How have gaming communities expanded in the last few years? And how does recording gameplay help? Let's examine this intersection.
Video content is everywhere these days, but you can do more than just consume it. Being a part of a gaming community can be beneficial to your mental health. Furthermore, creating and sharing content can contribute to the growth of communities. Let's see how you can contribute to community growth in a meaningful way, and how to find the right community for you.
Benefits of gaming communities
Image from Norton.com
Gaming is more social than ever, and according to the American Psychological Association, there are many benefits to that. Multiplayer games can help build empathy, cooperation, and teamwork. Whether it's dropping in with two best friends in Fortnite or team games on a larger scale, games help with those skills and emotions. They also commend the benefits of strategy and puzzle games for problem-solving skills, and the improvement of social skills in children.
The AbleGamers Charity also praises the benefits of gaming communities for people with disabilities. Things like communication, assertiveness, coping, behavior control, and the ability to make friends, are all developed with the help of gaming communities. They also help by decreasing the feelings of isolation, which has a positive correlation with video games. Social isolation has some concerning health risks comparable to smoking, obesity, decreased physical activity, and even higher mortality rates. This is particularly important for people with disabilities.
It's great to have a support network of friends and other gaming enthusiasts when feelings of isolation and loneliness can creep in at any time. Thanks to tools like Discord, Twitch, and video sharing, it's easier to forge those networks than ever before.
The growth of Twitch
Twitch needs little introduction here. The platform is huge for connecting gamers with, really, the simplest goal at its base: watching someone else play a video game and chatting about it.
Above, AbleGamers highlight streamer Octarock, a disabled person who has streamed on Twitch every single day for 4 years (and counting!) which is an amazing accomplishment in of itself.
Sharing clips, videos, and gaming moments is one of the best ways to connect and build up a community, whether you're a top streamer, gaming influencer, or just a friend who doesn't care about any of that.
How can sharing clips build up a community?
In the clip above, I'm playing Dota 2 as a support Lich. I get caught by enemies, but I still use my ultimate spell to get some kills, including on their carry! My teammates start to cheer on me and tip me. It's an awesome moment that I shared around with my Dota 2 friends — both with the same group it happened, and with some other ones.
This cheering and chat wouldn't be captured on a regular Dota 2 replay, not to mention that it's a chore to go through long replays, and record footage. This is why I love our Moments app, which is a free SteelSeries software that helps you capture gaming videos and footage easily. Simply press a shortcut (default Alt+S) to record the past 30 seconds or more and turn it into a clip that's automatically cataloged by game name and date, making it easy to sort.
Some games, such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare II and Overwatch 2 even have automatic clipping, so these awesome moments can be saved for you.
I use the app a lot for fighting games, which I play avidly. It's extremely easy to share "tech" (clips of combos or other techniques and situations) with each other. Other popular software like OBS require you to press record, go perform your combo (which you can mess up a few times), and then find the video file, edit it, and then share. Moments shortcuts all these steps for you. You'll record the clip after you've successfully performed your combo; you'll easily find it in Moments, and then quickly edit it to share across any social platform you want (in different file sizes, too!). Whether you want to share with Discord, Twitter, Reddit, or YouTube, it's all right there.
Share memorable moments and interesting techniques with whatever gaming communities you want! Communities thrive and grow from sharing footage and discussion around them. Be a more active part of the conversation by creating content.
Find a gaming community
It's easier than ever before to find a community of like-minded gamers (or be a part of as many as you like!). Of course, we'd love for you to become a part of our SteelSeries community on Discord, which also likes to get together on our Twitch channel. We've got a great group of friendly gamers from around the world, and it's great to see them interact with each other and our stream.
Most titles, even smaller ones, have a Discord made around the game. Whether that's World of Warcraft, or a Discord dedicated to one of the classes, or indie card battler Duelyst II, or the Dota 2 Discord, you can easily Google to find any of those. I've found a great gaming community through the MinnMax podcast (their Discord requires a Patreon membership, but it's only $2 a month). It's a lovely group of mature gamers who are fans of the podcast.
Reddit has lots of gaming communities as well, and you can find your niche. r/GirlGamers is a space dedicated to women, r/Gaymers is for LGBT folks, and there's also r/steelseries.
I've personally found lots of friends through the fighting game community (the FGC). There are plenty of Discords devoted to game titles, individual characters, and local scenes or online events. Try joining the Guilty Gear Strive Discord, and go from there — find the people who like the same character as you or live in the same area and make some friends!
Remember to play it safe and never click any suspicious links. Come hang out with us!
Don't forget to download and try Moments for free to easily capture gaming footage and then share with your favorite gaming communities.
