Community is a Tamagotchi

Back in the mid-to-late-nineties, there was a toy released by by Bandai (at least in the US) called a Tamagotchi. It was reminiscent of the classic handheld games of the 80s with a monochrome LCD display that had very rudimentary graphics.

The interesting part about Tamagotchi’s was the “gameplay” (I put this in quotes because there wasn’t really a concept of winning in the traditional game sense). In order to play with your Tamagotchi, it had to be continuously cared for. It needed attention to make it happy and feeding to keep it healthy. Failing to properly feed or even clean up after your Tamagotchi could cause it to get sick and even potentially die.

I’ll get back to Tamagotchi’s in a moment, but, first, let’s talk about how many companies (at least in tech where I work) handle community. In my experience and observation, many companies delve into or even try to establish communities because they see opportunity to advance company objectives.

Look, companies are naturally self-interested – I get it. But I have rarely seen a company jump into community efforts with any sense of what they intend to give the community. Throughout my career, I have infrequently heard discussion of or much thought given to what the benefit to the community is from the company’s new investment in their community efforts.

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