Mashable rarely dips into the massively multiplayer online game sector of the entertainment world, and generally focuses on web products that utilize social media. I ran into this article today called “6 Things World of Warcraft Can Teach You About Social Media Success”.
So how does grinding for experience or organizing a raiding party relate to social media? There are a lot more similarities than you may think. Communication, strategy, approachability, and teamwork are all important elements of WoW and social media.
I have to say, this article didn’t impress me. It feels like this guy was really REACHING for parallels here, and you could draw these comparisons to almost anything involving business and goals. Maybe you’ll find it more interesting, but I’ll let you be the judge.
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
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I thought that was poorly written and shallow – like far too much social media business writing. There are good points to be made on WoW and corporate culture – The Guild CIO does a good job; there was an article in Harvard Business Journal a while back, and a critical article, “Corporate Ideology in World of Warcraft” in the terrific academic anthology on WoW, Digital Culture, Play and Identity.
Oh, and the WoW group on LinkedIn is pretty good, too.
“Organization of raids: WoW is primarily built off of massive dungeons. They require 40 people (of all different classes) in order to successfully complete.”#
Boggle
WoW has had 25/10 man raids since the start of 2007. This writer doesn't seemed to have played WoW since 2006
I have a very distinct theory as to why that article was written. I believe the fact that it was posted here pretty much defines that reason. If they don't talk about MMOs often, if they can link the most popular one to their main focus, suddenly it lets them bring in a new audience.