Unfortunately, none of my real-life friends shared my enthusiasm for joining my digital escapades. So, I turned to Reddit and other platforms to recruit members. After several months of effort, I had amassed a dedicated group of around 10 members.
This led to a flurry of promotional activities, including the creation of our first recruitment trailer on YouTube:
Our efforts caught the attention of Rockstar Games, the publisher of GTA, who featured us on the front page of their website not once, but three times! Here are some of the articles:
With our membership skyrocketing from a mere dozen to over 1000, I needed a way to manage the growing community. Thus, I utilized my Photoshop skills to design and launch a forum:
As the community continued to flourish, I realized I didn't want it to fade away with the game's popularity. So, I took the bold step of founding a new community: The Vice Gamers. This comprehensive community included its own forum, Discord server, and a subscription service offering premium benefits.
Powered by #WordPress, but heavily customized by yours truly, the Vice Gamers community thrived from 2014 to 2018:
Managing such a large and diverse community came with its fair share of challenges, including personality conflicts and disputes. It required patience, deliberation, and a lot of learning to keep the community thriving.
In 2020, amidst the pandemic, it was time for another website overhaul. This time, I opted for a more streamlined approach, beginning with concept art that was well-received by the community. Utilizing the usual front-end tools and languages – #HTML, #CSS, and #JavaScript – I was able to develop the new website in about a week:
Lots of years were spent building and perfecting the community experience. Everything from video promotions, custom development for the community, esports, podcasts. We did it all! Today, despite facing various setbacks and mass exoduses, the community remains intact as excitement builds for the release of the next Grand Theft Auto game in 2025.
Link: ViceGamers.com
GitHub: soon