Note: I’m starting with games but this post is for all software developers.

In Gaming Software Development

Many computer games these days have online communities associated with them.  These most often take the form of forums with players exchanging advice, secrets, data, and braggadocio.  They also serve as a central communication point both from the game developer to the consumers as well as between the consumers.  Such communities can be seen as a hub-and-spoke model since a handful of the sites become the central connector for myriad smaller and more specialized sites.

Some communities are more actively fostered than others.  A software developer does not create the community separately from the software itself; it is on this step that many developers fail.  The software needs to be designed in such a way to generate a community.  For an example, I turn to  Lionhead Studios which developed Black & White and a sequel.

The original Black & White was widely hailed and developed a strong user community.  The developers allowed the game to use third-party content such as unofficial patches, additional maps, etc.  This significantly extended the life of the game which may have been a deciding factor for Lionhead not to include such support in the sequel.

Black & White 2 has been criticized since gameplay is limited to a single campaign and there is no way for players to add further content.  Once you have finished the official sequence of seven games, you must begin again.  This reduced the replay value for most consumers.

Economically speaking, there are circumstances in which this may be beneficial to the software developer.  If they had a similar game in the pipeline, consumers may have been left wanting more and may have chosen to purchase the next game quickly.  However, as it turned out, Lionhead did not have a similar game to launch.  Since players could neither expand on the existing game nor purchase a “next-gen” title, Lionhead’s decision ended up tarnishing their brand-name.

Where is Lionhead now? They’ve been bought out by Microsoft.

Applicability to Other Software

Developers of other categories of software will need to learn from the gaming software industry.  The power and the danger of software communities is increasingly important.  What do such communities offer?

1. Extend Product Generation Life - This may be a good selling point during the initial software sale (1.0) but there is a risk that it will slow sales of an non-generation upgrade (a 1.5 version).
2. Misuse - Opening up a line of software to the development community may result in security or functionality compromise (i.e. identity theft or other hacking.)
3. Competitors - Opening up the code enough for developers to understand also means that your competitors will be able to understand it.  If they can understand it, they can emulate it.  Additionally, members of your own development community may decide to develop a mod or addon that becomes more desirable than your own core product.  Of course, this may turn into a new hiring pipeline as you can identify the most skilled and driven community members and hire them.

This is a scary prospect for many software developers.  But it is also a great opportunity for them.  These communities can serve as belwethers, letting you know how your next generation product must change in order to remain competitive.  Communities can quickly identify problems and, if given access, develop mods to fix flaws.  They also have the ability to adapt to niches.

Imagine, if you will, your software as an electric drill.  A drill has many uses each requiring a different drillbit or tip.  What we are talking about is concentrating your efforts on the core functionality of the product - the motor.  Your community can develop the myriad drillbits for you, if you give them the ability.  This avoids the costs of developing a hundred different drillbits each for a handful of users.

The development costs of customizing your software for different uses can be very high, particularly if the target markets are small and specialized.  By letting your community do your work for you, you are reducing costs and you are increasing the number of potential customers.  A market you wouldn’t have otherwise entered (small user base, high customization costs) can now be served by the combination of your drill and someone else’s drillbit.

The real future of software development is in communities.  Software developers first need to:

1. Examine their markets and decide what level of community access is right for their product.
2. They then need to follow this up by developing software products that are engineered to be community-accessible at their chosen level.
3. Finally, they need to create, nurture, support, and then free their communities.

Bottom line: communities are not developed after products.  They are developed by products.

Tags: brands, communities, Microsoft, trends