Question Weekend Question: Which game has the friendliest community?

[PCG Jody]

I ask the PCG staff a regular Weekend Question and post the answers on the site. If you'd like to throw in an answer here, I'll squeeze the best into the finished article!

This week's question is: Which game has the friendliest community? Is there an online game where you've found people happy to co-operate and to help new players? Or a singleplayer game where the forums are full of useful advice and people giving positive feedback on each others' creations? Let's help hook some people up with the nicer groups of players, wherever they are.

 

[Zloth]

BattleTech has a very friendly community. There really aren't that many that have bad ones, at least in the realm of single player games.

 

[XoRn]

Under Night In-Birth's community discord channel has guides on every character and match up, dedicated channels for every character so you can talk specifics with others who play what you play, and is populated with players of all strengths, from the fledgling beginner to professionals who have won multiple tournaments. I only started playing fight games last year and my continued efforts to improve in them is in large part thanks to the massively supportive communities behind each of them.

 

[SWard]

Gosh I mean, it's not a PC Game but it would be hard to discount how amazing the Animal Crossing community has been during the last few weeks, the spirit of collaboration, wholesome fun and meme-ry, humour and frustration has been a joy to watch. I don't play it but it's certainly made my twitter feed a better place, given people some much needed escapism and given folks a reason to talk to each other, trade goods and meet digitally. : )

 

[Pifanjr]

The Stardew Valley community is very friendly as well.

I suppose it comes with the genre. It doesn't seem particularly well suited for mean-spirited people.

 

[Zoid]

@SWard I second the Animal Crossing community! I started playing New Horizons as a way to relieve the large amounts of stress I've been under, and everything I've seen from the community so far has been just as wholesome as the content of the game. @Pifanjr same goes for Stardew Valley as well. Wonderful people.

There are lots of communities I could mention, but I'll stick with two for this post. I'll start with the game everyone is probably tired of hearing me mention:

The Kerbal Space Program community. Even players who have poured hundreds of hours into the game still remember the challenge of landing on the Mun for the first time, and the sense of accomplishment they felt afterwards. Players who have been to every corner of the Kerbol system still welcome newcomers who are trying to make it into orbit for the first time, and offer sincere congratulations when they succeed. The game is all about stretching yourself to achieve new goals, even small ones, and the community is very supportive of that.

Even though this one isn't a specific game, I'd like to mention the speedrunning community as a whole. You could pick any of the most popular games and this would apply. I've had the most experience with the Super Mario Odyssey speedrunning community. Everyone is working towards the same goal of beating the game as quickly as possible, so even though players are competing for the best times, they also want to see the record get lower and lower. It's not uncommon in the more popular speedrunning games for a player to put a cash bounty out on their own record, hoping someone will beat it by discovering even faster strategies. People also put tons of time into coming up with beginner routes and tutorials for new players to help bring more people into the community. As I've found with many niche communities like this, most people are just in it for the love of the thing and want to see their community thrive.

 

[Oussebon]

One of the most generous-spirited communities has to be the modding community on Nexus Mods - best known for Skyrim, Fallout etc modding. Fundamentally it's about people sharing their labour and their art with others, for free, and giving players huge choice in how to play their games.

There's a huge amount of discussion and help with using mods - I've found lots of answers and learned a lot from the knowledge people share on those threads. Also lots of screenshot sharing and commenting on the Nexus.

Of course the community needs active support to keep going, but the beauty is it serves everyone, including relative lurkers.

There's one popular FO4 mod made by some super well known and respected modders that had a very minor issue with one of my other mods (also a popular one). I'm no modder, but I've used mods enough to know how bits of them work and what the conflict was. I contacted the author, who was super nice and responsive.

Within a couple of days, I'd made a patch for the conflict which they hosted with their mod - it's since been downloaded ~55k+ times. As someone who predominantly lurks, It was nice to give even a tiny little thing back.

 

[sunshineallthetime]

I got into Mini Metro recently waaay after everyone else, and it's astounding how supportive and active the fanbase is considering it's not a new game. The subreddit and various Facebook groups and Discord are all very relaxed but if you want to deep dive into strategy or design there's very deep and engaging conversations to be had, or people will leave lovely comments on your map design. This is good because I am terrible at the game.

 

[McStabStab]

The Cities: Skylines community is insanely robust and friendly. People are constantly modding and making assets for the community to use and are always helpful with advice, feedback, and positive support.

 

[SWard]

The article is live! https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/which-game-has-the-friendliest-community/

Conrats to @Zloth @XoRn @Pifanjr @Zoid and @Oussebon who were featured on the editorial site

 

[randyl]

No Man's Sky. The NMS reddit sub is constantly full of community activity. There are community groups that chart black hole paths through galaxies. There is a reddit sub devoted to exploring the other 255 galaxies beyond Eucid (the first). Players organize entire multiplayer colony civilization hubs in star systems. There are weekly community events where players get together and tackle large community goals. Players also build elaborate bases with interactive elements for visitors. I've seen more community interaction in NMS than I have in most any MMO since Lineage 1. Additionally, Hello Games engages the community directly frequently.

 

[SWard]

I saw the No Mans Sky folks bought a billboard outside the new offices to say thanks to the dev team, that's pretty lovely.

Hey! How comes no one has said this community yet? You lot are diamonds!

 

[Frindis]

The best game community I have had the pleasure of being in is the Lord of The Rings Online community. Online you would always be greeted by helpful and friendly people. I had maybe 1 day in the game before I was greeted by an officer asking if I wanted to join their kinship. When I accepted I got an awesome welcome mail and 30 gold. One of the most amazing parts of the game is that there are kinships who regularly arrange live in-game concerts for people to enjoy and that really strengthens the community.

 

[Pifanjr]

I saw the No Mans Sky folks bought a billboard outside the new offices to say thanks to the dev team, that's pretty lovely.

Hey! How comes no one has said this community yet? You lot are diamonds!

While I agree that this forum is pretty great, it doesn't actually work as an answer to the question "Which game has the friendliest community".

Unless PCGamer itself is a game? Is there a PCGamer drinking game?

 

[SWard]

The game of life?

 

[Oussebon]

Take a penalty everytime someone mentions Bathtub Geralt

Edit: Not really a game now I think about it, more a sort of *collective punishment.

 

[randyl]

The best game community I have had the pleasure of being in is the Lord of The Rings Online community. Online you would always be greeted by helpful and friendly people. I had maybe 1 day in the game before I was greeted by an officer asking if I wanted to join their kinship. When I accepted I got an awesome welcome mail and 30 gold. One of the most amazing parts of the game is that there are kinships who regularly arrange live in-game concerts for people to enjoy and that really strengthens the community.

This month is my 13th anniversary with the game. I don't play a lot anymore, but I do from time to time. I agree, LotRo has a great community.

While I agree that this forum is pretty great, it doesn't actually work as an answer to the question "Which game has the friendliest community".

Unless PCGamer itself is a game? Is there a PCGamer drinking game?

The game of life?

Game forums, reddit subs, and other social media sites are another form of MMO, especially with trophies, accolades, and achievments. I think it qualifies.

 

[Dan]

MMOs, as long as you don't visit the MMORPG subreddit.

I play a lot of Elder Scrolls Online, and I'll always see people helping each other out and being friendly. Compare that to a game of Rainbow Six Siege where someone will be toxic within the first match.

 

[francisbaud]

If I recall correctly the guys playing Rappelz were pretty nice people to talk with. Guild Wars 1 also had a great community.

 

[robotman5]

Animal Crossing

 

[SPAWN47]

I THINK SPACE ENGINEERS

 

[mickysingh]

check out the community of Minecraft. They're very polite and humble to each other

 

[Pifanjr]

check out the community of Minecraft. They're very polite and humble to each other

From what I've read, Minecraft also has a pretty big toxic part of the community.

 

[Brian Boru]

The best forum—on any topic, not just games—I've encountered in 23 years online is Civ Fanatics, for the Civilization series. Not only outstanding resources and ongoing competitions & events, but also a fabulous community—helpful, mature, interesting, and excellently moderated.

At least, that's how it was during Civ4's heyday, which is when I spent a lot of time there in the 2nd half of the 00s.

One of the most generous-spirited communities has to be the modding community on Nexus Mods

I haven't spent much time on Nexus, but I take any opportunity to say a big thanks to the general gaming mods people—I signed up for some paid service they have if I recall correctly, probably faster downloads which I don't need, just to support the effort.

Mods are the #1 reason to play on PC for me and have extended my enjoyment of many games—I would have stopped playing Civ4 ~2010 without BAT/BUG, whereas I still play it occasionally today, and the Resistance mod literally made Far Cry 5 playable for me by sidelining the obnoxious capture sequences.