Guild Cafe, A Social Network For Gamers
I have been reading about the Guild Cafe lately, a Cambridge, Mass.-based social networking startup that is distinguishing itself from the usual crowd of social sites out there.
The Guild Cafe was created by Jon Radoff to give MMORPG gamers a social networking space outside the game so that they could continue socializing with one another. The site is different in that members use their MMORPG game handle (their alter-ego) to create a profile, unlike other social networking sites where people will typically use their name (or something close to it) as their handle. Basically this is a continuation of the social aspect of MMORPG games outside of the games themselves.
Radoff points out that they are plenty of sites out there aimed at MMORPG gamers, but that they’re built around game previews and reviews as well as game sales, none of which exists on the Guild Cafe.
The Guild Cafe was founded in December 2006 and has gotten a round of funding from IDG Ventures.
I was very impressed when I checked out their site and then met Jon. GuildCafe is definitely worth a look.
Another one that has been in the news a lot recently is Curse (www.curse.com). They seem to be aiming at the same market but with a different set of tools.
Hold your horses, we are coming to the rescue!
I actually live near cambridge, so I was excited to read this… definitely going to check it out as i’m an avid mmorpg player. got linked to this via India Web 2.0 News
Is this better than the already existing site from Shawn Fanning – aka Rupture.com? That has a Win32 executable for off line chat that is useful for chatting with other WoW players.
Bill, I have to agree. Rupture is a phenomenal product and puts GuildCafe to shame. However, the marketing isn’t there and players outside of World of Warcraft’s elite don’t seem to know it exists.
GuildCafe enjoys portraying themselves as the only social network for online gamers. The reality is there are other websites gaining equal or greater membership. Rupture is a growing portal for WoW players and Voig.com (www.voig.com) offers services to a broader gaming-audience. The niche of “gamer-networks” is just developing, but it would be absurd to assume one company already dominates the space.
May the best team w1n!!11!!
Cheers,
MIG Voig.com
lol, they must be doing something right if this blog gets three competitors to show up an whine