What does Digg and dragon slaying on Worlds of Warcraft have in common?

Worlds of Warcraft

What Does Digg and Slaying Dragons Have in Common?

In WoW you start off by creating a character. You first choose a role for that character, whether it be a powerful mage, a fearless warrior, a gentle priest, a multi-faceted druid or something else.

Once you create a character, you venture forth into the environment, explore, meet people, and solve quests along the way. You compete with your fellow adventurers to gain the most experience points, and kill the hardest monsters.

In your travels, you also realize that in order to succeed, you must make friends, and forge alliances which will enable you to tackle the most bad ass of bosses. The draw of WoW is three-fold; achievement, relationship, and immersion.

Digg

In Digg you start off by creating an account. You first choose a role you want to play on Digg, whether it be a political expert, technology guru, humorist, sports expert, or something else.

Once you create an account you venture forth into the environment, explore, meet people, and submit links along the way. You compete with your fellow Diggers to gain the most popular links, and get the most eyeballs.

In your travels, you also realize that in order to succeed, you must make friends, and forge alliances which will enable you to get the most dugged, bad ass links. The draw of Digg is three-fold; achievement, relationship, and immersion.

Familiar?

In life you start off by being born. You first choose a role you want to play in the work force, whether it be a software engineer, doctor, writer, teacher, or something else.

Once you finish school, you venture forth into the environment, explore, meet people, and make money along the way … well you get the idea.

I suppose all communities are the same at their core.

The devil is in the details. But it helps to remember their similarities the next time someone tries to claim that one community is somehow better than another; that real-world communities are somehow more valid than online ones.

The devil is in the details. But it helps to remember that all communities are the same at their core.