

Social Network for Gamers - captn3m0
http://dpadd.com/

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glass_of_water
I don't think this has any chance of competing with Steam. Though it may offer
a more polished experience, it requires much more effort to use. Why would a
gamer manually type in what they're playing when Steam automatically
broadcasts that to their friends?

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bigtunacan
What about all of the games you aren't playing on Steam?

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JD557
You can add non-steam games to steam.

I'm not sure if it tracks your playtime though (I think it does)

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vittore
I think it says "playing other games"

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eropple
No, it says "Playing non-Steam game" with the name of it below.

Which you can overload for your own amusement. When on my Windows machine,
Steam friends see me playing Visual Studio 2013.

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iamdave
Ha I did this once with Outlook except I changed the icon and the shortcut
name to Half Life 3 Beta. People on my friends list were freak. Ing. OUT

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minimaxir
As someone who has been on gaming forums since 10 years old, a Facebook-style
social network would _never_ work for the gaming niche since _anonymity is
crucial_.

See the Real ID fiasco with Blizzard:
[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29347/InDepth_Why_Was_Bli...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29347/InDepth_Why_Was_Blizzards_Real_ID_Such_An_Issue.php)

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claytoncorreia
FWIW: users on Dpadd only need to set a username. No real names are used even
if people sigh up with twitter/Facebook. Gamers are welcome to use their real
name as a username if they choose but it's up to the individual.

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norswap
This idea has been tried many times, but for me, it's still missing a
compelling use case.

I think such a service should be centered first and foremost on gaming
clans/guilds. Give guilds a nice-looking, easy-to-setup forum + a few apps (a
calendar, maybe something to track rankings and currencies such as DKP) and
you'll get them by the score.

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bsamuels
Yeah, the real use case for a site like this is for guilds, and ESPECIALLY
teamspeak/voip support.

I imagine if this site offered guild support, websites, and free voip, it'd
have an easier time gaining traction.

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tiquorsj
I founded GuildLaunch.com
[http://www.guildlaunch.com/](http://www.guildlaunch.com/), that is exactly
what we do and a whole lot more.

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dreijerbit
I'm not sure I see the difference between this and Playfire [1]?

My cofounders and I had the same idea a few years back when we started Evolve
[2]. We just took things a step further and actually provide a client that
tracks games independently of the gaming platforms (e.g. Steam, Origin,
Uplay). We currently track 9.5 years (!) of playtime every single day. Gamers
are crazy... :)

[1] [https://www.playfire.com](https://www.playfire.com) [2]
[https://evolvehq.com](https://evolvehq.com)

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agius
How is this different from Raptr.com ?

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glynch
I came here to ask the same thing.

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CJefferson
One killer feature which would persuade me to sign up for a gaming website
would be a way to set up online games with other people who like rare games. I
recently bought "code of princess" on the 3ds and I do not know anyone else
who owns it, and whenever I try to join a game, there is never anyone else
trying to join a random game at the same time.

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Tiktaalik
Gamers like to chat (and argue) with their friends about games a lot and I can
see the value in this sort of service. I love to talk about games, but I don't
want to clog my Facebook wall with discussions about it and annoy my non-gamer
friends.

Having to manually update what you're playing is a weakness that could be
fatal to this social network. There's so much good data about what people are
playing on Playstation, Xbox, 3DS, and Wii U locked away and inaccessible.
It's unfortunate that there's no easy way to share that.

My own friends and I have in the past attempted to start a sort of "game
playing book club" where we'd write emails back and forth about our thoughts
while all playing the same game. It was tough to keep going in an unstructured
format via email however. Maybe it'd be easier with something like this.

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kodisha
Games = Clans. Yes, there is a ton of players that casually play your latest
AAA games, but they would never use this, or any other service.

Me on the other hand would LOVE to have one place where i could have all my
team mates on one place, right now when we need to train i send the email to
one half of the team and FB messages to other.

Maybe you should try to fix that problem instead of creating FB like wall.

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tiquorsj
I founded GuildLaunch.com - team support is being overhauled as we speak for
the exact reason you describe. Our team used to be very focused on MMO pvp. We
are reworking it to support the moba, clan tournament, skirmish and "random
get together" style of play that a lot of teams/clans have.

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claytoncorreia
Site creator here.. Always fun when you get off a plane to find out that
someone has posted your site to HN and it's been on the front page for a
couple hours. My phone had a bit of a twitter/support ticket/feedback email
explosion when I turned it back on. Happy to answer any Qs about Dpadd, just
reply to this comment.

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michaelochurch
Is there something like this for German-style board (and card) gamers, as a
way for them to meet up for games? That would be really interesting and
useful.

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septerr
I know HN is not the place for this type of comment, but social and gamer in
the same sentence, ha ha!

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septerr
You can continue downvoting this comment, but I stick by it because it is an
honest expression of my feelings.

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saraid216
Downvoting doesn't necessarily mean people disagree with you.

Downvoting also means that you're not saying anything. Which you knew
perfectly well when you posted.

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septerr
Yes, you are right. I expected the downvotes. :)

