Veera Rouvinen is community manager at Traplight Games.

User-generated content in games gives a lot of value to developers and players alike: virtually endless content created by the community keeps the game ever changing and interesting.

However, user-generated content also benefits gaming YouTubers in many ways. User-generated content games work in a very similar way as social media platforms: all content is created by the users, and all social interaction revolves around the content.

People like, share, comment on and create content inside the game, as well as set trends and try out new things. YouTubers can use these inherently social aspects of UGC to create engaging content that helps them stand out. Below are some of the things that UGC games offer influencers.

Social and engaged fans

Influencers aren't just looking for a steadily growing number on their subscriber counter. To make their channels feel alive influencers prefer fans that are active to comment, like and share, and are eager to engage in activities set up by the influencer. Without sociality, the channel can soon feel dead, and not tempting for new fans to join in.

Through UGC the YouTuber can engage their fans on a different level than with traditional games. The YouTuber becomes part of the UGC social network and gets access to fans that are eager to share their creations and participate.

Incorporating player-created things intotheir videos, playing with their fans in content that they have created, or merely creating something for their fans are great ways to increase engagement.

New content

One of the significant problems for any influencer is to find new, exciting things to do and talk about on their channel. For gaming YouTubers it takes a lot of time and effort to scout for new games, or discover new, compelling angles to the game that their channel revolves around.

With UGC there is no problem with new content. The player community is routinely producing new things in the game. Trends and fads are forming at a fast pace. The YouTuber just needs to dig in and pick the cherries for their channel.

A UGC game doesn’t necessarily need any updates from the developer, but the game is organically transforming through players’ actions and preferences.

A way to stand out

With 300 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every single minute, it is sometimes tricky for YouTubers to stand out from the competition – especially when over 30 per cent of the content is gaming-related.

Gaming YouTubers have many solutions to get ahead - personality, different game genres, humour, skills - but it's still a constant fight to find something that not every other channel is showing as well.

UGC can offer solutions to this problem. In a UGC game each gaming session for each player is unique for two reasons. Thanks to the sheer amount of content and the ever-changing nature of the game, you will always experience the game differently from others.

It is also easier to distinguish from the competition when highlighting these creative aspects of the game, and involving fan-created things in the videos. While many channels are showing exactly the same gaming experience with small variances in tactics and compositions, a channel with UGC games can either create entirely new content or show unique things made by others.

Conclusion

Influencers and UGC just work together. This is why we are focusing most of our marketing efforts on influencers. We are excited to dig deeper into this relationship and offer influencers better ways to utilise UGC for creating great content for their fans.

These things include building special features for them inside our games, giving them unique content that no one else has, or bringing them in on the game’s development process early on to provide feedback. Our goal is to not only make our products highly 'YouTubable', but also give value to influencers, their channels, and their fans through our games.