Virtual communities have been formed since the beginning of the Internet. With the progressive diffusion of internet-capable mobile device, mobile communities are becoming increasingly important not only for commercial service providers but also as a research topic. This paper is focused on mobile gaming communities, the current state of scientific research and implications for commercial set up and maintainance of those communities.

To provide a basis for further scientific research, extensive analysis of present research results in the areas of online and mobile communities by examining relevant publications in this matter was conducted. Critical sucess factors for building and operating mobile (gaming) communities could be extracted and those results were evaluated in focus groups with key users.