World of Warcraft Twitter Case Study

Using the Twitter Platform to
Build Community and Share
Amazing In-Game Experiences
Challenge
Name: Blizzard/World of Warcraft
Location: Irvine, CA
Industry: Entertainment, Gaming
Twitter Features: Twitter OAuth,
Tweet intent, REST API (create
tweet w/ photo upload)
Quick Facts:
• Has an active audience of over
10M+ subscribers
• Franchise includes board
games, a card game, collectible
minifigure game, magazine plus
comics and manga
• Available in 12 languages and
distributed worldwide
The Twitter APIs were
pretty quick to learn and get
implemented. We were able
to easily roll out this new
feature to our global
community across 11 different
languages worldwide.
Micah Whipple
Editor, World of Warcraft
Community Development
Blizzard Entertainment
With more than 10M active monthly subscribers playing worldwide, World of Warcraft
(WoW) is one of the most recognized and popular gaming franchises. In addition to
winning countless awards for rich MMORPG gameplay and cutting-edge digital design,
WoW has also developed into a vibrant online interactive community. Blizzard had the
foresight to build into their platform rich chat functionality, party and guild systems for
in-game collaboration, and even a vibrant digital goods ecosystem.
To extend World of Warcraft’s footprint, Blizzard looked to Twitter for ways to
broadcast a user’s gameplay and in-game activity to a broader community. As WoW
Community Team Editor Micah Whipple (@Bashiok) notes, “Twitter was a natural fit for
integration, given that we were already using the platform to broadcast product
updates and provide support to our active online community.”
Solution
Blizzard’s key objective was to help their users bring their in-game experience to their
external friends, communities and guilds. To accomplish this, they created a Twitter
sharing feature that lets users take screenshots or selfies and share them directly via a
Tweet. Additionally, users are prompted to share their accomplishments or acquisition
of new items on Twitter.
The integration incorporates the following pieces of the Twitter platform:
• Twitter OAuth to connect the user’s WoW profile to their Twitter account
• Screenshot and selfie functionality to capture great in-game experiences
• Custom Tweet intent to clearly indicate posting content to Twitter
• Twitter REST APIs to upload a Tweet with a photo
Additionally, WoW’s Community Team ensured that their users were educated on the
new feature through a FAQ covering functionality, security and WoW’s no-spam policy
on the user’s behalf.
Results
Twitter was a natural fit
for integration, given that
we were already using the
platform to broadcast
product updates and
provide support to our
active online community.
Micah Whipple
Editor, World of Warcraft
Community Development
Blizzard Entertainment
The integration with Twitter has served as a natural extension of the in-game
community that WoW has worked so hard to establish. Accomplishments, in-game
experiences and selfies are shared to friends and communities with a few clicks. As
Whipple notes, “We see new Tweets and photos posted every few minutes, and it
brings these great World of Warcraft experiences to both people’s friends who might
also be playing, to the gamers who used to play, or those that might want to try WoW
for the very first time.”
Whipple also notes the ease of implementation in building on the Twitter platform.
“The Twitter APIs were pretty quick to learn and get implemented. We were able to
easily roll out this new feature to our global community across 11 different languages
worldwide.”
@TwitterDev
dev.twitter.com