Do post count games actually build community, or do they just quietly inflate everyone's numbers for nothing

[Scarlet Annie]

Forum games are sometimes criticised as being nothing more than a way for members to artificially inflate their own post counts without contributing anything of genuine substance to the community, low effort one liners repeated across thousands of pages purely for the sake of a rising number next to someone's username. Defenders argue that dismissing them this way misses the actual point entirely, since the value of these threads was never about the content of any individual post but about the low pressure, ongoing sense of presence and familiarity they create between regular members over time.

Some forums have gone as far as excluding game thread posts from official post counts entirely, specifically to discourage what moderators saw as artificial inflation, while other communities lean into game threads deliberately as one of the most reliable ways to keep newer members engaged and returning daily during their earliest, most uncertain days on a forum. Do you think these games genuinely build real community, or are they mostly just a slightly hollow numbers game that looks more active than it actually is?

[Mike80]

I think they genuinely do build community, some of my longest running forum friendships actually started in a completely throwaway game thread rather than a serious discussion.

[CodyRhodes99]

I think it depends heavily on the specific forum's culture, some communities use them as genuine glue, others let them dominate so much that actual discussion threads start to feel neglected.

[BetaMyles75]

As a genuinely new member once, game threads were honestly the easiest way to start feeling like part of a community before I felt confident enough to post in more serious discussions.

[Idle Current]

Excluding game threads from post counts feels like the sensible middle ground to me, keeps people playing for fun rather than purely chasing a rising number.

[Metropolis65]

The post count inflation criticism is fair in a narrow technical sense, but I think it misses that showing up daily, even for something trivial, is exactly what builds real familiarity between regulars

[Hannah_36]

Whatever the actual community value, I will admit the number going up does genuinely feel satisfying on some very basic level, even if I know that is a slightly silly thing to enjoy

[FluxKnight46]

The numpad ping-pong games are definitely the strongest argument for why these things exist. They turn a passive spectator into an active participant, which is a massive shift for a text-based forum. You get that weird thrill of waiting twenty minutes just to know the next digit is coming, and when it drops, the little dopamine hit is real. Its not charity, and its not deep community bonding, but it is a low-stakes social lubricant that gets lurkers posting under the radar. The numbers look inflated, sure, but if that inflation turns a ghost town into a lively hub for a few hours a day, is it really doing nothing? Plus, nobody ever complained the game got too easy or that the countdown was boring. We would rather be there counting with everyone else than staring at a silent page, and that shared anticipation is its own kind of community, even if it is just a tiny, silly circle.