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Napster Founder Crafting WoW Community
Gamespot reports on Napster founder Shawn Fanning's newest project: an online community for MMOG players called Rupture. He's initially, sensibly, targeting World of Warcraft players with what's being described as 'MySpace for Azeroth'. From the article: "The [service] will pull data directly from WOW and publish stats and information on a personalized page. Gamers will also be able to instant message while playing, as well as track the progress of their guilds and organize playing time with their online buddies. Rupture will rely on ads for revenue and also focus on exchanging info on gamers' real lives, should they have one. WOW is the first game on the plate for Rupture, but no other titles have yet been mentioned. "
A social networking website for a socially networked game? Isn't a large part of MMOs the fact that they can simulate social interaction online? Isn't this idea just redundant?
I have a feeling that in a few months I'll be eating my words, but it had to be said.
He STOLE revenue from METALLICA!
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
...he's applying the social networking concept to people who have no social lives!
Brilliant!
This has already been done to an extent.
http://www.facesofwow.com/gallery/index.php
Honestly, I don't see the need for a WOW social networking site, since the players are already incredibly well-connected (vent, aim, wow forums, in-game chat). I think the only appeal is figuring out which players on the server are hot chicks and helping them finish quests. =)
You mean there are MMORPGs other than WoW? When did this happen? :-)
(Note: Joke. Listing other MMORPGs misses the point.)
What I am surprised that hasn't happened is a WoW based dating site. Despite the myth, plenty of people who play have lives; however, plenty of us are also very busy between work, school, etc. I am long past any interest in bars nor people who ask, "what's an online game?" It's funny that people don't think twice about picking up chicks at bars, concerts, etc, but you're a wacko if you want to find someone who enjoys your entertainment on a computer.
On a side note, it's also noteworthy that while online games make us more connected, they really make us more distant. You end up meeting people with whom you'll never be able to meet up because they live a thousand s of miles away. I think a way to establish local groups and interests would be a great thing.
Like it or not, WoW is going mainstream.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
Shawn had his 15 minutes. It's always sad watching these one-hit wonders desperately trying to hold on.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
But WoW players don't have a life haven't you seen South Park's WoW episode.
From the episode: He's been playing World of Warcraft for so long he must have no life. "How do you kill that which has no life?"
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
I'm pretty much agreeing with everyone here. What's the pull? Gamers have always been notoriously well-connected to each other. Those who aren't really "gamers" get connected if they need to get connected. If they don't know how they have geek\nerd friends that know everything that can get them hooked up. Gamers have Ventrillo, Teamspeak, World of WarCraft in-game chat, guild forums on their own individual websites - if you can't get your own domain you can get a free PHP board or something akin to it. There's sites out there that offer guild's mini-sites for free with some limited functionality, and if you want in-game instant messaging with people that aren't playing the game at the moment you've got xFire. Where is this going? Nowhere fast, I think. Gamer's already have enough ways to chat with each other and we're more or less immune to game-based social networking since we are already embroiled in a gigantic network in and of itself.
From TFA:
This isn't the first online community site planned around World of Warcraft. In July, an online dating site titled "World of Datecraft" invited night elves and others to mingle and find matches for some offline romance. The site has since been taken down.
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
1. Wait until this becomes somewhat populat 2. DMCA 3. Profit! No question marks needed.
http://www.mycharacterspace.com/ http://www.gamerpics.com/ http://www.warcraftsocial.com/ and there are plenty of sites that can gather your character info as well. http://wow.allakhazam.com/ http://www.thottbot.com/ http://ctprofiles.net/ http://www.wowguru.com/db/profiles/ http://www.wowrankings.com/ theres more out there.
...is Final Fantasy XI. You can't IM while playing the game (unless you have the Windower, but that violates the EULA, and Xfire is buggy with it) and it's very inconvenient. A great game, truly, but they need to be a little bit more lenient with 3rd party software, instead of turning a multitasking computer into a console that can only do one thing at a time.