[THOUGHTS] Designing Communities Like WoW

It was my first year of high school when I discovered World of Warcraft. My friends were playing it at the internet café we always went to and I was immediately hooked by its graphics, gameplay, and characters. It didn’t take long before I joined them and we spent that entire year ditching school just to play WoW together.

That was 18 years ago. I don’t play as much anymore, but WoW never really left my life. I still keep up with its lore, patch updates, user-generated-content. And it is my inspiration for writing this blog post because WoW created an experience where I felt I truly belonged to. And as community builders, I believe we have things to learn from how it designs experiences for its players.

After reflecting on my experience and diving into research (you can check the links and highlights), I gathered eight possible concepts we can apply in our community efforts 💪

Before We Dive In…

• You don’t have to know about WoW to get the concepts, , but here’s a quick overview
  “World of Warcraft is one of the most iconic massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) of all time.
  

  Inside WoW, players create their own characters, take on different roles, and explore a massive open world filled with quests to level up. Some join guilds to collaborate on larger goals, while others roam freely, shaping their own adventures.”

• I know most of the games have similar mechanics and would love to hear your experiences that we can relate with community building.

• If you’re already applying any of these concepts in your community, please share. I’d love to add real-world examples to each section.

So let’s go! …or should I say, For the Horde!

A Story to Tell - Crafting a Narrative for Members

In WoW you feel like you are part of a story. The game has a strong lore of it’s own, and most quests have their own narratives. While the objectives are similar (collecting items, defeating enemies, delivering messages), the context makes them meaningful. One quest might have you protecting someone’s children, another might have you fighting for your faction, while another could involve helping someone find a cure for a disease.

I believe the most important thing for a community is having a story to tell. And you don’t have to try hard or make up to create one. Every community starts with a motivation, and simply sharing that motivation can help attract the right people.

• What are the reasons that pushed you to build a community?

• How do you imagine the journey of the community?

• What role do members play in this collective journey?

• Are your community activities just tasks to complete, or do they contribute to a story? How can you make them feel more meaningful?

Making Members the Hero

Like every other game, WoW is experienced as the player’s own journey. Players step into a vast playground, choosing what to explore, what to skip, and how to play. The decisions are theirs. They decide where to go, what battles to fight, and which alliances to form.

This is something I see missing in many communities today. Too often, we, as community builders, unintentionally position ourselves as the main characters, while members feel like spectators. If we want to create an immersive experience, we need to shift our mindset.

Instead of being the hero, we should act more like a Game Master. Our role is to create the world, design the setting, and give members the tools to shape their own journey.

• How do your members talk about the community? Do they describe their own journey or how they interacting with you?

• Do your community activities allow for active participation, or are they designed primarily for consumption?

• What opportunities can you provide for members to take initiatives within the community?

Members Have Different Roles

When openning the game, the first thing players do is create a character to enter its vast world. There, players choose different aspects of their character, shaping how they’ll engage with the game. I won’t bore you with all the details, so let’s focus on one key choice: classes.

A class defines how a player likes to play and the role they take in shared experiences (which I’ll talk about later). Each class has different skills, strengths, and gameplay styles, allowing players to contribute in unique ways.

In communities, we often make the mistake of seeing members as one big group, assuming they all engage the same way. But each member has different strengths, interests, and preferred roles. Some members love leading initiatives, others enjoy answering questions, some thrive on motivating and entertaining others, while others focus on offering insights to shape decisions.

Whether it is the early stage or maturity of the community, opportunities for members to take on different roles and actively participate in ways that feel natural to them. A while ago, I wrote a short piece about behaviors in communities. Feel free to check it out. It might help you think about the different roles members can play in your space.

• What behaviors or roles should you incentivize to help your community grow in the right direction?

• What roles already exist organically within your community? Are you actively encouraging them?

• If a new member joins today, is there a clear way for them to understand how they can contribute in a way that fits their strengths and choices?

Let Members Choose their Own Adventure

WoW offers tremendous variety of adventures, allowing players to choose how they want to engage. Although there is a main questline designed to help players level up, they don’t have to follow it. The game is filled with different mechanics and paths, giving players the freedom to carve out their own experience.

To give you an idea of how diverse the gameplay is:

• Professions - Craft items to earn in-game gold.

• Dungeons and Raids - Teaming up with others to defeat bosses for rare items.

• Battlegrounds & PvP – Competing against other players to capture objectives.

• Exploration - Simply wandering through the vast world, uncovering hidden stories and locations.

For me, having regular activities to provide members a reason to visit should be the main part of the community. But we shouldn’t expect every member to engage the same way. Instead of just structuring a linear path, we should create mechanics and playgrounds that let members design their own journey.

In short, create a questline, but also give members the freedom and tools to play in their own style.

• Do you expect all members to engage the same way, or do you recognize different styles of participation?

• How do current members prefer to engage with your community? How can you turn those organic behaviors into defined experiences for others?

• If someone doesn’t participate in “core” activities, can they still find value and meaningful engagement in your community?

• Do your existing channels (playgrounds) provide members with the experiences they are looking for?

Different Levels - Different Experiences

Players start their journey at level 1. In the early stages, they have limited freedom, so they follow the main questline, learn the game mechanics through clear directions, and get easy but meaningful wins that strengthen their connection with the game. As they level up, the game offers new challenges, different regions to explore, and deeper mechanics to engage with. The more a player invests in the game (through time, skill development, and participation) the more the experience evolves for them.

For our communities, we should also create different experiences based on the time members spend in them. New or less-involved members need clear guidance and small wins to build momentum and feel a sense of belonging. More involved members, on the other hand, need deeper opportunities, greater challenges, and more influence to keep them motivated.

Side note - A member’s experience shouldn’t just be based on how long they’ve been around, but on how much they actively contribute and engage.

• What key actions do you want your members to take, and how do you incentivize those behaviors?

• Does your community have a clear onboarding experience that helps new members achieve quick wins and feel a sense of progress?

• Are there defined pathways for engaged members to take on more responsibilities or access deeper opportunities?

Designing Joint Experiences

WoW offers players plenty of chances to team up for shared goals. For example, as mentioned earlier, dungeons are a key way to obtain rare items that strengthen your character, but you can’t complete them alone. To succeed, you need to work with other players, even if you don’t know them at first. These joint experiences often turn strangers into teammates, and sometimes, into long-term friends.

While community itself is already a joint experience, what I’m talking about here is creating intentional moments for members to collaborate, whether it’s solving a specific challenge, co-creating something valuable, or completing a task within a limited timeframe.

Once the goal and responsibilities are defined, members will naturally find ways to communicate and build relationships while working toward a shared outcome. Not every collaboration will lead to deep friendships, but these experiences will spark connections that can grow over time.

• Are members encouraged to co-create or solve challenges together, or do they mostly participate individually?

• What types of co-creation activities can you design that align with members' motivations and interests?

• Which cross-roles within your community can collaborate to solve each other’s needs?

Keeping the Experience Fresh

WoW was released 21 years ago and still has over seven million active players. Since its launch, the game has introduced major expansions every other year, providing players with new storylines, mechanics, and more.

In addition to these expansions, Blizzard regularly releases new patches, hosts seasonal events with time-limited items, and celebrates special occasions with in-game content. These constant updates reignite excitement for long-time players, bring back lapsed players, and generate hype to keep the momentum alive.

One of the problems I see in today’s communities is the tendency to focus on the same activities and hesitate to try new things that could create different experiences for their members. As humans, we need routines to build habits, but we also crave refreshing experiences that capture our attention.

While it's important to keep offering familiar activities that people find value, let’s also consider adding seasonal or one-time experiences that excite both long-time and inactive members, giving them a reason to reconnect.

• When thinking about your people, which specific days or moments come to mind that could be worth celebrating together?

• How does the mood or energy in your community shift with the seasons—and what types of activities could you design to match those changes?

• Do you currently offer time-sensitive events, challenges, or limited-time experiences that create a sense of excitement?

• What kind of special moments could you create to re-engage long-time or inactive members and give them a reason to reconnect?

Hide a Few Easter Eggs

I want to wrap up these concepts with a well-known term from the gaming world: Easter eggs.

“An Easter egg is an intentional inside joke, hidden message, or secret feature within a work. It’s commonly found in video games, movies, and even software—meant to be discovered by those who take the time to look.”

Hiding something just for the most observant members to find is a creative way to spark curiosity, reward engagement, and create unforgettable moments. These small surprises give finders a unique experience while also building intrigue for the rest of the community.

For example, imagine hiding a special gift or secret message in your community’s Rules/Code of Conduct. (It will be really hard to find 😅) The moment someone discovers it and shares it with others, curiosity will spread. Suddenly, more members are exploring and engaging in ways they wouldn’t have before.

• What kind of inside jokes, nods, or creative elements could you add to surprise and delight members?

• What kind of hidden surprises could you add to your community that reward positive behaviors?

• What would make an Easter egg truly rewarding and meaningful for your members?

“[Game design is] the art of applying design and aesthetics […] to facilitate interaction between players for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes.” - Source

I’ve always loved thinking about communities as games, not because of the mechanics, but because of the autonomy, immersive experiences, and spontaneous connections they provide. These are the elements I want to foster when building communities. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find many articles that bridge game design and community building in a way that felt actionable. So, I decided to write one this one.

Think of this as a conversation starter. I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and examples. Let’s continue the discussion here, or on LinkedIn.

If you’re curious about the resources that inspired me while writing this, here are the links and highlights.

I don’t think I’ve ever spent this many hours writing a post. I hope it was worth your time.

Thank you for reading…