What do you think are "must have" add-ons for gaming websites?
- Thread starter JABRONI
- Start date
If the majority of your members are PC gamers than the resource manager is a must have.
Do you have an existing community or are you going to build on from scratch? In case of the latter specialize to one topic or genre you really love and don't launch the 2.000.000th general gaming forum as it will never work.
edit: oops didn't read your first post correctly as all info is already there sorry
Maybe consider rebranding and a focus on a single topic? As content is king you'll have to compete with so many established communities it will be a multi year project to make it work properly.
Do you have an existing community or are you going to build on from scratch? In case of the latter specialize to one topic or genre you really love and don't launch the 2.000.000th general gaming forum as it will never work.
edit: oops didn't read your first post correctly as all info is already there sorry
Maybe consider rebranding and a focus on a single topic? As content is king you'll have to compete with so many established communities it will be a multi year project to make it work properly.
Last edited:
JABRONI
Well-known member
That's the real problem with where we are at right now. We would love to just have a Halo forum, but Halo 4 has pretty much killed the series as it continues to fall down the activity list on Xbox Live.
We love League of Legends also, but there are so many forums out there (ones made by professional teams too) that it would be just as long for us to break into that, if ever.
It's just kind of a crappy situation right now, and we're just working with what we got. All the other places we used to go to shut down, so we wanted to try to bring something back.
denisx04
Active member
Showcase is a must have, but when it comes to a gaming forum all you really need is content. Content is king and everything else is second important.
You don't need to start wide, you can expand as you go. What you need to focus on is why people should register on your site, and for that you need to offer something that isn't common place. Just look at your site, and think about why on earth should anyone sign up here, put your self in the situation of a completely new user.
As for the original question, no addon is a must have, each addon should be judged individually up against your specific project and what you want to achieve. I have 11 addons installed, 3 disabled and I could probably remove 3 or 4 more without my users really making an uproar. No addon will be successful for you unless you have a plan for it.
As for the original question, no addon is a must have, each addon should be judged individually up against your specific project and what you want to achieve. I have 11 addons installed, 3 disabled and I could probably remove 3 or 4 more without my users really making an uproar. No addon will be successful for you unless you have a plan for it.
Steve F
Well-known member
Showcase - a few different ways it can be used, PC gallery section, reviews, articles...
Competitions - from AvForums - just got this and I think it's great, easily do game giveaways for upcoming games.
RM - guides, tutorials, files ect...
What we originally did first starting out was to get into a game that was very popular, DayZ ArmaII mod. Sometimes you get lucky and things just take off. Hopefully you have a good group (4-5 people) that like discussing stuff on the forums, really helps kicks things off.
Competitions - from AvForums - just got this and I think it's great, easily do game giveaways for upcoming games.
RM - guides, tutorials, files ect...
What we originally did first starting out was to get into a game that was very popular, DayZ ArmaII mod. Sometimes you get lucky and things just take off. Hopefully you have a good group (4-5 people) that like discussing stuff on the forums, really helps kicks things off.
KensonPlays
Well-known member
Resource Manager, Social Groups - Waindigo, Unread Post Count, MetaMirror (locally rehosts all external images onto your forum, should help with some slow loading sites they might reference to), Global Topics (useful for making the Rules thread show globally in all boards)
Those are just a few of what I use, and what I consider essential for my Minecraft forum.
Those are just a few of what I use, and what I consider essential for my Minecraft forum.
Code Monkey
Well-known member
Gaming forums take a lot of luck, patience, persistence and basic hard work.
If you go with a single game then you need to understand that you may be successful but it is a temporary existence unless you happen to be one of the first popular sites for the rare game that goes on for years. Most games last as long as peoples attention span. So it's hit or miss predicting what the next big thing will be and getting in early. And that only works if you and your staff actually play and like the game.
If you go with a general gaming forum then it's a slow bumby road but can work for the long term. You still need to latch onto some good games and have niche areas of your site devoted to them. It helps if you have a lot of friends that play different games and want to hang out and write about their experiences. A lot of gamers are lurkers.
I wish you good luck. Like @denisx04 said, content is king. Have a plan for evolving your content before you plan any addons.
If you go with a single game then you need to understand that you may be successful but it is a temporary existence unless you happen to be one of the first popular sites for the rare game that goes on for years. Most games last as long as peoples attention span. So it's hit or miss predicting what the next big thing will be and getting in early. And that only works if you and your staff actually play and like the game.
If you go with a general gaming forum then it's a slow bumby road but can work for the long term. You still need to latch onto some good games and have niche areas of your site devoted to them. It helps if you have a lot of friends that play different games and want to hang out and write about their experiences. A lot of gamers are lurkers.
I wish you good luck. Like @denisx04 said, content is king. Have a plan for evolving your content before you plan any addons.
mistypants
Well-known member
What @Code Monkey said is definitely true. I run a Kingdom Hearts website and while the series is still very much alive, our traffic is very much at the mercy of the news cycle: when a new game comes out, or there's a lot of news/hype for one, our traffic is great. In the slow seasons, it's rough. No matter how much content you have, or add-ons, if there's no inherent interest in the game, not a lot of people are going to visit.
If it's a general gaming site, you don't want to have what every other gaming site has. Matching popular features is one thing, but there has to be something new or unique to your site. If not, why would someone join it when there are hundreds of other, more established gaming sites out there? Decide what direction you want to take, and choose your add-ons based on that. Installing from people's "must have" lists often, I think, leads people to put too much on their site, and users are overwhelmed.
If it's a general gaming site, you don't want to have what every other gaming site has. Matching popular features is one thing, but there has to be something new or unique to your site. If not, why would someone join it when there are hundreds of other, more established gaming sites out there? Decide what direction you want to take, and choose your add-ons based on that. Installing from people's "must have" lists often, I think, leads people to put too much on their site, and users are overwhelmed.
Eoj Nawoh
Active member
Depending on your game, there's a lot of things you can offer. My site is mostly based on TF2 but has sort of expanded into general Steam.
So I make sure I have Steam login, Post ratings, Taiga chat, Simple forms, nodes as tabs.
But honestly, get some basic addons, then start your site and add as you NEED not as you WANT. We have quite a few addons, but I can justify every single one of them.
So I make sure I have Steam login, Post ratings, Taiga chat, Simple forms, nodes as tabs.
But honestly, get some basic addons, then start your site and add as you NEED not as you WANT. We have quite a few addons, but I can justify every single one of them.
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