Getting to Know You

In one of those flashes of brain activity that can either lead to a “Eureka!” moment or turn out to be merely another Senior Moment, I had what seems like a great idea just now.

Someone ought to create a WoW Networking site, similar to Facebook, in which players can enter as much or as little about themselves into the online database as possible.  The only required fields would be character name, WoW Realm, and real life hometown.

This idea occurred to me as I was wondering if anyone in my hometown plays WoW (presumably there are), and if so, how would I ever find out?

Thus the purpose of the site, as I see it: to allow people to identify players in their local area.  Why would anyone want to do that?  Mainly,  because some people may want to extend their in-game friendships to real people outside the game.  Groups of real-life friends, usually numbering in the single digits, often play together and sometimes even create small guilds.  This networking website would allow for the extension of that idea further outside the game.

Of course, some people like the anonymity of an MMORPG.  There is also an argument to be made for forging relationships with people outside one’s normal realm of experience (although if a person doesn’t tell you they live in British Columbia, how are you supposed to know that you are having a once-in-a-lifetime cultural experience by communicating with them on the best strategy for downing Gruul?).

Ultimately, I am all in favor of giving people more options, however.  Some people might find the game more enticing if there is the possibility of forging real friendships and not friendships of convenience, in which people come together merely to achieve mutual goals.  Right now, though there is a certain amount of dating which goes on as a result of WoW, I don’t know how often people form lasting friendships.

There are many members of my current guild whom I like, but as we all have experienced, guilds come and go.  Games come and go.  I often wonder, for those who started playing MMORPGs before WoW, what happened to in-game friendships in Everquest, for example?

Now, it might also be suggested that if one really wants to locate WoW players in one’s area, take out a newspaper ad or Craigslist advertisement.  One would probably have to divulge too much personal information to do that, and to get a response.  I like the idea of a simple website that allows you to search on a Realm for characters cross-referenced with players’ real life hometowns.  Individual profiles can contain more information, if desired, but a minimum of three simple bits of information would be encouraged.

Another potential drawback (I’m trying to extrapolate all the arguments against the idea) might be that people would use the information for nefarious purposes.  How would the site protect children from predators?  That, to me, is the biggest argument against such a site.  But then, Facebook and MySpace don’t really have protection against such predatory behavior, either.

Anyway, if there is anyone out there reading, what do you think of this idea?  Would you participate?  Would you like to know who is playing WoW from your hometown?