The Biggest Mistakes when Creating a Virtual World
Welcome Avatar ! Are you about to hire a team of developers, designers and graphic artists ready to launch your dream virtual world ? Well you’ve already made a mistake if you agreed to what I just mentioned above.
You see when creating virtual worlds you aren’t selling your dream you have to sell the audiences dream.
You need to dive deep into the market and understand what audiences exist where, Including developing an understanding for how are the current existing models are flawed ( speak to the players ) or just play yourself as you’ll gain experience over time noticing the problems in each sector or you can also just subscribe to my free newsletter and gain my own insights for flaws in existing markets and slowly develop your own layout.
I’ll be doing more of these layouts in-depth via my substack but if you go to my Twitter and type Game Analysis you can already find some for free there !
You see trying to create a virtual world you have no history or experience in is like trying to give swimming lessons outside of a pool, you need to actually dive into that pool and figure it out from there using my knowledge as your floater to help you swim faster and more beautifully.
So what mistakes are the majority of you making ? Let’s dive into it.
Almost every Roblox Developer starts out with something super simple and they get far too attached to this simplistic way of building including Architect’s like yourselves who don’t want to be the developer but look for the easiest and fastest way to just *get a virtual world out in the market*
The problem with virtual worlds like simulators and cafe’s is that it really doesn’t give the player a reason to come back, simulators have an end to them and cafe’s are only enjoyable when you have friends or a community but can quickly die out as who wants to be stuck in a small virtual cafe all the time.
Nowadays people try to launch just a *cafe* but don’t realize they have direct competitors who have a virtual world where the Club and Cafe is just a small piece of the entire art.
So BowTiedCoffee, I’m sure you can launch a successful virtual world but it has to be way more than just a Cafe, always think about something engaging that you cannot do in the physical world and it’s engaging and new enough every time so player come back. That’s all you need to understand, there isn’t some big secret.
Onto the next biggest mistake Creators make…
Virtual World’s are moving towards a more Community oriented path, so yes you can still win in the roblox virtual world market if you make a really really great game that isn’t backed by a Community.
But you have a much better chance of winning by simply making a great game that is backed by a Community
These communities are usually ran in Discord servers and evolve from there in terms of what they can get done for their audience outside of just playing their virtual world.
The next mistake is when people create a discord and get really awful managers in it because they are too lazy to figure out where the *good mods* are in the market.
The problem with why this is bad is because Discord Communities are all about the vibes and aura and if you have an environment that’s giving off a negative attitude to each other then people in the discord reading those chats will replicate that behavior, not because they want to but Humans naturally want to fit into the masses and if they want to fit into your Discord they’ll feel like they need to have some sort of negative joke associated in the chat.
Remember you’re mainly selling to Kids who don’t know any better.
So now you have a huge audience you’ve built up but it’s all become worthless because you’re so deep in that the majority of the people in that discord have already associated that community with a *negative behavior* to it.
So finding a solid balance is KEY here and how do we exactly do that ? Well it’s quite simple really, the mods you end up working with have to be the ones that lay the foundation for that joy. Nobody wants to sit in a discord and *ban, kick and warn people all day*
That’s so lame !
Sure you’ll find people to do the job but it’s a great way to get everyone calling your Discord mods actual gay lords. ( I’ve seen it happen )
So what should your mods mission be ?
Simple, you need to find joyful people who are just overall in a good mood most of the time. Reward them for bringing that mood into the server by offering them a discord mod role plus some incentives in-game and in the actual group via Roblox. You don’t really want to hire the people who come begging you for a mod position because they’re usually just power hungry, so sure if you’re down bad and need them go for it! But long-term your strategy should be to watch the behavior of a specific few that are active.
Also you shouldn’t be paying a CENT to getting moderators, if you thought you need to pay for them you’re mistaken, DO not PAY for Mods.. It’s pointless when you could have free ones. Plus the free ones are usually 20x better because they actually play the game just for the sake of it so they naturally put in effort to be a good role-model.
What’s the next biggest mistake Community’s and Virtual Worlds make ?
It’s not bringing enough *new* into the environment, kids are hungry and get bored very very quickly. If you think you can just launch an Empire and not evolve it slowly over time with changes then you are mistaken. No I’m not asking you to pour your entire heart and brain into the project especially if it’s a side hustle, but once you establish your foundations the ability to sit down and think for what could be made better or change the pace of things will improve the overall mood of your players.
Players get sick pretty quickly if you try to offer them a virtual world that isn’t seeing any improvement.
For example, dodge ball is a game we can all play forever ! But you know what really makes it fun every time we play it? The actual players, they are different, they are new and they have personalities and skills that cannot be replicated. So every time you pick up that ball ready to play a new game it truly feels new because you don’t know what to expect, there is a mystery element to the entire situation.
Now I’m not suggesting you go out searching for new players constantly, that entire adventure happens by simply running ads and word-of-mouth. Something needs to be done on your end that you can control that brings in this mystery element.
For example let’s say your war clan has different divisions just like in the military, and these divisions all have tryouts hosted at random times throughout the week or month. This mystery element of not knowing when a tryout will happen forces the players to constantly check into the discord
“Anything new"?”
“wonder if the tryouts are posted?”
( which also gets them checking the discord chat more )
The real secret sauce here is the fact that the mystery is even greater than you realize, players in the virtual worlds get new customizable weapons that they have no clue how they work and are interested, they have no clue for how the tryout will look like.. Will it be the same as an ordinary training ? They wonder if the division has their own secret barracks and what it looks like inside, what types of clans are they able to raid that people outside of their division can’t raid ?
This provides a mystery element for all the newer players who have just joined your group, so it gives them a *good deal* of time to get attached into the Community and experience the people inside of it chatting all day long.
That’s the key, you leave enough mystery on the table for the new players to get hooked by the Community itself and then as the Community itself gets new players you end up in a natural loop of growth, AMAZING isn’t it ?
This mystery element is something so few people take advantage of now let me tell you a trade secret people rarely use in super clans ( cause they are NPC’s )
Start collaborating with other groups so you have random raids happening throughout the day, so in the middle of a rally where players are inside the virtual world doing their own thing like protecting the city or whatever with their friends a clan randomly appears ready to spread chaos. Before the officers can even realize what’s happening they’re is already enemies coming close to the city ready to unleash chaos, I highly suggest you train your Officers to give the players a position where they can go and maintain with a small team and not knowing what position those players will be told to protect gives the entire fort a more mysterious feel as you anticipate another day when a raid happens to get a new position.
The only trouble here is figuring out how to organize the players in the midsts of all that chaos, likely a feature that teleports all the players that aren’t officers in a forced shoulder to shoulder position and a map showing a code name for each sector of the city that they are ordered to protect.
The layout needs to be well made as you don’t want to teleport everyone when they are all spread out watching their own thing, so say for example you have a police-force in the city that already is assigned to a specific setting and it’s only the newer players you need to assign. That could work a lot better as you don’t lose a front defense teleporting all of your players.
You can get creative here, say you know a clan is about to raid as an Officer but you don’t tell the players it’s going to happen and you assign them the positions shortly before everything pops off.
This is just one specific niche I’m referring to when it comes to the mystery element, you have tons of options in the Roblox space where you can use this as a sort of layout to understand what needs to be done in your niche of choice.
Let’s discuss a totally different environment so you have a better understanding, there is a game where you get placed in a town that is going to have a random apocalyptic event and you don’t know if it’s going to be zombies, a flood, or a acid rain shower.
You’re forced to quickly make a choice as your heart starts racing for what’s about to happen, you see zombies spawn ? You need to try and make it to the best place in town where they can’t capture you. You see a huge flood happening where sewers start shooting out water ? You need to get to some high ground. Do you see huge clouds appearing that start spraying acid rain that destroys housing ? You need to get as much cover as possible.
It’s all about the mystery element of you not knowing what might happen next and needing to prepare for it, these types of worlds are all way more fun with a Community of course.
Let’s move onto the last biggest mistake a lot of virtual worlds make..
There is a lot of niche’s on Roblox and you’re free to choose any of them..
The problem is many people don’t do enough research for how many of these virtual worlds exist and if they are a dying model that isn’t being improved well enough due to the nostalgia the owners have of the past.
The worst thing you can do for yourself is try to enter a market that is dying and trying to win inside of it, I suggest you do the opposite. If you don’t have plans to be a market leader in your niche, try going for a niche where theirs currently a wave for and if you ride that wave with the rest of the worlds you can grasp some solid market share.
Each sector all have their own reason for being a failure, some owners don’t even got a clue for why their niche sector is dying and these are people who have been in the space for years. So it’s a troubling thing many aren’t careful about.
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