You don't always want to bore your Facebook friends with work-related updates, just like you don't always want to share personal details with your LinkedIn colleagues. Some video gamers have another layer of identity to manage: their online gaming personality.
A Minneapolis startup is developing a social network called Evolve that's built specifically for PC gamers.
Echobit has raised $270,000 in angel funding and it hopes to find another $750,000 in funding by summer. The site is currently in a closed beta testing mode. (
Sign-up here if you want to try it out.)
"To a slightly younger set we would describe it as Fight Club for gamers, sort of a discreet social network that helps gamers find each other," says co-founder Adam Sellke. And to an older set? "We just say, essentially, it's a knitting circle, but a lot cooler."
Most multiplayer, online games for PCs have social aspects built in already. You can chat with other players or receive updates on their play. The problem is that all of these networks are siloed by game or publisher. Unless you happen to be playing the same game as a friend, you have no idea what they're doing.
Evolve is different in that it's game-agnostic--it doesn't matter what game you or your friends are playing. A pop-up dashboard that can be toggled on and off the screen lets you chat with, and see updates from, all of your gaming friends, regardless whether they're playing the same game at the moment.
Why might that be useful? Maybe you're playing Counter-Strike but you notice a friend is playing World of Warcraft. Maybe you decide to hop over to that game instead, or perhaps you ping him a chat message telling them to join you in your game.
The founders demonstrated the software at this month's MinneDemo event. See the video below via
TECHdotMN:
Source: Adam Sellke, Echobit
Writer:
Dan Haugen