The Decline of Fan Sites
Editorial by Hamma, PlanetSide Universe Owner/Admin
I’ve been doing fan websites for over ten years now and I’ve seen many different things happen over those years. My original fansite was a very small site for Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun. It was the late 90’s and I was a complete newb at doing a website. These were the days where fancy animated GIFs decorated the page and a java news scroller was all the rage. Things were much different back then, forums had not caught on too much and the only thing I really did was post news. I had a very small volunteer staff who also posted news using our ultra fancy CGI news posting script. The site eventually went away and several years later I started PlanetSide Universe.
Forums were starting to be a big deal and I came on the scene as a total newb. There was another fan site back then that had all the users and all the participation. I built a staff around me comprised of some former Tribes players and members of my own Planetside Outfit, the DragonWolves. Together we built a great community site with news, media and forums. Eventually we added things like the Outfit Database and Stat Signatures. Our moderation style was laid back which was a very welcome thing on Forums at the time. It was around that time Dave Georgeson helped us become the site we are today; it was one e-mail exchange with him that changed everything. Before I knew it I was in San Diego previewing PlanetSide well before beta which eventually propelled us into the #1 Fan Site for PlanetSide.
Back then the Official forums did not yet exist. We were the community for PlanetSide. Discussion was brisk but Developer feedback was fairly low. They read the forums but didn’t post all that much. Eventually the AGN was formed and I teamed up with Sporkfire, the community manager at the time to do monthly Shoutcasts called Ask the Devs. We collected questions from the community and asked them during our monthly live broadcasts.
We were the community and we were the way for the community to interact with the developers. We did the job and I’d like to think we did the job well. Then came the social media age.
Social Media and Corporate Fan Sites
Fast forward around 10 years where Facebook and Twitter are the norm. Videos and live broadcasts can be setup at a whim. No special equipment is required to live stream anything you want from your own home. To interact with the developers all you need is a Twitter account and about two seconds of time to compose a tweet. Social link sharing sites can create vast communities with a simple click of a button. I see this as the watering down of true community. This is blessing and a curse because since we were already established these sites benefit us as well.
In my opinion this indicates the beginning of a movement away from what I will call the classic fan site. Most fan sites these days are quickly gobbled up by companies like Curse. These sites are not community and eventually they become cogs in a massive machine and the community run aspect gets lost in the shuffle. People can easily interact with the developers in about two seconds, eliminating the real need to create a fan site. Add to that companies doing things like running their own Wikis and Forums and you end up with a shell of what a great fan site used to be. Sure we can still provide the news to a targeted audience but beyond that it gets harder to compete.
Even today, with PlanetSide 2 we are starting to see what some people consider “Fan Sites” come out of companies like Curse. These operations are run by a staff and the “Fan” portion of “Fan Site” is missing. Sites like these are able to churn out content at an epic pace leaving actual fan sites in the dust. I’m not able to dedicated 8 hours a day to working on PlanetSide Universe, Streaming or Editing Videos. Their only goal is profit and nothing more whereas the classic fansite was supported by advertisements (usually at a loss) and donation drives, they do it for a true love of the game. Over the life of PlanetSide Universe I’ve spent thousands of dollars and man hours and the community to date has contributed almost nine thousand dollars. Our site, during it’s prime was running almost $600/mo and I was just 20 years old not making much cash.
If not for SOE’s original support of our web site back in the early 2000’s we would not be what we are today. Yet even today with official fan forums, applications and wikis I see a limited future for what we do here. I foresee great things on the horizon for PlanetSide Universe but I feel our niche on the internet will be slowly eroded till nobody feels the need to start a fan site anymore. Why start one when the companies create the community themselves? Why start one when you can just login to any number of sites and hit create and have an instant community. Back when we started PlanetSide Universe things were tough, the only way to get people onto your forums was to have great discussion and show up in Yahoo or Google in a good spot. You also needed to have the technical knowledge to run a website and server.
Most of this though pales in comparison to the Internet Communities today.
It’s now cool to “troll” people and be total idiots without any regard at all for anyone else. People who work hard at something are constantly berated and flamed without any real cause or reason because of anonymity. Entire community groups and organizations are formed around this type of behavior and they thrive each and every day. This isn’t new of course, these issues existed back in the early 2000’s as well but they were far less prevalent. There are now entire websites with thousands of members whose sole purpose is to be morons at the expense of other people.
Journalism & Conclusion
Originally, the big PC Gaming news websites and magazines would cover exclusive items we received at PlanetSide Universe. However, I’ve noticed a large shift this time around with PlanetSide 2. We have had numerous exclusives in the past 6-9 months which we would push out to the large gaming media sites. In the end, usually only one or two would pick up the news (always the same one or two) whereas the rest would totally ignore it. Take our various AGN interview events for example, these have huge potential to get out new information about the game and show off interaction with the developers and yet very few people outside the community actually get to see them.
I don’t expect changes to come of this article this is simply my view of Fan Sites and Communities during the new age of the Social Internet. I just have a couple requests of companies who are starting new games. If a Fan Site comes on the scene, embrace it and support it in any way you can. Don’t create services that intentionally compete with the fan sites. If a fan site rises above the rest support them 110% in any possible way you can. Community is hugely important for games; especially MMOs. They can quite easily make or break a community just as easily as a crappy game can. Do everything within your power to interact with the community through THEIR community fansites as SOE has done. Don’t force people to register on your forums to interact with the development teams.
I'd love to hear your feedback on this topic and how you feel about Fan Websites and Communities.