Recipient(s): Miguel Gaeta
(Advisor: Professor Clark Turner, PhD, JD)
Did you know that there are over 300 million video game players in the world with no popular website for them to socialize with each other online? There is an ever-growing need for a tool that allows gamers to interact, form friendships, and bridge the gap from their virtual avatars to their real life personalities. From this need, Gamers Portal was born.
Gamers Portal will be the first social networking site for gamers that provides the following services:
- Complete personal and team profiles within the context of gaming culture
- An engine that helps introduce gamers to each other & events within their geographical location
- Picture, video and other media hosting for individual and team galleries
- Baseline building tools: activity streams, commenting, personal messaging, site-wide discussion boards
Traditional social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) exist for users to bring the real world and friends online. This approach does not translate to gamers since their world BEGINS and REMAINS online. –often with people they’ve never met. Through game tracking and online mapping technology, Gamers Portal helps introduce gamers to each other and inject reality into their online world.