Oh No. Your community turned toxic. Now what?

How to engage a community that used to love you, but is currently really unhappy, and not make things worse.

The reason I’m writing this story is because I love Cities Skylines. Well, the first one at least. You see, I’m a big ol’ dork when it comes to city simulation video games. I have hundreds and hundreds of hours of my life dedicated to building thriving, virtual metropolises. The game runs well enough, has interesting and complex systems, and, notably, the developer’s relationship with its community was exemplary. Of particular note, Modding (the ability for users to contribute improvements to a game, usually for free, that other users could install) made the game better and the community stronger.

When the developer released the much-anticipated sequel — Cities Skylines 2—with limited modding capabilities, poor optimization that made the game run sluggishly (or crash… or look bad…), and charged full price without an early access period, the community did not respond well.

I, a huge fan, was one of those people who didn’t respond well. While I didn’t take to the message boards, I did express my frustration in friend group chats and, as a community professional, I watched from the sidelines as this once vibrant community became toxic.