I couldn’t sleep last night, so I went to a couple hundred gaming websites and noted what they offer. In the end, it all boils down to content. That’s what people are looking for. The question then becomes, what kind of content, right? I could see three main categories: editorial, utilitarian, and community.
– Editorial content can be your standard list of articles on gaming, whether it’s a standard page of text or a podcast, articles and columns or product reviews.
– Utilitarian content is stuff like press releases and news stories, but also things like random NPC generators and the d20SRD.
– Community content includes forums and chat rooms, and to some degree those wikis that seem to be popping up all over the place.
I created a list of some general types of content as well:
– Indexes: Like the Pen & Paper database, or the Gaming Index on RPGnet.
– Stores: While they use the indexes, above, they really are their own animals.
– Reviews: Even though these days you find most of the reviews tied to an online store.
– Forums/Chat: Ways to interact with your fellow gamer in semi-real time.
– Art Galleries: from deviantART to ENWorld
– News: Gamingreport, RPGNews, RPGnet, etc.
– Articles: Those things people write in their blogs / on their sites.
– Groups: MeetUp Groups, Yahoo Groups, facebook groups
– Publishers: A special type of ‘group’
– Tools: DM Tools, generators, etc.
So what’s the point?
Well, I’m glad you asked! I’d like for you to tell me which of these types of content you consider to be important enough to get top billing. Which ones are big enough in your eyes that they should take priority over the rest on a site. Assume, for a moment, that this hypothetical site has all of these things (because otherwise the exercise is useless. Please, choose those five or six types that should get the spotlight, with the assumption that the others would be pushed into the background.
For instance, I might choose… Articles, Forums, News, Stores, Tools, and Reviews. Which would you choose, and if you have the time… why?