how do you rank a website without much content??

Let's say I had a forum website about a video game with TONS of video game cheats and hacks that people are in search of. But access to these files and cheats are restricted for members only.

So basically:

-website name contains no keywords for SEO
-any content on the website is restricted for members only so spiders and bots cant view the content either.

Question is: How do you try to rank for a website like that.

The only thing I could think of is by creating a blog or posting articles on web 2.0 sites which link to your site and then creating backlinks for those pages.

Is that correct??

Any other methods?

You need to get involved in that community. Hit gaming forums up with your link in the sig. Give out some tips here and there and people will start to notice. Anywhere you can find people talking about the subject, get involved. Check out all the major social networking sites for gaming groups.

From an SEO standpoint you're going to have a harder time with it unless you do like you say and create blogs and web 2.0 properties. But remember you're adding in an extra step for people to get to your site and people are generally lazy.