wowTwitter is a Twitter just for your characters
by Mike Schramm 
Jun 12th 2009 at 9:00AM
I'm not sure how well this will scale, but it's an interesting idea: while it's certainly possible to just create a Twitter account for your World of Warcraft characters (so anyone interested can always see what you're up to), the folks behind a new site called wowTwitter have gone a step further, and recreated Twitter's functionality specifically for Azeroth's virtual denizens. It's very barebones right now, but basically, after you register, you can punch in any of your characters, "verify" them by changing something about them in the Armory (like unequipping the piece of gear on your wrist), and then you can send and receive messages on that character, with special channels created for the guild, your realm, and so on. I thought it used Twitter somehow, but it seems completely separate: they're running their own database and servers, so while the two work the same way (there are "@" replies and hashtags), they don't interact at all.Which means they'll also have all of the problems that Twitter has had -- when only a few people are using your database, it runs fine, but if it starts to scale up at all, then you run into lots of "Fail Whale" downtime. And I'm not sure we need a whole other system just for WoW characters (though this one does have the nice bonus of "claiming" your character so it can't get impersonated). At any rate, they're in beta right now, and actually hosting a cash money prize contest for the most characters verified and tweets posted, so a link from us will probably show them how ready their system is. If it's your thing, go forth and wowTweet!
Filed under: How-tos, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Contests, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Wyred Jun 12th 2009 9:10AM
"so a link from us will probably show them how ready their system is"
Aahahaha, incoming DoS, brought to you by Wowinsider.
Crööl Jun 12th 2009 9:10AM
I will probably sign up for it, then get my GB robbed when I go on vacation.
Candina@WH Jun 12th 2009 9:25AM
Twitter for WoW.
That is.. so full of fail I am speechless
Steve Jun 12th 2009 9:29AM
Seems like Blizzard could just absorb this functionality into the game.
Reinard Jun 12th 2009 9:34AM
Please, don't give them any ideas.
schm0 Jun 12th 2009 9:31AM
I do not tweet. I will not tweet. I do not understand those who tweet.
What's wrong with IM, email, IRC, in-game chat, cell phones and I don't know, real life?
The whole "twit" movement just confuses me.
Cyanea Jun 12th 2009 9:37AM
I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I don't see why we need this for the game, but I can understand the use of Twitter in the real world. I have an LJ I update frequently, and it's a major way for me to keep in touch with friends. Sometimes I post entries that are the perfect size for Twitter, but I never liked the way Twitter and LJ mesh in terms of posting tweets on my journal, so I never bothered.
elfennau Jun 12th 2009 9:58AM
Believe it or not, not EVERYONE has or wants a cellphone. You don't understand people using Twitter, I don't understand people using cellphones. :)
ginka Jun 12th 2009 10:02AM
RT @kuschkusch: People who hate Twitter are the same people who talk on the phone about mowing the lawn and sales on Gardettos at Wal-Mart.
schm0 Jun 12th 2009 10:15AM
@elf: To each their own, perhaps?
@ginka: That's a brash generalization, don't you think?
I don't hate twitter, I just don't understand it's popularity when there are literally dozens of other, more effective ways of communicating. Besides, do you really need two-sentence text updates 34 times a day? :)
Badger Jun 12th 2009 1:51PM
We are of one mind on this. Twitting / Tweeting / Twittering / etc. is a mystery to me. It appears to be little more than the Facebook "Status Message" system taken to a global medium - which I suppose is neat, for people who don't want to sign up for Facebook or who don't have the time to compose Blog entries. 99% of the posts I see on Twitter are directed to other people, so there's no context to understand what's being said or why.
I respect it, as a matter of personal preference, but I've already deleted my Twitter account. It seemed excessive (read: "redundant") to me to host a Blog, regularly update a Facebook page, send IMs, check emails every ten minutes, and still make time to compose short messages every time I eat, sleep, or pee.
Hurode Jun 12th 2009 9:35AM
This is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of, and I love Twitter.
That said, I can't wait to get mine set up!
Kemikalkadet Jun 12th 2009 9:37AM
This just shares the same failings that normal twitter has.. the fact that people think others care about what you're doing as much as you do. Really, why do i want to know about what mundane things you're doing within a game? I don't know, maybe it's just me, but do people really enjoy reading others twitter feeds about the minutae of their day? I signed up for twitter maybe a year ago and deleted my account the same day when i started wondering what the hell is the point in it all.
Cyanea Jun 12th 2009 9:41AM
I suppose one way it might end up handy is for out-of-game guild communication. "@RaidLeader - Not going to be able to make Ulduar tonight. Family aggro.", "@GM - I'm gonna be on one of my out-of-guild alts if you need me.", "@RandomGuildie - Yo dude, get online. Throwing together a Naxx run" etc.
I know a lot of guilds have forums and stuff set up for that, but this might prove to be faster/more efficient. Beats logging into the game to send an ingame mail certainly.
Thinking about it more, I'll have to keep an eye on the service. Would be handy if they implemented features like that.
Wither Jun 12th 2009 10:09AM
Well as you say, there's plenty of guild hosting services out there that provide forums and additional features such as raid scheduling.
The main difference between Twitter and other online communication is not speed or efficiency but that it is meant to be an open, public speaking place where you can listen to people without an invite or password. That conveys certain advantages for celebrities, micro-bloggers and anyone with another web service that they want to promote - where they want the readership to be as wide as possible. Twitter fans also claims "news" spreads faster on their network than on private networks as they are more "connected", which is debatable.
Anyway, I can't honestly see any of these advantages pertaining to WoW. It just looks like some enterprising individuals are just hoping to jump on the Twitter publicity bandwagon.
That said, it takes time, money, determination and organisation to setup your own business, so you have to give them kudos for that and wish them the best.
Cyanea Jun 12th 2009 10:36AM
The speed is what I'm referring to. I think that's what works in its favor, really. Nothing beats a proper, full-fledged guildsite/forum for maintaining a formal raiding schedule, but it's hard to let people in-game that might be relying on you know of real life issues without logging into the game. It's hard to post to guild forums and websites when you don't have a computer, while you can tweet from just about any modern cellphone. I'm not suggesting it's going to replace a proper guild site, or the ingame calendar, or ingame chat, but it might prove to be handy tool to have.
An example of the situation I mean would be just the other night, when my internet connection died on me for about ten minutes in the middle of our Naxx run. Since my GM is in another country and can't call me, and I don't really know any of my other guildies that well to give them my cellphone number, I was completely without a method of contacting them. If we had a guild Twitter set up (the suggestion has arisen), I could've tweeted from my phone about what had happened. That's just one example my sleep-addled brain could come up with for how useful this kind of thing would be.
A wow-based Twitter has the added bonus of being separate from your "real-life" Twitter if you have one. Your entire group of friends doesn't need to know that my connection died...just my guild. Hopefully some kind of cellphone-based feature will crop up in the future to make this really worthwhile. Hopefully before the real Twitter slaps them down for using the name.
Mj Jun 12th 2009 9:43AM
I didn't think it would be fun at first, but it is nice chatting with others on different realms. The only way to know how awesome it is going to be is to use the heck out of it and try to beat me (I am way ahead of most) in winning the $100.
Good luck to you all!
Alchemistmerlin Jun 12th 2009 9:51AM
I have far too many tweets that just say "Ding" followed by a character name and server.
That's really all I use Twitter for.
Aelwythe Jun 12th 2009 9:59AM
Dammit I already have an actual Twitter account for both of my guilds (@fmguild and @swguild), now I'll have about 5 more characters ones to update too. Great...
mdmadph Jun 12th 2009 10:13AM
It's probably a Laconi.ca installation -- kinda like an free version
of Twitter you can run on your own servers. I've actually been using
something like this all of my own chars and alts as well as other
people for a while now. :D