Should I create an FAQ or a knowledge base?

Match it to your scale. Start with an FAQ, it's quick to build and covers your most common questions, deflecting the bulk of repeat tickets with minimal effort, ideal for a small game with a few recurring questions. Grow into a knowledge base as your support topics expand beyond what an FAQ can cover, since its depth and searchability handle a wider range of questions and complex issues. Begin simple, build up as needs grow.

How do FAQs and knowledge bases reduce support tickets?

Both are self-serve resources that let players find answers without contacting you, deflecting repeat tickets. An FAQ answers the top few common questions before they're asked; a knowledge base answers a wider range of topics in depth via searchable articles. The more questions players can self-serve, the fewer tickets reach you. They work alongside other deflection like known-issues pages and changelogs, which answer bug-status and update questions, to keep support volume manageable as you grow.

FAQ vs a Knowledge Base

Q: What's the difference between an FAQ and a knowledge base?

An FAQ is a short, simple list of the most common questions with brief answers, quick to create and good for deflecting the top few repeat tickets. A knowledge base is a larger, organized, searchable collection of help articles covering many topics in depth (troubleshooting, how-tos, detailed explanations). An FAQ handles a handful of common questions; a knowledge base scales to cover the long tail of topics a growing game accumulates.

Quick answer: An FAQ is a short list of common questions and answers; a knowledge base is a larger, organized, searchable collection of help articles. An FAQ handles the top few questions; a knowledge base scales to many topics.

FAQs and knowledge bases are both self-serve support resources that deflect tickets, but they differ in scale and depth. Knowing the difference helps you pick the right one for your stage. Here's the comparison.

What an FAQ Offers

An FAQ (frequently asked questions) is a short, simple list of the most common questions with brief answers. Its strength is simplicity: it's quick to create and covers the handful of questions you get most often, deflecting those repeat tickets with minimal effort. An FAQ is the lightweight first step in self-serve support.

The limit is depth and scale: an FAQ handles a small number of common questions but isn't built to cover many topics or complex issues in detail. For a small game with a few recurring questions, an FAQ may be all you need to deflect the bulk of repeat tickets.

What a Knowledge Base Offers

A knowledge base is a larger, organized, searchable collection of help articles covering many topics in depth, troubleshooting guides, how-tos, detailed explanations. It scales to handle a wide range of questions and complex issues, and its searchability lets players find specific answers among many articles.

A knowledge base is more effort to build and maintain but deflects far more, and more varied, support volume. It's the grown-up version of an FAQ: where an FAQ covers the top few questions, a knowledge base covers the long tail of topics that a growing game accumulates.

Which to Choose

Match it to your scale. Start with an FAQ, it's quick and covers your most common questions, deflecting the bulk of repeat tickets with little effort. Grow into a knowledge base as your support topics expand and an FAQ can no longer cover the range, the knowledge base's depth and searchability handle the broader volume.

Both work alongside other deflection like known-issues pages and changelogs. Bugnet's public pages complement self-serve support by deflecting bug-status questions. So begin with an FAQ for simplicity, and build toward a knowledge base as your game and support needs grow, since an FAQ's limited scope eventually becomes the constraint.

An FAQ is a short list of common questions; a knowledge base is a larger, searchable collection of in-depth articles. An FAQ handles the top few questions; a knowledge base scales to many. Start with an FAQ, grow into a knowledge base.