With open beta Trion has introduced the ability to Tweet from inside the Rift game.  The reception of this feature will undoubtedly be met with mixed reviews.  Trolling aside, I think it will add a new layer of social integration, provided we use it correctly.

Lets take a look at what can be done with this feature.

Tweet Your Achievements!

Rift now has the ability to be set to automatically post a tweet whenever you get an achievement.  You have control over this feature and can turn it off if you are the type that does not want the game sending things out without your direct consent.

Some might even start to QQ about spam of screenshots in the #Rift stream. I do agree that at the start of Open Beta and launch that we could be flooded, but I like this feature.  I actually have at least 1 or 2 people who care or take a slight interest in what I do in game.  On the same note, I love to see when my friends do something cool.  And who knows, you might find an achievement you did not know existed if you see it in the stream.

Tweet Options

Setting up the Twitter integration is simple.  You WILL need a Twitter account before you can use this service. Head on over and set your account up if you are one of the few that do not have one yet.

Once you are verified and your account is set the Rift client will be able to communicate with Twitter.  Notice you do have control over a few items that will give you control over your public stream.

  • First is Hide UI For Screenshots. If you are afraid of personal information such as chat windows being posted or just shy you can click this option.  When you send a tweet with a screenshot the game will hide the UI before taking the screenshot.
  • Auto Tweet Achievements.  Pretty self explanatory.  Click this to have the client auto post.  However, if you have Hide UI for Screenshots turned on the achievement popup will not show up in the screenshot.
  • Prefix: You can put whatever you want here.  It will be placed at the start of your tweet.  The game autofills it with your character name.
  • Suffix: Place a hash tag or link in this spot.  Right now the game defaults to #rift.  As is the case with Twitter this might change as the community finds a hashtag to use.

Manual Sending a Tweet

Auto posting on achievements is a nice feature, but Trion went a little further by giving you the ability to post a tweet manually from inside Rift.  You will have 2 ways to send a tweet from the chat line.

/tweet Your message here

Will send a tweet from the chat command line.  The tweet will have the prefix and suffix amended to the message.  This is rather cool if you suddenly find something of interest or just want to tell people what you are having for lunch (Bad Twitter Humor).

/tweetpic Your Message here

This command will take a screenshot and tweet it with your message.  This command does take the Hide UI feature into consideration.

No word on being able to receive tweets into the game yet.  I think this will add a new layer of social integration for those of us who choose to use it.   Could it all get lost in the noise?  Possibly, but for now, lets see what we can achieve with it.   (see what I did there?  :P )