Type of business | Private |
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Founded | September 21, 2006 |
Headquarters | New York City, United States |
Industry | Computer and video game industry |
Website | http://www.gamerdna.com/ |
gamerDNA Inc. is a social media company for computer and video game players founded on September 21, 2006. The company is now part of Live Gamer(now Emergent Payments). The name is usually spelled with a lower case g: gamerDNA. Members may tag themselves with information on games they have played, server names and guild affiliations, and use this information to find people they have played with in the past, or find guilds or other gamers to play with based on play style. The company was originally funded by Flybridge Ventures (formerly known as IDG Ventures).
GamerDNA helps people discover new games to play based on their interests. The site features a number of tools to help game-players learn about what aspects of games they enjoy, including automated tracking of games on Xfire, Steam and Xbox Live; a database of games that locates games based on gameplay elements such as setting, tone and game mechanics; and quizzes such as the Bartle Test, which helps a player identify what aspects of game play they are most interested in—and then form connections with other players with similar interests.
The company has been compared to a Facebook and MySpace for online game players, Some industry analysts have observed that social networks for online games are part of a new trend in which major MMORPG products are spawning secondary industries. Also like other social networks, the service allows members to form social connections with other members, and traverse the database of member profiles by these social connections or by user-defined tag clouds. However, the member profiles are geared toward the alter-egos that people play as within online games, and supports the storage of game histories, guild/clan memberships, scores and profiles, and screenshots of game accomplishments. These features allow players to maintain social contact with each other as they grow beyond individual games, guilds or servers. The service also allows members to form groups oriented around their gaming guilds and clans, including features for event scheduling, roster management and private communication.