The art of balance in community management

Introduction:

In community management, keeping in touch with fans is key. A community manager acts as a bridge between devs and players, responds to community feedback, and keeps expectations in check. Communicating with fans is something I know well, because before I was the Community Manager for The Battle of Polytopia, I was a fan of the game myself.

I first discovered The Battle of Polytopia as a fan of Civilisation, another strategy-based game. This was when I stumbled on the Midjiwan Discord group, which had under 100 players in it at the time. I became the moderator of the group, and then the manager, before being given the opportunity to transform it into the official Discord group. In 2019, I became the official Community Manager. From then to now, the group has grown from 2,000 to 46,000!

Having experienced both sides of the community, one of my key take-aways has been that a crucial part of fostering strong community growth is striking a balance between fan input and preserving the team’s creative vision.

Organically listening to community feedback

Players have the right to be listened to, and community discussion provides novel ways of injecting community ideas into a game. Though player feedback does not have to be implemented, getting players involved is important.

A few years ago, Polytopia’s Discord group allowed players to vote for the moderator of their respective tribe’s Discord channel. Players used a RNG system to randomly appoint the moderator leader of the Bardur tribe. This inspired the development team to choose the leader of the in-game Bardur tribe with the roll of a dice. This goes to show that, as a result of getting the players involved, they can organically and positively impact the game.

Discord is a key method of updating players and allows you to instantly access suggestions from thousands of fans, but with great fan engagement comes great responsibility. This volume of engagement comes with the duty to manage conversations and moderate. It's also important to expand the community beyond one platform, keeping on top of social media posts and emails; in addition to Discord, we use Reddit, Instagram, and X. Having a variety of platforms also means they can intersect and bring different groups of fans together. For example, we sometimes post fanart from the Polytopia subreddit on X while discussing news about the game.

An important part of community management is knowing when to put a stop to things, as this helps to maintain the balance between the fans and the team. When Midjiwan called on the community to design an in-game language for the ∑∫ỹriȱŋ tribe, several challenges arose due to the volume of input and concerns about the moderation of content. In this situation, the best course of action was to politely put an end to the activity.

The lesson here? Community input is a natural process, and not always call-and-response. We encourage players to interact and bond with other players, while keeping on top of  moderation and dialogues on Discord.

Players and community growth

We’ve explored the tools, but different players have different needs, and recognising this leads to community growth. Midjiwan’s community consists of three main subgroups; the first are meditative, meaning they play as a pastime and dislike changes to the core game; the second discuss the lore and want to learn more about it; the third are competitive players who are focused on game balancing. Recognising the differences between each section of the community fosters growth in the wider playerbase.

Another way to promote discussions and growth is to consciously build the lore. In Polytopia’s case, players gradually learn the lore as they play and through various community events we run. Creating competitions or community initiatives, like having fans create community art, is also very effective.

However, it is crucial that you respect the time of volunteers. Part of this is distinguishing between the role of a freelance artist and a fan. This approach helps to keep the creative vision intact, while including the fans and building the community.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the core of community management is keeping the balance. It’s a joy to have a passionate audience engaging with your work, and to take pride in the world you have created. At the same time, it’s important to keep the creative vision intact, and manage your community as fans, not creators.