Remember this smug little prick? The original tech wunderkind (years before Rose and Zuckerberg took it to the top) Shawn Fanning built Napster from the ground up, earning a few million before he could legally drink. He sold Napster and dove headfirst into WoW, where he was inspired to create a social networking site for Wow players called Rupture. He recently sold it to EA Games for 30 million.
From an ancient 2006 interview with 1-Up:
Using an add on or a software download, Rupture taps into the game to automatically pull together character names, profiles, and resources, and publish them on a personalized site. Rupture will also pull together stats to create individual and guild rankings and provide a place for guilds to organize their playing. As Rupture tracks each member's playing over time, these personalized profiles evolve. And players will be able to chat in groups or with other individuals and download other addons and game demos.
Interestingly, this means that building online communities is a key element in EA's online strategy, just like everybody else. Everyone seems more interested in virtual real estate than producing content these days. Am I the only one out there who has absolutely no desire to share my gaming statistics and habits with others? Maybe I just hate people/society?
Shawn's also a Jiu-Jitsu master. Check out the rest of the story over at Wow Riot.
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