Developing a Measure of Community Health in Games

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In the rapidly evolving landscape of online gaming, community health has emerged as more than just a nice-to-have feature, it's become a critical business imperative. As we examine what makes communities thrive, we discover that the path to sustainable success lies not in eliminating all harm, but in building resilience that allows communities to adapt, grow, and recover from disruption.

What is a “Healthy Gaming Community”?

For me, a healthy gaming community isn't defined by the absence of problems, it is characterized by resilience. Resilient gaming communities are ecosystems that possess the policies, tools, education, and support systems necessary to minimize exposure to harm while fostering environments where healthy norms can flourish.

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It is also a community with low(er) rates of harm and disruption. Notice I’m not saying it is a utopia, that is not the goal nor should it ever be (an online space with zero description is an impossible goal). Rather, I am talking about spaces where we continuously improve our ability to mitigate risk while optimizing the benefits of community interaction. This means providing players with the tools and support they need to navigate challenges effectively, while building communities capable of adaptation and growth even when faced with disruption.

The Anatomy of Resilient Player Communities

Resilient player communities share several key characteristics:

Integrated policy and product design that incorporates safety measures without hindering gameplay (cue the Digital Thriving Playbook)

Comprehensive tooling that empowers players to protect themselves and support others

Educational resources that help community members understand how to engage productively with both the product and each other

Healthy community norms that naturally discourage disruptive behavior and encourage positive interaction

Rapid identification and response systems for when problems do arise (ideally, a mix of proactive and reactive systems)

Recovery mechanisms that allow communities to bounce back quickly from incidents (such as transparent reporting pipelines and strong social support among community members)

What's crucial to understand is that resilient communities don't emerge by luck, fate, or accident. They're the result of coordinated effort across the entire trust and safety ecosystem encompassing practices, policies, products, teams, education, and tooling. They are created with intention.

The Business Case: Why Community Health Drives Revenue

Okay so here is the heart of my pitch - the ROI on T&S. The financial implications of community health extend far beyond feel-good metrics. They directly impact the bottom line through two critical pathways: player trust and player engagement.

Companies that fail to address toxicity are hindering their growth in an industry where positive player experiences increasingly influence consumer choice.

Image from ROI on T&S, GDC 2024 (Kowert)

Player Trust is the foundation of sustainable growth. Player trust represents the confidence that community members have in publishers, platforms, and community managers to effectively protect them from hate and harassment—or to address these issues quickly and consistently when they occur. This trust translates directly into measurable business outcomes.

Player engagement manifests in two crucial ways that drive revenue:

Direct Engagement: The time players spend actively participating in your game and community spaces directly correlates with monetization opportunities.

Brand Evangelism: Perhaps even more valuable is the extent to which satisfied players become advocates for your brand. Brand evangelism drives both continued spending from existing players and organic acquisition of new customers through positive referrals and word-of-mouth marketing.

When trust erodes, engagement follows (and with it, revenue).

What is an “unhealthy community” costing you?

Recent research reveals the stark reality of community health's impact on business performance:

The Safety Gap: In 2023, research involving 2,400 game players revealed that while 75% consider feeling safe in gaming spaces "important" or "extremely important," less than half actually feel safe. More concerning still, 1 in 10 players report feeling actively unsafe when engaging in gaming communities.

Mental Health Impact: Nine out of ten players report experiencing negative mental health impacts due to toxicity in gaming spaces, which is a statistic that should concern any business leader thinking about long-term customer relationships.

Avoidance Behavior: Seven out of ten players avoid certain games entirely based on their reputation for toxicity. This means these potential customers never even give your product a chance, regardless of its quality or appeal.

The Independent Effect: New research has revealed that the negative effects of toxicity on reputation and financial performance are independent. This means that even games without particularly toxic reputations can still suffer significant financial losses due to community health issues, challenging previous assumptions about the relationship between reputation and revenue impact.

The Revenue Impact: Quantifying the Cost

The financial consequences of poor community health are measurable and significant:

Immediate Player Loss: Six out of ten players permanently quit games after experiencing hate and harassment. This isn't temporary frustration—it's permanent customer loss.

Spending Reduction: That same 60% also choose not to spend money at all due to how other players treated them in the community. Given that in-game purchases drive 97% of mobile gaming revenue and 27% of console revenue, this directly undermines core monetization models.

The Revenue Opportunity: Research by Constance Steinkeuler in 2023 provides insight into the spending differential between "toxic" and "non-toxic" gaming experiences. Players reported spending an average of $12.09 monthly on games they perceived as toxic, compared to $21.10 on games they considered non-toxic—representing a potential 54% revenue gain from effective toxicity mitigation.

…a silver lining?

I’m not going to just leave you hanging there with all the doom and gloom - there is a silver lining to be had. Recent research has found that the presence of effective game moderation systems moderates the financial and reputational damage caused by toxicity. When players feel supported by platforms that provide appropriate policies, tools, and education for effective harm mitigation, they demonstrate greater resilience to toxic experiences. This is a critical point and reinforces the idea that community health isn't just about preventing problems, it's about empowering communities to be resilient when problems inevitably arise.

How to measure “Community Health”

To build and maintain healthy gaming communities, we need robust measurement systems that capture the nuanced dynamics of the ecosystem of online social spaces, what I am referring to as a measure of “community health”.

To be fully transparent, I have been discussing the idea of developing such a metric for literal years and would love to work together with members of the community, advocates, and the industry to bring such a metric to life. It only just now occurred to me that maybe if these ideas an information did not just live in my head, maybe the (gaming) world can come together and manifest this into life.

Now before I put all my ideas out into the world, I want to be clear that I am not saying I have all the answers, but I have been thinking about this for more time than most, and would love to come together to a table and trying to measure these outcomes and develop a more robust way to understand how our systems, policies, and moderation efforts are impacting the nature and health of our digital communities.

Will all of those disclaimers out of the way, I give you my suggestions on where to start creating a measure of online game community health:

In-Game Engagement Metrics

Guild/Clan Participation Rate: Track the percentage of players actively participating in guilds, clans, or team activities weekly. High participation rates indicate strong social bonds and community investment.

Cross-Player Interaction Frequency: Measure the average number of helpful interactions per player, including trades, grouping, mentoring, and supportive chat responses. This metric captures the collaborative spirit essential to healthy communities.

Community Event Participation: Monitor the percentage of active players joining server events, tournaments, or community challenges. Strong participation indicates community members feel welcome and engaged.

Knowledge Sharing Activity: Track the rate at which players create strategy guides, share builds, and offer gameplay tips. This metric reflects the collaborative culture and investment in helping others succeed.

Community Resilience Metrics

Post-Patch Sentiment Recovery: Measure how quickly player sentiment stabilizes after game updates, nerfs, or controversial changes. Resilient communities adapt more quickly to change.

Player-Driven Moderation Effectiveness: Track the percentage of griefing and toxic behavior addressed through player reporting systems versus requiring direct staff intervention. High effectiveness indicates a community that actively maintains its own health.

Player Retention Through Controversy: Monitor the percentage of active players who continue playing during community drama or game issues. This metric directly measures community resilience.

I know there are currently some systems that exist in place that can monitor player/group sentiment in real time. The time to “bounce back” would be a powerful measure of the pro-sociality of a community.

Inter-Guild Conflict Resolution: Track the success rate of resolving player-versus-player disputes without permanent server or community exodus. Effective conflict resolution prevents small issues from becoming community-wide problems.

This one might be tricker, but it would be interesting to see the micro-level interactions in addition to the macro ones happening in more public spaces.

Ecosystem Health Metrics

New Player Integration Rate: Measure the percentage of new players who successfully join established guilds or groups and remain active beyond trial periods. This metric captures how welcoming and supportive the existing community is to newcomers.

Final Fantasy 14 has won copious amounts of awards for their social community, and my research spidey sense tells me this has a lot to do with their mentoring system for new player onboarding. I think that this metric is particularly important.

Server Community Stress Index: Create a composite metric tracking rage quits after losses, harassment reports, cross-faction toxicity, and "dead server" migration requests. This comprehensive indicator would provide information around community health degradation.

Let’s build better digital communities together.

The path forward is clear: resilient gaming communities aren't just morally imperative, they're business imperative. The companies that recognize community health as a core business function, rather than a peripheral concern, will be the ones that thrive in an increasingly competitive market.

A failure to secure safe gaming environments will shrink market share relative to competitors who invest in trust and safety

By focusing on resilience rather than perfection, providing comprehensive tools and education rather than reactive enforcement, and measuring what truly matters for long-term community sustainability, we can build gaming environments that not only protect players but empower them to create the kinds of communities they want to be part of.

The question isn't whether investing in community health makes sense, the data makes that case compellingly. The question is how quickly we can implement the systems, policies, and cultural changes necessary to capture the significant business opportunities that healthy communities represent.

In a world where player trust directly translates to player engagement, and player engagement directly translates to revenue, community health isn't just the right thing to do, it's the best business decision.

…and we didn’t even talk about this in the context of legislation - that is a WHOLE. OTHER. THING. I am not a lawyer so I did not want to get into the weeds here about that, but if you are interested in that sort of thing, I can recommend checking out the Gaming and Governance Brief newsletter.

It is going to take an ecosystem approach to overhaul our …approach to community development and community health and an ecosystem approach is best done with an ecosystem (I think I need more sleep, does that setence make sense to anyone but me). What I am trying to say is that it is going to take a village to operationalize community health as well as implement ecosystem changes to best support it - designers, decision makers, lawyers (yes, we need to invite them too!) community leaders, advocates, and (DARE I SAY IT) social scientists?

Making the (digital) world a better place is not an impossible goal, but it is one that will take initiative, innovation, and a village. And we have all those things, so let’s do this thing, together.

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