Niche Role-plays

I know that you can't please everyone, but do you think that niching down a role-play is better? or has better results in finding members?

 

Niche is basically another way of saying "very specific" and you're looking at a trade-off here: If you're very generalized you have more to do and more sites to compete against, and might appeal to anyone. If you're very niche you have a narrow focus and much less competition because your site is so specific, but it likely only appeals to a small audience.

Example of generalized site: "Alien Soup" Scifi Forum (For anyone whole likes sci-fi including Star Wars fans)

Example of niche site: R2D2 Builders Forum (For Star Wars fans who are actually attempting to build their own R2D2)

In terms of roleplay I think any RP that runs its own setting is inherently niche.

 

At the end it comes down to two things:

What's your goal here? Do you want a big community, with lots of activity and a lot of people? Or do you want something smaller, (possibly) slower-paced community with fewer members? Because a yes, something that is very niche usually attracts a few members from that select fanbase. And then you might attract more as the site grows. While something that is less niche would probably attract more members, faster.

Who are you making this site for? You. So, if you don't want to compromise your idea - then don't. If you don't want to change anything, then don't. You do you, man.

 

From a marketing perspective, you want to have a specific demographic in mind. If your demographic is "everyone", that's not a good target to hit because it means there's nothing special about what you're offering, nothing to hook anyone in particular. In a world of bottled water you are selling bottled water. Now if in a world of bottled water you start selling apple juice, things change. Not everyone likes apple juice but the people who do will come to you, because you are the only person selling apple juice

This is a vast simplification for the purposes of illustration but I hope it gets the point across

Another thing to think about is that growth metrics are not the only metrics that you should concern yourself with and may not be what you ultimately care about. Is it good to get 100 members a month? Is it still good if after a few days half of them leave, after a few weeks another half? You might be more satisfied just getting 10 members if you get to keep all of them. You might be more interested in having a small number of very loyal members who show up week after week for years at a time, instead of a large number of people who cycle in and out

To echo something Melusine said - what is your goal? If your goal is to have a large amount of traffic because you plan to sell advertisement space and want to make a little money then naturally the more general the better. If your goal is to have a meaningful game capable of actual impact in the hearts and minds of your players, intimate is better