Does Anybody Get Reddit?

quintond

I have tried on numerous occasions to use Reddit and give it a chance ... but I just don't get it.

No matter how polite you are, the entire Reddit community seems toxic at least and filled with trolls at most. Am I missing something? Is there some secret society running Reddit that keeps their secrets of how to use it private and only available to a select few.

Am I just not in the right sub-reddits? Should I even care?

Comments and discussion is most welcome, I am really trying to understand it but the Reddit community can make it so difficult sometimes.

roguecode

Reddit is a complicated beast. This dude gets it.

My observation is that titles will pretty much make or break your post.
A half-joking post from someone:

From what I see post titles like these work too :

I quit my job to finish this game and after 2 years of constant feedback from (insert social media name) , it's finally done
Went through an awful divorce and death in the family, but I pulled through and managed to put my game on Greenlight
Hi (insert social media name) ! My late cat of 8 years was crushed by a spike and that tragedy was the inspiration behind my upcoming endless runner iOS game

But to answer your question - no, I don't get it.
And yes, you absolutely should care.

EDIT: The most traction we got there was https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/4n49o9/vala_vicious_attack_llama_apocalypse_teaser/ with 60 upboats.

Zaphire

I've been using reddit for quite a while and I would say its basically the opposite of trolling. Reddit is one of those "forums" where you can't just come say hello, post your game and leave. You need to be involved in a subreddit for quite some time to understand which topics are liked and which isn't.

You get a score on reddit in the subreddits. The more you comment on other peoples topics and get your comments upvoted the more of your own stuff you are allowed to post on that subreddit. If you post too much of your own stuff you might get an "invisible" ban that makes you think everyone can see your stuff but no one can.

Reddit is good for promotion but it honestly takes a lot of effort to be involved in the subreddits and you must have really catchy titles in order to get people to upvote you stuff.

quintond

Thanks @roguecode and @Zaphire for the insights and information.

jackshiels

I know what you mean. Its userbase is incredibly toxic and filled with 14-18 year olds with terrible ego issues. I got downvoted once because I defended the fact that I used tilt shift on a screenshot for a tutorial I shared on r/gamedev. Never mind the fact that I put time and effort into producing original content to help others. There are a lot of insecure people on that site.

What's the best way to integrate? Buy into their dumb memes and act as stupidly as they do. It's a hive mind in most of the major subreddits and you won't get far without pandering. Keep in mind that your target audience is really, really ignorant and aggressive teenage boys and you should be fine. Don't express an original opinion, because the echo chamber hates that.

Stray away from the default subs and things tend to get a bit better. /pcmasterrace is a good place to promote because they LOVE any developer who shows interest in their preferences (lots of graphics options, unlocked framerates etc.). The circlejerk is still pretty strong there, but at least there's a formula for getting their attention. Don't even bother with r/gaming - it's total trash.

quintond

@jackshiels - Thanks for the insight. I have decided to steer clear of Reddit for now, I will leave it up to the other people who get it and know how it works. Thanks again.

raithza

I've had some good results with reddit in the past. Reddit does have a lot of shitty people and trolls on there, but it's also very democratic (which perhaps explains why it can suck so much). Reddit users know they don't owe you anything and won't pull any punches when it comes to criticizing your game, where on forums like MGSA people will rarely give outright negative feedback in the spirit of being kind and cooperative. This is a GOOD thing about reddit as honest negative feedback is useful and can sometimes be hard to come by.

Smaller subreddits are better and more welcoming. Reddit has VERY little patience for anything that looks like a marketing post, and I think they're even banned on most subreddits. It's better to post in your personal capacity ("hey look at this game I made") than to post something that remotely reads like a press release. Either way, reddit doesn't give a damn about you, they only care about how cool your game is.

There are about 1000 posts about a new game on reddit every day, and your game isn't special, unless you can prove to someone in less than 10 seconds that it is - good videos/screenshots are essential, GIFS are even better. Best is to have a good post title and a image (gif) submission, and then you can comment with additional details for those who care. Something clickbaity but not overtly so. If you mention Greenlight at all before I'm interested in your game you're getting ignored at best. If your game doesn't gif well it can be hard, make your video short and to the point. Best is to have fans to submit posts to reddit rather than yourself, but this kinda gets into a chicken/egg situation.

Here's an example of a reddit post I made that did ok: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4zuun2/physicsbased_gladiator_fighting_prototype/
although the Vive subreddit is way more forgiving than other subreddits, and I don't have a gif. My gameplay footage is terrible but it gets to the point in less than 10 seconds, so it's still FAR better than a professionally cut trailer that only shows logos for the first 15 seconds. My post title is a 5-word elevator summary of my game. Going forward, I will probably post a few gifs/video and an updated free build so that if/when I have a greenlight/steam release people won't mind as it won't just be blatant marketing out of nowhere and I'll hopefully have a few "fans" on the subreddit.

It's ok to try more than once with your game, reddit doesn't really have a memory and (I don't think) people care about/remember usernames all that much. Just don't spam. Reddit is probably the single most powerful medium for getting your game noticed, moreso than twitter/facebook.

(Sorry for necro post, I had a half finished draft that I forgot to finish earlier)

TheFuntastic

It's worth being aware of reddit's shadow-ban policy. If more than 10% of your submitting links point to the same thing (url based, but may include some title analysis) across the whole of reddit you will be shadowbanned without reproach or mercy. You will see your post and direct links will show the post, but it will never be visible in the new queue and thus effectively invisible.

This is really annoying because even though I've been a user for 7 years plus and have some modest comment karma, none of these can prevent a shadow banning. The only solution is to post way more content, or have other people post for you.