Devcoms: A Study of Videogame Developers' Community-Building Rhetorics Leading to Launch

Nathaniel Francis Golding; Lorenzo Hu; Chris Ge Lin; Irfan  Kanat

Devcoms: A Study of Videogame Developers' Community-Building Rhetorics Leading to Launch

Nathaniel Francis Golding, Lorenzo Hu, Chris Ge Lin, Irfan Kanat

Department of Digitalization

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Competition in the gaming market is fierce. Yet, Independent (“Indie”) Game Developers (IGDs) with limited resources managed to carve out an existence. In the IGD scene, the social media platform Twitter is considered ideal for intra-industry marketing and community building. In this study, 31 indie games and 17,599 tweets from official IGD accounts were coded and analysed according to their targeted audience (Broad vs. Narrow), message (Inclusionary vs. Exclusionary), and timing. Our findings indicate that commercially successful games converge on a pattern of rhetoric we dubbed ‘The SHuFL Model’, consisting of four phases: 1) a phase of ‘Seeding’ tweets to raise discoverability; 2) a ‘Feeding’ phase of active community engagement; 3) a ‘Leveraging’ phase where network effects are leveraged for a successful launch; 4) an optional ‘Hunting’ round of proactive solicitation during the ‘Seeding’ phase. ‘The SHuFL Model’ can be utilized by “grassroots” marketers to overcome platform gatekeeping.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)
Number of pages	15
Place of Publication	Atlanta, GA
Publisher	Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)
Publication date	2022
Article number	17
Publication status	Published - 2022
Event	The 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2022: New Horizons in Digitally United Societies - Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara (UVT) / West University of Timişoara (WUT), Timisoara, Romania Duration: 19 Jun 2022 → 24 Jun 2022 Conference number: 30 https://ecis2022.eu/

Conference

Conference	The 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2022
Number	30
Location	Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara (UVT) / West University of Timişoara (WUT)
Country/Territory	Romania
City	Timisoara
Period	19/06/2022 → 24/06/2022
Internet address	https://ecis2022.eu/

Series	Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems
ISSN	0000-0034

Keywords

Brand communities
Community building
SHuFL
Game development
Indie developer
Social media marketing
Qualitative
Rhetoric analysis
Thematic analysis

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Cite this

Golding, N. F., Hu, L., Lin, C. G., & Kanat, I. (2022). Devcoms: A Study of Videogame Developers' Community-Building Rhetorics Leading to Launch. In Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) [17] Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=ecis2022_rp

Golding, Nathaniel Francis ; Hu, Lorenzo ; Lin, Chris Ge et al. / Devcoms : A Study of Videogame Developers' Community-Building Rhetorics Leading to Launch. Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). Atlanta, GA : Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), 2022. (Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems).

@inproceedings{bb68c25194c14f49af71b1c196aa830c,

title = "Devcoms: A Study of Videogame Developers' Community-Building Rhetorics Leading to Launch",

abstract = "Competition in the gaming market is fierce. Yet, Independent (“Indie”) Game Developers (IGDs) with limited resources managed to carve out an existence. In the IGD scene, the social media platform Twitter is considered ideal for intra-industry marketing and community building. In this study, 31 indie games and 17,599 tweets from official IGD accounts were coded and analysed according to their targeted audience (Broad vs. Narrow), message (Inclusionary vs. Exclusionary), and timing. Our findings indicate that commercially successful games converge on a pattern of rhetoric we dubbed {\textquoteleft}The SHuFL Model{\textquoteright}, consisting of four phases: 1) a phase of {\textquoteleft}Seeding{\textquoteright} tweets to raise discoverability; 2) a {\textquoteleft}Feeding{\textquoteright} phase of active community engagement; 3) a {\textquoteleft}Leveraging{\textquoteright} phase where network effects are leveraged for a successful launch; 4) an optional {\textquoteleft}Hunting{\textquoteright} round of proactive solicitation during the {\textquoteleft}Seeding{\textquoteright} phase. {\textquoteleft}The SHuFL Model{\textquoteright} can be utilized by “grassroots” marketers to overcome platform gatekeeping.",

keywords = "Brand communities, Community building, SHuFL, Game development, Indie developer, Social media marketing, Qualitative, Rhetoric analysis, Thematic analysis, Brand communities, Community building, SHuFL, Game development, Indie developer, Social media marketing, Qualitative, Rhetoric analysis, Thematic analysis",

author = "Golding, {Nathaniel Francis} and Lorenzo Hu and Lin, {Chris Ge} and Irfan Kanat",

year = "2022",

language = "English",

series = "Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)",

publisher = "Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)",

note = "The 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2022 : New Horizons in Digitally United Societies, ECIS2022 ; Conference date: 19-06-2022 Through 24-06-2022",

url = "https://ecis2022.eu/",

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Golding, NF, Hu, L, Lin, CG & Kanat, I 2022, Devcoms: A Study of Videogame Developers' Community-Building Rhetorics Leading to Launch. in Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)., 17, Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), Atlanta, GA, Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems, The 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2022, Timisoara, Romania, 19/06/2022. < http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=ecis2022_rp>

Devcoms : A Study of Videogame Developers' Community-Building Rhetorics Leading to Launch. / Golding, Nathaniel Francis; Hu, Lorenzo; Lin, Chris Ge et al.

Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). Atlanta, GA : Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), 2022. 17 (Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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AB - Competition in the gaming market is fierce. Yet, Independent (“Indie”) Game Developers (IGDs) with limited resources managed to carve out an existence. In the IGD scene, the social media platform Twitter is considered ideal for intra-industry marketing and community building. In this study, 31 indie games and 17,599 tweets from official IGD accounts were coded and analysed according to their targeted audience (Broad vs. Narrow), message (Inclusionary vs. Exclusionary), and timing. Our findings indicate that commercially successful games converge on a pattern of rhetoric we dubbed ‘The SHuFL Model’, consisting of four phases: 1) a phase of ‘Seeding’ tweets to raise discoverability; 2) a ‘Feeding’ phase of active community engagement; 3) a ‘Leveraging’ phase where network effects are leveraged for a successful launch; 4) an optional ‘Hunting’ round of proactive solicitation during the ‘Seeding’ phase. ‘The SHuFL Model’ can be utilized by “grassroots” marketers to overcome platform gatekeeping.

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