.

The older I get, the less often I find myself axiously waiting to play a game on day one, watching as many previews as I can, hyping myself up to dive in as early as possible. I still love games, but I have to wait until I have free time, until the opportunity to really sit down and enjoy a games presents itself. And yet, last month, Subset Games released their follow up to FTL, one of my all time favorites, called Into the Breach, and, without a second thought, I bought it the moment I could. I didn’t need to wait, to take my time and be sure it was a good use of my money. I trusted that whatever the developers made, I would love.

There aren’t a lot of AAA publishers that can boast that kind of relationship with their audience. Sure, the biggest companies are still working on major franchises with big returning audiences, but they’re coming back for the IP, not the developer. And, more and more, even that love of a particular game’s universe isn’t enough to overcome the increasing skepticism of the gamer community.

Games, from still-successful releases like Watch Dogs to total disasters like Aliens: Colonial Marines, are hyped up at major marketing events with scripted, unrepresentative trailers, presenting versions of games that will never actually exist. Much loved franchises that transcend gaming, like Star Wars, are used to create experiences laden with microtransactions and loot boxes, angering the audience to the point of forcing whole-sale changes to the game itself. Auteur creators with enormous fan-bases are cut loose during active projects so that the IP they helped build can be quickly repackaged to make a buck. And those are just the first examples that spring to mind.

So, the biggest developers and publishers have higher hurdles to overcome than they used to; the trust just isn’t there.

Which is a shame, because the people that make up these developers, the artists, the coders, the writers and designers, are no less in love with video games than the indies. There are a lot of chefs in the kitchen when it comes to making a game with a budget in the tens or hundreds of millions, and a lot of bosses and boss’s bosses to answer to, but at the end of the day the goal is the same: make a great game that people love.

This is why influencers, content creators, gamers are so important to major devleopers and publishers. It’s not because they have audiences to exploit; lesser community managers might see it that way, but engaging creators to simply exploit their fans without concern for fit and culture will never be a productive way to sell a game. No, instead, it’s that these creators have earned the trust that they would like to reestablish themselves.

Streams, Discord servers, Reddit communities built around YouTubers, these are the places where game-buying decisions are being made. While gamers used to read magazines to figure out what was good, what was bad, and what was coming next, now, all of that can be filtered through a community of like-minded people. The way inside isn’t through exploitation. You don’t force your game down their throats by paying every creator you can find to play it whether they and their audience would be into it or not. You find the creators your audience trusts and you talk to them. Engage. If it’s what you’re selling is the sort of thing they dig, get them involved, but if not, learn what you can and then move on.

Trust is something that develops slowly, like a house. You have to put it together piece by piece, brick by brick. By engaging with the right creators, getting your games into their hands, listening to them and their audience, you can establish that same kind of connection the indie studios have with their biggest fans. It’s about doing it over and over again, for the long haul, and placing your trust in those creators. Want to be trusted? Establish yourself as trustworthy. Be a good partner to the right people, and you’ll be well on your way.

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