List more in the comments! I’ll add them if they are a community for a video game genre, and have had at least one post in the last month. Crossposted to !communitypromo@lemmy.ca here.
- !adventuregames@lemm.ee (also has puzzle and interactive fiction)
- !arcaderacing@lemm.ee
- !automationgames@lemmy.zip (replaces dead feddit.de community)
- !citybuilders@sh.itjust.works
- !cozygames@lemmy.world (replaces dead feddit.de community)
- !crpg@lemmy.world
- !dailygames@lemmy.zip (for quick once-a-day web games like Wordle)
- !fgc@lemmy.dbzer0.com and !fgc@lemmy.world
- !incremental_games@incremental.social (having federation troubles, but as someone with an incremental.social account I can guarantee we are active)
- !jrpg@lemmy.zip and !jrpg@lemmy.world
- !lifesimulation@lemmy.world
- !metroidvanias@infosec.pub
- !otomegames@ani.social
- !rhythmgames@lemm.ee
- !roguelikes@lemmy.world
- !shmups@lemmus.org
- !simrallyracing@lemmy.world and !simracing@lemmy.zip
- !soulslike@lemmy.zip
- !strategy@lemmy.world, !strategygames@sopuli.xyz, !turnbasedstrategy@lemmy.world, !turn_based_tactics@lemmy.zip
- !tycoon@lemmy.world
- !visualnovels@ani.social
I also found some genres with dead communities. Maybe someone would like to revive one, or make a new one (preferably on a smaller instance than lemmy.world)?
- !horrorgaming@lemmy.world
- !platformer_games@sh.itjust.works
- !puzzlegames@lemm.ee (yes, !adventuregames has some, whether puzzles actually belong with adventure games is another conversation. I don’t think so but I’m not an expert on either genre)
- !realtimestrategy@lemmy.world and !rts@reddthat.com
- !survivalgames@lemm.ee
On my search for communities to put here I found some genres seem to be wholly missing. Let me know if I missed something!
- MMOs
- open world/sandbox
- RPGs that don’t really fit in CRPG or JRPG
- shooters (think FPS, hero shooters, literally any shooting game that does not fit in the shmup/shoot-em-up genre)
- simulation in general
- sports
- stealth
I think the bigger deal is Lemmy/Threadiverse getting 100K MAU and seeing steady growth beyond that. We are currently at around ~50-55K MAU.
Subs are a deceptive metric, MAUs are far more important.
Oh, things are trending in the right direction, but we’re still a long ways away from needing smaller sub communities.
On one hand I understand this, but on the other hand I’d like to post games I find that fit these subgenres or talk about that subgenre without making myself the biggest spammer in !games@lemmy.world, and I think (time will tell!) I do have the stubbornness necessary to scream into the void until people come along. Maybe I should crosspost the ones I think are most likely to have mass appeal…
I wish you the best of luck. I don’t know what that threshold is where the smaller communities make sense, but for me, we haven’t met it yet.
I feel if I spontaneously quit all my niche gaming communities and posted everything I’d post there on a general community instead, I’d annoy everyone with a bunch of Steam links for games they probably do not care about. People in the niche communities are more likely to care about a link to a game in a genre they already like. Also, for most of the small communities I’ve got at least one other poster sometimes, and that’s better than nobody! Despite all the trouble with incremental.social and federation, when I can get on there we do have a few regulars chatting there and that’s nice.
contains gender politics
There’s also just fans of a certain genre being used to backlash from the wider gaming community. I did get mostly upvotes when I posted !otomegames@ani.social, which is mostly romance visual novels for women who like men, to !newcommunities@lemmy.world. I appreciate it. But I am not sure how posting these games to !games@lemmy.world would go over, especially when I suspect Lemmy to be male-dominated. Visual novels already suffer from the “it’s all just hentai” stereotype. Now add the “media for women, especially romance media, is stupid and vapid and silly” prejudice. And even for those who just live and let live, I suspect most of the general !games@lemmy.world community would be disinterested in otome game posts, which is fair because I’m disinterested in romance and/or sex visual novels aimed at men who want to date women (although they should definitely be allowed to exist and people should be allowed to like them in peace). So both to avoid any backlash, and to avoid annoying the wider community, I don’t want to post those games to this general community. I still want a space for it on Lemmy though, so I made that community. I have one other regular poster and sometimes people drop in and comment.
You could make the argument that I’m simply posting low-quality content, and I’d just have to raise the bar for !games@lemmy.world to accept my posts, and that I just want my niches back, to which I say: fair. But unfortunately I’m no video game expert or connoisseur. I play and enjoy. The lovely guide and wiki makers usually get there before I can. I’m not too good at coming up with fun discussion questions that are better than what I’d consider low-tier engagement bait back on Reddit like “name one good thing about [noncontroversial character]”. So link posts it is, better some on-topic content than none at all. And even if I did write a wonderful in-depth review or guide, if it’s not for some big mainstream appeal game but something that only genre enthusiasts really like, not sure how well !games@lemmy.world would take to it. So that’s my rationale for having these niche communities. You’re still very free to think I’m wrong ;) Thanks for contributing in earnest to !games@lemmy.world!
In principle I agree with you, but it’s also a “chicken and egg” type problem. Many people aren’t going to switch to Lemmy if there isn’t a modicum of coverage for more specialized topics.
I think getting to somewhere beyond 100K MAU will have a transformative effective on activity in some more specialized communities.